Dialling In HIGH GAIN Guitar Tones

[@chrishalemusic]

Love that you shouted out the respect to Ola for his amazing channel too! You guys are both so humble when you’re both amazing

Video Idea: Dialling in Lead and Rhythm tone in terms of ambient heavy sound. Where to set a limit in gain, eq, reverb, delay, etc. How one effect has influence on the other, and overall tone. How to sound massive, but wide and open (and spooky) at the time. I'd gladly see some Fuzz base here! ;)

[@FETeching]

Totally would love to see more explorations of sounding heavy and scary while in a spaceship. AKA Russian Circles

[@alexandertorrente198]

Dual delay is a big thing with this, I am releasing a heavily ambient influenced hardcore record, and I run two signal chains: For lead metal, I run this: Gibson LP > any one knob noise gate > TC integrated pre > any modded marshall, though preferably a bogner XTC or a Cameron CCV > Zilla 412 w/H75 creams > dual delay > a tinge of spacial reverb. The rhythm is this: LP > SLO > HESU > dual delay > a lightish reverb. For the B-M-T-D-P pattern, I run lead at 6-2-9-2-9. I typically run rhythm at 8-6-4-7-4.5~

@@alexandertorrente198 Yeah, I thought Keeley AT Halo would be a killer in this type of tone. That's why I'm getting my hands on it in the future 👌🏿

[@alexandertorrente198]

@ I don't think I've tried this one! I use a strymom timeline for the delay though, I personally enjoy the screen that reads the times and whatnot. But there is no right or wrong way to do it. There is only tone 😎

[@smagliaro]

Watching this kind of stuff unfold organically and hearing you discuss your thought process along the way is a huge value. I'd love to see an episode where you dial in some quacky mid-gain cranked single coil tones for single-note riffing.

[@zacharysmithingell5460]

I think one thing that makes a difference for new players is realizing how much low tuning makes a difference (like drop C, drop B, whatever), particularly in modern metal guitar tones. Man I love an old school 5150ii and a tube screamer. Great video!

[@bolle_83]

Yeah drop c and a tube sreamer on a 6505+ iss my go to… 🔥

[@Gliese710_]

Standard is pretty good to play in too, domination by pantera, which imo is one of the heaviest breakdowns ever is in standard. Drop C does sound really good though.

[@zacharysmithingell5460]

@@Gliese710_ I'm in standard 90% of the time. It's almost rare these days in heavy music.

[@tryston2022]

Opeth got me back into standard tuning. Mors Principium Est and others also use it well. Though for downtuning drop C# is awesome. Slightly tighter than drop c but still chuggie

[@mrJohnWoods]

8:33 Is my reference. I'm trying to simulate with Boos OD200 - Scream (Gain 10, Level 50, Low 0, Mid 20, High 20) Boss IR 200 - BGR UB (Gain 60, Level 80, Bass 50, Mid 75, Treble 70, Gain SW Middle) + York Audio Mesa 212 V30 SM57 1N. It doesn't sound as good as Bea's tone, but it's the best tone I can get

[@Citizen_JQP]

That's one of the things I absolutely love about you man. Humble AF. Awesome shout out to Ola

[@harshtruth9148]

Rabea: I'm not really a metal guy...... has a signature baritone chug machine being made as we speak lol I get it Rabea

[@tomcharlwood1031]

Love the My Curse Nod at ~11:00! What a riff!

[@Suffocation03]

when I used to play guitar in the death metal band Suffocation, I always used one of the following amps, Peavey 5150II, 6505+, 3120, XXX, or XXXII which is the one I still use, along with the Maxon OD 808 my other guitar player used the Maxon, OD 909 the only other pedal we always used was the BOSS Noise Suppressor NS-2 and once in a while, we may use a delay pedal. I currently use the neural DSP quad cortex.

[@DurhamSPM]

I owned the kraken years ago. Sold it for a Kemper. Used the victory kraken official profiles for a while. Sold the kemper and got back the kraken again. Nothing compares to that box. Massive tones.

[@svarogstudio]

It's great how you emphasised the importance of cabs (cab + mic to me more precise). You can hear from these examples how actually close those two amps sound at high gain when identical cab/mic is used.

