Originally Posted by: garacerI just got a Fender Blues Deluxe amp. Does anyone have a good basic setting for a good blues sound with some sustain? The two high strings seem to be a little dull and everything else not quite right. Oh yea, I'm playing a Les Paul. Thanks

In a way, impossible to answer. It has to sound good to your ear and that's a bit hard to do over this here intarweb... :D

However, I am a tone monkey and have been told that I teak good tone out of just about every amp I've played. It's not a special talent, I just screw around until I like it. That's the point, I will forever tweak and am never 100% satisfied but always in a range that I like for tone.

However, some things I do to set up my tone.

First, I do not start with a distorted/overdriven sound. That comes later. I do my Hi/Mid/Low adjustments clean. Thing is, the tone setting on a Les Paul is going to be different than a Strat. So I never actually care about a 'standard setting' for me. Back to the point, I strum open E, G and D and tweak the clean open chords. It lets you know that you are balancing the brighter end with the beefier end. Specifically, an open G should should both robust and slightly shimmery since it is striking all the strings.

Once I have the clean tone at a place I find pleasant, I factor in the overdrive stuff. I find that adding the dirt does change the tone dynamic a little so I tweak some more. However, when adding overdrive, I tend to not use open chords to set the tone but focus on bar chords and lead stuff.

Thing is, If I told you my setting, it might sound horrible when you set it up. It's equipment, pick ups and how you play.

I'd told it before but I did a guitar player competition (popular in the 80's). Everyone had to use the same Ampeg solid state amp set up. Not a great amp. In addition to the amp on stage, there was a combo version of the same the in 'practice room' back stage. When I practiced prior to the competition, I was bumrushed by half of the 20 participants asking how I set it up. I'd played through this amp at the local store a ton of times so I knew what I needed to do. So, everyone used my set up that asked me.

Funny think, in watching a play back video later at the local store, one of the sales guys asked what I did for my tone...I said I plugged straight in to the amp, the guy before me already set my tone set up. Yet, I apparently sounded better than most of the others.

Key to this is not what I sounded like but that what is good for me may not be good for you. We play differently. Most importantly is having a tried and true method of getting there.