Awful Tone to Amazing Tone

[@samuraiguitarist]

Break out of your intermediate rut with a straight forward path to improvement. Join the Dojo for weekly lessons samuraiguitartheory.com/p/the-samurai-guitar-theory-dojo-m

[@albikes8484]

SamuraiDad should have his own channel. Id love to see him build stuff.

[@lemongibre5971]

That would be amazing, i bet we could learn a lot from him.

[@dh4767]

Yes

[@wheelspinproductions9214]

What if he sold gear on the merch store that would be cool

[@ghoststations4064]

If samuraidad were my dad, things would be different around here.

[@udaypoonia2767]

Bro we need more likes on this comment we want samurai dad

[@ghost79ish]

I thought the overdrives were pretty muddy, sounded better after eqing but could still use some more upper mids

[@dneiter]

Same here. Adding distortion was a step down IMO

[@lofiurbex2511]

Agreed. Was a good sound, don't get me wrong, but I couldn't help but feel the need for a more mids as well

[@drsmith4582]

That Squire through the DI sounded better to my ears than those muddy ass distortion pedals.

[@evilcowboy]

@@drsmith4582 thats actually fair, those pedals were muddy as shit. The final tone I am with all the others, it was muddy and could use more mids and a small tweak to the highs.

[@budgetgearguru4211]

This is what I was here to say lol. Seems to me the pedals could’ve used some tweaking. Seems like he needed to push a little less drive. Sounded almost like a fuzz

[@ghost79ish]

The di sound wasn't even that bad, add a little reverb and you've got a usable tone imo.

[@OskarFFS]

Yeah I know what you mean adding an amp + cabinet sim just makes it so much better

[@dhvalden]

right? I mean sounds different, but "bad sounding" is not something I would use to describe it. Come on, people these days creates real bangers with VST plugins!

[@launder0]

Ikr. And it's weird cause i heard that comparison before and it is usually way worst

[@JonahNelson7]

Yeah it sounded okay, and the amp with the first little amp was more than acceptable honestly. Way too much emphasis is put on gear in my opinion, though I guess it depends on the tone you're really going for

[@OskarFFS]

@@JonahNelson7 imo from experience, I get a great tone from just buying a squier affinity and a scarlett solo DI box. I run my guitar through amplitube 5 free version and add on free effects to the chain. A guitar tone could be pretty much anything you need as long as you have a half decent DI box and some mixing knowledge

[@joycastle.]

If anyone ever doubts that you're Canadian, just show them the first 25 seconds of this video

[@FlorianGuitar85]

I don’t understand what’s especially Canadian about that. Respectful behaviour, open to other opinions. This could be about any country in the world.

[@joycastle.]

@@FlorianGuitar85 There's this stereotype about Canadians that they're super polite. Could be worse when it comes to stereotypes...

[@FlorianGuitar85]

@@joycastle. I‘d assume that’s a stereotype or even rather a fact for most countries. Why wouldn’t anyone not be polite to other people. Imagine there was a country where everyone only minded his business and cared for nothing but himself. Creepy much?

[@dreugh424]

@@FlorianGuitar85 Not really. It's a "Canadian thing" to be really nice to others, especially those that you don't know.

[@christopherhuggins3212]

@@joycastle. He's not your friend buddy

[@kevinogorman7561]

What I’ve found is that once you’ve found the tone you like, inspiration flows more easily. When you’re fighting for a tone, you’re never truly in the groove, since you’re constantly critically analyzing your tone.

[@jacobmillen751]

Also certain things just sound better with different tones. Comparing playing w clean tone and a really distorted tone, with the first one, youre more likely to be inspired to do interesting chords/arpeggios/etc. With the second one, im usually inspired to do more solos/melodies and also bends sound much cooler so I incorporate more of those. Even much smaller changes in tone have a similar effect on what you decide to play. Same w piano, too, I compose much differently when I use a synth preset than if I use the normal piano sound.

[@frozenlillypad2188]

Agreed, the gear you have influences what you write in a big way.

