K-ON tone

[[T]ensio[N]]

After searching hours online I have come to one conclusion: I must ask my fellow anime buddies about this. My amp is a Spider IV 75 Watt and I just got it yesterday so I'm trying to find some tones with it. If any of you know the tone settings for K-ON! That would be great

[Hiroi Sekai]

Not a bad amp at all. K-ON songs do range from simple to hard rock, so it all depends on the songs you want to play.

For a song where guitar takes a back seat like Prologue, lay back on the gain and let the mid levels ring higher than your treble dial is set at. You can play around with the bass knob until you are happy, but the preset knob could probably sit on anything on the left side: twang, blues, or class A. Clean would have almost no kick to the sound so I'd leave that out for now.

For a song where guitar is up and in your face like Gitah ni Kubittake, crank that sucker onto the right side of the presets and slowly adjust the gain up and down until you get what you like. Don't adjust anything too quickly on an amp, there's always the risk of blowing it straight out of the water and having it overload- I'm not quite sure just how loud you play. One mistake lots of people make is lowering the bass and raising the treble a lot. It sounds heavier, but the second you take into rhythms and chords, it has no backbone to the tone. A general good tip I think I found from experience is to have the bass set to about 6 or 7, having the mid set to 5 and the treble to about 4. If the bass feels to heavy, flip the treble and bass settings- some amps are made more for metal where the bass has to be nice and powerful.

Then there are the songs with wah-wah and other effects like in Joyful Todays. For this, you'll definitely want a stomp pedal or an effects board. These do get pretty pricey, so maybe think about the latter choice as a one-time investment; they are extremely useful. Since K-ON is generally pop-rock to hard rock at best, perhaps the amp you have isn't optimal for playing K-ON specific songs, but it'll definitely work as is. The Spider IV 75-watt has presets from bands like Slipknot and Lacuna Coil I believe, so it was probably built for heavier forms of music. Like I said though, it definitely does work and it has a clean side to it as well, so the best way is to play around and find what works best for you. Every ear has a different perception of what sounds right and wrong, so as long as you remember the basics like tuning and tonality (making sure you don't have feedback, additional sounds, proper clean sounds), then everything else should tune in naturally over time.

Good luck.

[[T]ensio[N]]

Thanks man! Actually I play mostly hard rock/metal/rock [Avenged Sevenfold, Bullet For My Valentine, Rise Against, etc. etc.] But yeah I'll definitely try those settings out. Do you know a good setting to use for Utauyo Miracle?
EDIT: Oh and I have been looking at an effects board to buy. Not only ones with multi effects [more specifically the Boss ME-70] But I was aiming more towards the FBV pedal boards from line 6 so that I can just change the effects on my amp.

[Hiroi Sekai]

Utauyo Miracle is more of a power rock song with pop elements thrown in, so it'd be best to set it to Crunch or Hi Gain and lower/raise the gain so it doesn't sound too much like screeching.

As for effects boards, you can take the pedal board option or go for a multi-effects board. A pedal board will generally cost a decent amount more, but is much easier to use since you're not fiddling around from odd presets to find a sound you want. You customize the board to have the sounds you want (delay, flanger, wah-wah, overdrive, etc.) and just stomp between them to instantly change the sounds.

With a multi effects pedal, you're getting a number of preset sounds and are allowed to customize from there. Now, this is a great method if you've got an experienced ear and can build presets in any manner, but for someone who's newer might find it difficult to use it just the way they want to. The thing is, you generally get 4 presets to switch between (you could go from a clean to blues to overdrive to metal), and then several banks if you need to make more sets of presets (for concerts, I'd wager). Each preset has several settings to consider like FX, amp type, gain, delay, chorus, etc. and having to customize each preset using all of these can be quite tedious and difficult if you don't know what you're doing. I know I had trouble the first time using one.

So I would recommend a pedal board; you can go to a music store and give them a vague idea of what type of sound you want, and they'll help you set up a pedal board with all the right single pedals. You're generally allowed to test and return (or even bring your guitar to the store) products, so you can guarantee you get exactly what you want. If you watch the popular classic rock bands of the later years, you'll notice that they don't generally use effects pedals but instead they'll have a giant pedal board with every pedal they need for their repertoire. That's what I'd suggest getting- good luck!

