Do Guitarists Have Too Many Options?
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- Опубліковано 14 бер 2024
- Do we as guitarists have too many options? If so, how does that affect our ability to achieve a given sound? Let's talk about it.
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*_Constraint breeds creativity. What’s ironic is that in an era of too many options, most guitar tone on modern records sounds the same._*
It’s because they use the same plugins when mixing. Spiritbox literally used Neural DSP: Archetype Nolly for Eternal blue. And every professional producer uses the same set of plugins like EQ, Compression, same Everything.
Your point is at least half valid. Other peoples tones are for sale as plug ins, and buying a plug in is like paying to win at a video game. The result is there but the path was shortened with cash. These are not creative people who buy pre-made plug ins though.
Probably worse for us home noodlers just spending way too much time getting gear (or virtual gear) instead of playing with what we got and perfecting that, like he said in the video. I can find myself spending way too much time combining virtual amps/cab sims or collecting IR's or... well, doing that instead of practicing.
There's something to be said for simplicity.
I found that no matter how many options, I tend to use or dial in a very small number of sounds.
Anytime i tried digital stuff, i have all the choices in the world, and i always went with the same rig i own in real life.
5150 with tube screamer, vintage 30, sm 57
Its generic, but it works
Same here but with Dual Rectifier. There are a ton of 5150/rectifier sims to choose from though!
When I was a teen, I used a guitar, cable, and amp. In my early 20's - BOSS Distortion pedal, in my 30's - distortion, phase shifter, chorus, octaver (sp), overdrive, noise gate, line driver, plus anything else that came out. Now, I'm 66, and my entire set up consists of guitar, cable, amp. Gone full circle, much happier now.
Agreed! Most of the time I don't even plug my guitar in
One of my favourite directors was fond of saying, "art thrives in restrictions"
Found itnto be true in most circumstances
I have to agree with you 100% Fluff!!! I am 51 and have been feeling this way for for years so about a year ago I just started using one or two guitars, one amp and a few pedals. Now I spend much more needed time playing instead of tweaking and much happier! Grear vid my friend!!!
There is a lot of options but also I feel us guitarists don't spend enough time learning the gear we have either! If it doesn't give us what we want out the box we will try something new!
When I was I university, I took a psych class where I had to read a book called "The Art of Choosing." At one point in the book it explains that when customers have a variety of options to choose from, be it consumer electronics, restaurants menu, guitar pedal, it doesn't matter....the more options to choose, the more likely someone would feel unsatisfied with their choice and wonder if they made the right choice. In the case of something like guitar pedals, this is a perpetual force where people will keep buying pedals because you keep wondering if that other one is better.
As a minimalist, I am all about simple, simple, simple. I am all about having a compact rig I can carry in the trunk of my car. So, whenever I buy something, it is all VERY researched, and VERY calculated. I know EXACTLY what I need, and what I don't need, or/and don't want. On tour, I literally can roll in, plug in, and play the show. Afterwards, I literally can unplug, roll out, and leave. That is THE ONLY WAY to tour. Minimalism. Simplicity. That is the only way.
Meanwhile, one of my bandmates buys EVERY AVAILABLE OPTION, and then does an A/B/C/D shootout to find the ONE, and then returns all the others. We literally just did a "Tupperware Party" to find the ONE preamp pedal he is going to use on tour.
This is why I don't reach for Tonex or NAM much anymore outside of noodling. I have a 6505+, a Vintage Modern, and an Egnater Armageddon that I play into a Palmer PDI-03. If I can't get a good tone out of those 3 the problem isn't the gear.
I used to struggle with choice paralysis a lot, i've stripped down my tonal options and gotten rid of 90% of my free plugins (except the Antress stuff that'll always stay lol) and just use a few different comps, eqs and reverbs that I have learned well and my mixes are better than ever.
100%! Sold my tube heads for a Fractal a few years ago. Now i’m going back to tube heads since I find myself not even playing.
absolutely agree Fluff. too many options. but thats also not the worst thing. If you can narrow your focus to tones you like and how they're created, i think starting there is a safe bet.
So I've just transferred from a Kemper Stage over to an OR30 and a torpedo captor, and I'm honestly so much happier. I love my Kemper Stage, but I realised that the entirety of my sound is a pushed Orange for my clean sound and then slammed with a tubescreamer for my dirt sound and I sat with that patch for nearly half a year. My band had our first practice with live amps for the first time in about 3 years a couple of weeks ago and it was just the most connected I've been with my playing for so long! Tomorrow's my first practice with the Or30 and the captor so I'm just so excited to feel my amp blasting at me!
And the thing is, that sound is yours. And it might not sound the same every time you play.
I use a Tiny Terror through a Jensen 12’ alnico closed back cabinet. Got a pedalboard with as much stuff as you’d want and I’ve never been happier. The pedals might vary a bit but that’s mostly switching od for od, delay for delay, and whatnot.
I get a sound that’s unique. So do you.
I completely feel you! I even know that I can get in front of any Orange, or British style amp (like a Marshall, Hiwatt or a Laney) and as long as I can get a slightly driven tone, and I've got an OD - I can get "my sound". I'm not ashamed that my Kemper taught me that, as it taught me so much about guitar production and recording and I'm proud that I still own it - but It's definitely going to be gathering dust under my bed haha.