[@andrejserafimovski6442]

biblically true as fuck

[@SpartanLaserCanon]

I have found playing on gear I love makes me want to practice/play more. I would for sure say that beginner musicians should save up money to get gear that they will love so they will be inspired to practice more... well, some people love practicing with cheap lofi gear, but most people don't. Sure there are great options now for beginners when it comes to cheap guitars, but most other guitar gear I like is not cheap for what it is except for Bias FX 2. My favourite guitar necks are the Ibanez Wizard guitar necks like the one on my RG2228. I wish all my guitars had a neck like that ahaha.

[@TorutheRedFox]

same thing goes for synthesizers

[@imetators]

IMO clean sound was way better than drive.

[@andocobo]

I strongly agree

[@burntbizkit621]

I agree but I think it’s definitely a taste thing. I like overdrive and distortion but you can easily overdo it with fuzz or running a distortion pedal into another if you’re not careful

[@karanupamanyu3897]

Yeah fr

[@Grease-Goblin]

I kept hoping for some sort of Bob Ross effect where it sounds like he ruined it, but then does something to make it better afterwards, but it just wasn't great. And hey, I'm a metal fan, so it's not that I don't even like distortion, it's just that this particular tone sounds pretty bad.

[@BeefNEggs057]

Yeah that amp didn’t need that much. Little boost would be just right.

[@aggressivejeff4695]

“So that was a world of difference” Me, listening on phone speakers: *nods*

[@sombal1999]

The fact that you are wearing yourself as a shirt still makes me laugh, even after having watched it a million times now

[@stewiegriffin4]

I feel blessed to be able wear his face on my torso as well See, I specified “torso” so nobody would make a Texas chainsaw massacre joke.. ha!

[@AxxLAfriku]

GAGAGAGAGAGA! I will now count to 3 and then I am still the unprettiest KZbinr of all time. 1...2...3. GAGAGAGAGAGA!!! Thank you for your attention, dear iam

[@gabeabraham9285]

@@AxxLAfriku I hate you

[@chaotik7853]

@@gabeabraham9285 we all do buddy, we all do

[@QuikdethDeviantart]

If he took a pic of him wearing that tshirt and the made a new tshirt with that pic... soon we’d have infinite Samurai Guitarists...

[@shivering_sky]

There aren't any bad tones. Just tones you haven't found a way to use yet. Loads of bands have discovered their sound by using previously 'bad' sounding gear.

[@jacobmillen751]

Very true

[@katkong281]

It's all about the mix, baby

[@AlexPz29]

For example, distortion.

[@nickrouse8426]

Say that to the scratchy, low-fi distortion sound I got out of my Wampler Ego 76 when it had dust in the blend pot upon receiving it. Super scary moment. 😂 BTW, love Wampler. I just turned the knob back and forth a few times and it cleaned right up.

[@BiggysMusic]

I was loving the steady improvements but then I wasn't very fond of the sound of those drive pedals. I would love to hear more steady improvement staying on the clean side of things. Like, from bedroom amp to John Mayer.

[@moonboogien8908]

When your strings are twice the age of your kids, but not even half as dirty.

[@nahuel6136]

I can make any amazing tone sound awful

[@leo_link]

That's a talent!

[@rohankshetrimayum1049]

Me too

[@gtrdoc911]

I know right! It's really not so much about the tone but the phrasing and skill of the player. Without that, the world's greatest tone won't help much.

[@abrahamferrer5337]

I am that kind of guy that apreciates bad tones, it has something about it that makes it sound closer and more relatable.

[@Secretfiles999]

I don’t think it’s bad, I think it’s just messy and fun. And a good place to live from. To be honest, I think his towns sounded worse when he added the pedals.

[@fischerlynt5457]

theres some interesting stories about some tones and how they got them. usually using low end equipment. Tyler from MIW has a cool vid if you wanna hear about them.

[@fischerlynt5457]

also yeah sometimes I like to push little combo amps to their limit cuz usually whatever artifacts they start accruing sound pretty interesting.