[@louisburley1597]

Tried this and holy fuck has my tone never sounded better. Rabea you're a genius. This made my day.

[@unmike19]

Truly helpful. I've always been driven nuts by that fizz, and watching you dial out and in tones is super useful and fun! Cheers Rabea!

[@madmod]

That Killswitch riff... 😋

[@mentox6592]

This is my curse!

[@SeaW4rrior]

Tip : you can put the active EQ in the loop and you get a sort of Presence and Resonance 😊

[@juliansedor7101]

Revv purple channel, aggression 1 (blue), EQ at noon is a sound I am loving currently.

[@ryand4533]

Lambchopper678 is one of the best “tone dialing” channels on KZbin! You are welcome if you hadn’t known of him prior.

[@barry3045]

🐐

[@haz9472]

one thing I struggle with is dialing in a good Fuzz tone for both lead and riffing out. personally I absolutely suck at using fuzz effectively so its been something I avoid for live performances. thanks for the awesome content as always.

[@bradley7212]

Maybe so, but I’ve always watched these vids for the fact that Bea is So Good at dialling and playing extremely heavy tones.. The nuno stuff and huge chords

[@KasbashPlays]

10:56 - You could be a virtuoso or you could very well just be starting out, but "My Curse" is undeniably a perfect chug test riff.

[@jmcsquared18]

8:34 to be honest, that tone is 100 times better than 90% of what most people pass as a "good" metal tone. The Silos are passive Alnico V's with high output. Imo that'll do better than actives, especially EMG 81/85's, ever will or could.

[@WittyMonikerHere]

I love your tone, Rabea! Funnily enough, I usually approach high gain amps in the almost opposite way: Push bass right before it gets too "woofy" / flubby, boost mids until it starts sounding like a tube screamer is in front, keep treble as close to 12 o' clock as possible (so the highs don't take your head off when standing in front of the amp at loud volumes). Then push the presence as high as you can before it starts to thin out.

[@r.e.dt.v3561]

Genius Sir! The pinched harmonic squeal comes in dead early at around 8:56 of a 27:36 video! Total Metal!!!

[@edgeoveredge]

Are those overtones at 24:30? Crazy sounding but love it….🤘❤️🤘

[@metallaholic]

id like to see modulated clean tones dialed in with choruses/flangers/phasers etc

[@MrHaggyy]

I really love your way of dialing in aggressiv tones. The traditionell way has it's flaws with richer cords that your style can still manage. What i would suggest is kind of a mini series on it's own. How do you dial in a lead vs rythm guitar in different genres. Also with a view words about leacing room for vocals and bass. But not in a mixing/mastering context, just in a gear and live scenario.

[@sidripster506]

When you made your comment about the Kraken sounding more like an American amp, I was just thinking as you were playing that it sounded like a triple rectifier. Awesome brother

[@wizardsouthJP]

Killer improv riffing, very informative demonstration and the Super Kraken just kills - it’s like a more refined, smoother 5150 - both amps love boosts!

[@eriklamelakillingspree7690]

Smoother, sure. More refined? Idk man, love that 5150 snarl. Feel like the Kraken loses that a bit but both are great.

[@uncomfortablepenguin6579]

@@eriklamelakillingspree7690 it's kinda like comparing different kinds of coffee, you lose some characteristics but gain others or parts become more distinct. They are quite amazing to behold in person though.

[@phantomwarrior0313]

This is perfect! I know that part of my plugin is inspired by the 5150 and I really wanted a mean rhythm tone. This video helped me shape my tone perfectly!

[@mattiagabriele2010]

Amazing content as always. Just love how you simply jam alone playing mind blowing licks Awesome Bea

[@mojisol]

11:02 "Alllllllright" 😂 Awesome video. Respect for all you do 🤘

[@tobylagan497]

Hey bro! Great video, and thanks for taking the time to do this. I would love to see a vid with you dialling in a mesa recto. As in my opinion they are the hardest to get that tight heavy sound, that also feels nice to play. Cheers. Tobias🤟

[@Nicodareus]

That Victory sounds dope as he'll Rabea... you're a great player!

[@nstrug]

A fun challenge is dialling in high gain tones on a completely unsuitable amp. I have a little Laney VC15 and it’s surprising what it will do on the drive channel with a Spark boost (min gain, max level, mid boost position on the switch).