3 years?
@@breadnaut3087 yep, we use an IEM system as we’re all running in click (we’re a post-metal/industrial band - think HEALTH, mixed with Cult Of Luna and Julie Christmas) so all of our sound has been direct in with no amplifiers other than the PA. We swapped back to live amps with cabs for our show last month and just remembered how much more connected we felt with what we were playing because of the air moving!
Too many great points made in this video, I could write pages on shared experiences. I think we are around the same age, and probably around the same experience level and every single thing you're talking about is absolutely spot on IMO.
Over the years I've bounced back and forth between all analogue too all digital and everything in between. The one thing I can say is that no one other than me ever noticed. My band members were every effected beyond "oh, that looks cool!" People in the audience didn't notice or care. My current rig is 7 pedals, and I use the same pedal board for a folk band Im' in, and a progressive metal band I'm in. No modelers, just a simple, effective selection of pedals I can plug into almost any amp and play a gig with.
I think a guitarist needs to step back, and decide WHY they are playing music. Are you playing guitar because you think its fun, and tinkering with stuff is fun, and you are really just playing because you enjoy it as something you do for yourself? Or are you an entertainer and you want to share your music with the world? These are not mutually exclusive, there can be overlap, but if you're goal is create music and share it with an audience then you need to take a step back and realize that the audience doesn't care. The audience doesn't care if you're using an all analogue signal chain, or amp models, cab sims. They don't care if you have a Klon, or an OD-1. They don't care that your guitar has a piezo or not. They only care about the music you create and 95% of the things we obsess about when it comes to our sound as guitarists, no one will ever hear. I think too many guitarists also listen to their guitar out of context too much. I used to spend hours dialing in my tone by myself, only to completely change it during rehearsal because the sound I dialed in doesn't fit in a band setting.
If your end goal is to create music and share it with the world, then I can't stress to you enough that working in broad strokes is so much more effective in terms of actually getting work done, and getting music written than obsessing over inconsequential details like the difference between two different high gain amp models.
Couldn’t be more right,nobody but you knows or cares what gear you’re using,and probably thinks it’s all the same anyway,a guitar and an amp lol
I think it's also worth noting that a lot of the people who use modelers well, and are content with them, basically just built "their rig" in the modeler, and used it for the convenience of the form factor and portability. And the ability to swap stuff out for that 10% random stuff. That's what I did when I went helix in 2017, and it's worked really well for me for that reason. I use the same OD pedals and same 1-2 amps basically all the time, and don't really even try other stuff any more.
I’d like to add to this by saying a lot of these options are redundant to an insane degree, but are just marketed so well to the consumer base that they appear as different things. There’s only so many ways you can configure an opamp, transistor, tube, etc.
I've had this discussion with a few friends and with people online but I think what happens is guitar players will buy gear based on the "what if" factor but it's deeper and more systematic than just guitar players. It extends all the way into every aspect of consumerism but specifically, we as guitar players, we seem to buy stuff because of what it might be able to enable us to do vs knowing exactly what it will do and I'm guilty of this many times over.
Having more disposable income vs when we were in highschool or college only enables us to feed the cycle more and more.
The constant churn of gear in and out of my house over the last 2 years has been wild but everything I buy, I take it on stage to really put it through it's paces and if I don't like it, it goes back to Reverb. If I like it, I'll keep it around but instead of enjoying it, I'll look for the next "what if".
A great example is the NUX Atlantic. Great little unit with all the right reverb/delay sounds for the vast majority of rock guitar players in a compact little package. But... what if that UA DelVerb sounds a lot better? What if there are really cool sounds in that thing I can use? So I buy the DelVerb and yeah it's a great pedal but not really any more useful sounds than what the NUX already offered.
Totally get what you’re saying! Back when I was a couple years into playing guitar I would set up my Peavey amp with a modern distortion on one channel and have it clean on the other channel with a foot switch and have a blast jamming along with entire albums. Now I spend 1/4 of my time with a guitar in my lap, dialing in or adjusting tones on my PC… Its awesome being able to get whatever tone I desire with the click of a mouse but at the same time it’s more fun actually jamming along to tracks with a decent tone
Fluff... great topic... I'm 62' ... started playing live in the early 80s... When I started, I had 2 Blackface Bassman heads into a 2x12 open back Jensen loaded cab... somewhere around 86, I knew I needed more options, other than the few pedals I had... tube screamer, flanger, delay, reverb...used a conn strobe tuner back then... by 89',
I discovered the original (American made) Rocktron Chameleon... the Fractal of its generation... along with an SPX90, I found unbelievable flexibility, and though I knew nothing of midi at the time... I was able to dial up everything from Megadeth, to Country twang... since then, the Chameleon died about 15 years ago, I've used exclusively Line 6, from the Rack Pod, to now... PodGo... its options are endless... but... my tone hasn't changed much... a 2204 style Marshall, gained up, a Klon style boost, mod, delay, reverb... the PodGo has limited cpu power, so I use an EkoVerb in the efx loop to offload the number crunching, and let the PodGo deal with the most important thing, the Amp and cab models... I've consistently used that chain for everything in the last 20 years, occasionally changing up the mod block for different textures, as differing patches... but the overall punch and clarity is the same... my power is a dead clean studio power amp into 2 Eminence Texas Special loaded 5 ply sealed 1x12s... such an amazing tone...
