a good profile for tapping sound.

  • Does anyone have suggestions for or know a good profile that is right for metallic sounding tapping. I mean such a sound as in this example. What do you need to sound like this, apart from the great technique. Even played at low volumes this sound keeps its characteristics and keeps up in terms of sustain, drive ...

    With such a sound in my opinion everything gets easier, right? https://soundcloud.com/theplayer-3/solo-sound

  • Yes, it's me, I know I'm not really a tapping guy and tried several Marshall's with full gain. But what I get is more crackling and squeaking uncontrollable noise which comes with it. I always wonder how clean people can sound with much gain at substantial volumes, without a lot of unwanted noise.

  • OK guuys

    Try one of those cranked Marshalls, but, turn the gain down a bit.


    Playing with a lot of gain and volume requires use of the guitar volume knob when not playing, as well as muting the strings between solo lines - this can be done with the left hand, the right hand, or a little bit of both.


    In addition to muting, you might also find that adding a compressor helps give you more control, as well as sustain.

    Thanks guys! I often hear and see this word cranked. There's no translation of this word in Dutch available. not even on the internet.

    What I see is this:

    English Dutch

    to crank             crank (great translation ^^)


    But I will keep on searching and try your suggestions.

  • Cranked:

    "This Marshall goes to 11!"


    See also:


    Dimed:

    (For those inferior, lesser amps that only go to 10)


    In the US, a dime is 10 cents. Hence, gain turned up to 10.


    Clearly not as good as cranked. :)

    Kemper remote -> Powered toaster -> Yamaha DXR-10

  • So this would mean: över the top (?)


    And then about decreasing gain, Immediately you loose sustain. I tried it with a TAF Mars Plexi Cranked. So that makes it not understandable how one can get the same seamless overdrive at low volume without a compressor or whatever and also with gradually increased volume. I'm beginning to believe that I have the wrong guitar matching with the kemper for this.

  • So this would mean: över the top (?)


    And then about decreasing gain, Immediately you loose sustain. I tried it with a TAF Mars Plexi Cranked. So that makes it not understandable how one can get the same seamless overdrive at low volume without a compressor or whatever and also with gradually increased volume. I'm beginning to believe that I have the wrong guitar matching with the kemper for this.

    Over the top usually means "excessive" or "too much" (in a joking way), but of course that's really a matter of taste. What's "over the top" gain for a guy doing a Tom Petty gig may be completely insufficient for someone doing Van Halen. Cranked / dimed is usually meant to indicate maximum gain for the amp at hand.


    When doing harmonics, tapping, etc. in a rock context, it's common to use a heavy overdrive sound without decreasing gain, i.e. find the high gain sound that works for what you're trying to do, and leave it there. If you have quieter sections of the song you might decrease gain or use a different / cleaner profile but in those sections you're probably not doing the tapping.


    That said, since your example was a Van Halen song, it's worth mentioning that particularly for tapping, technique does have a huge impact and can be the difference between it "working" or not regardless of sound. In Eddie's case, the guy is an incredibly good player. If you hand him an unplugged acoustic guitar, he'll do the same tapping, and it'll still sound like Eddie (and in fact, he does that on some albums).


    As for gradually increasing the volume, this is where the Kemper really shines. You can have a high gain profile and bring your rig volume down (using rig volume, not the gain knob) without reducing the gain in your sound. It just reduces the db level. This of course doesn't take into account the interaction between pickups and speakers at higher volumes but unlike a tube amp, when you turn down a Kemper profile, you don't lose gain. Which is very cool. So, if you wanted to increase / decrease volume without losing gain, don't use your guitar volume knob or the Kemper gain knob, instead use the Rig Volume knob (I'm guessing you can also map an expression pedal to this parameter).


    Regarding sustain, pickups obviously play a part as well. A high output humbucker and a stock Strat single coil are going to be two different experiences. What kind of guitar / pickup are you using for this particular purpose?

