Got a pedalboard? I got the Line 6 X3 Live, and before that I had the XT Live. I was real good at the Xt Live, the X3Live is a bit more complicated, as it features dual processing, and two different tones running simultaneously means more time blending tones, etc etc.

First off, I hate every preset tone I ever heard, so right off the bat, I make my own.

Before I even plug in the board in, I'll take a week just reading over the manual. It helps that I had the model before it, but still, it has to be done. I want to know the ins and outs of my machine, ya know?

So...let's start with the lead tone. I get mesages from lots of guys wanting to know how I nailed the classic EVH tone. I can whip one up from scratch in under 5 minutes.

For any of you that have amp modllers in your pedalboard, my rule of thumb is usually this:

Lead tones: Use Marshall Metal rhythms:Use Mesa, Engl, etc etc.

So, for a good lead tone, I'll use a Marshall, and I think for th EVH sound, I'll use the Criminal model. Okay, the goal here is to get as much gain from the amp model as possible. So crank the gain, the presence, all that stuff..I usually crank the bass, put mids on about 80%, and treble at myabe half, just tweak until you think it sounds good. Does it sound pretty tough? Need more distortion? Cool, now we'll go to the stomp box effects..

For stomp box distortion, I either use the Screamer model or whatever the Ratt one is. I'll start the distortion at maybe 30% and go more if I have to. Chances are, there's gonna be lots of guitar noise, hissing, feedback, we'll take care of that with the noise gate, but right now, make sure you got enough distortion to do all of the cool stuff: Pinch Harmonics, dive bomb g string harmonics, etc etc.

Okay, let's ake care of that hiss, shall we? Turn on the noise gate. I'm going to assume you know how to use one. There's only two knobs, start tweaking, find out what they do. the goal here is to be able to play leads without there being any unwanted noise. Play one note and stop without turning off the volume on your guitar. Is there all kinds of chaos going on after the note dies out? This is where you start dealing with the noise gate. I'll most likely do a video on this soon. But for now, I'm just giving you the order in which I do things.

Okay, now, time for effects. I like digital delay, a bit of reverb, and maybe some chorus every now and again. Whatever you do, please don't make the effects overbearing. Effects enhance, not take over completely. Although depending on the mood of the song, go for it!!!

When everything's done, the very last thing I do is tweak the graphic EQ if I think I need to. To be honest, I have NO IDEA what I'm doing when I enter the graphic EQ world, but I try to make things ballsier without my clip light going on. A lot of times, it does, and I wince, ha ha, but I keep playing.

After all that, I hit SAVE twice and give it a dumb name.

I also suggest if these tones you'll be gigging with, that you rent a rehearsal room for a day and crank these sounds at gig volumes. If you have a friend who can play guitar, have him play while you tweak buttons. Much quicker this way.

So, the order in which I program sounds are:

Amp: Find the right model and get the most gain out of it Stomp box: Get just what you need Noise gate: Get rid of all that unwanted hiss and shiz. Effects: Expirament and don't go too overboard. Unless you're in Siouxsie and the Banshees. EQ: Balls it up if need be!!

This is exactly what the line 6 manual says you should do, and you know what? I follow it to a T.

Talk soon.

D