Twinscreamer
Dec 14, 2009 Guitar Sound Experience
Posted by
Fila
The first thing that crosses a guitar players mind when talking about a Fender amp and a Tubescreamer pedal is screaming blues ala Stevie Ray Vaughan. Still, many forget that there is a sea of sounds to explore using only basic guitar sound effects.
The other day I was alone in a rehearsal room and plugged my strat in a Fender Twin Reverb blackface with a Tubescreamer and an Ibanez parametric EQ in between. I was in kind of jazz mood, and while there werent any archtop guitars around, I decided to try to pull off a jazz sound with the gear I had at the moment. I started tweaking those two pedals and turning knobs on the amp and very soon I found the sound that was jazzy or at least jazz friendly. Tubescreamer and Twin Reverb (and most Fender amps) are not among my favourite pieces of gear (I know that there are many guitar players that would like to crucify me after reading this, but gear and sounds are a matter of taste and style) but I decided to give them a try.
As I said before, I was in a jazz mood and needed a clean sound, but Twin Reverb on its own was a bit too twangy for me, and this is where Tubescreamer came in very handy. Instead using it as an overdrive, I used it merely as a booster to muddy up the sound a bit. Therefore I used just a little drive, less than a 9 o clock which gave some low end to the overall sound. The parametric EQ was great to enhance those mid frequencies that make Fender tubes produce the sweet sound.
So here is the clip I played with this gear over a George Benson-like backing track. At the beginning I strum a chord a little harder so you can hear the amount of gain I used. The rest of the clip is played more softly and therefore sounds clean.
The settings used:
Stratocaster – neck pickup, Tone knob at 7
Fender Twin Reverb Blackface amp: Channel Two (vibrato); Trebble 5,5 – 6; Middle 8; Bass 7: Reverb 2; vibrato off; bright switch off.
Ibanez Tubescreamer TS 9: Drive – little less than 9 o clock; Tone – 1 o clock; Level – 11 o clock
Ibanez PQ 401 Parametric EQ (this one is really old): Mid Freq: 1,1 K; Low 2/3; Middle: little less than max (12); High: Halfway between 0 and 12.
As I mentioned before, Jazz is not the first thing that crosses your mind when you think of Tubescreamer. Still, with various use one can get a vast array of unexpected sounds. Experiment untill you get it right.
P.S. The clip I posted here is just me noodling around over a backing track from a small PA. Later I found this sound and some other sounds produced with this gear very useful for some of my music, but failed to record it. As soon as I get my hands on a Twinscreamer again (Twin Reverb + Tubescreamer = Twinscreamer) I will record some proper music and post it.
So long
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Tags: Fender, Fender Amp, Fender Blackface, Fender Twin Reverb, Parametric EQ, Tubescreamer
sound effects
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