I've been programming and engineering all my life... great tone, is great tone... doesn't matter how you get there... and the speakers, they make the biggest difference in what you hear.
This reminds me of the questions about DAWs... 999 undues makes for poor decisions... let your ears decide, not the name of the gear, or how much you paid for it
Peace.
Play Every Day.
I kind of lived like that for many years until I got a copy of Amplitube 3.
Before that, I would only play with a combo practice amp, solit state by the way.
Once I started to understand that a cab can change the sound of the guitar, I stopped using combo amps and I would only use a present for everything: metal, punk, rock, etc.
That changed when I learned I could download cab IRs, but after many years trying different impulses, I still keep using presents with stock IRs from different plugins and multifx pedals.
Now I have Matribox 2 that I have not "explored" well enough, but I managed to get a tone that I like and it's been like that for almost 4 months already.
Sometimes you have to stick to a tone or chain long enough to see and hear if you like it or not and also to know what you can change.
Its about the UI, really. We all have a different comfort level with how we access our options. I like to step on things that represent a single change at a time, so multi-effects don't really work for me...even though my H&K has midi control to handle endless presets. I have it on stomp box mode and it only changes the channels while a dozen pedals are on the floor. That's the home rig. The studio/practice rig includes a giant pedal board.
For years and years I had one Fender Rot Rod Deville (3 channels, clean, drive, overdrive) a MXR Dynacomp, a chorus pedal, and a wah pedal. And I did a damn lot of things with it. Then I experimented with modeling and multi-effects, wound up dumping that because I'm too lazy to learn to program, and now all my options are at my feet.
I'm old and old school, and I still have and use my '87 Peavey VTM120 that I purchased new when I was 19 years old. We had to figure out so much back then, when there wasn't an internet and we relied on magazines to figure out how the pros did things. And the pros weren't divulging all of their secrets. I could have a thousand amp models and would settle on one or two that would be used for 95 percent of my playing.
I quit playing music for 10 years, then in 2019 I started up my solo project and was so overwhelmed with all the options of use this amp, use this pedal, use this program, use this plug in. I just wanted to play, so I just rock my 6 string Jackson plugged into a Tuner pedal, OD, analog delay, into a joyo zombie and 2×12. It feels good and that's enough for me.
I’ve been through a plethora of modellers, multi fx pedals and the usual gear we all get and about 18 months ago I sold it all, bought a Victory Kraken, an Orange 4x12 and a couple simple pedals and haven’t ever been happier. Less is 100% more for me otherwise I spend all my precious time with a guitar filling with knobs, tones and stuff and not actually playing just existing in option paralysis mode!!!!
I've been using the same stuff for 25 years. PRS custom 24, Peavey 5150, Marshall 4x12 1960 cab, line 6 POD 2.0.
Starting in the 70s through to 90s I never owned more than two guitars ,pedals and amps at one time mainly because of $$ and I was more than happy with what I had.I did have dreams of a Marshall stack and Fender Strat but that was a dream.What I tried to do was explore the absolute possibilities of the gear at the time which I feel in some way improved my awareness of sound,tone and playing style.For example I was trying to get a Ritchie Blackmore sound and style out of LP copy and Peavey 100w combo.I think I was getting there🤪Nowadays I have too much gear(I have had a half hearted clean out recently)and I have found that I have become lost in a sea of too many gadgets,amps,guitars.My pedal board was ridiculous.Now I have stripped back to virtually guitar,amp and maybe a pedal or two.I now concentrate on my playing and what the band is doing.I have three rigs.One for acoustic solo gigs.One for blues,country,rock ,Fender Strat Twin Reverb,and third for metal 5150 Jackson guitar.I only use one pre amp and that’s on the acoustic.I have a plague of gear sitting in the shed from rack gear,pedals,digital do it all stuff etc.I do love the advances in technology and I am guilty of acquiring that stuff but it is collecting dust.Just get out there boogie with what you got.
Thank you for this video! I've been thinking the same thing lately.
I definitely agree with this. I have some choice pieces of gear already but I always was wanting more. For ages I wanted an amp wall like Kyle Bull but I have had a little shift in mindset over the last few months. Sometimes you gotta just appreciate what you have and learn to use it. For years I had a Peavey XXX, 1960a, Tuner, Wah and Delay and I made it work and loved it. I think the main thing to focus on if you are getting into gear I guess, is to be precise about what you like and spend your money wisely. Perfect example is after getting into boosting high gain amps I started with a Maxon 808 and have bought and sold that many in the space of 5 years, costing me a fortune and only now am I realising that I prefer an SD1 over all my modern boosts. I think I under appreciated the 808 when I seen all the new hyped up boost pedals. I would probably find that I love the 808 these days 😂😂
This is great advice Fluff
Yep. I think there are too many options - especially over the past 5 years or so. Between forums where I see new guitar players drinking the marketing hype and trying to overdo it right out of the gate when they don't even know what their basic instrumentation is capable of. People want to solve everything with a new pedal or patch. There's a very well known pro guitar player in town (Seattle) that shows up with a guitar (or two) and an amp, and a pedal board with maybe half a dozen pedals, tops - and she plays all night and gets every sound in the book from that set up, because the few pedals chosen were done so for their versatility and interaction with each other, and she spent the time to learn them inside and out, so she knows what she can/can't get away with. It's inspiring and validating. Over the pandemic, the online marketing really fed the 'new guitar player' beast - especially at a time when they couldn't go hear the gear with their own ears due to lockdown, or their local store folding. Now everyone's trying to be the IPA beer of everything, and it shows. Use the advantage of options to learn with, but at the end of the day, narrow it down to what *works*.
