I've done a little bit more research and now beginning to think that it's 'tube rattle' coming from my amp which is apparently very common w the blues jr. It's not that apparent to my ears but I guess the mic is exaggerating it? Does this make sense to anyone?

drossxyu wrote: I've done a little bit more research and now beginning to think that it's 'tube rattle' coming from my amp which is apparently very common w the blues jr. It's not that apparent to my ears but I guess the mic is exaggerating it? Does this make sense to anyone?

Yeah, I listened to your sample track.

I would seem to think your "tube rattle" research is probably right on target with what is going on.

Your recording did not sound out of line to me, sounds like a real amp alright.

Certainly if you were going direct you would get a much different sound.

I've never really been an electric player myself so I would not know the real deal with the blues jr. however, you may notice that once you start recording your song and add the other tracks you will not notice this buzzing or clipping sound as much anymore.

Give it a try.

Ok, so I went back to guitar center and exchanged my amp for a new one. I tested it out before hand and did notice this buzzy distortion I had been hearing and brought it home. I also picked up a new sm57 to replace my old sm58, which is more for vocals anyway. I did another recording and I am still noticing this annoying distorted static-y tinge..

http://www.thelulufinders.com/clip/clipping12.mp3

It just doesn't sound natural to me..

New development:

It seems like this crackle I'm hearing only happens when using the neck and bridge pick-ups on my guitar (both seymour duncan humbuckers). This recording alternates between my middle single coil and my neck humbucker. You can clearly hear the gross crackle after-taste:

http://www.thelulufinders.com/clip/pickupswitch.mp3

Is this a natural humbucker quirk or is my guitar in need of repairs?

Have you considered that the output from your humbuckers could be clipping your input to your blues jr?

Try turning the volume knob of the guitar down a bit, does that make a difference?

I have a yamaha tele with seymour duncan pickups in it, the humbuckers are hot!

Recording is all about getting the right gain structure :wink:

Actually.. yeah, it does make a difference. It is less prone to 'clipping' when I dial the volume back a bit, although the tone sounds a whole lot different. I get this crackle when I record direct into my soundcard as well (which sounds like garbage anyway). Is there anything I can do about a hot pick-up?

Well, could be the blues jr. set up for weaker input, I'm not entirely sure.

I don't currently have an amp, I use either the line 6 pod or my presonus firestudio with Logic Pro 9 running Amp Designer.

I have a bunch of guitar techie friends that would know a bunch more about than I do.

I would suggest bringing your question into a good guitar shop, IMHO Guitar center is the WalMart of the music world, they generally would not know what quality is even if it bit them in the face :!:

Find a quality music store, this has always helped me perform better :wink:

jammster wrote: Your recording did not sound out of line to me, sounds like a real amp alright.

Doesn't sound bad to me either. Sounds like an amp. There is some buzz going on there. Maybe try turning the preamp down a bit. The pre may be clipping.

Pre-amp is at like .5. I can't imagine making it any cleaner. What's annoying is a don't hear this crackle/buzzing/clipping coming out of my amp. Or at least my ears aren't hearing it. It doesn't sound like it's truly capturing what is actually coming out of the speakers.