[@squamham8426]

I think thats why anybody likes Pantera (Darrells tone sucks but thats the charm, go easy on me)

[@f67739]

@@squamham8426 darrell's tone would have rocked if he pulled the mids back in and tamed the high end, the gain is perfect imo

[@Xedian]

Listening to his worst tone and thinking ‘hmm, that sounds like an arctic monkeys solo’

[@moogleguitar]

lol true

[@TheGreatGadfly]

Which is why he used it.

[@duvan-solis]

@@TheGreatGadfly 😐 I like that band... It hurts to read this.

[@SixteenJacobsCreams]

@@duvan-solis Nah I love that sortof tone. If you check out some of their really early live stuff (first album) they have a lot of shit with that really dry, straightforward sound. IMO too much reverb/fucking around can make things sound pretty cheesy.

[@darklordthomaspie6293]

1. I liked the first tone...not sure why you think it's awful 2. Also sounded good 3. Sounded pretty darn good 4. Good, but I honestly liked 3 just as much, if not more 5. Five sounds great! 6. Ooh, that's a nice distortion pedal! Quite smooth, but then you played some bluesy licks, which added an interesting contrast 7. That sounds cool! It would be quite nice for when I'm in the mood to listen to something reverberated, but I also like it to sound dry oftentimes 8. Sounds good 9. Sounds good EDIT: When you made it into a country rock song, I understood why you said that the other tones were better. They were better for the song, certainly, but I think that in other songs the earlier ones would sound better.

[@xdreampcs8554]

Exactly what I was going to say only you did it more eloquently.

[@Baelthaazar]

I do love the SamuriDad brand amp and reverb tank. That's too cool. It would be something I'd build for my grandkids, if I could do electronics. I'll just stick to setting up their instruments for now.

[@pavlokanevskiy8969]

you seem like the coolest grandpa ever

[@toniozi666]

i really thought there was gonna be a Tone 10 where he would have added the korg miku

[@Crushenator500]

The clean tones sounded the best., all the distorted ones sounded like I was underwater until you equalised it. Tone 5 with the compressor was probably the best.

[@ptkstefano]

I'm absolutely not a fan of the distortion. It's sounding really, really muddy and you can actually see that in the EQ at the end with the sharp drop off after 3k hz. Adding the EQ to fix it helped but it should have been fixed earlier in the chain. I love you Samurai but I'd also love if you got a bit better on your mixing chops haha

[@m4ssee]

The DI tone didn't sound too bad, but try a hi-gain amp sim with the cab sim turned off. Now that's horrible!

[@bipbipletucha]

Oh lord...

[@LuciFernato]

Aahhh, was thinking the exact same thing ahahah

[@metalheadblues]

That's metal

[@Ryedor]

Nuttin wrong with that Squier eh ! It sounded fine even with 20 year old strings. I would like to have seen you go through the entire video with the Squier , after changing out the strings. :)

[@jonathanrush9760]

I thought he was going to make the squier sound godly

[@Ryedor]

@@jonathanrush9760 In his hands , I think it's possible for sure. I was hoping too.

[@webpunk808]

SamG talking about a Squier "It's an entry level sound with an entry level price" Me, a Brazilian " 🥴 I can't even dream about owning a Squier without stealing a bank "

[@pedrobernardo350]

sei como é...

[@sahbiah]

bah

[@gabrielarcanjo482]

We can get around with an old Tagima, no needs for a squier

[@ros3m4ries]

Scorpion, cort, legacy, and other cheap knockoff guitars that is bang for bucks

[@fylipemagic]

todo mundo sabe que tagima com malagoli dá pau em fender

[@Asstronut]

The tone with that tiny solid state was impressively good, not sure how anyone would consider that bad. It surprised me

[@sudaslade1308]

I really like how you even called out that tone is subjective to the listener. Bad tone will sound great for someone, as it can also mean the opposite for someone else. I can attest to it, because the squire with samuraidad amp sounded pretty good to me. I have a squire with SSH pickup arrangement, and my amp is vox velvetronix VT20+ which gives me more creative with my tone since the model is a hybrid between a line 6 and normal tube amplifier. As for the samurai, I love the squire he has, which being his first, was actually way different when he used his dad's homemade amp. This video taught me that tone is what you think is great and I will continue to experiment with my tone.

