Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Paganini shuffle part II

The technical aspect of the caprice is progressing albeit slower than ideally. Buying a house will do that to you. Also, I've been uncharacteristically preoccupied with a Gary Moore-esque blues instrumental I've been toying with. For some reason, I can't play for more than ten minutes without slipping into this tune. It even keeps developing - it started out as a poorly disguised rip-off of The Loner/Still Got The Blues/Parisienne Walkways/Nothing's The Same, but now it's a completely different animal altogether.

But back to Paganini 24 in Am. Besides practicing the variations, I've been trying out different guitar tones, which turns out to be more difficult than I expected. The main problem is that I want one guitar sound throughout, and I've come up with suitable tones for the different variations. My main Yngwie Plus overdriven violin tone works well for the picked and sweeped sections, but it's crap for the fingerpicked section - too much distortion and not enough bass. My "Midnight" tone that I stole off of Satriani is great for the tapped chordal passages, but craps out for the other variations - too much delay and reverb. My ultratight, compressed Symphony X tone works like a charm for the MR tapped section, but sounds too sterile for the majority of the variations. Whenever I try to find a happy medium, I end up with a tone which has none of the desirable qualities, but rather sounds stale and bland. I COULD opt for a clean, "wet" tone, but that spectacularly fails to excite me.

I'll keep at it. I'm not ready to cop out and use the bland, clean tone or worse, several tones yet.

11 comments:

Anders said...

Mmmh.
How 'bout some Gary Moore tones, then?

Wilhelm said...

Now THAT is way simpler. Don't get me wrong - the 24 will happen and all, but I just hit an obstacle tone-wise.

Btw; was there something, "stud"?

Anders said...

Stud?

Yeah, I wasn't suggesting that the 24 wouldn't happen. But since you were searching for tones and was in a "GM-mood", I just suggested the obvious...

Wilhelm said...

Ah......Tried two of his tone sets, but they didn't work out too well. Still too much disto for the fingerpicked part, "big guy".

Anders said...

So...
..isn't there a 1928 National tricone modul setting on your Line 6? Or is that just on the Variax guitar model? You know, a National is never wrong, "dawg".

Wilhelm said...

Sorry, "stud" - ain't no National setting on either of my Line 6 rigs. And I was really hopin' there'd be too......

Anders said...

So... Write a letter to Santa, and maybe you can have some new tones after Christmas, "playa"?

- "They don't call me the west coast heartbreaker and homewrecker for nuthin'"

Anders said...

Btw, what is the exact model of your floor/pedal Line 6 thingy you have there, "buck"

Wilhelm said...

You mean my Line 6 Floor Pod?

...'cause that's what it is

Anders said...

Thanks, W-loc. I'm thinking about that one.

Wilhelm said...

Sho' nuff, "champ". One of the truly great features of the FloorPod is that you really DO get great tone anywhere. You can plug it into a stereo, or even a TV. Plus, you can filter other music sources through it as backing tracks, for example.

'tis great