ambient guitar

Started by Ronnie Bee, September 28, 2014, 01:53:33 AM

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Ronnie Bee

Hi, what would you consider the most versatile/diverse guitar to play ambient music?

Brak(E)man

I'd go for a fretted and fretless guitar with GK and fernandes sustainer or sustainiac with a VG99 and a delaybased looper such as Boss DD20. I'd say that the combination of those thing's are more important than the actual guitar.
swimming with a hole in my body

I play Country music too, I'm just not sure which country it's from...

"The only thing worse than a guitar is a guitarist!"
- Lydia Lunch

ZenSonic

I see and hear allot of Ambient players using Telecasters for some reason. A Roland Ready guitar with a good, stable trem system and Sustainiac would be a great choice in my book. Adding a GP-10 and Boomerang 3 with side kick would be a nice rig I think.


aliensporebomb

Well, for me I like to use low output passive humbuckers in whatever guitar I am using. 

The telecaster idea is okay but I find single coils are bright but tend to be noisy and if you're looping the noise builds up over time to create a texture some enjoy, I like to keep it clean.

Here's me using the stock humbuckers in an Ibanez Prestige S1520 FBNT:


I'm using the stock pickups that came with the guitar into my analog rig.
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

Ronnie Bee

Thanks so far guys. I have a stratocaster GK ready which is fine with the Boss Gr-55 but I tend to agree with aliensporebomb (what's in a name? Lol) that when I hook it up in a pedalboard (normal jack output) it seems to be somewhat noisy. Indeed telecasters are fairly often used but having said this, I have my eye on a few second hand guitars : a PRS custom 24 of 1994, one of 1996 pré factory period and a Fender select telecaster HH with Malaysian top blackwood. All in the same price range. The Fender has split coil humbuckers giving perhaps more possibilities in sounds when playing around with the switch. That was the reason I was asking. a penny for your thoughts again?  ;D thanks for the video Aliensporebomb!

ZenSonic

 A 94 PRS Custom sounds sweet but I would not want to mod it and I mod just about all my guitars in one way or another. So for me it would sit in the case too often.

My next guitar project is a Purple PRS Custom 24 SE Floyde. Want to put a ghost hex system and Sustainiac in it.

Ronnie Bee

Thnx Zensonic. I'm not looking for modelling the guitar itself but looking out for the allround tool. If that exists  ;D

Brak(E)man

swimming with a hole in my body

I play Country music too, I'm just not sure which country it's from...

"The only thing worse than a guitar is a guitarist!"
- Lydia Lunch

Ronnie Bee

Fender won : Fender select 2013 telecaster with wide range humbuckers, malaysian blackwood top. Great instrument (I hope)

ZenSonic

Great, please enjoy. What tipped the scales in the Tele's favor?

Now_And_Then


If cost is no object (and of course I know that it is) then a Moog E-1 with 13-pin output into a VG-99 would seem to be close to ideal - you would have infinite sustain, and would not have to even consider the noise or tone of its magnetic pickups.

Otherwise, it's not easy for me to see why one kind of guitar would be any more suitable than another for ambient - after all, how much of the original sound of the guitar is left after extremely extensive processing? Wouldn't the differences in sound between, for example, a Strat and a Les Paul pretty much be minimal after possibly several stages each of delay, chorus, flange, reverb, distortion, eq, and pitch shifting?

I would have thought that people would simply buy a guitar with a basic sound that they like when employed in "typical" use cases, and simply start with that when doing ambient. Could it really make that much difference?

vanceg

As a long time ambient player and designer of guitars I'd chime in with:

- I'd use Humbuckers to reduce any noise from pickups
- Sustainiac is a HUGE benefit for ambient music
- The VG-99 can't be beat for flexibility and "non-standard" tones.
- An external looper or other effects may be warranted

ZenSonic

#12
A Schecter guitar with high gain humbuckers, Sustainiac factory installed and a Floyd Rose trem may be a viable option.

mapperboy

#13
I could suggest you try a Godin RMC hex PU equipped instrument. The SA designation on their various models means it has the 13 pin RMC piezo hex system and I believe they're now doing a solid body Fishman Triple Play integrated model as well. I use the Godin Multiac Nylon ACS-SA a lot.  It's semi acoustic body wide neck ('almost' classical wide nut width-1 7/8") which fits my left hand well, and its great for a variety of styles (with the right patch I can even pump out a raunchy Metal tone).  The RMC piezos plus nylons are definitely more mellow than a GK-3A mag system on brass/bronze steel core strings but with proper settings on the GK menu I find its very controllable as to false triggering/ghost notes rejection, sensitivity/nuance etc.  They also make some steel string SA versions with the RMC piezo PUs. (I'm not associated with Godin; I just like their well crafted and detailed instruments and being Canadian, I like to support our domestic luthiers and craft workers when ever I can)
I currently have five 13 pin capable instruments 3 guitars (the Godin mentioned, and two with retro fitted GK-3As-a Taylor 314CE and an Ibanez AZ-400 Artist) and 2 basses (one Godin 5 string SA fretless and one with a retro fitted GK-2A, a Warwick 5 string Thumb) and use them all to try and fall under the influence and spin off the early and late Berlin/German schools of  Electro/Ambient stylings.
As long as it has some kind of 13 pin compatible PU on it, I think any axe you're comfortable with can serve a variety of roles and styles with the GR and VG series of synths -they're really are flexible (OK, I admit I love the Roland guitar and bass 'synths' for all my work cause I never became a 10 pedal pedal board totin' kind of gigger!)
"No such thing as spare time.
No such thing as free time.
No such thing as down time.
All you got is life time. Go!"
- Henry Rollins