[@I-LOG]

Those all sounded like guitars that's for sure

[@sue_m]

Yeah, given the title, i was a bit disappointed in this video. Like another person here in the comments, I thought you were going to show us how to get better tone out of low-end equipment. An idea for the future, maybe - shopping your own collection (or borrowing from others, whatever) what is the best tone you can get from equipment costing $500, $1000, $1500, etc? And it would have to be only things commercially available. I have a Kramer Focus. I dare you to make that sound better. 😸

[@OmiP42]

Yeah. Adding in pedals that are relatively affordable after you've upgraded to thousand dollar guitars and amplifiers is kinda pointless. I think SammyG should've added in equipment upgrades in ascending price order, at the very least. If I have a squier and shitty amp, I'm gonna try adding in pedals before I upgrade my guitar and amplifier to a full fat 'murican fender and a tube amp.

[@keagstercraft7247]

Thanks Samurai Guitarist! After saving for a while, I finally bought your Rudiments, and Beyond the Basics course! And your promo code really helped! Not having a teacher so far, Im hoping that thisll really give me that edge that I need to take my playing to the next level!!! Rock on!

[@o7k4vokb0ksp5n2]

So glad your channel finally got the subscribers your quality content deserves. It's been waaaay underappreciated for years in a favor of, with all due respect, more bombastic musicians. 800,000+ my friend, well-earned

[@Simrasil_]

I like playing super dry sounds because it just feels so direct and what you put in is exactly what you get out. In a mix that might not be what you want though. I gotta say I'm not a big fan of that overdrive/fuzz sound other than that really nice :D

[@brushstroke3733]

Wow, this is one of the coolest guitar videos I've ever seen. It was like a hero origin story, only it was a heroic tone origins story. Love the back to back to back comparisons at the end. Very helpful for learning how to build good tone.

[@penttikoivuniemi2146]

I'd say the best sounds (and by "best" I mean felt the most fitting for what you were playing...) were just the amp your dad made without any effects. Even the Squier sounded more than good enough through it.

[@awhaleandadeer8785]

The 3 Tone with your Dad Amp was the Bomb!!! for me, very good sound and Tone.

[@Derek5272]

I was a bit disappointed when you swapped out the Squier. A good way to improve the tone, for sure, but I thought you were going to take it all the way. I'd be curious to hear the Squier with all the same effects that you put on the Fender.

[@kehu3226]

This video really showed how much I don't know how a "good tone" sounds like, and how much it doesn't actaully matter.

[@Expliy]

Another nice video! Been waiting for this!!!

[@chadwickhurlburt6529]

To me, this is a good example of why less can be more. To me, the tone died halfway through the example. To many ingredients can ruin the soup. I like open breathing tones. Which explains why I was turned off as soon as the compressor was turned on. Anyhow, to each their own opinion. I enjoyed the video. Well done.

[@spidgeb3292]

Super cool watching each step contributing. Really well done. I imagine this video took quite a bit of time to put together, especially building that last solo.

[@RiderInRed]

This video didn’t serve its purpose well but it served a different purpose pretty darn well! It goes to show that if you know how to play, it’ll ultimately sound miles better no matter what shitty gear you have at hands. DI tone was way better than a beginner guitarist playing through a marshal stack ever would be

[@danieljensen2626]

I feel like it's a lot harder to get a good higher gain tone, the clean tone with the squire direct in wasn't even bad if you just added a free reverb and EQ on that. And even then, a squire with a nice high gain amp still sounds great (could probably even use a plugin for that these days, although I think the good ones still cost a fair bit).

[@stevensrp2music985]

It’s so amazing what a simple graphic eq can do to your tone!

[@martinfanatic532]

"That awful DI tone" Cory Wong would like to have a word.

