"Indie Sound"

BanditGuitarist1

Theres no better place to discuss the "indie sound" then JS.Com in my opinion. I was wondering what you guys do to get your indie tone. I guess the basic idea of the "indie sound" is a bright spanky clean and loose but crunchy distortion. I use my Orange a Mustang and my pedalboard use a TS9 for distortion. So what does everyone use and like for that classic "indie rock" tone!

harrison

i am far from a tone master, i dont have any tone or volume controls on my stang. and my amp is always set with everything on 10. maybe it aint indie, but it sure is rock and roll!! 😆

but i agree with you about those two tones, i use my modded ds-1 as my main booster/overdrive for that snappy clean with a little bit of breakup you know. and my russian muff gives me crazy lo-fi distortion wall

BanditGuitarist1

nice set up! I love that semi-overdriven spanky clean tone! However you get it its just great when you hear it and you know its right ROCK N ROLL!!

feedbackismyfriend

harrison said: i am far from a tone master, i dont have any tone or volume controls on my stang.

I has a guitar with no controls too.

My tone isn't really an indie tone... it's more grunge/hard rock.

I mainly use the channels on my Vox Valvetronix amp.

Channel 1- Clean (this is just the preset clean setting so I dun know how the EQ is set)

Channel 2- Dirty (preset clean with some EQ tweaks G=max, B=9:00, M=12:00, T=Max)

Channel 3- Distorted (same as dirty channel only on overdrive mode)

I normally use the onboard compressor on the distortion channel and the onboard autowah on the dirty channel.

If I don't have access to my amp I use a DS-1 with everything cranked, I love this tone even though it's not pleasant to most people's ears. Occassionly I bust out my fuzzface or metalcore just for fun.

Cymastar

Bridge Position > Single Coil Pickup > Tone rolled all the way up (super trebly) > Channel 2 > Gain Rolled to about 10 o'clock (less than half) > Mid: 10 > High: 10

Super, not to crunchy, kind of jangly indie rock tone... Sounds nice and Lo-Fi...

feedbackismyfriend

Cymastar said: Bridge Position > Single Coil Pickup > Tone rolled all the way up (super trebly) > Channel 2 > Gain Rolled to about 10 o'clock (less than half) > Mid: 10 > High: 10
Super, not to crunchy, kind of jangly indie rock tone... Sounds nice and Lo-Fi...

sounds like you have similiar taste in tone as me

harrison

i think the wombats guitarist has that great thin "indie (lol) " sound especially in kill the director, also he uses orange so thats gotta be some points

Blandest

Squier II Strat or the Tele probably for me.

Peavey classic 30 w/ celestion vintage 30

- drop most the bass and push the highs, let the mids hang out mid way...

then through the Russian Muff, Sustain maxed out and tone at about 3 o'clock.

add in more mid and take off a tad bit of the highs and boost the mids, swap out the muff for the rat and there's my bluesy tone.

JaguarOW

not sure if its described as an "indie tone" but my trebly, slightly driven tone that i use consists of

squier affinity strat with blue sensor in bridge

Bad monkey with drive and treble at full, bass around half

Shine Tube amp

Yum 😁

Cymastar

harrison said: i think the wombats guitarist has that great thin "indie (lol) " sound especially in kill the director, also he uses orange so thats gotta be some points

I love the Wombats...

@Feedbackismyfriend: What kind of stuff are you into? Currently I'm spinning Neptune, be your own PET (guilty pleasure 😛 ), Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, Ride, Deerhunter, Big Black, Butthole Surfers, and the Toadies.

Disappearer

to be honest i dont like the current indie scene - uk or usa. but for sy/dinosaur/placebo-ish cleans i use the neck pickup of my vista jagmaster, with tone on full on the guitar and on the amp, bass about a quarter up and treble about twice that

feedbackismyfriend

harrison said: i think the wombats guitarist has that great thin "indie (lol) " sound especially in kill the director, also he uses orange so thats gotta be some points

Nirvana, STP, & the lil bit of Sonic Youth I've heard is pretty cool (I dun really listen to the type of music I play, but when looking for tone I go for the kinda tone these bands have)

Fran

The Smiths had the classic Indie sound imo, huge chords>Rickenbacker>Clean Fender amp sometimes with crunch. The odd bit of tremolo, delay and chorus.