[[T]ensio[N]]

Thanks again! Yeah there are a lot of individual pedals I want so I can set up a pedal board with those. The only thing holding me back right now is money. I just paid for drumline winter season and that was $600. Not to mention the amp that was $300... Haha, but before the pedals I gotta get a new guitar. I've had my Fender with custom pickups for like 3 years now and I've been trying to get a new guitar so yeah :P

[Hiroi Sekai]

Ah yes, of course. One thing I should add is that a high powered Marshall, Fender or even a Hughes & Kettner amp can produce cleaner tones that you'd want for K-ON music. Since you do play other things like hard rock and metal though, the Spider IV's a good amp- it just won't work on equal levels between the two genres.

Also, what type of Fender would you have, if you don't mind me asking? From my personal experience, I think the Jaguar/Mustang or the Jazzmaster sounds closer to the solid rhythms from K-ON and the American Stratocaster/Telecaster has the nicer lead sound. If you venture into Gibson, you definitely can't go wrong with Les Pauls, but SGs and even stuff like the Midtown Custom sets work quite well for both lead and rhythm.

[[T]ensio[N]]

Yeah I wanted to get either a Marshall or an Orange Tube amp. Either Half stack, Full, or Combo, but you know too expensive :P Of course I plan on buying a new amp soon, I just needed a bigger amp quick because I'm auditioning for Jazz band and people told me my teacher would make me buy a new amp.

The Fender I have is an American Strat, but my uncle [who bought a HUGE pack of these to sell for his business] got ripped off because the electronics inside are utter crap. I've changed the pick ups though and I'm not sure what pick ups they are because I got them off of a different guitar, but my friend who helped me put it in said it's probably DiMarzios. [The bridge has a higher output and is a *probably* DiMarzio Humbucker] And my friend re-wired the guitar so that I can use the neck pickup and the bridge pick up simultaneously, even though there's a mid pick up. And I've changed the nut to a custom one that the guitar repair guy made and changed the input. I SOOOO Badly want the Gibson All Axcess Guitar but again money. I might settle for a Gibson Les Paul. Two other guitar brands that stick out in my mind are Shecter and Ibanez. I want a Shecter with EMG pick ups, since it would be more affordable than a Gibson. And for an Ibanez, the only problem is that when I get a new guitar, I prefer it to have a Floyd Rose tremelo. ESPECIALLY if it's from Shecter and Ibanez. Ibanez don't put in Floyd Rose unless you go to the REALLY pricey ones.

Dang this ended up being long. Sorry :P

[Hiroi Sekai]

Orange I'd think carefully and test extensively before buying, since it generally works better with bass guitars and heavier pitched (in general) types of playing. Marshall I found works well for basically anything that has a 70s to 90s rock style, which seems to generally fit K-ON quite well. They even use Marshalls in the show and in their live shows as well. You can score a good deal on something like a dual speaker 100w Marshall for about $600-800, which can fill an entire park with sound easily. I've owned one and the lowest volume was too high for my apartment's thin walls, so I had to trade it off. *sadface*

Did your uncle purchase them from Fender directly, or off a different retailer? Gotta be careful before buying from anyone else, really. Either way, for something like K-ON, Seymour Duncans or official Fender pickups might have worked better, but DiMarzios would be pretty good for the other genres you play. That Gibson is an Alex Lifeson Custom; is that the specific model you wanted? Lifeson definitely does know his guitars, but I always found it hard to consider custom models of guitarists who just switch through several guitars without having a special one. Take someone like Brian May, who only ever uses one guitar. That'll probably never get a custom version for sale since he built that guitar from scratch with his father out of parts of their house, but if it did I would be more compelled to consider it. In this situation, I'd recommend a higher-end Les Paul (if you were wanting it). A Les Paul Standard like Yui's is all fine and dandy, but for small increments more you can invest long-term into a Studio, Traditional or even a Custom, which is among the highest quality you can get. I don't have too much experience with Shecter, but Ibanez guitars do tend to have a stronger lean towards heavier genres once again. They do work pretty well for lighter stuff, but they won't shine with their full potential unless used in the right genre. For rhythm guitar, Gretsch isn't bad either.

