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Thoughts on compression to tame bite.

bratpack7

Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2003
Messages
246
LP through BD2 to Blues Junior with Cannabis Rex speaker. I turn the Master way up and control loudness with Volume control, and this results in a nice tone to my ears. I use the BD2 gain on about 10 o'clock and so if I want some crunch I use guitar volume and attack. The problem is my overdriven sound is still a bit harsh. I am going to play with pickup height a bit to see if that helps, but I'm wondering if this could be tamed by adding compression before the blues driver.

I am looking for that warm type of distortion that lands softly on the ear, not harsh (does that make sense?)

Any advice? (I can't buy a new amp lol)
 

DrewB

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 15, 2001
Messages
1,428
Are you rolling off a little from the guitar's tone control? That's where I'd start. The Blues Juniors I've played have a bit of that harshness inherent in their sound, which the Cannabis Rex should help with a little bit. You have three places to dial that back, and you probably want to do a little at all three. The danger is that you might go too far if you try to knock it all out at one "filter source" and things get muted or spongy. I'd use an EQ for that, not a compressor, which messes with the attack feel more than the attack sound if you're not careful.
 

bratpack7

Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2003
Messages
246
Are you rolling off a little from the guitar's tone control? That's where I'd start. The Blues Juniors I've played have a bit of that harshness inherent in their sound, which the Cannabis Rex should help with a little bit. You have three places to dial that back, and you probably want to do a little at all three. The danger is that you might go too far if you try to knock it all out at one "filter source" and things get muted or spongy. I'd use an EQ for that, not a compressor, which messes with the attack feel more than the attack sound if you're not careful.
Yeah I did some more experimenting last night. Rolling off the tone helps but I wonder if I'm using the BD2 in the wrong way. I like the subtle rich tone it gives when the gain is dialled at 10 O'clock, but for more grit if I roll that on more, or use the amp FAT or Volume control, I still get the harsh sounding distortion. Maybe instead of a compressor I should add a different OD. So perhaps there is an OD that can stack to give a softer crunch for when I want it.

I'm thinking of Warren Hayne's distorted tone, like he gets on Soulshine for example.
 

DrewB

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Joined
Jul 15, 2001
Messages
1,428
Buy a Soldano. lol

I had a Blues Junior for awhile and tried a Blues Driver with it. It didn't work for me. In all fairness, I've never gotten on very well with dirt boxes; they always seem to sound cheap (for lack of a better word) in the midrange. I just picked up a Wampler Plexi Drive Mini, and it's a lot better than many I've tried. I also like a Colorsound Overdriver a lot, too, mainly as a boost, but it does pretty well as stand-alone dirt. I did a youtube video years ago on the Colorsound Overdriver; I was building them and some people wanted to hear what they did before they committed.

 

jrgtr42

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Messages
2,308
Yeah I did some more experimenting last night. Rolling off the tone helps but I wonder if I'm using the BD2 in the wrong way. I like the subtle rich tone it gives when the gain is dialled at 10 O'clock, but for more grit if I roll that on more, or use the amp FAT or Volume control, I still get the harsh sounding distortion. Maybe instead of a compressor I should add a different OD. So perhaps there is an OD that can stack to give a softer crunch for when I want it.

I'm thinking of Warren Hayne's distorted tone, like he gets on Soulshine for example.
Have you played with the tone control on the pedal? Maybe dialing it back a hair would help. Or balancing the volume on the pedal with that on the amp.
 
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