"DAMN KIDS THESE DAYS!! With their Helix and Kempers!"
I started in 2007 with an EHX metal muff into a Crate V18 2x12. Not an amazing sound. But I did learn what an active EQ was from that! The metal muff mid was focused on a pretty bad frequency for tremelo picking, so it needed to be scooped just enough that it didn't sound terrible, yet high enough that I could hear it in a mix. Fun times
You could also say "damn kids these days with their internet guitar lessons! They don't get the benefit of someone correcting their bad playing habits".
Which is also as true as your options statement, but the genie can't be put back in the bottle at this point. The POD/HX/Kemper and internet lessons are here to stay.
I would also argue that individual pedals used to be a bigger deal and most modelers were shunned prior to the helix/fractal. I remember getting a TC chorus and delay and loving setting those up for my clean tone. There is a certain simplicity about having physical knobs/switches on your pedal to turn and adjust versus pulling a slider left/right on my computer. We guitar players are simple creatures after all :D
Well said, I've been obsessed with tweaking and tweaking and tweaking my Two Notes presets that it's just frustrating.
So, I stopped and actually played, and had a blast.
Also worth noting you can change up your tone so much by playing around with your picking and palm muting style.
This is where I have been heading. I got involved with digital with the hd500. Then I dove in during Covid with a podgo and boss katana. Everything sounds really good, but it does get boring at times. I remember just having a strat plug straight into a fender ultimate chorus, 2 channels, solid state, chorus that I made tremolo, that was it. It was enough. I feel we, as people, just get bored, and want options. Right now, I’m getting bored with options and kinda long for the finite, and not infinite. Thanks for making this video. Good to know I’m not the only one.
There’s definitely a huge choice where people can get overwhelmed, but honestly.. in the end there’s only specific type of gear that will get selected. Like the same guitar plugins for metal tones (archetype gojira, nolly, etc.), the same effects such as wah, pitch shift effects, etc.
The way to go in my opinion is a VST Host Hardware unit with a touch screen or large color display,i hope some company comes out with a unit like this!You could have all your favorite Amp Sim and Effects plugins in one unit for example Genome and Tonocracy can play profiles and NAM Captures,Tonocracy is free and you could capture all your favorite Amp and Overdrive pedals with the settings that sound best to you and then there would be no need to have a large pedalboard to take on a live gig!
What you said rings very true even with me, I have a very high amount of gear( effects, amp heads and guitars)in my collection of stuff, BUT...I only use a few at any given time to get the sound I am looking for at that moment, or vibing well with. Because of having so much equipment it takes me a while to even chose which guitar I want to use at that time, and it is kinda overwhelming, the one point I have been consistent with is only using my Laney Ironheart 60 and Marshall JVM205H 50 watt in stereo with the same 2-2x12 cabs I have and a Helix LT running into it, and only bouncing between a few presets ie clean and dirty usually with some ambient stuff to work with too.
Great Video FLUFF, I really appreciate your take on stuff like this, and it is a breath of fresh air to think about it, and try the simplistic approach to things :)
I about the same age as Fluff and can really get behind this. I started playing in the 90s and it was just about getting a cool sound with what you had. Started with the classic Crate amp, then got a all tube Sovtek with 2x12 for $500. Sounded cool to me. I had a few pedals that I'd rotate because at 16-18, you didn't have a ton of cash. Some Boss standards, TS-9, Big Muff. Unfortunately, I had some classics that I let go, reissue Memory Man that I bought new for like $120 and sold to get a DD-5(?). Got a Dual Rec that I could never get to sound good because I didn't really understand that it was too much amp. Plus...it was kind of complicated with all those voices and channels. Sold it all and just had a little Vox amp and a Zoom modeler. Kind of fell off playing for a decade, but now I've got a Marshall Origin and an Orange Rocker Terror. Dead simple amps, sound better than ever, more fun then ever. I've got an HX Stomp and it's a ton of fun to play with all the different models, I tried to use it as my main rig. At the end of the day, simple tube amp with an OD, delay, phase. All set. The Terror has two channels, with the OD, you basically have 4. Clean, crunch, distorted, tight distorted. It's awesome. The HX stuff is great though because you have tens of thousands of dollars worth of gear to mess with, especially the synths and mods that you'd use for 5 minutes.
I have finally found satisfaction with my Fender Tone Master Pro. It's simple, sounds good and has lots of effects and amps and cabs and mics and more are on the way. I'm done and I have to admit it's pretty great. No more amps or pedals or any of the stuff you have to have to make them work and all the problems that come with it. I'm old and happy.
