Instrumental rock tones never interest me that much just because they aren’t that relevant to me. They are the vocal essentially, so they’re always given the big spotlight in the mix and since you are going to be listening to them for a long time they have to be really smooth. Put that in a typical rock or pop context and no one will here it in a full mix where it isn’t the star.
Plus, the playing of those guys usually mesmerizes me so much I hardly notice the tone.
Yesterday I was workshopping some new sounds in the FM9 and tested them against some loop tracks, I had a solo tone that was dialed in ala Satch because I wanted to see if it hung in there better than I thought it would - nope it just got buried in the mix. Since he’s having a moment in guitar gear land I wanted to revisit that dark, smooth thing to see if I could make it work. I just can’t without adding tons of volume which isn’t really a good option with the PA. Went right back to sounds that are not fun on their own but they sit right in a band mix.
Maybe one day I’ll make a few presets that are meant for enjoyable solo playing at home. I’ve said that for a few years and never done it, so I’ll probably just keep rolling my tone control back to 3-4 to rein it in when playing alone…
D
