What is your approach to multiple guitars?

[TheMagicEight]

Right now I've got 3 guitars: a Standard Les Paul, a Horizon NT-II, and an Ash Strat. All have been gutted and put back together with different parts in my attempt to keep their unique tonal qualities, yet have similar characteristics so when I put them into the same amp, I don't have to mess with the settings. So far it's working well.

I want to pose the question here how you guys do it, though. Do you try and get your guitars to sound good with each other, or do you change your settings to work with your guitars? I find my Ecstasy to be an incredible amp, but the fact is: if I set up the distortion for my Les Paul bridge, the stock single coil Strat bridge won't quite cut it! I modded the bridge of the Strat to use a 500k volume pot and set it up with a DiMarzio X2N though, and it takes to distortion similarly to the Les Paul while retaining its characteristics.

Anyway, just curious to know other approaches!

 

[RockStarNick]

As much as possible, I try to find settings on my amps that work well for ALL my guitars.

I find that my "standard" settings on my Bogners work well with every pickup on every guitar that I have. And it still allows each guitar's unique quality to shine thru.

The one wild card: the stock strat bridge pickup.

For me, I can't get a stock strat bridge pickup to sound good thru almost ANYTHING without major tweaking. It just comes off as shrill, thin, and nasty.

I'm currently using a custom shop Seymour Duncan A5 Twangbanger for a strat bridge pickup, which is pretty darn close to a overwound tele bridge pickup, and that sounds pretty decent thru my "standard" settings.

 

[TheMagicEight]

As much as possible, I try to find settings on my amps that work well for ALL my guitars.

I find that my "standard" settings on my Bogners work well with every pickup on every guitar that I have. And it still allows each guitar's unique quality to shine thru.

The one wild card: the stock strat bridge pickup.

For me, I can't get a stock strat bridge pickup to sound good thru almost ANYTHING without major tweaking. It just comes off as shrill, thin, and nasty.

I'm currently using a custom shop Seymour Duncan A5 Twangbanger for a strat bridge pickup, which is pretty darn close to a overwound tele bridge pickup, and that sounds pretty decent thru my "standard" settings.

Thanks for your response!

This might be a dumb question, but do you find you can dial in your amps to sound even better with one guitar or another than standard settings? Like for recording or a practice you only use one guitar with, would you set the amp up differently?

Thanks again -

 

[ToneTempered]

that's an interesting question.
well, first of all, I have one set of amp and cabinets. so, all my guitars have to sound good through it. so, what I do is change pick ups or use some kind of pedal (OD, Booster, EQ, etc) to compensate any issue I may have. anyway, I like to use different instruments because they sound different.
but, I have one main instrument. so I will try to get the sound for that one and adapt to the others.
but I can imagine how hard it would be to play in a band that you need to come up with sounds from SRV, Slipknot, ACDC and Toto. Thanx God that's not my case...lol

 

[romvert]

For me the key is pickups. I use mainly the same pickups on any of the 4 guitars I might take to a gig. Also they are the same style, close in size and construction. My Strat does get most of the work, and I find myself considering the rest just backups.

 

[TheMagicEight]

For me the key is pickups. I use mainly the same pickups on any of the 4 guitars I might take to a gig. Also they are the same style, close in size and construction. My Strat does get most of the work, and I find myself considering the rest just backups.

What kind of pickups do you prefer, if you don't mind my asking?

 

[romvert]

For me the key is pickups. I use mainly the same pickups on any of the 4 guitars I might take to a gig. Also they are the same style, close in size and construction. My Strat does get most of the work, and I find myself considering the rest just backups.

What kind of pickups do you prefer, if you don't mind my asking?

I use SD JB in the bridge, and Kinmans in the middle and neck, although I also use an SD Cool Rails and a few WCR Fillmores here and there...

 

[EWSEthan]

What about dialing in the amp for your main guitar and then using the tone knobs on the other guitars to compensate? I know most guitar players ignore their tone knobs but if a strat bridge pickup is too bright, why not just dial it back a bit?

Then, you can use power amp settings like presence and density to tweak depending on the room.

 

[romvert]

What about dialing in the amp for your main guitar and then using the tone knobs on the other guitars to compensate? I know most guitar players ignore their tone knobs but if a strat bridge pickup is too bright, why not just dial it back a bit?

Then, you can use power amp settings like presence and density to tweak depending on the room.

Not really. Your guitar tone pot is going to mess with your signal source's presence and attack. I always bypass it and use the pot for blending/splitting. Besides if I set the amp right for the Strat which is my main guitar, The Ibanez guitars for example will sound dark and muffled.
The tone is the tone because it messes with the tone.

 

[Ventura]

I'm not a strat cat, but I've got a lot of guitars. My goal, if it were, is to have each stay as they are - I bought them for their individual and unique tonal qualities, playability, style and feel. I like the fact that every one of them sounds different in whatever amp I throw them into. I have some "natural" pairings, like a re-worked Hammer Archtop with BKP's in it running through a Class A re-valved amp with a Celestion Gold driver. That set up is pure vintage buttah. Of my LP's and LPC's - the '57 Black Beauty is my Drop D tuned triple pup hard rock/metal go to machine - its pups are HOT, and the action is low, and it plays effortlessly. My '57 GT is more a 'rock' guitar, standard tuning, very crisp and thick sounding, higher action but not too high, great for fast defined articulate noodling and rockin' out. My '68 LP is standard tuning, pups sound like deadringers for Zep style music. My ESP's, loaded with different EMGs and BKPs, either Drop C tuned and running through my Uberschall TJ, or my other FR-II is my speedy solo gnar rocket, running through either the VH4S or the UberTJ.

