I effin’ love Operation:Mindcrime. Incredible album.
2 Likes
That was just a 2203. The same they used before, just better produced. Some of the lead tones on some of the songs are a little fuzzy though like waiting for 22 and eyes of a stranger etc…
Empire was a bogner fish into who knows what, amongst others I’m sure, and with Duncan live wires. I like the lead tone a lot more on that one, and the rhythm tone is pretty good too. It is a bit more polished of course, but it was likely their most commercially successful albulm.
2 Likes
Everyone here is talking about tone with regards to frequency, but we should also mention the other elements of tone, specifically the dynamics.
It’s entirely possible that the combination of neck pickup and the set tone on your amp / modeller has a different dynamic response from that of the bridge pickup, maybe it softens the transient a touch compared to the bridge pickup, producing a smoother feel… which makes it feel easier to play.
I had to borrow an amp recently for a gig… my valve amp has a particular dynamic feel which I am used to, but the amp I borrowed, whilst it had a nice tone in terms of frequency, had a much sharper, spikier dynamic response, and it made many of the lines I am used to playing feel very uncomfortable and tricky.
1 Like
I never got into Queensryche. Not saying I didn’t like them, I just never pursued them. On endorsements this strong it sounds like I should at least check out that album.
I’d have to add a caveat to my recommendation.
Operation: Mindcrime is an album for people who like albums. It’s more than just a collection of songs. Listen to it all the way through, like you would with The Dark Side Of The Moon. If you just want to hear some good songs, try Empire instead.
1 Like
Gotcha, and I figured as much just after a quick wikipedia read on what it’s about.
1 Like
I’m probably misreading but if you’re referring to picking technique itself there should be no impact on the speed or ease of your picking motion based on the amp setting or even whether an amp is present.
I am zero percent faster at picking or more able to play complicated things with picking when plugged in, or when plugged in to low versus high gain. It’s really important not to gaslight yourself about the motion. When I film myself with the Magnet I don’t even turn the sound on half the time. I know what the pitches are - I’m just looking at motions.
Again apologies if that’s not what you’re referring to!
1 Like
Or The Warning, most underrated US metal album ever. Tate’s vocals are unreal.
1 Like
Mind crime is meant to be listened to that way. It is a concept album that progresses through the story, from each successive song, although it doesnt really ruin much if you don’t listen to it that way.
Empire has a little of that through looslely related songs that you can kind use your imagination to group, but it doesn’t have anywhere near the continuity OMC does. It’s a much more polished album all around though. I like them both equally for different reasons.
2 Likes
To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what I’m referring to either, because it’s still sort of a mystery to me. What do you think you’d have said before your first breakthroughs? Because with what you had to learn to create this site and these lessons and examples, of course there’s no little to no difference. You’re one of the “250 Best Guitarist Ever” lol (which I agree with)
Like I said, it’s a brain thing for me. I don’t think there is too much of a difference in my overall technique when it comes to playing the same things with my standard cleans or dirty tones, but I’m not entirely sure. But I also learned and practiced the lines with the “proper” tone to begin with.
I do know that tones that are more in the middle, like a slightly overdriven bluesy kind of thing, I can’t really make those same kind of licks work. I know that shouldn’t be the case, but I don’t know what the actual issue is there.
1 Like
I don’t think it is so much the motion itself he is referring to. He is correlating a couple of different things that may or may not be related or can or are not related. The two most prominent things he is correlating is the pickup selection and the correctness of what he is playing to how it sounds in comparison to the source material - that’s kind of a no brainer there. The second thing he is lumping in, which is a bit more complicated, is the ease that this sound correctness seems make the licks to play - which may be more psychological. The thing is that having a preconceived idea about the way something is supposed to sound may change the way you attempt to play it.
That said though, I wouldn’t be so quick to say that it doesn’t matter whether you are plugged unplugged, clean/distorted etc. IMHO all of these scenarios require some sort of adjustment to get the most of them. I can’t tell you the number of times I have spent days playing something that sounded great unplugged, just to plug it in and have to immediately ease it up and tone it down.
3 Likes
All I’ll add to this is that whenever MAB switches to the neck pickup, that is the cue that an onslaught of higher range alternate picking is imminent.
1 Like
Well, that’s probably significant! And this is why I commented, because:
Yes exactly, muting and noise control is a thing, fretting accuracy, high gain liftoff noise on open strings is a thing, hand sync is a thing, etc. I’m just trying to address the big picture questions that I see all the time in TC. Most of the time when people make comments about tone affecting their playing, or when they make very general non-specific comments about certain phrases “falling apart”, one possibility is that they don’t know if what they are hearing is due to technique, and if so, which part.