[[T]ensio[N]]

Ah man that sucks about your Marshall... And that does sound like a pretty good deal so I shall look into that. Noise level isn't too much of a problem to me since I own a drumset and I haven't gotten a noise complaint *yet*

I'm not sure where he got it from, but I'm pretty sure he got it off of some other retailer. And Seymour Duncans work with K-ON! Songs?!?!?!?! I wanted to switch my pickups to Seymour Duncan Blackouts but I haven't done it yet. That's good to know! And the reason I wanted the custom wasn't because of the guitarist. It was because I wanted a Gibson tone with a nice Floyd Rose. I haven't heard of Brian May, but I'm gonna look it up as soon as I can. And the main reason I wanted an Ibanez was for the heavier genres xD. I've played with a Gretsch before and I love the tone, but it's just not the tone that I would play with all the time. It seems like I'm only leaning towards the heavier genres, but if I could I would get a really versatile guitar, which is why I want a Gibson. Oh and I'm trying to get into Berklee School of Music for my college.

[Hiroi Sekai]

Yeah, but it's a curve that I just have to deal with as I live alone. The day I get my own place I'm using one of the rooms as a music room. If noise complaints aren't a problem, then a Marshall is just right.

Sure, you just have to consider everything around those Seymour Duncans before putting them on. If a guitar was built for metal or blues, the pickups will accentuate those aspects and not much else. I'd ask your music store for further consulting on the issue. Brian May was the guitarist for Queen, and even with his guitar being made of used parts from all over the house, it still sounds damn epic. Brian May did use a couple of guitars here and there like a cheap Satellite copy of a Fender Strat (because Freddie Mercury had to to snatch it from him and throw it back in their Play The Game music video, but his Red Special is the true veteran; just listen to that tone in songs like Scandal, it's amazing. If you want something for heavier genres, then Ibanez is definitely great, and Gretsch is definitely for those who want that specific tone. You just can't really go wrong with a Gibson, but it's probably not best to use them for heavy metal and screamo, since the guitar wasn't designed to do so in the first place. You'd have to pump some serious amplification into it before getting the sound you want, and that'd only damage the amp you're using.

Best of luck with getting into that college.

[[T]ensio[N]]

Hey we have the same idea! The room where I keep my computer is my music room too.

WAIT! Brian May was the guitarist for Queen?! Dang that's a pretty good guitar... I can't imagine that it was made from used parts... The amazing thing about Gretsch is that their specialty is in drum set making and they still make a beastly guitar. The reason I like Gibson is because I absolutely LOVE it when a song has a nice warm tone or nice bass. Obviously the best way to get that tone is from a Gibson. If you don't use it right, then yeah it isn't the best, but I know a few Metal/Screamo guitarists who use a Gibson. It makes the tone so unique.

[Hiroi Sekai]

Mhm, sounds like it. I kind of want it to have wooden walls and floors to allow the sound to reverb nicely. I'll probably do recording and whatnot as well.

Yup, that'd be Brian May. I found out that he has a personal guitar company that have made replicas of his Red Special before, but the authentic one is made from wood from May's fireplace, with parts that he bought and customized himself. The fret markings are in special places with unique amounts of dots in some of the frets. One day I might look into saving up for a Gibson, but right now I'm good with my American Standard Stratocaster (which took months to order because I'm left handed). With metal/screamo artists using Gibson, I wouldn't be surprised if they customized the living crap out of it to make it sound more like their genre.

[[T]ensio[N]]

That sounds like an amazing music room!

And Brian May sounds like an awesome guy for putting together a guitar like that. And you have an American Strat? Nice nice. It's probably ten times better than my weird strat :P Left handed guitarists are so awesome! I was thinking of saving up and buying a cheap lefty guitar so that I can learn guitar both ways. Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if they customized everything from the Gibson too. Still, it makes a nice warm tone that Gibson is known for.

[Tri-ring]

To those who know about Tissue-shi (Springmercury) and/or Kawaguchi Senri the girl drummer protege who has a wonderful collection on Youtube may find this rare interview interesting where the two meets talking about uploading their vids and how they got started.

I didn't know but Senri-chan's father has basically no connection with music nor musically instruments. You'll also be able to see Tissue-shi face.

[[T]ensio[N]]

Originally Posted by Tri-ring

To those who know about Tissue-shi (Springmercury) and/or Kawaguchi Senri the girl drummer protege who has a wonderful collection on Youtube may find this rare interview interesting where the two meets talking about uploading their vids and how they got started.

I didn't know but Senri-chan's father has basically no connection with music nor musically instruments. You'll also be able to see Tissue-shi face.

Does this have anything to do with the thread?...