Want to get my "The Butterfly Effect" on

[TheKman76]

A mate recently introduced me to The Butterfly Effect, an act out of Queensland. Saw them last years when they came to Melbourne and it was a great gig. They've become a favourite in the rotation lately and we'll be seeing them again in Jan when they come back.

I don't play a lot of this style of music, but I want to. Playing in C standard or drop B is just not something I'm equipped for. I'm not really attuned to the sonic pallet, pedals, amp, nor do I have a guitar setup for this tuning.

Then I saw this:



I'm not familiar with Mike's music, but I was quite surprised to see him using a Les Paul for drop B stuff. I'd have thought this was baritone territory! I was also fascinated by his use of Muffs in his tone, so I'm thinking this is something I should explore with what I have already.

So, given that I have a spare fender scale length guitar, a DSL40CR and a Boss GT-1000, where to start? I'm thinking 13 gauge strings with a wound third as per Mike's setup for starters. I usually play tens on a fender scale length, would 12 or 13 gauge be better?

Any thoughts on coaxing some fat heavy tones from the DSL are also welcome.

 

[TheKman76]

Well, strings will have to wait 'til the weekend, but I've played with the GT and found some really interesting tones.

Presently I have a blues driver into parallel amps, one side the DSL crunch channel, the other side into a Big Muff followed by an Orange Stack model, then mixed into an EQ stage back to the DSL power amp. Adjusting the mix of the two sides has a balance of clarity and girth, really cool.

 

[Sir Don]

I use this for any drop tuning:

 

[TheKman76]

@Sir Don Thanks for that, it occurs to me I could do this in the GT also!

 

[FleshOnGear]

I generally tune to C-std. I use D’Addadrio EXL145 Heavy Gauge strings on my 25-1/2” scale guitar, and EXL110-7 Light Gauge (minus the 10) on my 24-3/4” scale guitar. So, that’s 12-54 for Fender scale and 13-59 (wound third) for Gibson scale.

 

[TheKman76]

Gave the pitch shift a go last night, not really convinced, honestly. The Boss does a reasonable job, I just couldn't get my head around the feedback not working as expected. Felt wrong somehow.

Got the EXL145 set on this afternoon in 'C', these sound great! I've got a ways to go when it comes to creating the sound to go with this, but, initially they have the right starting point. However, these really feel like a 'light' gauge to me. I'm having to be careful how I pick and very gentle with the left hand. I understand this is probably better techniques for this style of music anyway, just not used to it I guess. Ten gauge in 'E' I can dig into them pretty hard, this requires a light touch.

Drop C feels like the right place for the EXL145 set to me.

Also started playing with the Bass OD and Bass Fuzz in the GT, these really add girth to the sound. There a couple of Bass preamps in there I'm yet to try. Fun!