How to get that blues sound out of my roland cube 30

jakjak · 2008-09-12T13:59:56+00:00

Hi, I have been messing about with my ibanez ex350. The question i have is how should i go about getting a blues sound from my roland cube 30. It seems tha...

How to get that blues sound out of my roland cube 30

andrewjbryson

ERIC JOHNSON ... "If you've ever seen the Total Electric Guitar video"

I think the one of him called "Opening Licks"

absolutely crystal clear tone and amazing playing ....

This guy is my hero

jakjak

Thanks for all the tips.

I understand blues is a style of playing rather than just settings on an amp.

Well im messing about successfully with the various blues playing techniques, my question regarding amp settings is more to understand what is generally used by blues players.

But in saying that, i guess a guitarist is always in search of his sound.

I will keep serching, i'm sure google will eventually throw up what i want.

AlanRatcliffe

The point is, there is no "generally used" setting.

In the examples you gave above, the amp selections sound more Marshally to me (although I hate judging from YouTube clips). Of more importance is you are playing an Ibanez with humbucking pickups and both the clips above feature single-coil tones.

jakjak

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: The point is, there is no "generally used" setting.

In the examples you gave above, the amp selections sound more Marshally to me (although I hate judging from YouTube clips). Of more importance is you are playing an Ibanez with humbucking pickups and both the clips above feature single-coil tones.

Without jumping the gun, which guitars are prefered by blues players, and would you recommend a different guitar than the one i got to get the tone i am after. Or is my ibanez good enough for most styles.

Or is it more my amp.

This is all very helpful, thanks.

I understand the term "blues" is a very broad term.

AlanRatcliffe

Strats, Teles, Les Pauls and ES-335s are all popular with blues players but any guitar can be used. The IBZ is good for now - you'll form more concrete ideas on exactly what you want given time, a bit more experience and after checking out what guitars are making the sounds you want to get.

In your situation, I'd probably just have a coil cut (switch or a push-pull pot) fitted to turn both humbuckers into single-coils, then I could get a single-coil sound from the neck or the bridge pickup. That'll give you a range of nine different sounds from one guitar and still be easy to operate.

ralley

Hi Jakjak,
I get where everyone is coming from with the "What blues tone?" and "It's all in the fingers" sort of responses but get the idea you just want some sort of starting point. Bear in mind that I'm no great shakes as a player and my gear is very different from yours (Strat or Les Paul copy into a Mesa Boogie valve amp), but here goes:

1) Use less gain (aka distortion, drive) on your amp that you think. Most beginning players use far too much distortion and the blues especially tends to not be massively overdriven (though Gary Moore is an exception).

2) Make sure you don't have the mids "scooped" on your amplifier (metal style), if anything give them a bit of a boost to cut through. The ibanez tube screamer pedal much loved by many blues/rock guitarists is famous for it's mid boost.

3) I like to use the neck pickup, tends to be less biting than the bridge

4) If you are using some sort of modelling amp try and set if for a Fender type amp (might be called something like blackface, silverface, twin etc.) possibly with a Tube screamer or something pushing it (remember moderation here).

Whilst an Ibanez like yours tends to have higher output pickups designed to cut through with distortion you certainly can get a decent blues tone out of it. Years ago in Aus. I saw one of the guys from Rose Tattoo in his solo band and the bluesy tone he got out of an Ibanez and Marshall was orgasmic.

Work on your bending and vibrato as well - this is where a lot of the personality of blues players comes from.

Rob.

Riaan

Somewhat of topic: I have a Roland BluesCube 30 watt (BC-30). How does this amp differ from the Roland Cube?

jakjak

ralley wrote: Hi Jakjak,
I get where everyone is coming from with the "What blues tone?" and "It's all in the fingers" sort of responses but get the idea you just want some sort of starting point. Bear in mind that I'm no great shakes as a player and my gear is very different from yours (Strat or Les Paul copy into a Mesa Boogie valve amp), but here goes:

1) Use less gain (aka distortion, drive) on your amp that you think. Most beginning players use far too much distortion and the blues especially tends to not be massively overdriven (though Gary Moore is an exception).

