Questions for an overall rig: I want primarily mid-gain sustaining lead sounds (the latest Santana sound on the Steve Tyler track or Gary Moore, for instance), clean jazz sounds (tone turned all the way down types, Pat Metheny) and boutique high-gain for rhythm (Diezel, Bogner, Mesa Boogie). Will definitely be buying some sort of rack for modulation-delay, chorus etc- the G Force is high up on the list. The guitar is mahagony body, maple cap, rosewood neck and ebony fretboard. Pickups are 2 Lollar P-90s and a WCR Darkburst or Bartolini Z60 in the bridge. Basically I need ideas for the OD/amp combo- Option 1-Ecman tube amp with ODs-Damage Control Demoniser, Ibanez TS seem like good options, but what do I do for the high gain rhythm? Also can the Ecman handle the low end growl for rhythm as well as not getting muddy on the zero tone jazz stuff? Option 2: POD XT Live into an Atomic Reactor 212. Does it really have that picking-sensitive tube amp feel or is it all hype? When I played the XT Live, the high gain sounds and cleans were ok, but the lead sounds were very overprocessed sounding..very much in the shred domain. The GT-8 of course had massive clipping on all patches. So what do I do about this stuff without it costing a bomb?
As soon as I read half your post I was like...thats the Ibanez Tubescreamer. Actually for the rhythm also you can consider the TS 808, thats supposed to be good for that stuff. There's another pedal from Danelectro that a friend in the UK used to have, but I forgot the name. Very good for rhythm, not so good for lead. Sorry I can't do more here, maybe you could just check a little on Danelectro ODs, I am sure you will get it, apparently its the most popular one.
If you can get a Tube Amp and then keep the amp in it's dirty channel and then drive it with a Vintage TS808 or a TS9. You will get a Medium Gain, high Drive, high sustain, beautifully naturally compressed tone. I wouldn't suggest Damage Control Demoniser or it's other Womaniser. You could rather get yourself a Rocktron Gainiac II Rack. It might go with your other Clean Rack. But if you are considering a Solid State Amp, then safely ignore the Tube Screamers. They are not meant for that. In fact most of the Overdrive pedals are designed to drive the tube amp harder. A tube screamer with a Solid State will give you super mediocre sounds. Maybe you could use it as a Clean Boost just for your solos otherwise think about it. With a tube amp, very high gain distortions dont sound good. By setting the amp gain and then driving with a medium gain overdrive medal and also suitably equing can get you serious crunch. A lot of artists have done that before.
Yeah I'm looking for a tube amp + TS type thing only...not solid state. Also resaerching a Bogner Shiva...lets see. Why dont you recommend the Womaniser and Demoniser? As in specifically what are the tone problems they have?
Both Womanizer and Demonizer are very high gain Distortions. They will sound good with a Solid State Amp. Most high gain Distortions are not at their best with Tube Amps. Infact these high gain Distortions are designed for people who cannot afford to get themselves a Mesa Boogie or a Marshall or something like that. I have checked a couple of high Gain Distortions with Tube Amps and they aren't good where as a simple Boss Blues Driver really rocked. Just drive the amp hard and you will have more sustain than required. Actually Gary Moore uses a pretty high gain setting. I dont know why you feel that it;s of moderate gain. His drive is also really high. He almost has infine sustain on every note and still has great dynamics.