Making guitar solos stand out

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Over the next few months I want to build a pedal board that will last me a good few years. I have most of the pedals I want on it; Boss DD3, Boss Tuner, cry baby and an MXR distortion plus. I want to add a Blackstar distortion pedal to the chain. Now, my question is this, for solos, am I better to get the Blackstar dual pedal, and have one of the channels slightly louder then the other, one channel for normal playing and the other for solos. OR get a single channel blackstar pedal and get a graphic EQ to beef up the mids for solos so it will "stand" out more. I was looking at an MXR graphic EQ, it also has gain and volume controls.

One final thing, if the EQ is a better solution, where should it go in the chain? the chain would be:

Wah->Tuner->Blackstar->MXR Distortion->Delay

Thanks,
Frank

Sergio

Hi Frank

Why dont you invest in a blackstar amp instead,i got the new series one 200 head recently and its an absolute power house of an amp with more than enough boost,gain on the 4 channels...........failing that i would buy the dual boost pedal from them as it a great addition to any pedalboard!

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Colinboy wrote: »

Hi Frank

Why dont you invest in a blackstar amp instead,i got the new series one 200 head recently and its an absolute power house of an amp with more than enough boost,gain on the 4 channels...........failing that i would buy the dual boost pedal from them as it a great addition to any pedalboard!

I would love one! Either that or a marshall JVM. I havent played the series one, but the artisan series really impressed me. The reason im opting for the pedal at the moment is for gigs where i dont have to bring my amp, (or i cant bring my amp) so I'l be able to get "my tone" or fairly close to it on any amp. 3 of my mates have blackstar pedals, in my opinion they are the best overdrive pedals on the market.

-=al=-

put the eq where you feel it needs to be, if your using just the amps clean channel and eq is more than enough control

i use an eq after 2 overdrive pedals for seperate sounds but the level control on the eq can drasticly change the volume, overdrives and stuff work too... only like an extra 10er for the dual channels get it

i just have my pedalboard set up the way i like but once i can get it into a clean channel on any amp ill be aok, dual channel overdrive and an eq wud be more than enough

Sergio

Trenton Weak Watchman wrote: »

I would love one! Either that or a marshall JVM. I havent played the series one, but the artisan series really impressed me. The reason im opting for the pedal at the moment is for gigs where i dont have to bring my amp, (or i cant bring my amp) so I'l be able to get "my tone" or fairly close to it on any amp. 3 of my mates have blackstar pedals, in my opinion they are the best overdrive pedals on the market.

Yeah the blackstar pedals are amazing and as far as i know they have really valves built in to them which give you the warm tone that you would get from a valve amp.
You should check out the series one if you can,they give any mesaboogie arun for their money in my opinion and the crunch and overdrive channels on the 200head are so clean and crisp with very little noise that you would normally get on othet amps.

Paolo_M

To give you proper advice we'd need to know what amp you use and how you set it up. Do you set it up clean with FX for tone? Do it have a FX Loop? Are you using the MXR as a boost or distortion generator? all of that kinda stuff.

Here's a rough summary of using an EQ in the meanwhile.

Technically speaking an EQ should go as late in the chain as practically possible, ideally FX Loop if present.
This gives the EQ the most control over the tone, and it'll work as you'd expect it. In this position it will have enough headroom to give a decent solo boost.

However, as always, there's no rules with FX.
Putting the MXR earlier in the chain, before distortion, lets you control how much each frequency band gets distorted. This would be more subtle and a bit like the way a vintage Marshalls tone controls work when the amp is overdriven. Here you'd probably want to reduce the lows to keep them tight and strong, boost the mids and role off the highs above 6k to reduce fuzz.
In this way there wont be nearly as much headroom to provide a solo boost, more of a different flavour.

Then you can also place it anywhere and the results will be somewhere between these two extremes, but this should save you some time and guess work.

PMI

Tones and standing out comes from amps, with a touch here and there of pedals and fx....

A big stinking valve amp is going to give you the tone straight off the bat, with a half decent guitar in the front... maybe a ts9 modded pedal / OCD will give you the extra push without playing with the signal to much....

Good luck....

P.S. remember alot is in the fingers too and finding space to hit that magic note

Rigsby

PMI wrote: »

P.S. remember alot is in the fingers too and finding space to hit that magic note

+ 1.