2) Make sure you don't have the mids "scooped" on your amplifier (metal style), if anything give them a bit of a boost to cut through. The ibanez tube screamer pedal much loved by many blues/rock guitarists is famous for it's mid boost.

3) I like to use the neck pickup, tends to be less biting than the bridge

4) If you are using some sort of modelling amp try and set if for a Fender type amp (might be called something like blackface, silverface, twin etc.) possibly with a Tube screamer or something pushing it (remember moderation here).

Whilst an Ibanez like yours tends to have higher output pickups designed to cut through with distortion you certainly can get a decent blues tone out of it. Years ago in Aus. I saw one of the guys from Rose Tattoo in his solo band and the bluesy tone he got out of an Ibanez and Marshall was orgasmic.

Work on your bending and vibrato as well - this is where a lot of the personality of blues players comes from.

Rob.

Thanks, your post was very helpful.

AlanRatcliffe

Good post Rob (cut right through all my overanalytical bull ?).

Karma'd

andrewjbryson

Try dropping the mid frequencies ? , then again , a lot of blues players play with TONS OF MIDS

John Mayer gets a pretty cool sound with his Signature Strat

"Newly designed Big Dipper single coil pickups were designed for John's modern tastes, which accentuate the bass and treble frequencies while softening the mid-range, offering the unique tones found in Mayer's playing. They are controlled with a volume and two tone control knobs, and standard Fender 5-way switching. "

http://namm.harmony-central.com/SNAMM05/Content/Fender/PR/John-Mayer-sig-Strat.html

AlanRatcliffe

ralley wrote: 2) Make sure you don't have the mids "scooped" on your amplifier (metal style), if anything give them a bit of a boost to cut through.

andrewjbryson wrote: Try dropping the mid frequencies ?

Andrew, you're evil! I rest my case m'lud!

korn101

The problem here might be your guitar... I only play blues on my les paul or strat... Sharp & Pointy guitars are great for metal but they seem to fall at blues..

Best bet is to use the Tweed setting for blues ?

My 2 Cents about the Roland Cube 30x:

I play my 2 Guitars (Squier Classic Vibe 50's Stratocaster & an Ibanez Art-120 les paul body) through the Roland Cube 30x.

Basic Summary:

Amazing Tones for the Strat, I can dial in the Black Panel model, add some reverb and get a beautiful clean strat bell-like sound (With the Tightness of the fender twin reverb). Then I can switch over to the Fender Tweed model, and put on some delay with a dash of phaser, and voila I have my pink Floyd "Breathe in the Air" sound. Then I can switch to the Classic Stack model, add quite a bit of reverb, and low gain (just at the breaking up point to give some crunch), turn up the mids a bit, flick the switch on my Strat to the 2nd Position (Bridge+Middle) and there you have a beautiful Jimi Hendrix "Little Wing" tone. (Much to my surprise the Classic Stack which is modelled on a Marshall JCM100 gave me the best little wing tone)

For the little bits of Metal I still play, when I ever use my pedal (MT-2 Metalzone by Boss) I usually avoid using the normal clean channel (It really is very bland to my ears), I usually opt to use the pedal through the Fender Tweed amp model (on low gain) to get a real nice sound.

The only thing I don't like on this amp is the Clean channel, it really isn't my style. I've tried other Roland Products like the Boss BR-864 which has the COSM model of the JC-120 Clean, and I didn't like that either, so all together I don't think it's the amps fault, it's what it's modelled on, the Jazz Chorus 120 just isn't a very nice sounding clean sound to my ears.

After all, the sky is the limit with this amp.

Watch the EQ! It will make / break your tone! Play around alot, and watchout when using High Output pickups, the Clean channel will sound really crunchy.

