For musicians (guitar players) Amp and other questions

I tried to learn to play the guitar several months back, maybe even a year ago, but became discouraged because I couldn't get anywhere close to the sound I wanted out of my amp. I even bought a cheap pedal, a ZOOM 505II. It helped but not enough. My amp was a Rocktron Rampage R10. It was only 10 Watts.

Well, tonight I took my guitar in to get it checked out thinking that was my problem. The guitar store told me that the guitar was not my problem, in fact they told me I had a nice guitar. It is a Washburn X-10/MC. It was made in Indonesia. It sounded pretty good in the hands of someone that could play. So we figured it was probably my amp giving me the trouble. So I bought a Roland Cube30X. It has effects loaded into it. I would have liked to have bought the 60X, but I couldn't afford it. Does anyone know anything about this amp? Will I be able to get decent metal sound from it, when I learn how to play? If anyone knows this amp, how should I set it up? (I can read the instruction manual as well)

I suppose I should also ask about setting up the knobs on my guitar. I have 2 knobs, a switch that goes up and down (I suppose that regulates which pickups are being used?) I had a crappy picture of me taken of me but I don't know how to post it.

Does it make a difference whether I play through the amp or headphones with the sound? Someone told me it doesn't make a difference.

Any comments and help will be appreciated.

Well i have played that amp only in stores i am more of a line 6 guy and the roland is actually not to far off from that. I know that the high gain output is based on Mesa Boogie Rectifier tone.

Set the channel to the lead side and most of your metal sound comes from the Gain. when playing i set gain to around 7 and turn bass down so it takes away the muddy sound.

As for your pick-up position if you want to play rock/metal you set the knob for the pick ups as close to the floor as possible meaning when you are playing it is facing the ground. When you want a blusier more clean muddy tone you flip the switch knob toward you.

Anymore questions i hope i helped you out..

So then I take this amp will do the trick for me? Is it powerful enough for a metal sound?

If so, then any lack of sound or skill will be solely on me?

Okay, so if this is the top of your amp then let me make some "metal suggestions".

Equalizer section: If you're looking for an "old school Metallica-style" distortion sound then crank the Bass all the way up, the Mid all the way down and the Treble all the way up. Adjust to taste.

Lead Section: Try the different amp settings, I suggest trying the "r-fier" setting (that's short for Rectifier which simulates the sound of Mesa-Boogie amps), also give the Metal and other settings a shot...you'll want to use different tones depending on what you're playing.

Gain Knob: This controls the pre-amp (amount of distortion), crank it ALL THE WAY UP for maximum metal.

I'm not completely sure what "Power Squeezer" is, but I'm assuming this is compression, see how it sounds both ways.

One more thing...

If you're just learning to play guitar, try using the clean tone as much as possible. Learn all the basic chords (not just the power chords), practice them until they feel comfortable and make sure all the correct notes ring out.

There are a gazillion online sources for chord charts, scales, tablature, etc.

Good luck!

Shawn (detuned)

bgast1 wrote:

So then I take this amp will do the trick for me? Is it powerful enough for a metal sound?

If so, then any lack of sound or skill will be solely on me?

the trick to guitar playing is time, it is going to take lots of determination before you start to see results. I have been playing 14 years now and i still am nowhere near where i want to be as a player. Rhythmically i am but as a lead player no way. When first starting out learn your bacis string chords

E A D G B e learn those chords cuz they will have you playing hundreds of songs. Then when you master those chords play the power chords of those like E5, A5, D5, G5, B5.. There are tons of online lessons

Quote :

E A D G B e learn those chords cuz they will have you playing hundreds of songs. Then when you master those chords play the power chords of those like E5, A5, D5, G5, B5.. There are tons of online lessons

I learned to play a little back in 1969 and played off and on, on an acoustic guitar. I know all of those chords, the bar chords and minor chords of the EADGB. I don't know power chords, and I don't really know how to control the tone out of an electric guitar. So much has changed since when I started to learn. I can still play those chords reasonably well. I have pretty good control of 3 fingers but not my pinkie yet. I'm not very fast though, and seem to play the wrong notes when I try to play solos.

detuned -- that is exactly what my amp looks like. From the instruction manual it says this feature enables you to reduce the maximux output from 30 watts to 2 watts at the press of a single button. When switched on Power Squeezer reproduces the distortion of a fully cranked power amp along with great sound, regardless of the volume level, but with a 2-watt output that is easy to handle in a home.

Thanks for all of your answers. I hope this amp is going to work for me. Based on what I posted above, where should I start, in terms of exercises? A complete review as a beginner from the first time I picked up a guitar, scales? I belong to Guitar Tricks from the internet, a great site I found. I can play the riff for Smoke on the Water. Just not sure which strings to play it on properly. The only other song I can play is the beginning riff to Led Zepplin, How Many More Times. And an old Animal song House of the Rising Sun. All of the above not particularily cleanly, but I can still play them nevertheless.

I have given online lessons to a lot of friends and would gladly help, if you have any sort of messenger pm me and i would love to help. It is hard to say where you should start, you know your capabilities better then anyone and imo guitarist should always start out simple. I always use to tell people learn the rhythm first cuz whats the point of learning the solo if you cant play the song. Let me know what you want to do.

Start by re-learning the pentatonic and blues scales, that will get you a long way there.

i just know a bunch of random chords abd one pentatonic scale. i just play for fun but i would like a gibson sg