cgar18 Posted July 8, 2019 Share Posted July 8, 2019 I just switched pickups on my strat 2 area 61 neck middle and hot blues bridge.I like themsound great now im looking for an all around setting.neck middle that great strat rock sound and a beefy but still note clarity for the bridge.Im getting closer Ive used blackface amp and tweed but I just want a more saturated rock for bridge, any suggestions would be nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rvroberts Posted July 8, 2019 Share Posted July 8, 2019 Unfortunately it's a matter of taste. For example - I wouldn't think of a Fender for a great rock sound. I use Fender models a lot, but for clean through to light drive. Marshall would be the first place I'd be looking for a great rock sound. Boogie if you want a more American sound. But as you see, that is just my taste! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rvroberts Posted July 8, 2019 Share Posted July 8, 2019 Oh, I forgot to say my Strats are set up very similar to yours! But Hotrails in the bridge I think it's a great solution to quiet strats. And you can do almost anything with that config. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DunedinDragon Posted July 8, 2019 Share Posted July 8, 2019 There's a limit to how much beefy rock you can get out of any strat. That being said, I use simple Gen 4 noiseless pickups and I can get some pretty decent rock sounds in The Who, Stones, Tom Petty, or SRV type stuff...but I wouldn't be doing any Queen, AC/DC or Joe Walsh with it. For the beefier strat sounds I tend to turn to the Matchless Ch 1, Cartographer, HiWatt or Placater most of the time with either Celestion Redback IRs, OwnHammer Friedman IRs and occasionally the Ownhammer Basket Weave MMMC IRs, using a mix of MD421 and R121 mics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heavyville Posted July 8, 2019 Share Posted July 8, 2019 Tastes are subjective for this for sure. if you want your Strat "heavy" imo, it needs a humbucker in the bridge and my favorite heavy strat tone came from a guy named Jag Tanna from the band I Mother Earth. Check them out. He uses a generally an old Naylor guitar head and a 5150. enjoy the journey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GenoBluzGtr Posted July 11, 2019 Share Posted July 11, 2019 very subjective what you mean by "rock" sound, but there a ton of options... don't be afraid to try a beefier (i.e. more overdriven) oriented amp model and turn the gain back a bit. I've had great luck using the Plexi Brt, Divided duo, and Placater models with my strat (Lollar Dirty Blonde pickups). If you want really marshall-like driven sounds, try the 2204 or the Mod 2204. The lead track in this clip was the strat through the Placater Dirty Model but with the gain dialed back to about 2 or so. The arpeggiated rhythm track was the Placater Clean with the gain boosted up to about 6. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBD_123 Posted July 12, 2019 Share Posted July 12, 2019 Not so sure about this talk of quiet Strats :-) You can get an authoritative tone out of stock Pure Vintage '65s which are hardly hot wound at 5.9k DCR... FWIW, a quick patch here based on the jumped Plexi Trem 50W head, really basic, no trickery. My patches may be quiet for your setup as they preserve something close to unity gain within the Helix. Volume on the unit is at 12 o'clock and guitar pad is ON. Firmware is 2.70. Of course this is just a suggested startpoint and YMMV etc. Rock is snapshot 3: drive. PLEXI T JUMP.hlx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelldammit Posted July 13, 2019 Share Posted July 13, 2019 Hehe..."quiet" being relative (single coils pups vs buckers). Mebbe try a boost at the start of your chain to kick the amp in the face a bit. Or, depending on amp, a distortion box (tube screamer or the like) might work better. Add just a little grit if you want, but mostly just boost to hit the amp input harder. Maybe try that with the brit plexi brt amp model (and or a 20/25w greenback cab) or the other suggestions above. Strats can be pretty raucous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verne-Bunsen Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 On 7/8/2019 at 4:05 AM, rvroberts said: Unfortunately it's a matter of taste. For example - I wouldn't think of a Fender for a great rock sound. I use Fender models a lot, but for clean through to light drive. Marshall would be the first place I'd be looking for a great rock sound. Boogie if you want a more American sound. But as you see, that is just my taste! Just to provide a counterpoint, Fender is EXACTLY what I think of for a great rock sound. Exhibit A would be Neil Young’s rig... I currently use the Helix Deluxe Reverb almost exclusively, because it can do pretty much anything, but I’m pretty stoked about the Tweed Deluxe in 2.8.... I’m not at my Helix right now but to get good rock tones with the Deluxe Reverb with my Strat, I dial the master back a bit to 9 or so, Drive to 4-5 I think, and a Teemah in front. Stacking the Teemah with a Minotaur in front of it gets pretty rowdy. This is with pretty low output Strat pickups that I wound myself for it, sub-6k. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rvroberts Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 Like I said - it's a matter of taste - that's quite a collection of amps there - and I know the early Marshall was based on a bassman - but I'd still not be thinking Fender for a real rock sound - but then I really don't like Neil Young's sound!!! I'd call Angus Young's sound a classic rock sound. It's all OK - it's how you like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brettchinery Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 PLACATER !!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulmphillips813 Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 Fender tweed amps (like the Deluxe) and the champ and Harvard get a really beefy tone in the studio (or your bedroom). On stage the bigger ones really cut through (I think they sound a lot like the smaller ones when you turn them up loud in a bigger space but they sound awful in the studio unless you don't mind destroying your hearing and turning them up to stage volume). I love the way Marshall amps sound when they are turned up loud but the Fender tweed-style amps seem to work best with a Strat in my opinion. But I guess it's all personal taste, right? I don't use amp models (just a Dr. Z with an Air Brake so I don't blast my ears) so I suppose I shouldn't weigh in on models. But, if you tried a 'big' fender turned way up (but the actual volume turned down) I bet that would sound pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexKenivel Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 Try the Line 6 Litigator. It's a heavily modded blackface. I love how the saturation changes with the bias control 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBD_123 Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 It's not the only one - @arislaf drew my attention to the way the cranked SuperO changes tone dramatically - for the better - when the bias is lowered. Which goes to show how much there still is about Helix that I don't know :-) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cgar18 Posted July 28, 2019 Author Share Posted July 28, 2019 thank you guys for your info and help Im trying the various suggestions im getting there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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