I've had that experience, too. I played for years with cheap solid state combos and maybe a distortion pedal and EQ, and I had to make that work. It gave me the skills to squeeze better sound out of whatever I was using without having to pile a bunch of effects on top of it. I got into modelers because they were a more affordable way to get closer to what I wanted, but when I finally had a good rig built around a Fractal, I spent more time exploring than playing. I'd try a new amp model and/or cab, get it sounding good, and then move on to the next one. I think I was still building a skillset in doing this, but it was distracting. The progression of tech in my time playing guitar has been amazing, though, and it's a great time to be a guitarist/bassist.
i read this as "do guitarists have too many opinions" but THATS an easy answer
(Spoken as a guitar player)
I’m 20 and only own two amps. An EVH 5150 iii 50 with matching 212 for my bedroom and an old peavey stereo chorus head with a 412 70s double output cab in my practice space. I can get almost all of my sound out of the 5150 it’s so nice and I’ve had it since I was 17 and never looked back.
After trying several setups, playing in different bands, doing music at home and away, repairing and selling instruments professionally and still loving to nerd around, I kinda learned to ask two questions when it comes to a rig: What is needed? What is wanted?
A good rig covers the needs but leaves some room for "wants". This way you can still play around and have fun (and that what music is about), but you're not overloading it.
I feel that. I started gigging in the 90s with a marshall 8100 and a laney cab with H/H speakers. They had just came out. It was a cover band too.
Today, I'm wanting to just do a single channel 800 with a dirt and a 3 pup Ibby. The options are the scale and chord types. Dirt, no dirt? Volume? (UAFX 1176 would be hard to delete.... lol!!!)
Its probably not influenced by years of gear at all.
I heard from a great musician once “if an 8 year old and an 80 year old can’t hear the difference between an $80 pedal and $800 pedal, it doesn’t really matter” all that to be said, the listener can’t hear the difference, only you can. So as long as you sound good and play good, the gear doesn’t really matter. It’s how you play that does. I hope this relates haha. Cheers From Albuquerque, New Mexico
True. Even though I mainly plug into genome, its easier to get straight to writing with a tried and true slightly boosted marshally setting. Saturated enough to chug and squeal, but open enough to go edge of breakup or clean w the volume knob. Less is indeed more
I’d like to thank my old modeler for showing me that at the end of the day, I love a British flavored amp. After that, I switched to an all analog rig. One amp, one cab, and a handful of pedals.
I feel like as a young guitarist/musician/artist/creative (and young doesn't mean age but experience) having every option, whilst overbearing, is kinda necessary. Not only because discovery is fun, but also experiencing, learning, emulating etc is what breeds individualism within that creativity. And as you find yourself, you find various things you had the option to utilise you just don't. Inevitably every option available is whittled down to every option of value.
The only real hiccup is falling for consumerism & just buying shit you don't need for a dopamine hit. That has a lessening effect on creativity & expression.
I’ll weigh in here as I can totally relate on both sides of the argument. Yea, being limited to simple gear naturally forces you to be more creative to achieve sounds that you hear elsewhere that the gear you’re using might be designed to do, but also (and this totally depends on the discipline and character of the person) having gear with a multitude of options can also spawn creativity if you can sit yourself down and really take the time to dive into it and learn all settings and tweakability which can also result in more creativity. I bought a Mesa Mark V amp with the 5 band EQ, all the little switches and built in CabClone. At first, it was a little challenging and while I just found a good sound and wanted to play right out the gate, I started messing the graphic EQ and I started learning more about frequencies for the guitar and how it played with the other amp settings. I also played around a lot with the CabClone recording features and then it made me want to learn how to mic the amp and I was recording, checking out how it sounded. I then found myself dissecting every feature of this amp to the point I had it all figured out and realized I didn’t really need any other gear (though I wanted more gear, and keep telling myself I need this, that and the other). It really depends on the discipline of the individual and understanding what and why you’re buying said piece of gear. That amp actually taught me a few things about recording which I thought was cool and opened up some doors to other things with music production and gigging as well. I get the “Option Paralysis” perspective and it can be a problem, but only if you let it. I think people need to have a goal in mind when buying gear, like a legit justifiable need and go with that.
In a way I agree sometimes it’s so overwhelming with all the options so it’s good and way but sometimes frustrating so I definitely understand man. Hope all is well.
I made I through music school with a Jackson PS4 and a 60 watt solid state Crate combo. The only reason I had the Jackson was because my guitar professor said my Kramer with a bad headstock repair wasn’t going to cut it and my dad was nice enough to spend the $400 on the Jackson for me.
funny you bring up this topic - i recently went from a GX-100 pedal (which is my favourite) to an ME-90, just to cause myself to "make it work" with more simple options. 100% agree with this vid!
Yes, I think it's to the point where it's become a major distraction from the main focus, which is actually learning and progressing at playing your guitar. I'm in the middle selling the majority of my gear so I can better focus on my playing instead of all the other amp/pedal/cab/plugin/whatever else things.
I think more options is better. For a long time it was Guitar into High gain amp boosted by Tube screamer through a vintage 30 speaker. Now with all these new options can find what’s best for them .