By playing the phrase and filming your picking hand, you can usually rule out the picking technique side of it, including picking hand muting. This makes everything much clearer. If the picking hand looks on target and something still sounds off, then it could be fretting accuracy, fretting noise, hand sync, general timing, and so on. You go down the list. If you rule it all out and it turns out your playing is perfect, that’s actually a result we see quite often. Eventually, you can get to a point where your technique is sound no matter what rig (or no rig) you are playing through. At least for picking technique.
Maybe you just don’t like the sound of the gear for a given phrase. That’s fine. But at least now you know!
… Playing harder than you need to because you had to do so just to hear yourself unplugged, then doing the same exact thing on a severely distorted amp and hearing a bunch of icky artifacts because of it is a thing.
Exactly, that’s what I’m getting at — that kind of thing should not be happening. When people play unplugged they shouldn’t be killing it and making motions which are different enough that they no longer translate when the amp is back on. It’s harder to learn technique when it’s always changing.
If this happens, the camera will reveal this kind of thing clearly. You can see the pick struggle to get through the string, hit rest stokes more forcefully, etc. As you learn to be more consistent in your technique, these unwanted tendencies go away.
In our first interview with Andy Wood, I specifically included a clip where he was playing with the volume knob off while listening to Ben Eller commenting on something, just to see if there was any difference in his technique. There isn’t — the motions, attack, pick depth, etc. all look the same as his amplified clips:
Didn’t know that. Honestly, I VERY rarely use my tone knob… but I’ve modified one of my Strats to a master volume and master tone, and the other to the three-knob setup, but with a master volume, neck tone, and combined middle/bridge tone. Even if I almost never roll it back, and even if it’s subtle, there’s a glassiness you get out of some bridge singlecoils, especially with a ton pot in the circuit, with a sliiiightly rolled off super-high-end that makes it an oddly vocal and responsive, almost Tele-like, sound.
I’m a metal head, so i play mainly high gain rhythm and solo.
I discovered only recently, by trying amazing OwnHammer R Evolution IRs on the SAME profile (GE200 + Anthony Class Preamp “5150 + Friedman”, to name it) that even the IR/cab had an impact on “chug” feel.
Not only sound, but on HOW i play with this sound.
Only IR swap.
Not only a matter of frequency response (obvious) but on how different frequencies are “pushing” against each others or not.
More than that, i discovered recently i loved D Sonic 7 bridge more than anything else (even my trusted 25 years old EMG 81).
NOT related to output level (i can push the gain, use an overdrive …) but on HOW mids push on D Sonic 7, and create crunchy high mids frequencies, helping me playing some things.
Whereas another pickup (even a tight EMG 81) would “fight” against my playing.
I clearly change my playing according to the sound i hear (pick amplitude, angle …) to “compensate” and get more high mids compression/level (presence region).
Even on over saturated high gain 
That’s why i prefer more compression/level in that specific region from start, it helps me playing more relaxed.
What I meant is that I’m talking about the entire signal chain starting at the brain and ending at the ears. There’s a lot to factor in. If we’re talking plugged in or not, there’s no change in the technique. Maybe “easier” wasn’t the correct word. It might be as simple as “right” or “wrong” sounding.
I’m not going to bother filming it because knowing that I’d be filming it for the reasons we’re talking about would make me subconsciously play a thing a certain way. Actually… Having said that, I might have stumbled upon the answer….
It’s what I think this or that passage requires and my brain can’t separate the tone from the technique. If it doesn’t sound like I think it should, tonally, my brain makes me think it’s more difficult, even though it’s not. The “easier” is more that it’s right and my brain chills out because that aspect is taken care of and I can just play the damn thing. I’m not talking about specific lines. I mean any lines that are in whatever category they fall into.
Absolutely, if you are referring to things not sounding a certain way for whatever sonic reason that’s fine. My job here is really only to comment on the mechanical cases where things don’t sound right because they actually aren’t right for some technique reason which can be hopefully easily seen with a camera, to save everyone the frustration. If that’s not the case, then please ignore me and carry on!
1 Like
I suspect the best prescription here for the OP is to practice the lines with guitar unplugged until they can nail them like that. Then add the amp back in.
I actually think that the ability to only focus on the sound of the pick, string and fingers, and to be ‘tone-agnostic’ is a pretty advanced and deliberate thing, and it’s easy for advanced players to forget that.
Guitar, maybe more than any instrument, is seductive in the manner that the plugged in tone enhances the sound, to the point that so many intermediate players rely on that tone as a crutch, to cover those liiiiittttle inconsistencies in their technique.
As I said above, I even got caught out on a reasonably big gig, to find that a difficult line that I was so used to playing with a specific amp and guitar, was so much more uncomfortable and unforgiving when I had to switch to a backup amp which had an alien dynamic response. Yikes. Teachable moment for me… in front of a lot of people.
Regardless to say I went back and practiced those lines a lot with no amp, in order to prevent a repeat.
1 Like