I used to use a Crate FW15r, after I got the Roland Cube 30x, i didn't like the Clean channel, and I wasn't adventurous enough to explore the other tones, instead I prefered the clean sound of the Crate. But after the Crate gave me some technical issues, I started using the Cube 30x, at the time I had gained experience both in the Equipment and Playing aspect, So I was able to summon the courage to explore the other amp sounds and was blown away. Don't make the mistake I did, Don't cry at the boring sounding JC-120 clean sound, try out the clean sound of the Fender Tweed amp model (To get the clean sound just put the gain at 9 o' clock.)

singemonkey

jakjak wrote: Thanks for all the tips.

I understand blues is a style of playing rather than just settings on an amp.

This is the key. It's not the amp settings. Your guitar and amp will be capable of putting out all kinds of classic blues tones. Here's an example of some righteous blues tone for you:

But if there's one thing I'd suggest for your tone, it has nothing to do with your equipment. I'm talking about vibrato. I've been working hard on my vibrato for months and months, and I still don't think I'm nearly there. So two things for ideas:

Arlen Roth's Gibson.com vid about vibrato technique:

http://www2.gibson.com/Lessons/Arlen-Roth-Lessons/Lesson-Of-The-Week/An-Exploration-of-Vibrato-Techniques.aspx

Note how he says that some players won't even go on learning blues until they get their vibrato right.

And this man has a decent vibrato (and then some):

This more than anything else, gives you tone in blues. It's not a nice-to-have. It's a must.

Apart from that, make sure you follow Justin's advice about making sure your bends hit the correct pitch. Also follow his advice in dampening them after the bend, so you don't get the seagull sound as the bend is released. I cannot tell you what a revelation that was to me when I first discovered it. I suddenly understood why I, and all my mates, never sounded anything like real blues players when we tried to play blues.

Warren

That SG is awesome. Interestingly, the cover feature of this month's Guitar Techniques features a song "Sitting on Top of the World" by cream from that exact era, and features the crazy SG as the cover pic.

singemonkey

Warren wrote: That SG is awesome. Interestingly, the cover feature of this month's Guitar Techniques features a song "Sitting on Top of the World" by cream from that exact era, and features the crazy SG as the cover pic.

There was this Dutch art collective called "The Fool" which was ultra-trendy in late '60s London. Apart from that guitar they also did a mural on the Beatles Apple store, one on George Harrison's house, and the sleeve of an Incredible String Band record called The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion.

Jack-Flash-Jr

Zombie thread is alive ? Sept 8 2008 to Sept 9 2010
Thanks cause I missed it the first time round!

singemonkey

korn101 wrote: The problem here might be your guitar... I only play blues on my les paul or strat... Sharp & Pointy guitars are great for metal but they seem to fall at blues..

As Alan mentioned (two years ago ???) it's all image. Sharp and pointy guitars are just as good for blues as Strats and Les Pauls. They simply don't have the right image. And this is reinforced by the fact that a large proportion of those who buy pointy guitars are not that interested in blues, and a large proportion of those who buy old-fashioned guitars are.

But give B.B. King a Pink Jackson Soloist with lumo green knobs and a Floyd Rose, plug him into a MB Twin Rectifier, and you'd hear how little difference the guitar makes to being able to play great blues.

Een

singemonkey wrote:Sharp and pointy guitars are just as good for blues as Strats and Les Pauls.

The first electric I bought was an entry level eye gouger...RG321 to be exact. I was a noob on a budget.
I played it for a while but never felt that comfortable with it. I bought a PRS SE, thinking the Gouger is just not that good a guitar.

I always heard people say "it's in the hands", but the first time this properly sunk in was when I started jamming with a buddy of mine, earlier this year. He normally just plays my Ibanez when we're at my house, and I'm always amazed to hear what he can get out of that guitar. Blues, jazz, metal, rock...the Ibanez sounds the part. You think I can achieve the same with that guitar? I need a few more years behind me I guess :/