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Guitar chord forum - chordie → Electric → How do you get a blues sound from an amp?
Hey guys, I have a 30-watt Crate combo amp with clean, overdrive, reverb, and chorus. Each of the 3 channels has several adjustments, like low range, middle, and high. How do I set this up to get a blues SRV-style sound? Thanks
SRV had a ton of amps, and not a lot of electronics behind his sound. He used the heaviest strings you can find. Stevie chained together several kinds of amps. He didn't just use one, and he had them all turned up to 11.
So get a tube with a big speaker.
Turn the volume up high.
Turn the gain up until it just barely starts to distort.
Restring with your new cables.
You still aren't going to sound like him. 
Here's a bit more on getting that SRV sound.
http://www.angelfire.com/music2/guitarglen/srv.htm
One key weapon in SRV's armoury was a Tubescreamer pedal. Originals like he used are fetching high prices but reissues and even hot-rodded reissue pedals are widely available. If you are in a home practive situation than look for a Pod vitual amp as these usually have a preset that gives instant Stevie, my Behringer Vamp 2 certainly has this preset.
If you are a beginner try for a more general blues sound simply by rolling off the treble on your guitar, dropping the volume to bite point and turning the amp up with gain engaged but way down low.
One key weapon in SRV's armoury was a Tubescreamer pedal. Originals like he used are fetching high prices but reissues and even hot-rodded reissue pedals are widely available. If you are in a home practive situation than look for a Pod vitual amp as these usually have a preset that gives instant Stevie, my Behringer Vamp 2 certainly has this preset.
If you are a beginner try for a more general blues sound simply by rolling off the treble on your guitar, dropping the volume to bite point and turning the amp up with gain engaged but way down low.
thanks I'll try this
I'm not really looking to sound exactly like SRV, just am trying to dial on a blues-type sound. I think I have it just about set up. I have the low and mid knobs turned all the way up, the high knob turned all the way down, the gain on about 2 or 3, the shape turned all the way up, and the tone control on my guitar turned so there's not much treble. Actually this setup gives me more of that rich, dark Eric Johnson tone that I was trying to find, which is pretty cool. But if I turn the gain down ever so slightly it becomes more bluesy, which is waht I was looking for.
Eric Johnson tone;
Heavy reverb,
[a touch of delay, phase, and chorus,]
compressor/sustain,[key for smooth, rich tone]
blues driver or equivalent overdrive @ 50 %.
A big, bad tube amp will help a lot too!!!
I don't have a tube amp, but I can get some decent sounds for my purposes. Maybe eventually I'll pick up a tube-sound pedal.
Here's something to try...each amp has different sounds at different settings and one has to experiment... if your amp has a High, Med, and Treble then try the sound at Zero settings and again at Mid and again at 10 or whatever the highest settings are...then add and subtract until you find your sound. On my amp for a blues/slide sound I turn the bass to around 8 and the mid all the way with very little treble and then use lots of reverb. I try to find the sound that I like before linking in the pedal effects like delay, chorus, compression, etc...
One key weapon in SRV's armoury was a Tubescreamer pedal. Originals like he used are fetching high prices but reissues and even hot-rodded reissue pedals are widely available. If you are in a home practive situation than look for a Pod vitual amp as these usually have a preset that gives instant Stevie, my Behringer Vamp 2 certainly has this preset.
If you are a beginner try for a more general blues sound simply by rolling off the treble on your guitar, dropping the volume to bite point and turning the amp up with gain engaged but way down low.
Musicians' Friend has Ibanez Tube Screamers for $40. Maybe I'll look at getting one.
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Electric → How do you get a blues sound from an amp?