I went the digital/modeling route for a bit and was always tweaking settings and never getting the sound I wanted. Now I have a basic pedal board going into an EVH 5150 el34 paired with a vintage JCM800 4x12 cab from 1984. Nothing beats experiencing that interaction of the amp and cab and air moving through those speakers. I hardly ever adjust the settings on my amp, maybe just a small eq/presence tweak depending on the guitar I am using.
Agreed. In the 90's I had my Laney linebacker, my TS-10 and my (not) Les Paul. You just gotta rock it! Option paralysis is real these these days, far too easy to distract from actually working it and playing the damn thing.
Nice one Fluff, love what you do. Peace.
It may sounds counterintuitive but that is the reason I went back tonten Kemper. Just a clean, an ambience and one Rhythm/Lead profile which get tweaked a little bit. So yes I still use 3 different amps and IRs but I limited them myself to just those 3 and I am more satisfied with this setup than having a Modeller where I had 5 different amps/setups for each amp usage.
Great video! "Keep It Simple, Stupid" or "Keep It Stupid Simple", either way, that's my jam. I've been using the same rig for about 20 years now: Washburn N1 (one vol nob), Fender Princeton, Arion chorus, Ross distortion, and Ernie Ball vol wah for over 30 years. lol
I get some ribbing when I play with new people, but pretty soon everybody wants to play my rig. I proselytize not having more than you need, especially to new players who need to learn how to play their guitars, not their rig. Hide that whammy bar from newbies too! Less googling off and saves a small fortune in replacing snapped strings.
I dunno. I would have loved to have had these options when I started playing. But I agree that using limited resources to obtain what you need is a skill and a talent in and of itself.
I think about this too. I didn't have any of this stuff when I started, but we also didn't have the internet to guide us with all this stuff either. And this was just the late 90s, not the 60s. I will say, when I got a cheap Digitech multifx unit around 2000, I did learn A LOT because I was no longer guessing which sound I was hearing.
1990 Squire Backstage with an Ibanez Soundtank POWERLEAD and some kind of Phaser, I think DOD? and Black Floyd 91 Warlock as my first real little rig past the Synsonics with a speaker built In. Doesn't get more " I started in 89" than that
Yes & No.
I'm guilty of twisting knobs when i should just be practicing or writing and it does get in the way from time to time. But i also feel like almost every album sounds the same these days. So for me, having options to get something different is a good thing.
I feel like I know so many guitarists that still are just happy to play with whatever they have/can afford. I'm a major gear nerd but my rhythm guitarist will literally plug into a Line 6 Spider 3 Head with a 150$ Behringer 4x12 and be completely stoked as long as it's loud and he can play shows with it and really isn't interested in buying anything else.
I play weekly gigs, been through the transition from amps to digital and always felt there was some setting or parameter I needed to tweak because they were there, I couldn’t settle on any sound even though I just wanted a basic Marshall sound. Now I still run digital but a simple Marshall emulation pedal with a few knobs. Lets me just play. The two or three effects I need I can just add pedals and be done. Best of both worlds, less option paralysis.
I was in 4 different bands with their own distinct sounds with only a Squire Tele that I only ever use bridge pickup on, a Sovtek mig-50, and ProCo Rat and it served me just fine!
I love all the options but I’m also somewhat old at 30 and remember real amps.
I think the sauce is get ONE thing as close as you can without adding something else to the chain.
I start generally now with an IR and cranking the piss out of the plugin. I don’t always want a boost and I figured that out by trying to stretch one setting as far as I could before adding something else.
When you hit the limit determine what is needed to get you there and slowly tweak.
Also, for plugins just play a riff you like and LOOP it. You don’t have to play and try to adjust settings anymore. That sped up my process and I’m using the same performance so I can judge better.
Happy tone scouting!
I agree with you. I have been using a Quad Cortex for about a year now and I have seen some absolutely bonkers patches. When it comes to recording lately I have just done a noise gate + soldano head + cab in the QC and that's it. Simple and sounds good. I don't spend an hour looking for a sound and I get the job done.
It’s different for different situations , for recording , you sometimes get inspired by new noises so lots of options is nice , live , for new wave / power pop / rock , I just want one or two sounds and concentrate on the performance , one tele bridge pick up and a couple of pedals into the amp , chorus plus overdrive pedal into amp . Unless backline has orange valve head , then it’s guitar into head , sonic bliss 😊👍
I’m in a spot where I use amps sims to be able to just plug and play and practice. I don’t get into tweaking a ton of stuff because I just want things to work. Even when I’m trying to write/program/mix I’m trying to do the minimum to get it to sound good and that’s it. I just think some gravitate towards really chasing and dialing In tones, and some just want to do what works.
Simple can be great, but I want as many versions of simple as I can get. I have a Headrush Prime and I use it to make great sounding, simple rigs that give me very solid versions of various rigs. I have my Plexi rig, my Twin rig, my Mesa rig, my Soldano rig, my JCM800 rig and other very recognizable sounding rigs. Then on each rig, I have my favorite effects in the chain ready to go. I have all that in one box. So yeah, you can easily get overwhelmed with options. But if you are smart about it, you can use these modern modelers to create a very efficient system that’s good for any situation.