I dont think you can go wrong with a Tubescreamer or SD-1, just look at how many great guitarists use them on GC..

http://guitargeek.com/

I've always played quite 'heavy', more like Nirvana/MBV/Dino Jr. So i nearly always use a Big Muff w/a Tubescreamer and sometimes something extra like the MXR Blue Box. In fact i just bought a Behringer clone of the discontinued Boss DF-2 (Super Feedbacker & Distortion) more for the feedback feature. I used to own the Boss version but i sold it and they are too pricey nowadays.

I usually set the Marshall JCM 2000 on 'crunch' before any of these as well 😆

Indie seems to cover such a broad spectrum i think its difficult to say what the best sound is, its more the way you play i think.

tragictravisty

there is no indie sound - logic fail. if indie guitarists are so 'indy' they wouldn't all have the same cliche tone... how can you call a group of bands so similar 'indie'?

BanditGuitarist1

tragictravisty said: there is no indie sound - logic fail. if indie guitarists are so 'indy' they wouldn't all have the same cliche tone... how can you call a group of bands so similar 'indie'?

Thats why the term "Indie" was used the quotations showing that its more of a broad term and somewhat vague that most would classify like Fran said as very bright, big chords, and slightly crunch. The whole idea was just to talk about how everyone gets those kind of bright crunch tones etc. I think every "indie" artist has a different tone, I was just using the general description of what people see as "indie" that's all, I think alternative rock is great because there is such a wide amount of tones people create etc, and its really good to talk about new tones and textures people are getting with all the gear that's floating around these days. 😎

Cymastar

tragictravisty said: there is no indie sound - logic fail. if indie guitarists are so 'indy' they wouldn't all have the same cliche tone... how can you call a group of bands so similar 'indie'?

The logic fail is yours, Trav. Each of us has mentioned a different tone, which is based on the indie bands we listen to. This proves that each indie band has its own basic feel, and those feels are different from one another...

StevieK

So called "Indie" bands around dallas all use telecasters (bridge position) through fender devilles or vox ac30s, I've seen a few guys with Oranges, but mostly just fender devilles. A lot of them use fulltone and keeley pedals with Line 6 dl4 delay pedals. Thats basically the modern "Texas" indie guitar tone around these parts.

I don't really play indie but I must admit my setup is pretty similar, only I use Strats and Jaguars, my delay is an Echolution, and my amp is a twin reverb. I have a few more odd ball effects then most indie bands do, but I'm not in any "rock" type bands right now. I'm in a gospel band, and a motown cover band.

I wanna get back into rock again in a few years, but right now I wanna soak up more American roots music into my playing.

JaguarOW

Fran said: i just bought a Behringer clone of the discontinued Boss DF-2

is it any good?

BanditGuitarist1

Stevie K said: So called "Indie" bands around dallas all use telecasters (bridge position) through fender devilles or vox ac30s, I've seen a few guys with Oranges, but mostly just fender devilles. A lot of them use fulltone and keeley pedals with Line 6 dl4 delay pedals. Thats basically the modern "Texas" indie guitar tone around these parts.
I don't really play indie but I must admit my setup is pretty similar, only I use Strats and Jaguars, my delay is an Echolution, and my amp is a twin reverb. I have a few more odd ball effects then most indie bands do, but I'm not in any "rock" type bands right now. I'm in a gospel band, and a motown cover band.
I wanna get back into rock again in a few years, but right now I wanna soak up more American roots music into my playing.

Thats intresting I've been getting into my american music Motown era also those slow 50's ballad type things are very fun to play and sound so pretty. How are Line6 pedals? I have always hated there amps, but I heard there pedals sound great but arent reliable.

Cymastar

BanditGuitarist1 said: Thats intresting I've been getting into my american music Motown era also those slow 50's ballad type things are very fun to play and sound so pretty. How are Line6 pedals? I have always hated there amps, but I heard there pedals sound great but arent reliable.

I HATE Line 6 pedals with a passion 😠 !