Help with legato sustain or liquid feel.

[thalweg]

Ive had my v combo for about 2 years. Love the amp as it really cuts through with the mids in a live setting. But ive always struggled with finding a more liquid feel on my channel 2 crunch rhythm without having to push the gain so hard. Im using les paul standard with bb pros and a prs ce 22 loaded with hfs and they both produce too much bark and not enough sustained growl.

Ive tried a range of eq settings in triode mode both in variac and full power.

Would a compressor do the trick...any suggestions? I play hard rock, blues rock and some progressive stuff. Thanks in advance.

 

[fuzzgod]

Gotta say, I usually lean on Ch3 for 'liquid' leads. MkIIC+ or MkIV modes.

That being said, I think the biggest way to get a smooth legato is work on your technique...it's in the hands, man.

Cheers!

 

[thalweg]

Yes my leads are fine in channel 3..its channel 2 rhythm that I'm trying to tone down the bark without too much breakup/gain.

 

[screamingdaisy]

I gemerally use channel 3 for leads but when i do use channel 2 and need a bit more sustain I'll bost it with either overdrive or a compressor, depending what kind of sound I want (more scream or more clean sustain).

 

[thalweg]

That's all the push I need...gonna start researching decent pedal based compressors...

 

[UglyBunny]

I vote for channel 2, Mark I mode, thick on;

Gain: ~2 o'clock
Master: depends on who's sleeping
Presence: ~12 o'clock
Treble: ~2 o'clock
Mid: ~11 o'clock
Bass: Rolled off completely
EQ: as desired

I also like a TS808 in front of this. With the neck pup, It makes for a nice, chewy, thick, milky, sustained, somewhat darker lead tone. Couple that with 10W & Variac and you got yourself a pleasing little tone!

Petrucci talks about this tone in his videos on the youtubes where he discusses his Mark V tone tips.

 

[ATR1]

What did you come up with? I too am having this issue with my LP 2012 standard. I think the stock pick ups are weak for shredding/ legatos though are awesome for rhythm. Love the growl I can get mixed with my nova drive. My IB which has the JP sig Dimarzios is better but not quite there. Channel 3 gives me some fitts with hissing not as bad as my 5150 though.

 

[Heritage Softail]

May be a silly question, but are you using any delay to bridge the delay between notes? Do you use some vibrato at times to lengthen notes? A clean boost will help with that, as will a compressor sustainer.

Of course there is a technique to fretting harder and sliding in and out of notes.

Good luck with the tone quest!

 

[thalweg]

Thanks for all the feedback.

To be clear...this isn't about lead work. Its about rhythm work and chording progressions using channel 2 crunch. I have my leads pretty dialed in on channel three iV mode.

 

[Tahoebrian5]

I've had the same problem and have found ch2 to be fairly unusable for me. You can try swapping out different tube in V2 as it only affects ch2. I found it a bit lacking in over drive so I first put a JJ that was sorted for high gain. That helped a little. I currently have a nos RFT in V2 which is known for early break up and it sounds better. I'm going to start experimenting with circuit mods soon to see if I can get some more mojo out of ch2.

 

[fr0sty]

Try more volume and less gain on the 90 watt mode. Lots of magic there.