Strings and effects

Just a quick question. I just noticed that when i play rhythm using 5ths and power chords with my guitar using any of the presets or the distortion/ effects in any effects pedal and also particularly the korg ax1500g, the sound just sounds very thin compared to my friend's tone who just uses a regular peavey tube amp with the foot switch for distortion. i wonder if the thin- ness of the sound in my guitar can be attributed to whatever disortion pedal i'm using/ or amp modeler and effects on the ax1500g or is it the string? I just replaced mine with Dean 8'- 32's. My friend on the other hand, uses D' Addario 11's. anyone have any input to share?

Bigger strings will give you a thicker sound. 8's are really damn thin, and they bascially sound like crap. I use 11's D' Addario myself. I would suggest changing your strings, and then see if theres a difference. If not, or your still not pleased, then you could try something else.

I have never seen a pedal get the kind of balls a good valve amp has, that might be a huge part of the problem there.

And yeah, your 8-32s aren't going to do you any good unless you can play like Petrucci. For just doing power chords it's not a good idea using strings that thin. If you want big rich meaty chords start packing more steel. 11s might be a bit big of a jump from 8s, you might want to try something in the middle like 10s.

Also, what type of pickups do you have? That could be it there. If you're using weaker single coils and he's using something like an humbucking X2N it's pretty hard to make up the difference in sound.

@ I suffer
actually I used to play with 10's until I changed it to 8's just to experiment a bit. i thought it wouldn't really matter much if i switch to 8's and try to play rhythm with it because brian may uses 8's and his rhythm and power chords sounds pretty good to me. Besides, I usually play the lead nowadays so I rarely play chords. It's just when i jammed with an old friend of mine, and I started playing rhythm while letting him play the lead, i noticed that my chords aren't beefy enough and they sound very thin compared to his guitar's tone when he plays rhythm and power chords. However, when I play the lead guitar, my guitar totally smokes his. It seems like my guitar only sounds thin when i play rhythm.

May I also add, I actually have a brian may patch on my effects pedals- when I do the solo, it sounds pretty accurate and good but when i do his power chords and rhythm stuff like "Keep yourself alive" and "Tie your mother down," I get a pretty exact tone but the only problem is, i find my tone thinner. I also have an Yngwie patch, a joe satriani patch, a steve vai patch- lots of good patches- and they all sound amazing when i use them for lead guitar playing but when i started using them for power chords and rhythm work, they all just sound thin. what should i do? should i change strings or should i change amps or does this mean that the korg sucks LOL?

@hammurabi
So are you saying that if i get a valve amp, my tone would be more beefy even if i have 8's? the amp that i use is a fender princeton 65'- i only use the clean channel with the korg ax1500g. I'm using a gibson classic 57 (neck) and a classic 57 plus (bridge) reissue humbuckers. I don't know what pickups he's using- i know its the stock humbuckers that you can find in the washburn guitar- i forgot the model but it's suppose to be washburn's copy of the gibson es 335. Interesting thing is this. before i got the korg, and i used to use the gain in my fender princeton amp for distortion, whenever i play rhythm, my power chords dont sond thin- it's pretty beefy at all, and whenever we play, the two guitars just blend well. but when i got the korg, and started using the clean channel of the fender amp for the korg which i used for effects and distortion, somehow, my lead sounds improved a lot but my powerchords and rhythm stuff just started sounding unusualy thin. what can u advice?

Originally posted by the fool
[B@hammurabi
So are you saying that if i get a valve amp, my tone would be more beefy even if i have 8's? the amp that i use is a fender princeton 65'- i only use the clean channel with the korg ax1500g. I'm using a gibson classic 57 (neck) and a classic 57 plus (bridge) reissue humbuckers. I don't know what pickups he's using- i know its the stock humbuckers that you can find in the washburn guitar- i forgot the model but it's suppose to be washburn's copy of the gibson es 335. Interesting thing is this. before i got the korg, and i used to use the gain in my fender princeton amp for distortion, whenever i play rhythm, my power chords dont sond thin- it's pretty beefy at all, and whenever we play, the two guitars just blend well. but when i got the korg, and started using the clean channel of the fender amp for the korg which i used for effects and distortion, somehow, my lead sounds improved a lot but my powerchords and rhythm stuff just started sounding unusualy thin. what can u advice?
[/B]

Depends on the valve amp. Get a good mesa or laney it's going to rock, but that costs $$ and not all valve amps are good.

I personally don't like digital effects. I've never used korg, but the type I have used (digitech) was pretty thin as far as distortion went.

I'm not entirely sure what you can do with the korg or with that amp..would it be possible to use the effects without adding distortion from the pedal and then use the amp's gain channel?

tried it but it doesnt sound good. its just weird because before i got the korg, the amp can produce pretty good beefy sounds on my guitar but when i got the korg, my lead guitar sound improved but my rhythm sound just got thinner. even if i get a good valve amp, i dont know if its going to be useful because i can only plug the effects processor on the clean channel to begin with.