I use to think never enough. Now, yes because we buy all the new stuff and then after a week or two, we realize it's just not that great and we really don't need it. I've got probably ten pedals just sitting on a shelf that I've hardly used. I had all the rack gear. Now, it's just a few pedals, my very light Line 6 Catalyst (sold the Marshall) and that's all I need. Every day I thank God for Brian Wampler and Line 6 for making my life much simpler.
I’ve found this option paralysis especially kicks in with modelers. Just because you have limitless options in tone doesn’t mean you need those limitless options. The modeler is supposed to appeal to anyone, no matter their style; it doesn’t mean you have to use all those amp sims and fx etc. find something that works for you, and consistency will be your friend.
As a guitarist I feel it's tempting to buy something new for I know each option is unique but I personally love the STL Tonality Andy James and my second favorite being STL Tonality from Lasse Lamert. For speaker I use Prism from SpectreSoundStudios
Agree man. This video has my thoughts all over the place. In the end, I'm trying to settle with analogs, simple distortion, simple OD, etc. The more you get off the "tone" obsession topic that's trending all over the internet and it's a rabbit hole itself, the more you focus on learning the instrument and practicing with it.
I've recorded with amp sims and I always go back to my tube amps. Maybe it's just how I grew up as a player but I have made my live rig super simplistic. I think the amp sims are decent to get an idea on what sound you can play around with but overall no matter how good they can get, nothing will ever beat a nice tube amp.
I’m taking the challenge! As a matter of fact, I just bought back my ‘92 Fender M80 combo. I used gig with this amp and no other pedal. Good ol’ days!
I definitely feel like with essentially unlimited modelling & plugin options it’s incredibly hard to ever be satisfied with a tone. Like you said I’m constantly tweaking 50 different presets because I like it one day then not the next.
Agree with you, Fluff..having endless options in all assets with guitar doesn't mean it's gonna be easier playing. Myself I only go in studio and live with one good rhythm tone and sauce it with a boost and some delay for solo's, that's it... don't need anything else tbf. So I have gear that can give me that same quality rhythm tone for live and when recording, I'm a happy bunny, just saying. Great, interesting vid and challenge for many players this one. Cheers
The line 6 spider heads before pods and then it went crazy from my point of view. But starting out and getting into highscool days I had a 1 12" combo Fender amp with some built in effects options like chorus and spring reverb until I got into real band. Then it was a Randall solid state head with who knows what 4x12 cab with a wah and distortion pedal on the floor. I played probably over 500 shows like that until we started makin money and dipping into Mesa stuff. Even then never touched any other amps etc until we were in the studio and had options to pick from for recording and we had ZERO clue what we were doing just looking for sound good shit lol
My OCD is on overload with the lamp shade seam visible. Haha!!! Great vid, as usual.
First rock rig @1979: Ibanez ST50 and an Acoustic 1x12 channel switching amp. No fucking tuner even. Tuned up by ear to the keyboard player, haha!
In the 90s our options were whatever was available at the local shops, pawn shops, or newspaper classifieds. If you didn’t know what something was or what it was worth you had to go to the library or make the rounds at guitar shops and hope someone knows something. As a teenager money was limited and there wasn’t a lot of cheap gear so most of what I had was what I could afford used.
Man I wish I knew about vintage tube amps back then because crappy solid state amps were expensive! Luckily the music from the 90s didn’t require exquisite clean tones!
Strat, tube screamer, some delay, and an orange combo. Same things I've had for quite some time now and it never really changes. I found what sounds like me.
Options paralysis has been the reason why I ditched both the Ax8 and the Helix. I went Quad Cortex because I felt comfortable with their plugins and had done a lot of research regarding the ease of use. But yes, to answer the question directly, guitarists (and bassists) have WAY too many options...That is also not a bad thing, because everyone has the ability to achieve the tone they desire. We are in a golden age of gear, and I am ok with it.
Three thoughts. 1, the audiences don't care, only other guitarists do. 2, these boxes are marketed as "loads of options and tones" because it catches everyone. I wouldn't buy a super clean amp sim for jazz or an ultra high end for djent, but if they were in there, fine. 3, most bands should address their discipline in rehearsals and songwriting alongside their use of gear. Little use "finding a sound" if the music played with it is uninspiring. I'm guilty of this one big time. Good video Fluff.
I'm only against having a flood of gear for me. If other people want it & can afford it, that's great. I'd like and use multiple guitars, a couple amps & at most a dozen pedals then stay with thar and eventually thin the herd. If I can't get the sound I want with that amount of gear & the multiple options available with them, I should probably get rid of them & try something different. I'm 44 years old & got my first guitar for my 21st birthday in January 2001. I had a no-name Les Paul, a used Peavey Bandit 1 X 12 combo, a tuner, & DOD Death Metal Distortion pedal & I was playing live shows with only that stuff by April of 2001...fake it 'till you make it. I have my first guitar beside me & I play it at least 4 days a week. Keep it simple & use whatever you like most other things can become distractions, at least for me.
My other hobby is mountain biking. And the technology behind suspension and tires are insane these days to make challenging trails feel like sidewalks. So there’s a trend of being “under biked” where you use vintage or cheaper bikes with less tech to still have a challenge on easier trails.