ZenSonic

#14
I purchased a flamed blue Godin LGX-SA from Sweetwater. It's a great axe in every way except that I found it to be a bit heavy by the end of a gig. That being said an excellent choice IMO.

Ronnie Bee

#15
Yeah, what tipped the scale? Although I am not the best guitar player in the world, I like guitars and their sound(s) so I wouldn't use the GR to play trumpet or else on it. Having said this, I have something with woods and craftsmanship. I also just love Godin guitars. I own a nylon SA piezzo elements and multiac steel with lipstick at the neck and piezzo. But I also love the stratocaster so I bought the Roland ready strat which for its price is a lovely guitar and my first real electric. A friend of mine is a part time dealer in second hand guitars and the Telecaster HH was a new guitar, hardly played a few times (it probably wasn't suited for the former owner). It had a beautiful Malaysian blackwood top, has a partly hollow body which helps woth the sound (you can even play it without amp) and last but not least the. Wide range humbuckersfrom Fender. A whole package of sounds. Maybe not a "Real" tele for some but a very diverse guitar for what I wanted and nice to look at. The PRS was 20 years old and kind of a mistery for me so I went for the Fender and don't regret it. No 13 pins on this one but I play this one with strymon gear and a few electro harmonics pedals. No 13 pin needed :-). Just fun to experiment with sound and boy the tele sounds so nice without any distortion ;-) happy camper !

ZenSonic

The Tele sounds like a nice Axe.

I love the Blue Sky, Big Sky reverbs and Timeline delay by Strymon...... Just not sure I want to spend the $ for them. Looking at the Trinity 2 Reverb by TC Electronic and Ditto X2 delay by the same company for my Ambient pedal board.

Ronnie Bee

The upside on strymon is that with these pedals you have everything you'd want. Downside maybe is that it takes some time to tweek them and look for sounds but maybe that's also the fun of it all. If you have those three you'd need also maybe a midi controller which ups the price. I guess its a personal choice. Some do more with less too ;-)

ZenSonic

True, I think I'll get a few moderately priced pedals that sound good to me and keep, switch, add or subtract if wanted. The El Capistan has caught my eye as a second delay..sounded great to me.

thebrushwithin

QuoteIf cost is no object (and of course I know that it is) then a Moog E-1 with 13-pin output into a VG-99 would seem to be close to ideal - you would have infinite sustain, and would not have to even consider the noise or tone of its magnetic pickups.

So glad I did get one, before being discontinued, as the price is now more than the original price. The Moog is a killer, as long as you use COSM guitars, but sucks without them. Even though I do love it, I am anxiously awaiting the release of the Keith McMillen StrongArm Sustainer, so I can dump 13pin. No word yet on its release date, as the original release period has come and gone. Believe me, especially for ambient guitar, polyphonic sustain is such a wonderful tool!

ZenSonic

The StongArm Sustainer looks very interesting. I just signed up to receive updates on the Company website. thanks

aliensporebomb

#21
I own the Strymon Big Sky and think it's pretty amazing.  It's certainly the nicest sounding reverb for ambient music at that price point that I know of.
It's even nicer than a TC Electronic rackmount reverb I own.

I would go so far as to say the Big Sky (like the Lexicon Vortex before it) is actually a musical instrument.

I did a very long video with my both of my rigs:
-guitar into mesa preamp with lexicon vortex + tc electronic g sharp into the big sky into the board
and
-guitar into vg99 into big sky into the board

here:


It's about 25 minutes long.  Sorry, I got carried away.
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

Ronnie Bee

#22
Cool ! Any of you guys own a GR-55? Thoughts on it compared with VG-99?  ;D I also use a superego from electro-harmonix to sustain sounds and make drones.

Tek

Quote from: aliensporebomb on September 28, 2014, 08:23:20 AM
Here's me using the stock humbuckers in an Ibanez Prestige S1520 FBNT:


Aliensporebomb - Sounds great! That's the kind of tone you could play for hours... love it!

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