TOOB / SBUS with solid body guitars

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

As requested in the earlier thread comparing the TOOB Metro / SBUS to the Blu 6, here are two clips of solid bodies through my TOOB Metro / Superblock US combo. While practicing this morning, I decided to lay down a blues track with my Les Paul and a solo jazz track with my Tele. Both guitars have TI flats on them, JS111 on the LP and JS113 on the Tele with a 75 7th on both. Recordings were captured from about 6" away with the internal mics in my TASCAM DR40x recorder used as a DAI.

The LP (my dive bar blues guitar) is an Epi 7 Frankenpaul into which I set an active EMG neck pickup, removed the bridge p'up (along with the selector switch and extra pots), and filled all the unused holes including the bridge rout. The volume is 'way down at about 8 o'clock and the gain is 'way up at about 4. The limiter knob is at noon, bass is at 1 o'clock, mid at 11 and treble at 10. I just blew out some notes over a YT backing track so you can hear the articulation and the general tone. Cranking the gain all the way gets grittier, which many seem to like (although I don't). And cranking the limiter adds more sustain along with more gross compression. The SBUS / Metro combo takes my Wampler Tumnus Deluxe very well, getting fatter and grittier if you like that.

Frankenpaul:

The second clip was made with my Forshage-designed, Chinese made Tele 7, into which I put a pair of humbucker-sized Lace Alumitones. The limiter is off, the gain and master volume reversed (vol up, gain down), treble at 11 o'clock, mid and bass at noon. I'm working on a new solo arrangement of When Sunny Gets Blue, so I just recorded a run through it. To my ears, the Metro with SBUS combo gets a decent jazz tone. Tweaking the EQ gets it woodier or thunkier, but the way it's set in this recording sounds pretty jazzy to me live.

Tele:

[Gitterbug]

Thanks! Another solid proof that it's not the guitar, it's the player (with a little help from the amp and little more from the cab.)

[sgosnell]

And a lot of help from the pickup...

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

And a lot of help from the pickup...

What’s funny is that I’ve had an EMG in that LP for about 25 years, and I’ve been told terrible things about them from everybody who saw it or heard me talk about it. But when they hear it, they change their tunes.

The first one was a bass pickup I got off a clearance table for a few bucks. Then I came across a proper EMG 7 string pickup, so I figured I’d give it a try. These do smooth creamy blues very well, and they’re fairly versatile with careful use of tone pots on guitar and amp. So I really like them - but they don’t do woody or thunky quite as well as I’d like.

The Alumitones are really cool. They make jazz tones nicely, and I used the Tele for all my gigs for about 6 months after I installed them. But I really missed the sound, feel, and even the look of an archtop - so I went back to them for jazz dates. But the Alumibuckers are really fine.

[Alter]

For jazz approximation solid bodies, stellar sounds!