What would you consider your biggest tonal realisation that has made an impact on the way you dial in gear?

[headlessdeadguy]

This is such a great point. To make your recorded tone instantly better, bring your volume knob down to 7-8. Do it as you're playing along to the track. You will instantly hear a difference. Your guitar will almost "jump out" of the mix.

True!

 

[DanTravis62]

I find that cabs make the biggest difference. I agree with Dan that less gain is more. I’m definitely not into high gain pickups. Gotta make sure you have mids. My biggest problem is that my ears are toast from too many years of loud amps.

There's some more good advice - USE HEARING PROTECTION

 

[Rackman]

the prs metal are medium output, btw, that's not a super high output pickup - IIRC they are like 15k on the bridge - the emgs are a little hot, but not even close to the pickups that i'm talking about

Have you ever played one of the super high output ceramics that people use for metal? Or are you calling the prs metal pickups "high output"?

I'm talking about the X2N and Slug from dimarzio, the Guitarmory patriot thats like 26k, stuff like that. Are you familiar with what a pickup that hot does to the signal?

I guess it's a matter of definition. I would think most people would consider a 15K ceramic pickup pretty hot, but it's certainly not the hottest pickup ever made.

I've played X2Ns but never owned one or tried to integrate it into a rig. Never heard of the Slug or Guitarmory Patriot. If the extra output is coming primarily from additional winding/smaller wire though the output is going to be about 3dB hotter though. Which isn't actually THAT much.

 

[DanTravis62]

I guess it's a matter of definition. I would think most people would consider a 15K ceramic pickup pretty hot, but it's certainly not the hottest pickup ever made.

I've played X2Ns but never owned one or tried to integrate it into a rig. Never heard of the Slug or Guitarmory Patriot. If the extra output is coming primarily from additional winding/smaller wire though the output is going to be about 3dB hotter though. Which isn't actually THAT much.

The decibel increase isn't the important part, the important part is that it cuts off a massive amount of high end and changes the way amps respond, as they were almost invariably designed with pickups in the normal (say 5k to 20k output) output range in mind

There's a whole bunch of players who use these types of high output pickups, into a boost, into a modern high gain amp with gobs of gain, and it's literally just a washed out mess. There is no point in using super high output pickups in that situation. They are designed to goose amps with more moderate amounts of gain, not overload amps that are already on the verge of "too much."

 

[BABMusic]

Pickups do not change the personality of the guitar. They can add more gain, but the tone remains mostly the same.*

*Unless you're using actives like EMG.

 

[stratjacket]

EQ in a frown in front of OD before the amp and EQ in a smile post amp is one of the biggest for dialing in tone for me. There are a million others, agree on all the recording sentiment around lowering the gain, differences in bedroom tone vs in a band or recording

 

[FourT6and2]

My hot take:

1. Most high gain amps sound about the same. Yes, Amp A might have "more mids" and Amp B might be more compressed, but at the end of the day... meh... they sound pretty similar. Just small variations on white noise.

2. After more than 25 years of never even touching a boost pedal, I quite like them now.

3. Speakers/cabs have the biggest, most immediate effect on tone. If you want to drastically change the sound of your rig, change your speakers first. Going from a G12M-25 to a Fane F75 or going from a G12H30 to a DV77... massive change in sound.