I guess for me - it's about displaying the strengths of the guitar and what it brings out in me and my playing, and with that, I want to amplify these nuances. My amps are there to magnify the characteristics of the guitar, not for my guitars to blend into my amps.

Hope that made sense.
V.

 

[TheMagicEight]

I'm not a strat cat, but I've got a lot of guitars. My goal, if it were, is to have each stay as they are - I bought them for their individual and unique tonal qualities, playability, style and feel. I like the fact that every one of them sounds different in whatever amp I throw them into. I have some "natural" pairings, like a re-worked Hammer Archtop with BKP's in it running through a Class A re-valved amp with a Celestion Gold driver. That set up is pure vintage buttah. Of my LP's and LPC's - the '57 Black Beauty is my Drop D tuned triple pup hard rock/metal go to machine - its pups are HOT, and the action is low, and it plays effortlessly. My '57 GT is more a 'rock' guitar, standard tuning, very crisp and thick sounding, higher action but not too high, great for fast defined articulate noodling and rockin' out. My '68 LP is standard tuning, pups sound like deadringers for Zep style music. My ESP's, loaded with different EMGs and BKPs, either Drop C tuned and running through my Uberschall TJ, or my other FR-II is my speedy solo gnar rocket, running through either the VH4S or the UberTJ.

I guess for me - it's about displaying the strengths of the guitar and what it brings out in me and my playing, and with that, I want to amplify these nuances. My amps are there to magnify the characteristics of the guitar, not for my guitars to blend into my amps.

Hope that made sense.
V.

Definitely made sense! I guess I'm really trying to do the same thing - maximize the qualities of each guitar - but do it in a way that I don't need to mess with my amp every time I change guitars. I guess an example would be if you've got a bright guitar and an amp with a brightness switch (XTC), you can either mess with the brightness switch or change out a pickup (or any number of other things, but for the sake of demonstrating my point, two factors is a good number). If you have another guitar that's much darker, where you'd want a higher brightness setting, to me it makes sense to change a pickup so that both guitars will sound best through the same brightness setting.

I absolutely agree with you though! What would the point of having two very different guitars be if you tried to make them sound the same?

 

[Big Rich]

its funny because i eq my amp with my black esp m2 and the settings i have with that guitar sound awesome with all my other guitars

when i eq my amp with any guitar besides that black m2 i gota do some minor tweaking on the amp with each different guitar.....its wierd

 

[romvert]

I'm not a strat cat, but I've got a lot of guitars. My goal, if it were, is to have each stay as they are - I bought them for their individual and unique tonal qualities, playability, style and feel. I like the fact that every one of them sounds different in whatever amp I throw them into. I have some "natural" pairings, like a re-worked Hammer Archtop with BKP's in it running through a Class A re-valved amp with a Celestion Gold driver. That set up is pure vintage buttah. Of my LP's and LPC's - the '57 Black Beauty is my Drop D tuned triple pup hard rock/metal go to machine - its pups are HOT, and the action is low, and it plays effortlessly. My '57 GT is more a 'rock' guitar, standard tuning, very crisp and thick sounding, higher action but not too high, great for fast defined articulate noodling and rockin' out. My '68 LP is standard tuning, pups sound like deadringers for Zep style music. My ESP's, loaded with different EMGs and BKPs, either Drop C tuned and running through my Uberschall TJ, or my other FR-II is my speedy solo gnar rocket, running through either the VH4S or the UberTJ.

I guess for me - it's about displaying the strengths of the guitar and what it brings out in me and my playing, and with that, I want to amplify these nuances. My amps are there to magnify the characteristics of the guitar, not for my guitars to blend into my amps.

Hope that made sense.
V.

That does make sense as long as they all sound good to you and other people listening. Like Magic Eight said, most of the problems are not with timbre but with brightness. Another problem that I have is high gain pickups vs. low gain ones: it messes up one's gain structure, sometimes making it impossible to pair together at the gig. One example is that for the bridge, I like things in a 16ohm JB like I do in a 13ohm Fillmore (WCR), but the gain structure has to be completely different from one to another, therefore I can't pair them at the gig.

 

[Ventura]

its funny because i eq my amp with my black esp m2 and the settings i have with that guitar sound awesome with all my other guitars

when i eq my amp with any guitar besides that black m2 i gota do some minor tweaking on the amp with each different guitar.....its wierd

That's not weird, it just means that your M2 is a very neutral guitar - you oughta be happy to have found such a device!! Saves a LOT of time in the EQ'ing department

But ya, brighter guitars I tend to play in the neck pup position, more acoustically derived music; neutral guitars through anything at any volume; and darker guitars I put through the gainier channels, or work strictly in the bridge pup position to brighten them up. As for the amp's EQ, I've got mine set for the most part...however, it's a 4 channel amp, so that does make a difference. With the TJ, I find I do have to tweak it to get where I want it to go. But man, when it's on, it's TOTALLY on with that amp!!

Peace,
V.