[@amandabear64]

But he uses an amp sim, what you heard here was JUST the dry signal

[@anthonyrios2300]

@@amandabear64 Not all the time. He often goes D.I. with compression, eq, and reverb.

[@lithominium9955]

ok but hes the definition of "tone is in the fingers"

[@NickGranville]

Great video man! I find tone is the least talked about thing and yet one of of both the most important elements to good guitar playing

[@greatkingrat]

This is flat out the best solo I have ever seen you do. I love it.

[@matrix12x]

Great video. Tones 3 and 4 were really similar to me

[@scottbomberg7904]

That eq was a night and day difference, solid video!

[@TomRubicon5949]

Honestly, that "awful" DI sound on the Squier at 2:03 has a wonderful clarity to it! It sounds much more clear than my DI sounds haha

[@ros3m4ries]

So let me get this straight. Your dad built you tube amp, head tube amp, and reverb thingy? You have the coolest dad ever

[@SAM_5150]

I legitimately wanna hear the whole song with just the 1st tone 😹

[@robblestrange644]

I think it's worth it to note that the drive and effects didn't really serve the tone all that well until that digital EQ kicked in, which just goes to show exactly why all those effects are needed in conjunction. It was def interesting to hear them progress into each other one by one!

[@LukeVidler]

Loved this video, can really appreciate it after spending the last 2 years buying gear and wondering why I still don't sound like Satriani, SG demonstrating it in Layers is more helpful than seeing it as a signal 'chain', where you can be missing a link (i.e. another piece of expensive gear) that 'breaks' your tone. It's really about layering to get a combination that is greater than the sum of its parts.

[@teemusid]

".....in advance..." followed by the most stereotypically Canadian disclaimer I've heard.

[@dingalarm]

The D.I and clean solid-state guitar sound were not horrible at all (1:55) - they just sounded *clean* ! I'll never understand why many guitarists have a blinkered view of "good tone" in that they only like overdrive/distortion, but an extreme aversion to a pure clean tone! 👎😡

[@SpartanLaserCanon]

The final tone reminded me of some warm rock tones, I liked tone 4 the most. Cool video.

[@wildesage4172]

Whoa... I was not expecting it, but to my ears the biggest difference came when you switched to the Fender. That's on the full playthrough at the end, listening without looking at my screen. Wasn't expecting that. Thought the tube amp would be the biggest game-changer. A quick note though, for the beginners: I should mention that you could get a Squier a lot closer to that by upgrading pickups, not necessarily only by upgrading to a $1,000+ guitar. You may be able to get halfway there or even 70 or 80% of the way there with just a decent set of pickups.

[@Dan.Solo.Chicago]

If my dad could make homemade amps and effects, I would totally push that as far as I could. Imagine some day someone asks what was that pedal that sounded so good, and you can say my dad made it. It’s a one of one and no one else will ever have one.

[@WoolyFox]

What about EQ on the amp before going straight to post processing? Shaping the tone on the amp does so much to make a muddy tone into an awesome sounding lead tone before adding pedals.

[@Sadlander2]

I'm a little disappointed by this video, I guess I was expecting something different. Basically, you're saying that in order to improve your tone, you need to upgrade: solid state amp to a tube amp, Squire to a "real" Fender, add pedals, etc... What if you can't afford a tube amp or a "real" Fender? I think that a more interesting video would have been to take your Squire, take your solid state amp and try to get a decent tone with that, either by turning the knobs on the amp and/or the guitar, by placing the microphone in a different position or by EQ'ing the sound after you've recorded it.... I'm pretty sure that you could get a very similar tone to your final tone with the Squire and the solid state amp if you worked on it.

[@yantejeda2039]

coming from experience, you can get a really decent tone by using digital amps on a DAW, and from there it's really easy to mix it for it to sound just perfect

[@hans-joachimbierwirth4727]

All his gear can't compete with my Harley Benton TE-52 (150 Euro) and Boss Katana (230 Euro) tonewise. I get basically whatever tone i want without any pedals.

[@codyg560]

It's awesome seeing the process that you use, I will say that the final product sounds like it's behind a door for me, but respectfully I prefer cleaner tones anyways.

