by SarnoMusicSolutions » Thu Mar 24, 2011 9:47 am
One thing to consider with the Fender type preamps is that the Treble knob is NOT just a treble control. It's interactive with the midrange voicing. So turning down the treble is simultaneously re-voicing the midrange dip frequency. Our ears are juggling both factors as we turn that surprisingly complex knob. One way to approach the Jerry thing is to set the preamp like him with all that big brightness and very clear midrange, and then use your guitar tone knob to tame highs. That way you're not messing with the Jerry-tone voicing but you are controlling the excessive brightness.
Another observation that many of us have made is that when we're going for the Jerry tone with similar or exact Jerry gear, we often find it brutally bright. But that's partly because we aren't driving the gear to the loudness levels like Jerry did. When you push those speakers and power amps to those stadium-stage levels like that, the tone actually becomes warmer and fuller because of the stressed out speaker motors and paper cones and the hard driven amp transistors also begin to distort and "warm over" a bit. But when many of us drive these rigs at lower volumes, the sound is TOO clean and TOO linear and TOO ice-picky and TOO crispy. And most of all, hands down is that Jerry had the magic touch to control that monster and make warmth and goodness come out of it. In the hands of lesser mortals, that amp rig is brutally unforgiving and ruthless. It demands the finest control of picking and coaxing just the right sound out of the strings. If you don't get the strings doing the right thing, that amp rig won't lie and it'll bite your head off.
Personally, I'm a pretty sloppy picker, so I've always depended on some form of amp clipping or pedal clipping to help absorb my slop. The more I try to play thru a loud and clean Jerry rig, the more my worship and admiration for his picking mastery grows.
Brad
... and it's just like any other day that's ever been...