    Kemper remote -> Powered toaster -> Yamaha DXR-10

  • Honestly, sound, tone, and timbre have little to do with tapping. Watch Erich Mongrain or Andy McKee or Trace Bundy do it on acoustic guitars with more proficiency than most electric players!!


    The technique of tapping itself is what perpetuates the sound. One of the drills I give my students is to tap various note combinations to a metronome.....UNPLUGGED. It forces them to learn how to articulate each note with absolute consistency, and leads to them being (much to their excitement) able to basically tap for infinite lengths of time. Follows the adage "learn to to it, then learn to do it well".

    Just a guy who plays a little bit of guitar.

  • A few things that spring to mind which may or may not help;


    Cranked - refers to the old days when non-master volume amps didn't have a separate gain control so the only way to get overdrive was to "crank" them up to earsplitting volume. In that case you got distortion in the tone but you also go a physical thump from the volume and the volume crated a sort of feedback loop between the amp and the guitar which made both extremely responsive. On the down side it makes the beast more difficult to control. It's a bit like putting me in Lewis Hamilton's F1 car. The car is so finely tuned and capable of amazing things in his hands but it would be a suicide missile with me behind the wheel.


    More gain = more sustain - which is generally a good thing for any form of legato technique but once again it brings it's own problems when trying to control extraneous noise. It's a balancing act.


    Technique matters more than sound -as Jeff said there are plenty of people do amazing tapping on acoustic guitars. One of the first guys I ever saw tapping was Stanley Jordan who isn't exactly a gain monster. However, there are several parts to tapping technique (I know this from my own lack of ability and disgust at my efforts not from being some kind of expert). Clearly being able to make a good strong note is one thing. This involves both striking the note AND releasing to the next note. However, the most difficult thing about tapping on a high gain electric sound is MUTING the notes that you don't want to hear. Ideally this can be achieved cleanily with a combination of left and right hand techniques. Standard left hand muting obviously needs to be of a good standard. Right hand muting can encompass techniques like where a bass players will mute unused strings with the ring finger and/or pinky. However, another useful technique can sometimes be to rest your right hand thumb flat across the bass strings to act as a mute. Guys who really do a lot of tapping using multiple fingers of the right hand (and so don't have as much flexibility to use free fingers to mute) often employ some form of mechanical muting device such as a sweat band round the nut or a flip up/down felt mute.

  • such as a sweat band round the nut

    Which of course gives your guitar that coveted 80s hair band look. :)


    While I don't do a lot of it at the moment, back in the day I was playing some Van Halen so that sort of thing was required. I usually didn't do a lot of muting, e.g. Eruption. If you happen to brush any of the open notes then naturally you're screwed, but I usually had a decent sustain tone that was the right balancing act of enough gain but not out of control.

    Kemper remote -> Powered toaster -> Yamaha DXR-10

  • If you're not already, try using the bridge pickup--that usually helps.


    In regards to technique it's kind of hard to describe, after tapping try to pull off slightly towards the floor instead of straight away from the fretboard. This almost has the effect of picking the second (pulled-off) note and gives you a bit more clarity. That way you're not depending on gain as much. If you can get all the notes to sound without max gain, you don't have to deal with as many noise problems.

  • The sound and level of gain only helps, its the technique that is key...


    You can tap on an acoustic as Wheresthedug says, so you could try that to master the technique first...


    Check out any of the top acoustic players like Jon Gomm ( who is just freaky) that combine tapping and beats on the acoustic body...

  • So this would mean: över the top (?)


    And then about decreasing gain, Immediately you loose sustain. I tried it with a TAF Mars Plexi Cranked. So that makes it not understandable how one can get the same seamless overdrive at low volume without a compressor or whatever and also with gradually increased volume. I'm beginning to believe that I have the wrong guitar matching with the kemper for this.

    With any solo playing I think it is key to find a separate rhythm and lead tone. The lead will need more mids and less presence, while you can probably use a low pass filter to lose the scratchy end. This will tidy up your perceived technique no end:-)

    Karl


    Kemper Rack OS 9.0.5 - Mac OS X 12.6.7

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