New here and looking to get some advice on tone

[azhockeynut]

I have been a long time Scorps Fan, at least since the Uli Roth days, and now, I've recently taken up guitar. I can get my way thru most of the World Wide Live album. What I can't seem to get is the tone that Rudolph uses. I'm not a big lead player I much prefer pounding our rhythm.
I own a USA strat 60th anniversary edition and a Jackson Dinky Reverse both of which I play thru a crate power block. I've also got a digitech rp100.
What could I get to make it better? I've thought about a small tube preamp to warm up the sound some but I'm not sure that will do it. I play in std tuning and I am sure that has something to do with it, but I am not a good enough player to know how to play down tuned yet. I have no one around to teach me.

[Antunes]

Hi azhockeynut ...

First of all, your guitars are great.

You can get a good tone IMHO with your setup, i don´t know crate powerblock, because i never play whith one of these, but,can you set a marshall simulation in this gear ??? I´m a user of behringer vamp2, pod 2.0, pod xt live, and now i have line6 toneport whith line6 gear box software, i allways use a marshall jcm or marshall plexi simulation and thats good for me. I dont´ set a lot of gain, generally i set gain (or drive knob ok) with 65%, and add reverb or cut delay. I also use an real overdrive pedal too, then i combine drive from pedal with drive from software, but in this case i set gain in software with 30% or less, and add´s drive/gain with a real pedal. Sounds good too.

Is very rare i use compressor, or other modulation effects, for me a lot of effects doesn´t sounds good, and adds a lot of digital character in tone, then i prefer set only a drive with some delay or reverb (less drive sounds better for me then a lot of drive).

If you interest, check my youtube channel, i up many vid´s with line6 gear box (with overdrive pedal too in some vid´s).

[azhockeynut]

no need for an apology. I'm certain my Pourtugese would be terrible!

Thanks for the tips I will try to watch your videos.

Thanks also to the comments on my guitars. They are nice, but I guess it might just be the Amp that leaves something to be desired. I will work on it some more.

AZHockeynut!

[Gabi6912]

Hello AZHockeynut!

So sorry, I am just a big Scorps and Uli fan am not a guitarplayer at all, it's just a warm welcoming to you.

Thus, welcome to the forum and enjoy it.

[Rot]

A Gibson Flying V would be the main option but the Dinky sounds correct, the Strat better than no cuz don't give powerful signal for excite the head like Rudy does, a 50 Watts Marshall Plexi head, plugin above/left input and using a cable for bridge the two channels, below/left and above/right (a THD Hotplate if u want to play at home) and a 4x12 Marshall cabinet. That's the right way.
I don't know the Powerblock, but almost all Crate stuff that i've tested, didn't satisfied me, specially those Blue Voodoo heads, considered the most expensive Metal Zone ever built. I'm a Marshall 800 man.
With the Digitech, you've to use a warm overdrive, not much gain, (around 4, and don't fear about mids, up to 5), some of reverb, and play very strong with the right hand.

[themaniac]

Skip all the new hi-tech stuff. It's when both Rudy and Michael got away from their standard setup that their tone took a turn for the worse. The classic tone you are probably seeking, aka Scorpions Lovedrive-Blackout era sound you will get with a Gibson Flying V and Marshall 50 watt heads turned up. Thats what both Rudolf and Michael used as well as the guy in Scorps tribute bad I was in back in the mid 80's. The only additional thign Michael used was a wah-wah pedal in line so he could adjust his tone.

[azhockeynut]

awesome info thanks!

i'm not trying to play live at all, not good enough and too old. Would love to jam with some buddies etc. On the Marshall, how many watts? tube I assume right? On the Gibson Flying V, yeah in my dreams, those are NOT easy to come by in good shape or cheap. How are those Dean V's? Are they as cheap as a Johnson or Ibanez Gio, or Starcaster or Imitation strat?

[Rising_Force]

Me too, i never liked anything that crate put out on the market EXCEPT the powerblock ! Too bad it is discontinued, because i thought it was a great small protable 1 channel amp. Rudolf's tone on WWL is pretty meat and potatoes So if you crank out your crank, boost your mids and maybe add a BOSS SD-1 in front of the amp just to give it a little more edge you should be very close !

A tube preamp wouldn't be very suitable in my opinnion because the powerblock will colour your tone too much and the warmth from the tube will be barely noticeable !

Also don't forget that the tone comes also from the way you play as well. Rudolf has a hard attack on strings when playing rhythm. For the WWLive he doesn't use too much gain on the amp, so make sure not to add too much gain because you will loose the definition. But add enough gain to get some balls !

Hope it helps !