discordance_axis
Well-known member
The title for this thread could possibly come off as sounding a little weird. Please hear me out:
I decided to play around with the RAW mode on channel 3 of my Road King II today. It's a mode I had not yet bothered to familiarise myself with as it never really appealed to me, being seemingly overshadowed by the channels icon modes: vintage and modern. But at the same time, being honest to myself and as stupid as this sounds I think it may have been something to do with the name of the mode. The word "raw" just doesn't stand out to me as a sound I would associate my dream tone I have in my head with. Isn't it funny how small non-factor things like that can affect your judgement?
Anyway, after watching the John Petrucci Mini Mark video today and enjoying hearing the crunch tones, I had the urge for experimentation to find some similar sounds of my own. So using that video as my influence and turning to Raw mode as my tool to the means, I set about my experimentation. I was very happy with what I found. Great crunchy low / medium gains sounds. Open chords sounding full bodied and not thin. I really enjoyed this mode today.
The most interesting thing I found was when I had the idea to boost RAW mode with my BB-Preamp. Sometimes, usually when I play high gain lead, and also depending on my mood I like to boost the front end of my amps with my trusty BB to add some extra signal to the amp to increase sensitivity of the strings. It takes away the dynamics of touch response but for lead I like it this way. It makes the guitar easier to play as notes come out with less effort, pick attacks are more compressed and notes sustain longer. Coupling RAW mode and the BB-Preamp = all I can say is wow! I am in love. I think I even enjoy this over vintage for lead and will probably go for this as my main lead tone. It's the smoothest lead sound I've found in the amp thus far.
For anyone interested to try, here's how I ended up on the settings:
Bass: 12:00 - 13:00. Running fairly high as flubbiness shouldn't be a problem since we're using single notes.
Mid: 10:00 - 11:00. The perfect amount of mid frequencies to get the notes to leap out without sounding too "in your face".
Treble: 10:00. Fairly low. Helps tame any harshness and keeps things sounding smooth and non-piecring.
Gain: 01:00. Don't forget we're adding a small amount of gain from the BB.
Presence 09:00 or to taste. Personal preference really.
BB-Preamp.
Volume: 10:30 - 11:00.
Gain: 02:00 - 03:00
Bass: 12:00
Treble: 12:00
I should mention: I like to keep the channel volume on the amp at around 11:30 and then use the master for changing the overall volume, the higher the better though.
Please share your thoughts. I'm excited to hear how other people use this mode. I feel it is often overlooked since it is overshadowed by other more popular modes on the amp. I just wanted to show it some more love!
I decided to play around with the RAW mode on channel 3 of my Road King II today. It's a mode I had not yet bothered to familiarise myself with as it never really appealed to me, being seemingly overshadowed by the channels icon modes: vintage and modern. But at the same time, being honest to myself and as stupid as this sounds I think it may have been something to do with the name of the mode. The word "raw" just doesn't stand out to me as a sound I would associate my dream tone I have in my head with. Isn't it funny how small non-factor things like that can affect your judgement?
Anyway, after watching the John Petrucci Mini Mark video today and enjoying hearing the crunch tones, I had the urge for experimentation to find some similar sounds of my own. So using that video as my influence and turning to Raw mode as my tool to the means, I set about my experimentation. I was very happy with what I found. Great crunchy low / medium gains sounds. Open chords sounding full bodied and not thin. I really enjoyed this mode today.
The most interesting thing I found was when I had the idea to boost RAW mode with my BB-Preamp. Sometimes, usually when I play high gain lead, and also depending on my mood I like to boost the front end of my amps with my trusty BB to add some extra signal to the amp to increase sensitivity of the strings. It takes away the dynamics of touch response but for lead I like it this way. It makes the guitar easier to play as notes come out with less effort, pick attacks are more compressed and notes sustain longer. Coupling RAW mode and the BB-Preamp = all I can say is wow! I am in love. I think I even enjoy this over vintage for lead and will probably go for this as my main lead tone. It's the smoothest lead sound I've found in the amp thus far.
For anyone interested to try, here's how I ended up on the settings:
Bass: 12:00 - 13:00. Running fairly high as flubbiness shouldn't be a problem since we're using single notes.
Mid: 10:00 - 11:00. The perfect amount of mid frequencies to get the notes to leap out without sounding too "in your face".
Treble: 10:00. Fairly low. Helps tame any harshness and keeps things sounding smooth and non-piecring.
Gain: 01:00. Don't forget we're adding a small amount of gain from the BB.
Presence 09:00 or to taste. Personal preference really.
BB-Preamp.
Volume: 10:30 - 11:00.
Gain: 02:00 - 03:00
Bass: 12:00
Treble: 12:00
I should mention: I like to keep the channel volume on the amp at around 11:30 and then use the master for changing the overall volume, the higher the better though.
Please share your thoughts. I'm excited to hear how other people use this mode. I feel it is often overlooked since it is overshadowed by other more popular modes on the amp. I just wanted to show it some more love!