IMO, for a solo to stand out, you need a good connection..... from the brain to the fingers. All forms of pedals and gadgets cant make up for this.

PMI

Give Steve Lukather or someone of that standard an Encore guitar and little practice amp and off ya go

darrenw5094

The OP might be talking about the volume boost needed for the audience to actually hear the solo. No boost means, nobody can hear one fecking note you play, because it gets drowned out by a drummer, bass guy and another guitarist. The bastards, they just ruin everything.

A straight forward volume boost pedal would suit me. Other option would be to dedicate a channel exclusively for solos, with the channel volume a bit higher than the clean and rhythm channels.

Steve Lukather is freaky on the guitar. I am not. :mad:

PMI

TC compressor pedal will give ya a touch of boost, or that 3rd channel on that amp ya see amp again

Rigsby

darrenw5094 wrote: »

because it gets drowned out by a drummer, bass guy and another guitarist. The bastards, they just ruin everything.

I have never known a guitarist that was unable to make himself heard.

darrenw5094

Rigsby wrote: »

I have never known a guitarist that was unable to make himself heard.

That is why our amps go to 11. Bass amps should go to.......3....ish.

rcaz

Digitech Whammy, set to +2 octaves.

I do it all the time, makes my band members wince. The singer had to punch me to make me stop once

Dord

darrenw5094 wrote: »

That is why our amps go to 11. Bass amps should go to.......3....ish.

Yeah but our 3 is louder! :pac:

Paolo_M

PMI wrote: »

Tones and standing out comes from amps, with a touch here and there of pedals and fx....

A big stinking valve amp is going to give you the tone straight off the bat, with a half decent guitar in the front... maybe a ts9 modded pedal / OCD will give you the extra push without playing with the signal to much....

Good luck....

P.S. remember alot is in the fingers too and finding space to hit that magic note

Rigsby wrote: »

+ 1.

IMO, for a solo to stand out, you need a good connection..... from the brain to the fingers. All forms of pedals and gadgets cant make up for this.

That's reasonable advice but the OP asked about making solos louder, not what makes one solo stand out technically, or emotionally, from another.

El Pr0n, those damn whammy pedals are some of the most god aweful sounding pedals I've ever tried out.
Perhaps it's use error but IMO they make solos stand out just like Hitler stood out as an Austrian, and so Godwins law brings the arguement to an end!!

rcaz

Paolo_M wrote: »

El Pr0n, those damn whammy pedals are some of the most god aweful sounding pedals I've ever tried out.
Perhaps it's use error but IMO they make solos stand out just like Hitler stood out as an Austrian, and so Godwins law brings the arguement to an end!!

Hehe, on a serious note, when used tastefully, I think they're amazing. Definitely not a pedal you can fit into every situation, but when it works... :cool:

I thought I'd use mine on +2 8ve all the time when I got it, but mine sees a lot more use for harmonies now.

Grolschevik

To get back to the OP's question, I also like the option of leaving my own amp at home. For a volume boost, I use a Boss EQ pedal after my drive pedals. I set the volume a notch higher and also the mid slider.

Re the Blackstar Dual pedal, I'm open to correction on this, but I read somewhere (probably Harmony Central) that there was a time lag in the switching system, so if that's true, it may not work the best for a solo boost. Missing the first note is never good...

quicklickpaddy

At the moment I use a Boss EQ. Its nice because I have a Fender Deluxe Hot Rod which is only a 40 watt amp, so if I lash that on for a bit of boost I get a really nice natural overdrive. Perfect for a powerchorus.
It works well enough for solo's too but if you don't want that overdrive/just not quite as pure sound, I've played a mate of mines Keeley Katana. Its's the cleanest boost I've ever heard from a pedal so it mixes with your effects very nicely! By the sounds of it you don't want to play any clean solos but if the mood struck you or if your just playing a clean lick its awesome.

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thanks for the advice, im going to get th dual blackstar and the mxr eq. as for the whammy, i would love one, mainly for dive bombs as i just have a standard fender tremo.

yevveh

You won't regret it, the guitarist in our band uses the HT Dual and first off, the tone off it is great, and secondly, I've heard it through several different amps and he can get his tone close enough off each of them. Obviously the amp would be the ideal situation if you had the means and you could transport it, but failing that, the Dual is more than good enough