Making my electric guitar sound "electric"?!


Question: I'm a beginning guitar player and just bought a Squier Strat pack...what settings would I need to put my amp (Fender 15G) on to sound "electric", or would I need to upgrade my amp/get a stomp box? Right now it just sounds like an acoustic guitar, only amplified. Also, what effects pedals are easy for beginners to play around with? I'm trying to get the same kind of sounds Mogwai/Explosions in the Sky can make during their instrumentals...or, better example, Radiohead's "How to Disappear Completely"-type sound. I'm not saying I'm trying to sound as good as them, I just want my guitar to play with those same effects/settings.


Answers: I'm a beginning guitar player and just bought a Squier Strat pack...what settings would I need to put my amp (Fender 15G) on to sound "electric", or would I need to upgrade my amp/get a stomp box? Right now it just sounds like an acoustic guitar, only amplified. Also, what effects pedals are easy for beginners to play around with? I'm trying to get the same kind of sounds Mogwai/Explosions in the Sky can make during their instrumentals...or, better example, Radiohead's "How to Disappear Completely"-type sound. I'm not saying I'm trying to sound as good as them, I just want my guitar to play with those same effects/settings.

I LOVE THE MUSIC YOU'RE INTO! I've been using explosions as a model for some of my tones...I think I can help you. I think you will be able to sound half-way decent without to much work or equipment. Let's start with the amp...

OK...the Frontman 15G...I would say more emphasis on the bass and treble tones...around 9 and 8 (respectively)...keep the middle down around 6. Then kick on that Drive Select channel and turn the Gain to about 4 or 5...we want a slight sting, a little crunch, but not distorted. Then turn up the Drive Volume to the appropriate level (depending on how loud you want to be). This should beef up your sound. To get the most output out of your guitar, I would probably have the pick-up selector in the middle position.

Now onto stomp boxes:
In my very humble opinion, post-rock isn't as moving without REVERB!!! The guys in explosions use the boss RV-3, which is nice...I prefer the Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail...the "hall" setting is to die for! Stuart from Mogwai uses the Boss RV-5 I believe.
Next, we have delay...delay is so cool becuase it can be as noticeable or subtle as you want...and it adds a lot of intensity. I use the Line6 DL-4, it has a lot of different types of delay and also has a little 14-second sampler. The guys in explosions use the Line6 DL-4, Ibanez DE-7, Boss DD-5 and the Boss RV-3 (which, along with reverb, may also have some delay as well.) I would recommend the DL-4 only because if you want a digital delay, you got it, along with analog delay (subterranean homesick alien), ping-pong, chorus delay (e.g. your hand in mine) and a bunch of others...I think one of the dudes in Mogwai uses an Electro-Harmonix memory man as his delay.
Overdrive and Distortion pedals are another great investment. EITS play through all sorts of pedals like the Electro-Harmonix big Muff, Tech21 SansAmp, Ibanez Tube King, Vox V830 Distortion. Stuart from Mogwai has been known to play a ProCo Rat distortion pedal I believe. I Personally I prefer overdrive to distortion...distortion just seems too rough and nasty to me...plus I love the overtones I can get with a nice overdrive and reverb...I don't like distortion and reverb together though. I use an Xotic AC Booster pedal...not well known, but it's a boutique pedal and you can find a lot of info. on it if you search youtube, etc.
Regardless of anything, you NEED to get a tuner...I use the Boss TU-2 (which is kind of the standard) EITS uses the TU-2 and also the Arion Stage Tuner.

Now, other amps to possibly consider...
A lot of this rich, thick and bakey tones come from tube amps...generally Fender amps. The guys in explosions use a Fedner Twin Reverb (with is what I use) and a Fender Dual Showman...Chris from the Appleseed Cast (I don't know if you're a fan) as well as Stuart from Mogwai use a Twin Reverb also. The Fender Bassman is also an amp of choice...as well as the Vox AC30.

I know I just threw out alot of equipment, but take your time and have fun...try out new things...I think with $300-500 you can buy a couple of nice pedals. I'm not saying $300-500 is cheap, but pedals just cost a little bit, and it's an investment in tone that will stay with you. My suggestion...
Boss TU-2 Tuner ($100)
Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer ($100)
Boss DD-3 ($110) or save up for the DL-4 ($250)
Holy Grail Reverb ($120)

I've bought new, used, ebay...whatever I could find.

Good Luck

PS check out this St. Louis band Tell Tale Heart
www.myspace.com/telltaleheartstl
you may like them

Well, I've never used your amp before, but there should be a "distortion" knob or a "distortion/clean" switch. Try messing with those.

(actually, now that I'm looking at a picture of your amp, I think you want to use the "drive select" button)

Since you're a beginning player I can see why you started out with the Squier Strat pack. It's a decent all around package, but if you expect it to scream like Jimi's Strat and Marshall stacks, you have a long way to go.
Since you're only working with an 8" 15 Watt amp, the most expedient thing to do would be to get ahold of of an amp modeling system. One of the best and least expensive is made by Behringer, called the V-AMP. It's able to reproduce 16 classic amp sounds and almost 100 tonal adjustments that should punch up the Fender amp and make it sound like lots of others you've heard before. It also comes with an expression pedal, which can be used as a wah wah or volume controller, and the tone effects are amazing. There's 99 custom cabinet/tones that are presets, but you can adjust any or all of them in four separate parameters, or delete the whole sound and create your own homegrown tone.
Friends of mine have played with this unit for one night and decided to buy either this model or a couple models higher.
They offer double the cabs/tonal combos for under $100!!
I found mine thru www.musiciansfriend.com after hearing a 10 minute sample of the tone and volume range, and was amazed how much it could change the sound of a Standard Fender Stratocaster.
I think I spent about $59 (on sale) 3 years ago and I beat the crap out of it, with NO DAMAGE at all since then. Heavy duty construction, no doubt.
These guys at Behringer really have something going on, and I'd recommend at least trying to find out what it could do for your setup before you decide on buying a fuzztone, chorus, wah, volume, or phaser. The V-AMP has all those and more for the price of one simple stompbox.
Don't get discouraged, just expand your tonal possibilities.



The answer content post by the user, if contains the copyright content please contact us, we will immediately remove it.
Copyright © 2007 enter-qa.com -   Contact us

Entertainment Categories