The delicacy of distorted guitar lead

General Music Discussion
#1

I often play unplugged due to my current setup. So I really notice how, “live” or sensitive the guitar becomes when plugged in and turned up to distortion. It’s so touchy that watching for example Dave mustane or evh just fly through rythem n solos is, almost magic.
Now I don’t currently own any pedals besides a looper, I just plug right into my Unis orange Amp. The clean is fine, controllable, but put it on distortion and the guitar is like a totally different instrument.

The change can be akward to control without serious muting and accuracy with the pick, and often playing so delicately that it seems a bit ridiculous.

Now I’ve heard Eddie talk about how he just plugged in to the Amp n cranked it up, and others who picked up his guitar had difficulty due to that. But I also know he said lots of things that were not necessarily true…

Is it a bad idea to just plug into the Amp and turn it up? Am I making this way harder on myself for not owning any pedals? It can be discouging at times due to how sensitive the guitar becomes. I know I’ll get more used to it as I add more amplified practice in, but it seems excessive the ammount control needed to tame the guitar plugged in directly to an amp with no gating/effects etc…

If there is a pedal you guys would recommend love to hear it, I have a looper and have lots of experience playing clean tone stuff. Distorted is relatively new to me atm tho.

I am fine doing rythem with the natural distortion, but when it comes time to solo it’s akward. At least for now, as I say I rarely ever play with distortion.

#2

Harder on yourself? I’d say so, but your pocketbook will be fuller than mine. Take a look at the Xotic RC Booster or any number other pedals’ videos on YouTube for examples of how to eq, boost, and cut to eek more out of an amp. Have fun.

#3

So there are three scenarios, one might argue: (1) not using the pickups, (2) using the pickups, and (3) using the pickups where it is so loud there is positive feedback and the guitar can hear itself.

Let’s say that you “train as you expect to fight.”

So if you’re Ted Nugent, you’re in (3), it is critical to tame the feedback, etc. I think that most people should practice in (2), where you can even use your laptop to do signal processing (if you have a Mac I can suggest things), get something inexpensive like (say) a Boss GT1, pedals, or whatever it is that you like. Finally, (1) is questionable and probably a bad idea, but even though I have a wireless on my guitar and only have to say “Alexa, turn on Fractal” for my amp, many times I am too lazy to get into situation (2), so shame on me.

Anyway, there are no right answers here, except to keep on playing! :smiley:

#4

Seeing as you’ve got a looping pedal, have a go at recording some lead playing on a clean channel that you know is clean in terms of hitting the notes you want and then leave that looping while you fiddle about with dialling tones on the lead channel.
I find it helpful to hear what everything is doing when I don’t have to play->tweak knob->play->tweak knob etc.

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#5

This is basically what I do - I have a delay in the loop for lead playing, but I don’t run anything in front of the amp.

What you’re experienceing is really kind of the reverse of this, in fact - if you practice mostly unplugged, you’re used to no gain at all in your signal, so when you do introduce some it’s exposing some muting and noise control issues that you’re not hearing otherwise simply because they’re not being amplified in the first place. Pedals don’t necessarily help this, and could make it worse, even.

The answer, as you suggest, is simply spend more time practicing amplified. You’ll learn to control the guitar better.

#6

I call this the “zone” or “sweet spot” where the gain is perfectly saturated that the note starts when you want it and ends when you want it to end due to the sustain from the gain saturation.
I usually start with a higher gain amp at the edge of saturation and then slam the front end with an overdrive pedal of some sort. I use the lower gain for rhythm and the boost from the OD for leads. It makes the rhythm manageable with no noise for the tight rhythm playing.
Getting used to playing with gain is definitely an adjustment process as all the nuances of your playing that were inaudible are suddenly very present from the added gain making everything more present and compressing the quiet parts up.

#7

I like this way of looking at it, though I’d only add that that “sweet spot” is a very personal thing, and is very different for different players. I tend to like somewhat lower, less fully saturated tones than most, whereas some people like way more saturation. It’s a very personal thing, and really impacts how an amp “feels” when you play it, IMO.

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