How to clean up sloppy guitar distortion?Music

[Omnis]

I'm having a problem with my guitar when I tune down to C or B standard. When I try gallops on the low E or do chords, the distortion/gain sounds like a wet whoopie cushion. It's so sloppy. Still sounds kinda bad in regular tuning too. B gets a little loose, but C sounds fine from the guitar-- it's the output that's awful.

How do I fix this? Should I get heavier gauge strings? I notice the LP is a lot easier to bend notes compared to my el cheapo strat knockoff. Gauge feels the same though. I think it's because of the shorter scale.

Is it because of a crappy gain channel on my bedroom combo amp? I have a Marshall MG15DFX. Should I try a pedal into the clean channel? Don't really want to buy a new amp, but what would some of you suggest for an apartment bedroom that can give me some good tones from rockabilly to Brendon Small/The Sword/Amon Amarth?

 

[Solid Lifters]

It's tuning down too far that's the problem. Strings get sloppy and messy. Tune to standard EADGBE and see if the tone improves.

 

[Omnis]

It doesn't. That's the thing-- it sounds sloppy regardless. If I turn the gain down to where I want it, it cuts out the amp output. So weird.

 

[Slash]

If you're going through a pedal, turn down the gain on the amp and boost the level/distortion from the pedal itself and see if it helps. It might not be either, it might be the amp itself.

From what you are saying, it sounds like the amp itself is the issue. If it cuts the amp output, turn the volume or level up on it?

Since your not running directly though a pedal, I would do that first then connect it to the amp. Running right into an amp and boosting the gain never sounded really good to me, especially through small amps.


If I may ask, what is your complete setup?


I'd have to tinker around with it for a bit. I'm not really sure though TBH.

 

[Omnis]

I'm plugged straight into my combo amp. No pedals or anything. Just the clean channel and overdrive/gain channel.

I think it's a combination of lousy overdrive from the amp and a lousy setup on the guitar. The axe is buzzy at the lower tunes if I play hard.

Thicker strings would probably be the cheapest/easiest thing to try out, I guess.

 

[Slash]

You mentioned its a bit buzzy at lower tunes...is the neck warped at all? For all you know it could be buzzy very lightly so little that its tough to hear but the pickups grab it and that could be contributing to the sloppy sound. I had this happen to me once before. Took me ages to figure out WTF was wrong.

 

[Omnis]

How do you check if the neck is warped? Looks straight to me. If it buzzes doesn't that mean it needs a truss rod adjustment?

 

[cgr-10]

I had an issue with a buzzing noise on mine a while back, turned out the strings were vibrating against the frets even when playing an open note due to the angle and height the bridge was at. Once I changed that everything was fine.

The guitar and amp being the problem sounds slightly more plausible for you though considering that the fret issue is normally blindingly obvious.

 

[Omnis]

I do have fret buzz but it's a separate issue.

I got the gain to go to acceptable levels, but unfortunately it's only at unacceptable volumes. Way too loud.

 

[F1 fan]

I got the gain to go to acceptable levels, but unfortunately it's only at unacceptable volumes. Way too loud.

That's not exactly a new-ish problem. If you do want high gain at low volumes, you should look into getting an amp with a master volume control.

Heavier strings are a must for downtuning.

 

[BloodHunterVX]

I know I'm a couple years late on this, but have you tried using heavier gauged strings? Going as low as C or B, you would probably want your lowest string gauge to be around 56 to 60, otherwise it will feel and sound like you're playing on rubber bands.

 

[Bluesman81977]

I would start with the truss rod. Find out what relief the neck needs. I have a MIM Strat and it requires about .010 relief. Do this before setting the string hight.