Grateful Dead Music Forum

Here is a video of my band Bigfoot County playing Eyes> Feel Like a stranger. I know we are not always dead on, pardon the pun, and we can be a little loose as a band sometimes, but we have fun!! I am not looking for critiques of the band as a whole....what I am looking for is constructive criticism of my playing and tone in order to make improvements.
I am lead guitar. Here's a break down of what I am playing:

Guitar-(jerrycaster) MIM Strat, Dimarzio Super 2 in bridge and Middle with coil taps, SDS1 in neck, DR tite fit 10's
Speakers-Custom Hard trucker style 2x12 cabinet with 2 eminence commonwealths
Amp- SMS preamp (Jerry model), Mosvalve power, furman power conditioner
effects- line6 m13 stomp box, mxr distortion +, Dunlop wah, ernie ball volume
order of rig: guitar > volume> Dunlop wah> mxr distortion> stomp box( bank 1 EQ for clean boost > bank 2 octave divider> bank 3 mutron modeler > bank 4 digital delay)> SMS> Mosvalve> 2x12 Cabinet

Hey, Drew, I'm enjoying the video now. I like your playing but have to be frank, the quality of the sound on the video is not good enough, at least through my computer speakers, that I'd feel comfortable commenting on your tone though it sounds ballpark from the video and I'm enjoying your playing.

Let's make a deal - you drag your band up to Northern VA for a show and I'll come and really listen. In fact, let me know if you're up my way anyway, if you have some time, you can stop by to check out my gear and if you have enough time, I'm always up for a jam (I have dual Jerry rigs and lots of guitars so you wouldn't need anything but yourself and I'd invite the Thankful Dads' rhythm section to join us).

BTW, though, our rigs are very similar. So based on that alone, I gotta think you sound at least decent tone-wise.

To everyone else: 71 views and 1 comment? Come on, take a minute to throw a bro' a bone.

Sounds nice man. Squeeze up on that stage eh? As Jon said, hard to tell by the audio?? If I had to assess, I would say you need some more sparkle and a bit more reverb. Get a Mac and a JBL.

You guys sound great! Overall, I would agree with the other comments, a little hard to tell with the audio quality or just the camera being in the back of the room.

For me, it's a matter of personal taste and what sounds good to your ears, your tone sounds a little compressed to me it may be signal processing. How do you have the SMS set? If you aren't doing this already and want more of that clean sparkle, dump all the lows out, turn the highs all the way up and set the mids between 4-5. It may be that your highs are getting a little lost in the room reflections. It sounds good - and if that's what works for you don't change anything.

Thanks for the comments, guys!! Yeah Jon S. We would love to come up to NOVA at some point for a gig....These days we are only doing a couple shows a month, usually in the Lynchburg, Va area because we are all so busy with life stuff. But we don't mind traveling a bit for a good gig. Also, If I am ever in the area myself, or heading up that way i'd love to jam.
And TCsned, My SMS is set just how you described...No bass, mid 1/2 way, and treble all the way up. What about gain though? The gain is usually at like 10 o'clock. should I have it higher and turn down the power amp a bit? The commonwealths were pretty new at this point and hadn't really been broken in. I am finding they get close to the real thing, but are definitely more rounded out tone wise than a JBL, not as sparkly for sure. The sound in the video is not that great but its the best I have at the moment with my current rig. It is shot with a go pro hero 3+, which is nice because its very easy, portable and user friendly...but not the greatest sound quality.

I also think your tone sounds great! Yes,the audio suffers a bit from the gopro thats for sure.
Definitely try the SMS gain around one O'clock and adjust power amp to taste. Everything else is fine.

hippieguy1954 wrote:Definitely try the SMS gain around one O'clock and adjust power amp to taste.

+1. You might not like it but definitely try it!

Nice playing.

fwiw-
I started turning the gain knob on the back of the SMS all the way up (front volume @ 1 o'clock). I like it way better. Yes, I had to turn the power amp's gain down a bit, but this config seems to be more what I'm used to as far as gain structure.

+1 for JBLs. But unless you're playing stadiums, get "K"s.