The Boogie Board

Hey everyone, I am trying to set up some of my sounds/ tones for my rig because i realized that I was very biased when it came to gain and treble on my distortions (Listened to a ton of metal) anyways I am try to make a more balanced distortion sound for my amp so that its good for use as rhythm and possibly lead. So far I havent had much issue with a light distortion for use in country music (chicken pickin) and no problems with getting some nice clean/ chorus sounds using my digitech rp500 however, when I use the rp500 for my heavier distortions it either comes out too "electronic" or too tinny etc.. and my built in distortion bank on my head is too close to metal for what I want.

I am trying to find a tone that would cross around the punk rock/ rock area somewhere between Green Day and Bowling for Soup and possibly one for lighter stuff like Eric Clapton's Cocaine.

Really all I'm looking for is some suggestions or advice as to how I can set my tones so I can get closer to these sounds. I know digitech uses a library download which I have used in the past but found if my amp doesnt match the users, it sounds like trash. I also plug my pedalboard directly to my line in because i have problems with my loop killing the volume.

Personally, I would not use the RP500 for anything other than modulation/reverb/delay effects. Digital distortion simply does not compare with a high gain tube amp like the Dual Rectifier. You might want to try adding an EQ in the fx loop to and use that to fine tune your sound. Mesa makes a 5-band EQ pedal that has the same frequencies as the Mark series. Lots of people use that with great results. Even a Boss GE7 would give you a massive amount of tone tailoring ability.

you aren't going to get a clapton sound of it.. I am sorry...

but for getting metal tones I suggest using the red channel and adjusting the EQs to where you like

for crunchy green day tones I suggest using the orange channel for that as the channel doesn't have a bunch of gain but it isn't clean either.

all the groups you mentioned hardly use any pedals so I say ditch the Digitech, use the amp and adjust the settings till you get the sounds you want.

leave the master volume low and bring the gain till about 1 or 2 o'clock to get a good gain tone and the orange channel play around with the mids, leave the bass around noon and play around with the gain till you get it.

In terms of clapton, I don't see you being to successful there. Dual Rectifiers don't have the best cleans but I suggest to have a chance of getting it, leave the gain very low and emphasise the mids a bit.

Goodluck!

_________________
Guitars:
PRS Tremonti SE loaded with SD 59/JB
Ibanez RG570
Ibanez XPT707
Carvin Bolt Classic

Amps:
Mesa 50 cal + combo
Marshall 1959SLP
Marshall JCM800 Clone