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Do you ever get tired of playing clean/distorted?


Thundergod

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I might be just nuts, but I kind of got tired of playing heavy stuff... I have played lots of styles when playing with bands or artists, but when it came to me playing at home or in the studio, most of the stuff was as heavy as a tank, which was fine with me, but lately I find myself plugging my lester directly into the AC30 with no pedals at all (maybe the loop station, but that's not an effect), and I've become somehow tired of the high gain stuff and fast riffs, for a month now I have been playing just (slow) scales and they sound fantastic, I love the sound of my amp clean (I like how it responds to a high gain pedal too) and I was just wondering... you guys ever get tired of playing the same sh-t? I've been playing heavy stuff for more than 15 years now... 5 of which were really good (the other 10 I think I sucked but I didnt realize that until I started playing as desired).

 

I have to note that the symptoms started right after I bought my Telecaster... which now is #2 and spends her days in her case.

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I think you are finally ready for the Blues Thunder....

 

I play clean, crunch and overdrive, hardly ever turn on my metal zone.

 

My Casino straight through my Epi Valve junior with upgraded transformer and JJs sounds great for very mild crunch/overdrive.

 

My Les Paul sounds great through my Fender Champ Head, nothing in between.

 

I play clean with delay and modulations just to fool around and for a change but not too much.

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During my metal days, I rarely played clean. These days, I don't find myself tired of playing with heavy tones but I do use a much greater variety of sounds than I used to especially with my band. That is, different amounts and types of overdrive and various pickup combinations. It's probably easier to illustrate my setup:

 

Treble booster ->

Vibe ->

Flanger ->

Clean boost ->

amp

 

Throw the flanger and vibe to the side - I consider them to be "special" effects that I use on a couple of songs and not part of what I use to get different tones.

 

The treble boost has a switch on it for high, mid and low EQ settings; I use just the high and mid (low is a little too fat) so there are two settings for what is more or less an overdrive and the pedal is not even remotely subtle when I click it on.

 

The clean boost is a two channel box; I keep one side for a mild boost in volume and midrange and the other for a much bigger boost. There's two more sounds.

 

With nothing on, that's my clean sound. Another tone.

 

I play a Strat with my band - three pickups for five different sounds.

 

Whatever that adds up to with all the possible combinations ends up being a lot of different sounds to choose from. If you're the type of player who uses the volume knob(s) on your guitar for something other than an off/on switch (I'm an on/off guy) and the tone controls, you can get a lot of shades in between as well.

 

But, that's with the band. At home, I play mostly clean or with just a touch of overdrive and I just grab whichever guitar I happen to feel like playing for whichever sound I want. That's partly out of laziness though as I can't be bothered with hooking up a bunch of crap at home so I just keep an overdrive pedal with the amp.

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+1 never tire of the blues. Can be played clean' date=' dirty or any where in between.

 

 

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I'd have to add that the versatility of the guitar is what makes it so damned compelling to play. No matter what your mood, you're guitar can do that for you. The guitar can be so many things to you. No matter what mood you want to communicate the guitar can give you the voice to do so. Especially the Les Paul.

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I'm with you. A couple months ago I picked up a metal muff and was chugging away on some doom until I picked up a fender musicmaster bass amp a couple weeks ago and now I plug straight in or just a delay for some creamy cleans on the neck pup. I have so many pedals though that I always find a new sound to get tired of.

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I've always liked to mix it up; clean, distorted, bluesy. I love the acoustic as well, but I need a better acoustic guitar. It depends on who I'm playing with too. Some guys just can't be open minded about different styles of music, especially drummers. I rarely use effects anymore except the reverb on the amp. I do love the Boss loop station too. Use it regularly.

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I'll go you one better. I haven't even picked up a guitar since I broke my left arm in Oct. It's as healed as it is ever going to get, but I've lost all interest. I haven't even played a CD or anything. I can't figure it out; first such thing in 40 yrs. of playing.

 

 

Steve

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I'd have to add that the versatility of the guitar is what makes it so damned compelling to play. No matter what your mood' date=' you're guitar can do that for you. The guitar can be so many things to you. No matter what mood you want to communicate the guitar can give you the voice to do so. Especially the Les Paul.

 

[/quote']

 

+1.

 

Since I got my current LP I've been getting, generally speaking, cleaner and cleaner. Then, when I add some growl with the Vol control, it simply Makes My Day Complete.

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