[@unclestubs8377]

Thank you. This really helped me understand what some pedals actually do. Samurai Dad rocks!

[@john564holloway]

Great vid, Steve. Actually, I loved the sound of the Squier. I loved all these tones. Definitely not a fan of digitally modifying sounds. Should be natural right out of the amp...PS Congrats for your dad-well done!

[@RingoMonsanto]

I was kinda surprise that the benchmark "Awful Tone" (on DI) sounded way better than the awful tone that I was expecting and imagined to hear. :)

[@jamesgornall8430]

Great vid! Good job!

[@lanetacker1496]

Dude awsome playing by the way!

[@malegria9641]

One thing I’ve discovered on my own is that DI clean sounds pretty good if you mess around with it a bit, while DI distortion/overdrive is just unfixable

[@mallninja9805]

@3:18 I kinda wish you'd jumped to changing the strings on the old guitar before leaping straight to "change guitars" - but then, that's probably the same upgrade I'd have sprung for back in the day. "Dude my strings suck, I totally need a whole new guitar..."

[@lw1391]

To my ears from that part at the end, the biggest jumps forward were adding drive pedals and the eq. I was shocked at how little difference the guitar upgrade made.

[@aidenmohrmann1850]

Dang that compressor pedal made a world of difference

[@JoelBass68]

This would have been way more useful if you'd started with 1 guitar and 1 amp, and kept them throughout the video. What's good clean tone and why? Recording, band mix, jazz, rock, metal, etc. Then, how do I stack pedals on it for different targeted uses? Maybe another video.

[@Identace445]

Yes I watch my KZbin videos with my phone..but I listen to every video with my badass headphones!!! Cool vid too by the way!

[@morningblade87]

I was really liking the clean tone more but once you played with the backing track that drive tone really popped.

[@orsummerton]

Would be really cool with a video showing all the amps and other cool stuff your dad made!

[@andrewroams]

Step 1: plug a cheap guitar directly. Okay. Doable. Step 2: take an amp ... Dammit

[@hans-joachimbierwirth4727]

More like: Step one: take a guitar. Ok. Sounds good. Step two: Now put strings on it! Wow! Step three: Plug it in: JEEEZ!!!

[@rollerdragon]

i really enjoy your output... the breadth of topics you have covered over the years is fantasic!! i got nothing but good vibes here... though i have to ask a gear question... Why is the vintage Sunn Model T such a desirable head?

[@ricksigurdson2016]

I think I could be satisfied with the tones at any stage.

[@justanoverconfidentguitarist]

Congrats on 800k Sammy g!

[@timcollins6970]

Really appreciate what you do here.

[@unodeldim3610]

Ok so the one thing I got from this vid is that the cheapest squire tone is as usable as the most expensive Fender tone. I’m curious to see the squire through the same effect chain. Thank you. Great video.

[@purplealice]

The only time I thought the first tone sounded bad was when you put it through the steampunk amp. It sounded a LOT better when you added the bedspring reverbe@ (In all fifty-odd *very odd* years as a radio and music technician, I've always loved the bedspring reverb more than any other "effect")

[@doctorstrainlove6318]

That samuraidad amp looks & sounds beautiful. I love the tweed vibes, & would absolutely purchase one if they were ever made available & had a more in-depth review

[@transformationgeneration]

We really needed to hear these w/chords also.

[@aldrickfondracul9297]

You didn't start with the worst tone possible. You'd have to come to my house to get that.

[@shaneharrington3655]

Very curious. Is your bass/low end knob usually at like 8 or 9 on your amp? Woulda been great to hear more about your base tone settings and pickup position as a starting point.

[@Nightwalk444]

In 20 years? Mate, my strings turn completely black in 3 months and fret buzz kicks in.

[@fischerlynt5457]

I liked tones 3 and 6 the best imo. I'm a simple guitar into amp kinda guy so I like the "stray" tones is how I like to describe it. also I thought the tones were kinda trash until you put them into a mix, shows how important context is lol!