[@Riverking1]

I could watch Rabea noodle for hours. You're a breath of fresh air and an amazing player.

[@jimmypennell8831]

Crushing tones my dude

[@chefcraigorrell9057]

Nailed it 🤘

[@chefcraigorrell9057]

Super Kraken for the win.

[@scentia_est]

Rabea, just wanted to show you respect for the great live show at summer breeze! You are a genius. Whole playing was fabulous! Much respect!

[@JoeyLizotte-di1vh]

Answer: High gain amp. EQ to taste. Done.

[@Wackyboombacky]

High gain amp. Speaker, can and mic placement to taste. Done.

[@southsidechoppers1]

That was awesome. I have to agree with you the presence knob they definitely abused it in the 80s and 90s.

[@RiloRox]

Yeah nowadays I basically approach my heavy guitar tones from a mixing perspective. Also I think heavyness doesnt come from distortion alone. The frequency topography needs to have lots of articulation. I therefore for example turn down, sag, ripple and hum on all my heavy helix presets and crank the treble and presence to get that top end „CLACK“ when chugging. I try to aim for an AFD100 Slash sound with more low end basically. Maybe one day Ill be able to afford a BE100D

[@Ottophil]

Get the IR-x its a legit BE-100 preamp.

[@RiloRox]

@@Ottophil yeah but I need a few things more. I like to have everything in one unit.

[@unclebungle1981]

I'd love to see a video about how you might work through a specific writing situation. The situation is you've written a part / progression and you're happy with it as a chorus or what have you and maybe developed by adding drums / bass/ other guitar overdubs etc, but you can't come up with any other parts that seem to do it justice. How would you tackle this to try and develop a song from the part you're really happy with?

[@charleskkakareka]

I feel like the use of the mids on the 5150 (closest I own is a 6505+) rely a bit on the speakers that you are running in your cab. Scooping can sound great and mix well on certain speakers while a slight boost in mids is important with other speakers. Glad to hear the Ola shoutout,: great video, it chugs!

[@justdavebz]

You got some guitar mouth in the end there. Sweet licks man! Will def use this to tighten up my tone

[@jarrusjenkins]

I have a VX Kraken now and I do quite like it. I typically have it set slightly scooped to make room for some kind of boost to push the mids else I find it gets too honky. Bass 5 Mids 4 Treble 7. I find unless I'm using my baritone or 7 string, using my boss sd1 in front of gain 2 cuts way too much low end for my liking. I find gain 2 is tight enough to run without a boost but I tend to run a bit less gain and use a klon style pedal up front (ehx soul food, gain at half, volume at half and treble at 3oclock) it does shelve a bit of low end but keeps enough to stay percussive and the boost to the upper mids makes everything more aggressive. I do use my SD1 in front of gain 1 and that sounds awesome to say the least. I've blended gain 1 with a boss SD1 and gain 2 with the soul food on plenty of my recordings and it sounds massive.

[@Davidlovesmusic311]

I love your music and your band Bower I'm caught between the crossroads of keeping my e n g l amp or getting the quad cortex

[@JoeBaermann]

17:11 That pling sound in the background with the Kraken, is that comming from the strings beyond the nut? Sound is nice apart from that pling. Even more audible around 24:34 Sounds like harmonics from the strings death spots or digital artifacts if there is anything digital in the signal chain?

[@donbishop6994]

Id love to see you do a comparison video of a tube screamer and a Boss DS1. The tone knob on the DS1 is magical. If you havent done a deep dive of it, I'd heavily suggest it. Hands down my favorite distortion/od pedal. Way better than the TS, IMO. Cheers Rabea. 🍻🍻

[@BecomingProductions]

The riffs, the heft... Great job man!!

[@adamcotterill122]

Cool vid man. Iv got a suggestion for you to have a try of with your set up esp because your amp has a low and high mid. Take your gain up to 5 put your highs to 1 o'clock. Take your low mids down between 3 to 4 and set your high mids around 5. Bass up to 4 minimum. Leave presence around 7 to 8. As you mentioned about noise gate if you put one in it will clean it up and you can then increase your gain. With your mics here's a little trick from a sound engineers prospective. On the cab turn one of the 57s 45 degrees as this will nock a little trebs off on the gain. Have a little tweak around I rek8n you will like what you hear with that set up. Good idea on your vid mate nice work man

[@clintgordon5488]

Absolutely love the new merch man!

