Hi Fellow Rockers,

after years and years of playing guitar, learning theory, techniques, modes and you name the rest, i still find my weakest point is setting those damn knobs (Bass, Mid, treble) to get the tone I need. I have tried all tricks to get the sound i want but never succeeded at nailing it.

It would be great if anyone here can share with me how to work around those knobs and what is the correct way to get the desired. I am using a Line6 spider jam amp and Ibanez JS1000 and i am trying desperately to get as close as possible to Satriani's tone but it just seems impossible; I know it's all in his fingers but with the money I paid on my gear, I believe something good can be reached.

any tips guys?

Cheers!

yeah, you can have a very decent sound with that equipment. It's difficult to find a good tone if you don't know exactly what every knob is doing to your sound... I remember that it helped me a lot to try to get a good tone from my amps with the help of a friend that could play guitar while I was changing and studying the setting. This will make you concentrate on the tone and hear exactly how every little change affects to the sound.

I have a Spider Value 112 that I am going through the same thing with. I have found that since my guitar has humbuckers that I have to pull more of the mids than I do when I hook up a buddies Fender.

I have also found that I have to pull back the distortion just a little, this seems to be helping me find the tones I am looking for.

Michael

Without hearing that amp I can't suggest any particular setting.. but I would be careful of removing too much mid and ending up with a 'scooped' sound, like early Metallica or Anthrax.

Satriani has plenty of mid range and top end juice.. try to start with everything on half way (12' o clock) and go from there. Things I try to avoid are: Too much bass so it becomes boomy, not enough mid, too much treble so it sounds harsh and thin.

I don't know what kind of gain settings you have on the amp but you want to avoid a fizzy, digital sounding distortion. Aim instead for a smoother, more vintage distortion to get closer to Satriani's smooth tone.

Try to sit everyday and "practice" tweaking of your amp, by doing A/B comparisons of your tone and Satrianis. This will get you closer if you spend some time doing it.

Your amp is a modelling amp. In order to become better in modelling other gear, what I've found of crucial importance is to actually know how the real gear sounds. This way you can easily create something similar. Try to find in the store JSX and play through it a bit, try to memorize the sound. I guarantee it will be easier to model it later on.

As Gab recommended, try to model the tone without actually playing, cause this is a bit distraction.

It's always a good idea to have your guitar plugged in to the amp, and also some music from where you want to emulate your tone from. Specially if the guitar is isolated sometimes, like:

Angra! I used to hear a lot this album!

I agree about the A/B comparison, but once again, with the help of a friend it will be a bit easier...

try recording your current tone, we can all take it from there and help you tweaking it

i have same problem with setting those damn knobs (Bass, Mid, treble) to get the tone I need.
i was start play after long time..My equipment is still same Jackson sl2h japan model i just change the Vox Ad30vt-xl to Vox Ad30vt
i trying to learn Metallica song mostly For Whom The Bell Tolls song

the thing is i know i have to move up and down-this knobs to find the right sound but i was find good to use my Digitech df7 to get more agressive sound...but with the advantage i was find also disadvantage because this 2 equipment (combo+distorsion pedal} interact each other so the setings is 2x difficult

i never know what kind of knobs use first

I would like to draw your attention to one important thing: Setting the amplifiers in the room, and garage, club,etc - are different things. What you hear in your room may sounds ideal,but also may sound a disaster on stage. Setting the sound really knows how to kill the will for playing. And something very interesting: when you're satisfied with your tone,no matter how much - you will soon seek for a new one - coz you got bored with the current ! The ear is accustomed to it and you discover that " it can sounds much better....just need to change pickup.. or amp or.."
How many times I was disappointed with my tone on stage, and after gig I get comments - your sound was great!! Who's crazy here!?!
And when I am satisfied with the same - well, everything is great, but your sound.. hmmm... !
But over the years I learned to relax, and don't let that these things spoil my mood ..

Here are some famous eq settings (link).

One thing that might help is this. Record yourself playing something that you would normally do, some lead/rythms, whatever, and record it clean. No FX at all. Then come out of whatever your recording with (line level, not speaker level) and go in to your fx and amp. That way, it's you playing and you can focus on tone.

If you use a computer to record, you can put your recording on looping playback and have it go on for hours if you like while you tweak away.

Start with your amp. Remove the pedal board entirely for a bit. Try to use each knob to see what impact it has on the sound. Go through them one at a time. Then try to create a setting you like. Jot down on paper, or email yourself with the settings or put it on a blog, whatever, just make notes as to what the knobs were set at when you got the sound you liked

The amp you have is a nice unit. It has a wide range of tones. You just have to find one that you like. I'm sure it can do something close to a JS sound. Keep in mind JS is using killer gear that costs quite a bit and recording in a nice studio to boot.

Some great replies on this thread Hope these help. Also, as was mentioned, record a bit so we can see what you sound like now.

Todd

+1 there are all sorts of issues to do with phase, reflexions, acoustics etc that will affect your tone and it will alter from one space to the next. So as Sinisa suggests you can't really rely on a 'set it and leave it' approach. You need to analyse Satch's tone and identify what makes it so and then adjust your settings accordingly. Thus as Todd says:





and mixed and mastered

i was going to say that, the mix/mastering makes a HUGE difference.

Hey Guys,

After taking all your feedbacks into consideration, i kinda reached something much better from what i had in terms of tone. however, i noted something, that if i turn my amp's main volume knob up, it gets too trebley and seems like i lost all the tone i had. now what???

Cheers!

Jad