Ah... I am enjoying the warm satisfying afterglow of a practice where my shit just sounded totally fucking awesome. Love it when that happens!
Sometimes it seems like nothing is right, my gear sounds like arse and I think all that time and money wasted on GAS was utterly pointless. But every now and then it all clicks, it all works and I feel there was a point after all.
Next week it'll probably all turn to shit again and I'll start obsessing about new speakers or tubes or pickups or something. But tonight the GAS gods are smiling and all is right in the world of Darth.
How do you other GAS heads find it? Is your tone elusive and slippery and you only glimpse the face of god once in blue moon? Or are you mostly happy with your sound and are just tweaking for the sake of it?
1. Happy with tone
2. Brain invents way in which tone is lacking and must be improved
3. GAS for the one thing, just one more thing that will make it all perfect forever I'll never need another thing after this thing
4. New thing sux, tone sux
5. New thing finds it's place / learn to dial in new thing. New thing kicks ass!
6. Go back to 1
im the opposite.Stuff sounds ok i just have no urge to play.havent picked up an instrument for more than a soundcheck in over a month.peaks and troughs.
Somehow I got the heaviest, doomy-stoner tone out of the Holden with:
- preamp dimed and master on about 3 (which just adds a bit of hair really, its a pretty clean amp)
- tubescreamer with gain at 9'oclock
- Damn and Blast boost with gain just over halfway
Either of those things on their own are barely even dirty, but the three combined... must just be too much for the tubes to handle cause it sounds immense.
I love that feeling when it all clicks and you are GASing for absolutely nothing.
There will always be something else shiny that comes along to want though.
Generally I find if its not sounding right these days it's due to something external - bad day at work, stressing over shit at home etc. if that's the case then a good jam usually sets the head right.
I'm right there with you Darth, had our last practice of the year last weekend & I had what felt like the tones of the gods at my fingertips!
Was playing thru my recently acquired '77 JMP 2204 & had it running just over 4 on the master volume. Was running it thru a 1960bx cab(greenbacks) & although it seemed a perfect tone for me in every way.... I now have this overwhelming primal urge I need to be running thru two 1960bx cabs as a full stack. Have already checked there is one in stock!
I think Jeff Beck once commented that if you could get close to 90% of the sound you want you've done well. My guitar teacher once told me that to wake up in the morning not feeling great and still play well was something to be admired. Either way I think it's worth while persevering with gear when somethings off who knows maybe it's a faulty pedal
I think I have definitely found my Goldilocks zone of tone with the Transatlantic - no matter what mood I am in (voxy, tweedy, marshally, boogie-y) I can dial it in. Hit the Vox side with a Lovepedal Eternity or the Tweed side with the Archer, using either the Tele or the SG, and I am blissfully content. Just need to practice skills!
And of course I actually need to get the amp back from the RS where it has been for a month, where latest update I've had is that they can't find anything wrong with it. Presumably the slow volume loss along with a serious volume pop/spike if I try a channel change after an hour of playing is my imagination... But when I am not imagining such things, it does sound frikkin great, and I really do enjoy jamming away. I sure hope there really are no problems with the damn thing...
Turning my EVH on and hitting that first chord still puts a smile on my face...it is the tone I have always heard in my head so i'm a pig in shit at the moment. Cool thing is I haven't been running my wet/dry set up (some one has borrowed my rack so I have no effects at the mo...well apart from a phaser which the EVH loves to play with) so it is just the raw EVH tone. have been looking at getting a poweramp to run my W/D rig but am now toying with the idea of doing a stereo rig............time will tell
If Less is More Then Just Think How Much More More would be
Ah... I am enjoying the warm satisfying afterglow of a practice where my shit just sounded totally fucking awesome. Love it when that happens!
I think Jeff Beck once commented that if you could get close to 90% of the sound you want you've done well. My guitar teacher once told me that to wake up in the morning not feeling great and still play well was something to be admired. Either way I think it's worth while persevering with gear when somethings off who knows maybe it's a faulty pedal 