[@DerSilvano]

4:00 "and this is what it sounds like, straight in" without even trying, Rabea is getting a gnarly, sexy ass tone

[@quitegenius]

Absolutely get what you said about fizziness. Most solid state amps also have that too and you can’t even dial it out. I find the sound better without it.

[@KeithDelleva]

Aside from a great tutorial and great tones , im loving the cinematography , cheers bea !

[@ChaoticArtemis]

Mate! Loved it! Don’t think the nod to Killswitch went unnoticed! That was very informative!

[@LucasMastropasqua]

I agree with it being a bit too messy sometimes. Still sounds mean as hell though! One of the reasons I like using the Precision Drive is because the attack control does a great job at reducing some of the gain and in my opinion that mixed with the gate it does tidy up some of the messiness.

[@cshades8026]

I know this may not be an amp you would be willing to dial in. Buttttt when the PRS MT-100 is released I’d love to see you demo it.

[@27retrodaze]

As a proud owner of the MT15, Im right there with you on the 100... MT did not show enough of it in that video he did unveiling it... Stoked to hear it.

[@michaelthomas9991]

This is a great video! Very interesting and informative. Please do more of these!

[@gohamm8629]

Crazy how much string ring you can hear at time. What tube screamer would you say is closest to what the preamp focus on the super Kraken gives you?

[@dylantolan1108]

Dialing in clean/crunch/high gain on the quad cortex!

[@Nikolashiin]

Great video! Would love a dialing in lead (metal) tone vid as well! keep em coming :)

[@mort4u]

Thanks Rabea for your insights. Now i want a Victory Kraken....

[@TarshishedCactus]

I have a Maxon 808 and a Strymon El Capistan on my board too!

[@AWMJoeyjoejoe]

ALL THE GAAAAAAAAAIIIN!!!!

[@GiovanniFrau1996]

NO MIDS! SLAYER \m/ 😂

[@296801]

More gain.

[@pedrogarciarobleto]

Metal Zone!!!

[@philw4047]

Absolutley dig the Informative content and awesome tones and playing style you have Bea ! Cant wait for grinding gears 4 ,bring it on !

[@TobyKBTY]

Owned a 5150 for quite a while, and it’s so easy to make these amps sounds good. You can leave it at the classic 666 EQ settings, raise Resonance and Presence up to 7-9, adjust gain and volume to taste, add a boost and there you go- quintessential modern metal tone that’s mean and pissy as hell

[@Swedishstylek]

Ho BOY were they some delicious tones! That musicman beast definitely needs some damping past the nut haha, but thanks for demoing all those tones, good stuff to go on. As for video ideas, I'd be interested to see how you approach dialing in tones for recording vs jamming/playing live with a band - is there a difference or do you just futz with the tones once they're in the box?

[@DerekBratescu]

Your pushed clean tones for ambient moods would be wonderful.

[@mikeanaro]

Nice video, I would love to watch a high gain leads video, specially about liquid gain and dealing with dynamics & feedback.

[@siggycertified]

As an owner of the Super Kraken, it kills me to see the lack of content on it, on KZbin. It's just a hidden gem. It's tempted me to make my own videos on it, because I love it so much.

[@TheDeedeeFiles]

Thank u for doing this video. I've been wanting for this video 😊

[@lucasrodriguez8383]

Great vid and series idea! I’d love to see a video on dialing in fuzz tones. Single coil vs humbucker w fuzz, fuzz for good classic tones vs fuzz for metal. Just a thought, have a good one!

[@kapilarora771]

Your keep playing will keep watching.......that's all I can say.... cheers

[@wakjob961]

I'm desperately trying to dial in your sounds with an HX Stomp, but the base tone of your sig Victory amps is hard to replicate ;-) Tone for days my dude.