[@itsFuseh]

What mode/scale/arpeggio did he use at 8:37? thanks

[@mr.banana4893]

First off, that was beautiful phrasingin the end. I have to say Mr. Samurai, I've heard each and every one of those tones in some top recording or another, over the years. I used to be a tone snob, tubes only gear. Expensive gear,....etc. I've heard shit tone through awesome gear by someone who sucks. I've also heard the most amazing tones coming out of subway performances, from some, down on his luck, Dude with crappie gear, but is absolutely killing it. You made all of the gear sound good in the end, simply because you know what you're doing, and how to play. Lol..you are your own argument to the point...🙂😅😂🤣🙃

[@r.fantom]

When I play solo on electric and I have to use multiple strings, when I play one string one note and continue on other string it sounds bad, any advice?

[@paulmitchell5349]

Life is such hell in upper middle class suburbia. A second hand classical with hard tension strings will sound pretty good without an amp. More distortion and more reverb is not always more musical. The acoustics of the room you play in can make a big difference.

[@pmlirazan]

The Zellers/Sears laser background. Classic.

[@plumbummusic2051]

I thought you'd dial in your rig with bad sounding settings, then progressively correct them. Pleasantly surprised nonetheless. Also, that's probably the sweetest fuzz I've ever heard, quite a unique and cool tone.

[@jps_musics]

The EQ’ing alone did frickin wonders

[@MartinMaat]

What you call tone I would call sound. Tone in my book is your bare input, what sets you apart from other players. Your tone (as in my definition) is really good and I didn't care much for all the filters you demonstrated. I was still hearing you.

[@dylarononguitar8209]

By the title, I thought I would see some knob turning on a SAME setup to improve the tone, then I realize I had a wrong expectation. The trick from step 2 to 4, is swapping in a better guitar and amp. When I saw the compression on the clean tone, ok, that's fair, let's get a nice clean tone. Then distortion comes in, I got lost here again. Feels like comparing apple to orange. It's fair that you were aiming for a OD/DS tone, but I wouldn't necessary call the earlier clean tone as just bad. One last thing, good trick at the end use EQ to get rid of some muddyness, however, would it also help if we go back to the padel chain to fine-tune the 'tone' knobs? instead of piling up with more and more links in the chain. Thanks

[@nine9whitepony526]

That's pretty neat. I'll have to try this.

[@smolus0512]

I have a serious question: I noticied that your di signal actually sounded ok while my di signal sounds very muted and muddy. I dont have old strings and my guitar is pretty ok. I used to think that this just what di is supposed to sound like and just added all the brightness with amp sims and plugins. But your di sound made me wonder. Could it be a problem with my audio interface? I have a Behringer U-Phoria UM2. I bought it for about 25$ (Which is still quite alot of money in Poland). Is it possible that a better audio interface could make this much of a difference?

[@GnomeLoft]

I have the same interface, the di is a little muddy but this could be because you have dark sounding pickups, mine definitely do, but you can still get a very usable tone with it if you know what you’re doing on the amp sim and use the right impulse responses

[@smolus0512]

@@GnomeLoft Yeah for sure, I mean I'm getting good tones (good enough for the kind of music I make) but I just wonder if it could be better. Also I wonder if a better interface would make my cheap mic sound less muddy.

[@DanGoodShotHD]

Tone 5 was my jam. I'm not a big dark fuzz kind a guy. The final tone wasn't bad at all. Just not my jam. Now, what would I have to do to get Samuraidad to make me one of those tube amps? That thing sounds so sweet! Perfect for a pedal guy such as myself. Seriously question, any chance you'd have the plans or even a parts list you'd be willing to share?? I'm a diy guy and that is right up my alley.

[@D-Man_Jam]

Is it just me, or does that distortion pedal sound like trash being smothered under a blanket?

[@arvincharles]

Man, seems like good tone really is just throwing cash into the equation. Time to go on Reverb!

[@bassanup]

for the first couple, I thought I've lost my ears... until you unwrap one wonder after another... thanks for meeting an old demand of many of us.