Lead Tone

The Boogie Board

Help Support The Boogie Board:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

steeldragonjovi

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 10, 2007
Messages
189
Reaction score
0
How are you settings your leads on a rectifier? I am just playing around with my new Roadster and really like all the different tones I can get out of it. However, I'm looking for a Tremonti lead tone or a Petrucci. I've already played around with Petrucci's lead tone from his Road King settings I found, but I want to find some more to play with. Let me know please!
 
steeldragonjovi,

I can't give you any better advice than to tell you not to ask for other people's settings, but instead experiment yourself with the controls until you find the sounds you like. There are really only a few controls, and most of them are analog, so there really aren't distinctly different lead sounds that somebody needs to "let you in on", only variations of bass, mid, treble, presence and gain.

Find the mix you like. Or if you're not ready for that yet, do like every guitarist in the history of rock n' roll has done before the internet and experiment with the knobs until you can emulate all your favorite lead sounds. Eventually you'll find something you like that can help you find your sound. You'll also find that control settings will get you part of the way there, but the rest of nailing a given tone is in your playing technique. Discovering this will push you to develop your playing in ways that finding the perfect tone in an amp cannot.

When I started playing as a teenager in clubs in the mid 80's, I became known for being able to replicate the sounds of the guitar players who's songs I was playing. I could sound like Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, Vivian Campbell, the guys from the Scorpions, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and many others, including Top 40 guys as well. And I did it all with a Marshall stack whose settings I never changed. Sometimes I'd bring a distortion pedal to add in, but that's it.

Finding just the right tone on an amp will only inspire you to play well. It won't make you sound good; that's still only comes from hard work. Good tone is the reward for good playing. Take your time and enjoy the journey.
 
On my 3-channel Dual Rec, for leads I use the Orange channel in vintage mode. Here are my favorite settings:

Gain - 7
Bass - 4
Mid - 4
Treble - 6
Presence - 6
Power - Spongy
Rectifier - Tube

This is direct into the amp - no pedals. The best part about these settings is that when I switch guitars you can hear the difference. With my PRS Tremonti II with higher output pickups the tone is very aggressive. With my stock PRS Singlecut, which has vintage output pickups, you get a smoother tone.

This also makes a great alternate rhythm tone by backing off the volume on the guitar/
 

Latest posts

Back
Top