Is it possible to get a great searing lead tone and a great rhythm tone without making adjustments for each?

    Anyone have any tips to accomplishing this with high gain like for hard rockish heavy metal nu metal, etc? I am trying to come up with one profile that does both without adding a boost or effect or using the guitar volume knob. Like a set-it-and-forget-it rig where I can let my fingers and pick compensate between the two parts. EVH comes to mind on what he did but I believe he used his volume knob quite a bit and hit effects on at certain times. I think Alex Lifeson was close to doing this. I would like to do both tones without compromising from one to the other and not having to click on/off effects.


    Can this be done? This would be for a single track guitarist and no second rhythm guitarist.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

    Edited 2 times, last by BayouTexan ().

    I used a Boss GT-8 for a good while. It has a feature where it change between two different settings based on pick attack. I don't think the Kemper has anything like that. If it did that may work. Outside of that, I am not sure how you could do it without using the volume knob or turning a pedal on and off.

    I am writing some songs where the lead immediately follows the rhythm track and there is zero time to make any physical adjustments. If I added added more gain to get more "sear" then it would mush out the rhythm part. There's got to be something that will work. I'm looking into some compression options to maybe help.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

    Quote from DonPetersen

    sounds like a job for morphing.
    once it's set up, keep your foot on the expression pedal and alternate between heel and tow to accommodate the riffing/lead parts

    But I want to walk in the audience when I do this.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

    I've also seen Tommy Shaw do what I am trying to achieve like he does on Blue Collar Man in concert; where his rhythm and lead tone is the same, AND walks in the audience. When I saw him years ago, his tone sounded way better than this video though... You can see he has no pedals on stage (unless someone is clicking stuff off and on backstage). I'm trying to use a bit more gain than he does.


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    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

    Quote from paults

    From my perspective, if you don't have someone else to trigger external switches for your Remote, your best bet for wireless wandering is the guitar volume control.

    The time it would take to move the volume knob would make me half way through the lead part already.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

    Hi,


    Do you have time to flick a three way switch on your guitar? ( you may be 5 way?)

    I have just started doing some of my lead parts in the neck for my metal solos

    Start in bridge for my riffs and verse and then flick to the neck for that real sustain in the neck for some solos. Instant tone switch

    I also play as the only guitarist and its pretty instantaneous.

    Also your pick attack can be key - dig in when ya gotta - The guitar in hand is often the answer....some will get you there in your single tone and some wont. Active humbuckers give you real juice for this stuff

    A few thoughts come to mind.


    There at two separate issues, volume compensation and amount of gain/overdrive.


    Many of the guys you are thinking of have techs making sound changes offstage. Even those that don’t have a FOH engineer to ride the volume in the mix.


    In your case I would definitely use volume knob and/or pickup switch. I don’t see how it takes a long time to adjust the volume knob. On a Strat or PRS type guitar the volume is right under your pinky so can be adjusted while playing with a little practice.

    On a Gibson style 4 pot setup you can set one pickup full blast the other rolled back a little. Then simply flick the switch.


    Another option if you are prepared to add another switch to your guitar is to fit a blower switch. I did this on one of my builds which has a Freeway 6 way selector, an inner/outer coils switch and a Blower. With this I can set the neck to a totally clean single coil sound for example and just hit the switch for solos.

    On the Helix there is a dynamic routing option. So you can go between two entire setups generically. I do not recall how smooth this was as I never intended to use it.


    The Kemper WAH has some form of boost listed. Not sure if that would work but seems to be the thing you are looking for. However the WAH could color the sound, so it may not be the best option.

    Quote from RosboneMako

    The Kemper WAH has some form of boost listed. Not sure if that would work but seems to be the thing you are looking for. However the WAH could color the sound, so it may not be the best option.

    The Kemper Wah Pedal Booster isn’t a Wah in any way. It is just the regular boost assigned to the Wah pedal port for control.

    This should the Graal Profile !

    I’m working hard on jazz solo fingerstyle and, for myself, the dynamic of playing is the key !

    Of course, if there is a profile to magnify your style, that’s perfect !

    Couple of comments from me:


    1) Being a single guitarist means the dynamics don't need to change that much as you are not blending, then needing to jump over another guitarist.


    2) You have limited ability to do this within one sound (regardless of unit) without boosting. So your ask seems to be around making a sound so dynamic that you can move from rhythm to lead by picking harder?


    3) Unless you play with a click and use midi to automatically change it, then you are limited to your volume control. FYI I get our bass player to flick sounds when I'm in the audience. Its taken some education because he's a bass player - sorry, bass player joke there! Funnily enough, the last gig we played, he clicked my solo sound and my remote shut down. It was because of the port issue I had but he thought he'd broken it

    Quote from BayouTexan

    I am writing some songs where the lead immediately follows the rhythm track and there is zero time to make any physical adjustments. If I added added more gain to get more "sear" then it would mush out the rhythm part. There's got to be something that will work. I'm looking into some compression options to maybe help.

    If this is for a recording, I would put them on separate tracks anyway. You can then do multiple takes and keep the one you like and not have to record the whole thing over again if you make a mistake. That will allow you to have whatever sound you want on each track.

    Quote from BayouTexan

    I've also seen Tommy Shaw do what I am trying to achieve like he does on Blue Collar Man in concert; where his rhythm and lead tone is the same, AND walks in the audience. When I saw him years ago, his tone sounded way better than this video though... You can see he has no pedals on stage (unless someone is clicking stuff off and on backstage). I'm trying to use a bit more gain than he does.


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    These guys have a lot of stage hands that do many things to pull these shows off. I am sure he has a guy in the back that is switching his pedals on and off for him. That is very common on big tours.

    two things, as previously stated it’s got to be a morph, you could use a button, time it for a bar and hit as the drum fill comes in, who needs roadies? , use amp compression gain and for me I would also bring in a delay.


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