Roadster clean settings-- help

[jhguitar1]

I can't seem to find a really good clean tone on my Roadster Channel 2. I know there are variables, but I need help. My guitars have EMG 81's in the bridge.
I'm sure this has been brought up before, but any help is greatly appreciated as my band is going to start rehearsals soon.

Thank You

 

[paytojt]

Try setting the master at 3 o'clock, gain at 9, bass, mid, treble, and presence at noon, clean mode, diode, 100 watts. Then barely tweak the bass, mid, treble, and presence to fit the natural sound you want. On my gibson faded v with duncan Blackouts, I turn the mids down a little, presence and treble up a little, and bass the same. Hope this helps.

 

[jhguitar1]

Thanks for the advice, I will try it.

 

[klutch]

The EMG's and their high gain are gonna cause your clean channel to be gritty...I know this cause I have EMG 81/85 in my guitar and it's hard to get a crystal clear tone with my Roadster.

 

[jdurso]

The EMG's and their high gain are gonna cause your clean channel to be gritty...I know this cause I have EMG 81/85 in my guitar and it's hard to get a crystal clear tone with my Roadster.

the way i do it with emgs is channel 1, clean, 100watts, diodes, master and gain at 9, bass at 12, mids at 11, treble at 12:30, presence at 1, with the solo engaged to add a little glassiness. i setup my guitar between the pickups and since each pup has a volume knob, i back off the bridge pups volume a little to tame the highs. basically the amps setup has very minimal preamp gain, and instead uses a lot of power amp gain which keeps things clean. the guitars setup gives you a nice round bass, with a mellow high end and to me sounds killer. also add a little reverb to meet your taste

 

[metal190]

Are you using the FX loop? If so, make sure your FX send is set at noon, no higher, as well as your master output. Going any higher in either one will add overdrive (which may or may not be a desired result). A lot of people don't realize this. Unity gain occurs with both FX send and Master Output (which is just an FX return) at noon.

 

[jdurso]

Are you using the FX loop? If so, make sure your FX send is set at noon, no higher, as well as your master output. Going any higher in either one will add overdrive (which may or may not be a desired result). A lot of people don't realize this. Unity gain occurs with both FX send and Master Output (which is just an FX return) at noon.

excellent point.... i never think to mention that.

 

[metal190]

I learned the hard way with my FX loop sabotaging my clean channel attempts for way too long. I hope this helps you out, cause it was frustrating as hell until I figured this out.

 

[vitor gracie]

I hate to say this, but you are gonna have a tough time getting anything to sound clean with an EMG-81 in the bridge position. Its not your amp, its the pick-up/position. High gain active pick up in the bridge = crunch. And crunch is what you will get my friend. Emg makes some solutions to this. I would first start with using the neck pick-up and try using an EMG 81TW in that position. You can use it tapped to get a sigle-coil-esque sound. They also make an EMG-89 which has a full humbucker and a true active single coil as well for that David Gilmore tone...

EMG-81TW;
http://www.emginc.com/displayproducts.asp?section=Guitar&categoryid=6&catalogid=190

EMG-89;
http://www.emginc.com/displayproducts.asp?section=Guitar&categoryid=6&catalogid=6

Either way, bridge pick-up yields the worst clean ever unless your playing through a strat or jazz box. All mids, and yucky high end = bad tone for cleans.

p.s. I run a PRS Single Cut McCarty with a Duncan Jazz in the neck and a coil tap on it to get clean tones through my Roadster and it sounds out of this world. Any 3 settings (clean, fat tweed/brit) on channel 1 or 2 will get me from funk to jazz to blues with that pick-up... and also get really chimey strat type sounds that are simple beautiful.

Duncan Jazz;
http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/humbucker/progressive/sh2_jazz_model/ [/i]

 

[jdurso]

I hate to say this, but you are gonna have a tough time getting anything to sound clean with an EMG-81 in the bridge position. Its not your amp, its the pick-up/position. High gain active pick up in the bridge = crunch. And crunch is what you will get my friend. Emg makes some solutions to this. I would first start with using the neck pick-up and try using an EMG 81TW in that position. You can use it tapped to get a sigle-coil-esque sound. They also make an EMG-89 which has a full humbucker and a true active single coil as well for that David Gilmore tone...

EMG-81TW;
http://www.emginc.com/displayproducts.asp?section=Guitar&categoryid=6&catalogid=190

EMG-89;
http://www.emginc.com/displayproducts.asp?section=Guitar&categoryid=6&catalogid=6

Either way, bridge pick-up yields the worst clean ever unless your playing through a strat or jazz box. All mids, and yucky high end = bad tone for cleans.

p.s. I run a PRS Single Cut McCarty with a Duncan Jazz in the neck and a coil tap on it to get clean tones through my Roadster and it sounds out of this world. Any 3 settings (clean, fat tweed/brit) on channel 1 or 2 will get me from funk to jazz to blues with that pick-up... and also get really chimey strat type sounds that are simple beautiful.

Duncan Jazz;
http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/humbucker/progressive/sh2_jazz_model/ [/i]

89 is a great pup.... for cleans the emg 60 is also great for the neck. at the end of the day the higher the output of the pup the more dirty your cleans will be wihtout backing off the volume a little, that includes passive high output as well.

 

[jhguitar1]

I have the 81 tw in the bridge and the 60 in the neck. The thing that stinks is when I play the 81 in single coil mode the volume drops and when I switch to the 60 in the neck, the volume boosts. **** EMG's lol. I have been experimenting with using Ch 1 on tweed with the gain way down. This seems to help when using the neck pickup. I am almost thinking of trying different pickups

 

[jdurso]

I have the 81 tw in the bridge and the 60 in the neck. The thing that stinks is when I play the 81 in single coil mode the volume drops and when I switch to the 60 in the neck, the volume boosts. **** EMG's lol. I have been experimenting with using Ch 1 on tweed with the gain way down. This seems to help when using the neck pickup. I am almost thinking of trying different pickups

well coil tapping comes with the side effect of the volume dropping... so its not just am emg thing, it comes with the territory i guess.

 

[vitor gracie]

You could try the coil tap and add a compressor to get the volume similar to the full humbucker's level. I use a Maxxon Compressor pedal for all my crispy clean stuff.... Tweed is only gonna drive the channel more. The three way toggle switch on each channel goes from "less gain" to "more gain" as you switch it down. Use the "Clean" setting and back the low end WAY down and add highs. It will thin it out some so as not to overdrive. Also scooping the mids on the clean channel will make it even skinnier.

I have no issues at all getting superb cleans from my amp. I think switching pick ups may be the trick. Again, the 89s to me are the way to go if your gonna do the EMGs. Just keep in mind you kind of have to commit to a volume level for your clean stuff.... if your coil tapping maybe use channel 1 set nice and loud. For the humbucker, set channel 2 for lower gain/lows to keep the crunchiness out. You have 4 channels on the thing after all.... 8)

 

[paytojt]

I have a set of Duncan Blackouts which are active and powerful and I can get a great clean tone using the settings I posted earlier. I don't know if it's because the Duncans are better than the EMG's or not, but it works for me. I've read several reviews on how the Blackouts kill the EMG's, but I'll be fair since I haven't played with the EMG's.