Stripped Naked

Not me physical, but as close as it can be with my guitar. Naked truth in my face.
 
Often practice against an mp3 of something. Bit of compression, fuzz box, chorus or flanger nicely done. Background delay or a reverb. Noise gate where needed and some eq to match the file.
 
Sounds pretty dam good with all the coverup.
 
Only thing worse for me than trying to play without a pick is to overlay something with the axe completely dry.
 
Sounds terrible and has taken me more than a couple notches down. I know there is an art to using effects, but if the effects are gone and you have nothing left to hide lack of technique...
 
Anybody out there actually record and get a good sound with nothing added? Hell of a challenge when you got nothing to hide behind.
 
John

I've been know to hang around nude and jam out guitar (like in my own home, not like out playing a show or whatever)
 
I also record a lot of dry.   I use very minimal fx mixes in my tracks anyways - often just 10% on things like delay, reverb, chorus, phase, etc

I recorded the guitar in my song "On The Beach" plugged directly into my interface with nothing added; no reverb, no delay or distortion, no flanger or chorus. Just me and my guitar.
A million and 1 punch-ins, though.

Linear Phase
I've been know to hang around nude and jam out guitar (

Looks like you weren't the first.  
 

 
99% of my guitar playing for all my practice, learning , working on new music and just sitting here playing is done direct w no effects what so ever .
Usually while on the computer, I'm plugged into my sound card using head phones while just playing along to something  .
 
My other 2 modes of nakedness on the electric guitar are I like to play direct into my small Fender Champ Tube amp using only a guitar cable while playing at lower TV volumes . I keep my Champ at ear level right next to my favorite chair.
When I'm feeling to Lazy to hunt down a guitar cable I will just play a big Jazz box or a semi hollow body guitar w out the amp acoustically .
 
To tell you the truth I wasn't always this way . I sort of Morphed into this type of approach over a long period of time ...
 
Even though I have all these pedals and effects in both hardware and software form over here .
I have found for myself that I usually want to hear and play my guitar in it's most Natural Sounding state ...
 
 
As far as the other 1 % of the time goes ..watch out & duck for cover because that's when all the real trouble starts
 
all the best,
 
Kenny
 
 

Linear Phase
I've been know to hang around nude and jam out guitar

<<<note to self......don't ever, ever, ever borrow or use LP's guitars>>> 
 
BTW Bob, I tried that setup using the White Chanel (with the settings you suggested) before the amp sim, and got a very nice full bodied tone......my new (updated) setup.
 
Thanks and I appreciate the tip!!  

Mesh

Linear Phase
I've been know to hang around nude and jam out guitar

<<<note to self......don't ever, ever, ever borrow or use LP's guitars>>> 
 
BTW Bob, I tried that setup using the White Chanel (with the settings you suggested) before the amp sim, and got a very nice full bodied tone......my new (updated) setup.
 
Thanks and I appreciate the tip!!  

Cool.  Glad it worked for you.  That's what I came up by with following Craig's excellent article.

Fake it 'til you make it.
 
 

Always good advice here. Why I love hate this place. Voda's comments ring true as well as others.
My problem, been banging on guitars for over 50 years. Banging keyboards for over 60 years.
Longer doesn't mean better and often the opposite. Time invested does cultivate getting stuck in ruts that are hard to change.
Decades ago was actually one of the complete oddballs that tried to progress direct in when everyone else was micing the amps. Never learned how to mic an amp to my disadvantage.
 
Found a golden tone with a Ross compressor into an MXR distortion into a Ross flanger I had to modify to get wet/dry balance, into a Ross delay and then a noise gate. Delay hardware of the time was miserable with distortion and noise, but see that it is cool now. What I did was to use the effects as instruments, having to play them as much as the guitar.
 
Now revisiting the dry signal as a discipline. Direct in against a practice mp3 unfairly cursed because you got the mp3 with a limited bandwidth and the direct in 20 to 20k forking up everything in the soundscape.
 
Without the crutch of a line of effects, what you got is what you got, and in my case, it ain't that much.
 
Think Voda is correct that it will take a couple months.
 
John