[@mathewpybus1599]

The Victory Kraken has harmonic overtones coming through it sounds like there's a broken spring that's rattling around its awful man! I'm not suggesting it is a broken spring it's just used as an example but it doesn't sound good at all maybe it's just the particular amp where there's that issue I don't know enough about them to say it's a common problem right across the board but it's definitely noticeable dude also not being in the room with that amp I can't rule out it could just be the KZbin algorithm that doesn't agree with the frequencies although it was noticeably absent when playing through the 5150! Which by the way sounded pretty good, definitely better than the tones I've dialled in on my own 5150 at home either way it's always good to get another perspective when it comes to tonal qualities of an amp rig and subject to personal tastes of course! Great video man certainly worth taking the time to watch it right through

[@nj1255]

Sounds like your block letter might have a problem with either the FX loop, bad solder joint on the input or one of the pots, or maybe the Q7 transistor has failed (quite common problem in 5150's). Try patching a cable between the FX loop in and out and see if the amp sounds better afterwards. If not, you can try removing the Q7 transistor and then check if the amp sounds okay. A replacement J174 transistor should be easy to find online.

[@tmarks]

Bought my JVM410H because of you, thanks !

[@territoriozero]

Rabea, saludos desde Colombia. ¡Qué gran sonido siempre!

[@KirkyDrums]

Great video Rabea 👍

[@madmod]

Gotta try playing some metal on the old Peavey Vypyr Tube series.

[@Lenny-xs8nr]

Love this style of video! You should do a crunch tone as well!

[@screamengine]

Really need to play the same for the comparison of the two amps. An extremely heavy but tidy tone is more than possible with a 5150 MK1,2,3. I understand the Victory thing though. :)

[@RabeaMassaad]

Thanks man, this wasn’t really a comparison but dialling in two different high gain amps. But yeah I get your point

[@CoolPabloDeTodo]

Salut from Poland (Wrocław) Great show. :)

[@VesiustheBoneCruncher]

With presence I *try* to remember some simple psychoacoustic stuff I learnt when I was mixing reverb in electronic music. The more very high frequency content a sound has, the nearer our brain thinks the sound is to us. Obviously we want the guitar to sound forward, and close, but is the guitar the most forward thing in the mix? And that depends entirely on what you’re doing. If the guitar is the showpiece of a mix, that hyperdetailed high presence may be perfect. If the guitar is more supporting a vocal, then it probably needs less presence, comparatively.

[@mkizz4263]

Thank you for the info and vids bro!!!!

[@HarvVideoAudioStuff]

What’s the riff from 18:38 on? Just a noodle or an actual song?? Sounds killer

[@Jenswsmjens]

What i realy like when dialing in the amp, scooping the mids and boosting it back in the effects loop, the acoustic ressonance of the cab becomes more noticable and can be used where to set the guitar tone in the mix. At least, that's what i'm noticing when setting up everything for recording. Does anybody experience the same or have an other opinion?

[@dockstorage]

Would love your take on dialing in a high gain with pedals only on a clean amp

[@kevindie]

*_Using a Metal Zone in front of a Fender Frontman 10G creates the heaviest tone known to man._*

[@mrcoatsworth429]

Revv G3 into the FX return, man.

[@danielsaturnino5715]

Always a pleasure to hear you chug away.

[@joshhendley4437]

High gain oooo that might be fun if you are doing Van Halen and Ac/Dc or Foo Fighters or Niverna Rebea

[@Crovax]

How to dial a fusion jazz tone (pat Metheny style or Casiopea)

[@joshuaemery6246]

Great tones!

[@toxictime9604]

This style is [fxxx] addictive.

[@guitarghost1]

That Kraken is massive sounding !!

[@dylantolan1108]

Dialing in a stereo rig! Classic rabea tones 🤘🏼

[@Rogeramirez]

The 5051 killing it at 22:28

[@tonebasedfrom]

I'll try with my ML Sound Lab Blockletter 5555, original 5150 Mk II are awesome.

[@sb632]

This was a fun vid. The vx100 for me sounds so much better to my ears. With the maxon it was one of the best times I've heard.

[@filippokarawatt4447]

😂he started like “reasonable amount of gain, and keep the mids around halfway” to 16 years old random metal dude “ give me all the gain! Fuck those mids! Mooore gain!”

[@adamstrachn]

Killer tones as usual Rabea. Wild amount of string noise coming through. Not sure if it was the nut or bridge.