Bass Limiter
August 13th, 2008 | 
Author:
how do i fix my gt-8?
my gt-8 has a bad bubbly sound whenever palm-mute. i use a twin clean preamp with 28 gain, 50 bass, 30 middle, and 51 tebble. my overdrive is metalzone, at 46 drive. i use a limiter, but i have a feeling that the problem is the fx chaon. how should i configure my effects chain to get a good metal/hardcore sound?
Tough one cause I don't own a GT-8 but here's what always works for me. Start by removing fx in the chain. If necessary, add them 1 at a time until the problem shows back up.
Start with the most obvious gear, your axe. If you are muting heavily your strings could be hitting something (a pickup raised to high for example) and causing the problem. The next obvious thing would be your hand. Try moving it closer to and farther away from the bridge. Closer should reduce the muting effect but allow for better fine control. Are your pickups active? If so, check your battery (sticking it on your tongue is a cheap and very effective way to do so after some experience.)
Are you sure you use a limiter and if so, is it standalone or part of something else (like that GT-8?) Limiters generally crappify tone (like the weak, radio sounding guitar at the beginning of Floyd's song Wish You Were Here.) They do this by removing (or 'limiting') different frequencies while leaving the rest more or less unaltered. Most people would be using a compressor instead of a limiter and if you find this is the case (or if one is somewhere else in the chain) it could be part of the problem. Compressors can really go a long ways toward a hi-gain metal tone but you want to use it as close to the beginning (guitar end) of the chain as possible. Unless you are doing serious eq-ing to get mod the tone, then go 1st eq 2nd compression.
Sounds like you already have the main part of a metal tone in place, that being the scooped (reduced) mids. Well, thats true of an old-school Marshall/Metallica tube amp type sound anyway. The opposite would be a mid-heavy solid state tone ala Randy Rhoads or Dimebag. One of the biggest components of the modern heavy guitar tone is simply low end. Back in the day, peeps generally didn't have as much quality bass response in their speakers (ala subs) so bass was cut back in order to avoid muddying up the razor like cutting effect of your typical metal guitar.
The thing about tone is that it is a culmination of so many different things that mastering it is often difficult. I won't even go into the gear end of that except to say that a good place to start is by finding your favorite guitarists' rig setups on line. I'm not saying you should buy $1,000,000 worth of equipment but research here will help you realize what gets what kind of sound and eventually how and why it is used. Never presume that your best setup will sound like something off a cd. That cd was recorded using multiple layers, often of different amps and guitars and then polished up by highly trained and widely under appreciated sound technicians. It also has the other instruments filling in the sonic spectrum.
Here's my best 2 bits of advice. Muting is indubitably a big key. And that goes for both hands. I taught one of my students Master of Puppets. He had the chords and timing down but it didn't sound 'right' till he started learning the subtle yet overwhelmingly complex muting structure. It took me a long time to recognize how much right hand technique I picked up from those old Metallica songs.
The other tip is that mostly, sound quality (and therefore tone) is relative. For instance, I can floor people with my solid state Johnson Millennium. But when my buddy cranks up his uncles vintage Marshall stack at the same time or right after, I'm ready to sell my amp. Yet I can put my gear up for a month or so, pull it out , jam it out and find myself thinking "This sounds awesome!"
All the gear, all the technical practice and mastery, all the best mixing in the world is great but it boils down to something far more spiritual to me. I remember hearing that "B. B. King can kill you with just one note." The point is not whether you like the King but instead, what is it he (or anyone, namely you!) can do with one note that is so amazing. Malmsteen is like a god or something but I've never heard a single song by him that I really loved and he can fit like a million perfect notes into 2 seconds. This is the reason that I have stood on stage with guys who I knew were way better technically than I will probably ever be but after we come off stage, people say "Dude, you blew him away."
The secret is breaking down the barrier (hands, thought, gear, etc) of projecting part of your soul into someone else. Are you simply regurgitating scales or are you saying something important that other people can't help but relate to. That's where real tone starts, in the heart. That's why Hendrix could rig up a guitar from a broom and a rubber band and still sound like Hendrix.
sorry so long, I'm an obvious guitar freak 
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