i have been comparing this tone to the album tone of meanstreet. by comparison, there is a sloggy chewiness to the tone i am getting compared to what you hear on the album. it's like the album tone is a swift catamaran skipping over top of the waves and my tone is a small raft slogging up and down fighting every wave. i am beginning to view the word CHEWY as something to be avoided when reaching for a good ed tone. it's not chewy. it's visceral and it's gliding over the wave tops, swift and light and mean.
what component, or components, are at the heart of this sloggy chewiness? i refuse to think that it's all playing technique - but it could be - but that's not what i hear.
when i dig into the strings, i hear so much detail, sloggy pick noise. like if you were to hear a recording of a voice speaking and you can hear the lips moving and smacking almost as loud as you can hear the voice. the voice of ed's tone, and maybe ALL good plexi tones, is 90% voice and very little lip smacking and chewy silibence. like electric motors propelling us across the wave tops with speed WITHOUT the detail of every little up and down wave, getting slogged around... it's almost like a lack of true detail is allowing the album tone to be more focused and penetrating - again, the catamaran skipping over the waves, very little detail - OVERCOMING the details of the slog of every wave that just slows you down, meticulously chewing every bite.
overly articulated to the point of slog!!
Rob did you tell us already which EP Pre you're using?
It really does give you the album tone in your face.