From Eric Johnson to Reel Big Fish - how did I get here? ^^

  • Hey guys, I got what I would call somewhat of a stupid question as what I'm searching for is leagues below the last rig I looked for, playing-wise and on the technical side.


    But everytime I hear Reel Big Fish, I'm amazed by Aaron's live guitar tone. It's so simple, yet so full and warm - not a bad feat for a tone that only exists on upstrokes.

    My example to listen to would be something like this:

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    And now the age-old question: How would you recreate this tone on the Kemper? I can see a Marshall 4x12 on stage, but I couldn't find anything on his gear on the first two pages of Google, so I thought - why not ask you guys that know way more about everything than I do.


    I mean, it sounds like one amp into one cab, plus some distortion pedal along the way. Maybe some high-pass? Whatever, I want it. The clean tone, that is. The distortion isn't my cup of tea. And if I do the 'normal' thing for this sort of tone, that is tweaking a Twin Reverb and using my Les Paul coil split, it does not come close.

  • Sounds to my ears like a Marshall rather than a Fender. And from the video clip looks like one of those dual channel JCM900.

    So I would start from there. I'd probably try to get best clean JCM900 (which is imo SL-X by the way, and that is actually really nice one, even he is not probably playing one ;) ). Such that is having power tubes working and giving the goods. Then maybe goose it slightly with a boost or comp but still have the overall output clean-ish or on the edge. Maybe both humbuckers from LP, with some volume rolled back a little bit from the neck pickup to clear it up a little, but while keeping it nice and full.

  • Thanks a thousand times for the replies, guys! Appreciate it!


    And maybe the crux of it all is that FRFR can't deliver the fullness and warmth of 4x12. Shame I do not own a powered Kemper and so this option won't be one for me to test. I did try it using our gear for small venues ( think LD Maui ) and felt that it sounded somewhat equal to the FRFR, but the 4x12 cab and its recording via mic being the main culprit for this live tone makes so much sense to me now.


    That said, the distortion from them is not what I would call amazing at all, I'm more satisfied with the results my Kemper produces than with the live tone on that one. But the cleans, oh the cleans...


    Do you guys reckon that a 4x12 cab has more influence on a clean tone than it does on a distorted one? I'd say around 70% of songs I get to play are either clean or have a bit of hair, so I might be better off looking for a powered Kemper for my needs, simple as that.


    Thanks again for your answers!

  • He's really switching fast between the clean and lead sounds. Could be the neck pickup with the volume rolled back and he's switching between that and the bridge.

    Sounds more like a nice, fat Marshall clean then pushed with a distortion pedal.

  • Hmm, having run a 4 x12 using a powered rack that I used to mike up live, I'm not sure I would word it this way.


    Having now moved to FRFR I can now hear everything, good or bad. I would change "warmth" for smoothing...guitar cabs smooth sounds to make them more similar, which is different, not necessarily better. Cabs add a lot more colour than I used to realise. In fact when I switched to FRFR I could not hear my profiles properly...and ended up changing them all, because the guitar cab had smoothed it all out. That is how I discovered why I could not get a good sound direct. I sort of agree this is more noticeable with clean sounds but high sounds also are more complex and so its also noticeable with those as well.


    The sound you hear on the video is not from a 4 x12 but from a 4x12 through a mike and then into a PA and out of the FRFR speakers of the PA. The KPA replicates that chain. The difference is that we are used to hearing the 4x12 sound on the back line not the FOH sound.


    So, what I have come to realise is that my backline sound is secondary to the FOH sound. Therefore my focus is on the FOH sound. FRFR is very good at showing that and the KPA very good at replicating the end to end sound.


    Some people have gone back to guitar cabs but for me FRFR gives me the best baseline. I think I can get a warm, full sound via FRFR. It won;t sound the same as a 4x12 but to be honest, I don't want it to..


    My suggestion to you is to focus on your FOH sound. Use FRFR purely to monitor and as long as its good enough then the FOH will take care of the sound going out. Its a real mindset change that i didn't expect when I bought a KPA but glad it did. Volume plays a big factor in your sound perception as well.


    Hope that makes some sort of sense.