I barely touch the blocks in my main QC preset. Usually it's for just trying out a different modulation or delay for a few days to see if i like that more. Then again, have 3 modulations and 4 delays in that preset. So using the QC over something like a FM3 is cheating with all the DSP you can leverage ;)
The when I was a kid part was totally a get off my lawn momment. Welcome to the geezer club :)
Options aren't necessarily bad. Just comes down to what your goals are during your playing schedule. I'm sure you're not going to be using a ton of effects while working on riffs, but we all have those unstructured times we just want to do something we haven't done before. Sometimes the factory presets have those really weird things that you thought WTF is that?? Try it out and see what you can do with them.
Options are great, it can be overwhelming, but yeah, you can self limit as well
I've been on my way back down on the "all the options" curve the last couple years. Still like pedals and amps, but I've gotten rid of a couple Boss 500 series pedals, and other crazy multimode pedals in favor of more individual effects. Other than the Boss MD-500 I still have, my most "complex pedals" I have are the Source Audio Colliders and Nemesis. I love it because no menu dive (some hidden options), but they have presets and still more options than I will ever likely use. One day I may find myself with a true modeler, but for at home and jamming with friends. I want to keep it a little simpler :)
Still have way too many pedals. Also generally downsizing
I just this week decided to move my convoluted all analog rig... To just an HX Stomp XL, power amp and cab.
Hope it was a good move 😅
haven't changed the patch on my helix in 2 months except playing around with having a hard gate on/off.
Yes, I"m trying to just simplify my set up as much as possible.
The problem is you need the options so you can decide which to ditch, that is why I highly recommend people start with a multi-fx before start buying pedals.
I use the same settings on my express 5:50+ for long stretches and generally only change settings when recording for specific parts. Just dime the gain and have some fun lol
Absolutely we have to much. It drives me nuts sometimes and causes anxiety. Lol. Part of me wants 1 amp and 1 guitar… maybe 2 guitars for different tunings. Simple is better!!
To many plug Ins and cab sims so when you hit the studio production wants to use whatever has had the most success Ala that Spiritbox album. Stand with my my brothers and sister and don’t let tube amps ever become replaceable. The biggest sound differences in physical equipment is not limited to the amp head. Speaker cabs and speaker selection cannot be beat when you find the right pairing. My stealth thru a 2x12 Hesu cab w demon speakers sounds so modern and crushing as you can possibly get without spending your life saving on gear that’s not gonna get you any more where you want to be. Band I’ve been working with the other guitarist uses a Diezel vh4 and an orange 4x12 id sold him essentially brand new and he keeps asking why my tone sounds so much better. Pedals aside, I told him it’s the cab/speakers that’s making all the difference. I can’t stress how good Hesu cabs/speakers sound with certain amps I ’ve run (5150iii 6l6 MKI, PRS Archon 50, a new Bad Cat Lynx and my go to which is a 5150iii stealth 🥷) -all thru it compared to my Marshall 4x12 w UK v30’s as a control and the Lynx is meant to be paired with v30’s but besides that everything else sounded better in any way possible with the Hesu. Just like v30’s or cream backs green backs warehouse reapers etc are gonna sound drastically different thru each head and cab. I never put any stock into this but a solid built cab like my vertical slant 2x12 Hesu makes a world of difference. It’s built to withstand a nuclear explosion without any added weight. It was enough for me to just part ways with my Marshall UK build with UK v30’s not those Chinese ones, that I’d been playing for 10+ years and after opening both up the build was just visibly very apparent. To my knowledge there aren’t any production 4x12 Hesu’s available but you can get a 2x12 brand new even with shipping would cost less than for example a Orange 2x12 which imo don’t sound nearly worth the money and after getting the Hesu like I said I got rid of my orange v30 loaded 4x12 and my Marshall don’t sound nearly as good, at least specifically paired wiry my stealth. The Archon also sounded phenomenal thru the Hesu. About $700-$750 which I’m including shipping in that price will get you a brand Hesu 2x12 shipped to you in the states. I live in NY and I think I paid $730 at most for it to get here. I’m pretty sure Thomann Carries them. I had a friend overseas set me up with it so I didn’t go thru a site but after just looking it looks like a Hesu 2x12 will run you less than $700 before shipping. We’ll worth the price. Fluffski has an older video demoing one of they’re cabs. Check it out
I’ll go full old man yells at cloud. Gibson + Mesa + tuner = enjoy
It's like buying a commuter car that can drive 300mph. It sells units, regardless of whether or not it makes sense. What you need is usually not what you want.
Fluff, the best advice you gave me on Twitter was to get the Axe FX III instead of the JP2C. So as a different perspective, I'm going to say that I disagree because that particular piece of gear not only is so engaging that you put more hours into playing, but you're playing different TYPES of music based on the presets built into the rig, and THEN you learn to dial in your own presets and gain wisdom using blocks you that you like from other preset references. This was years ago you recommended the Axe, and now I pretty much know out of the billion options which 5-10 things I'm actually going to give a shit about. If I went back to old amps and pedals it would be expensive, but I'd at least know how to assemble a great rig that would work for me. I couldn't say that a few years ago and I've been playing since the 80s. Just wanted to throw that out there.
I haven't changed the settings on my Carvin X-50B with 4x12 cab in 25 years pretty much lol. I've added 3 more amps I run simultaneously with it via a Radial JD7 Injector rack unit, but that's different lol.