BE A TEAM PLAYER | Studio Tone vs. Live Tone | How Shawn Tubbs Dials Amps

Shawn Tubbs played guitar for Carrie Underwood for 11 years. How does he dial in session & live tones? You might be surprised!

Thanks to Marty Midgard for the topic suggestion!
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[thisdyingsoul]

I never used to understand the band tone vs bedroom tone concept. After our first gig with a professional sound guy though, it all made sense. This guy, knowing my band was inexperienced, took the time to explain it and even show us by having the bassist and guitarists take turns to come out by his mix station while he went up and played the instruments before and after he EQ'd our instruments.

The closer we got our tones to what he would do with the eq of the mixer, the easier his job was and the better we would sound. He also taught us about how the stage sound impacted the FOH if it was too loud. His solution was to have us put our amps at the side of the stage and facing across the stage instead of toward the audience. This way, we all could hear ourselves with minimal instruments in the monitors and the amps didn't compete so much with the FOH sound.

[ArvidNielsen]

Yes, great question, and a great answer.

[bbgone]

Great advice, and also I love how the smiley face on the miniature kinda looks like a gold fuzz face

[bobbybowers]

I’ve been telling people the same thing for 30 years, but they don’t listen. Guitar players dial in their tone with a lot of boomy low end, and thump. Bass players turn the top end off, crank the bass frequencies, drummers have their snares sounding like a tom, kick drums have a sleeping bag in it, Tom’s have moon gels or half a roll of duct tape on the heads, singers crying, ” put some bottom end on my mic then drench it with reverb and delay, and to top it all off, have huge subs cranked. Then each one complains they are not cutting through in the mix, , and start turning up.

[martymidgard]

Thanks for the detailed answer, man! 🤘🏼

[jimgrable]

Excellent advice Shawn. When playing acoustic with my bass player for the 1st time, my EQ was 6'oclock mid's and lows drowning the bass out. I set the acoustic all to 0. The natural sound work perfectly.

[J_C]

This is great Shawn! Thank you! I especially love hearing about your touring experiences with Carrie Underwood, what a cool experience it would be sharing the stage with such a great band!

[bushleague]

This is something a whole lot of guitar players dont even think about. I like loud, busy music and at a certain point I started to notice that alot of albums that I admire the production on dont have my favorite guitar tones. I've also noticed that some great amps dont always lend themselves to great mixes... while Dual Rec's can get great rock tones, they seem to account for some awkward mixes. I never much liked Vox's but they almost always seem to fit nicely in the mix.

[AZFunk]

Great vid. One of the biggest lessons for any guitarist. Because of this, I almost always monitor myself in the studio (and even live) inside the mix as opposed to being nudged on top or running my amp loud, so that the tone feels good. Rolling off the bass knob is painful sometimes ;) I use a parametric in my FX loop (I use the Wampler EQuator) too, to help sculpt for this too.

[jayzinger]

What can I ad here Shawn, what other guys didn't say in the comments before. Just wise speaking from you. And you sure hit the headline: BE A TEAM PLAYER! Thank you so much, I appreciate j-)

[garypatrick]

YES, Homie.. Was JUST working thru this very topic with our D20 amps live with In-Ears. THANK YOU!

[markinthemix]

Great conversation. 22 awards last night 🤩

[BitsOfEternity]

Watching this after I got my Tilt set up. Now, I can just flip the Tight switch, and/or dial the TiltEQ in whichever direction I need, because it is the last pedal in my chain. It makes other OD pedals sound better, and being able to shelf bass, or add treble, and do so much more, this video explains exactly why that pedal was born. I'm so glad you and Dan made it!

[johnpeters]

This is an excellent topic Shawn! not a lot of content out there dealing with the bigger picture, playing instruments as if it’s a mix, etc. Loved your explanations here.

[MarkKirbyMusic]

Really interesting! I would like to hear more Carrie Underwood touring/recording stories in the future if possible.

[CraigRMerriman]

Thank you Shawn! Always informative. 🙂

[jasonsapp]

I own a 2008 1st year DGT...I am struggling finding my "happy" with this guitar...I have started this video but paused it to type this...I hope this video sheds some light for me ...I have owned this guitar for over 2yrs and am on the fence parting with it... hopefully/maybe this video will help me find a "happy"?

[joeblow]

My god, every guitarist on the planet needs to watch this. Trying to explain this to bar hero guitar players who they think they know things is exhausting, if only I was as eloquent in my words as shawn ALWAYS is. Also, stop dialing in your amps so dark, the murky dark tones that come out these days on every record and people being afraid of high end is nauseating.

[jeffarcher]

Thanks for the tips. Maybe you can help me in the opposite direction. I need my solo to cut through the mix but often lose volume right when I need it. Everyone isn't turning it up but they are pushing hard. It seems like maybe my older smaller transformer is losing our to newer amps?
The other guitarist uses a Mesa and I have tried many smaller 20-40 watt amps. If I go 50 watt Marshall I get heard and it doesn't lose volume on single notes. Using humbuckers on LP or vee.
Boost button and stomp boxes seem to not do as much either when the suck is occurring.

If you could do a video on what the amp sounds like when various parts fail like the transformer, preamp tubes, power tubes, capacitors and how to pull tubes without getting shocked and dying it would be great.

[bldlightpainting]

I hear you, as I have worn many hats, such as a musician, producer, audio engineer, etc. As a solo artist, it is always somewhat difficult to transition into playing with a band or in a studio setting. Your frequency mix is quite different in some respects, as everyone has to fit into their own sonic space, which can be challenging once you get past a few musicians.