Just came across this and thought it would be of interest to Guitarists.

Whatever Works for Jennifer Batten

quote:

JB: The Washburn guitar is called a JB 100 (my model) but is no longer available. I’ve been using it over 10 years and love it. It’s a swamp ash body and rosewood fingerboard with a Roland synth pick up in it and the original Floyd Rose trem. I have Seymour Duncan’s Duckbucker pick ups in the middle and neck and a JB Jr. pickup in the bridge. I needed to trigger synth sounds in the Jeff Beck band, so it was kind of a trial by fire to learn to program sounds and use the guitar synth to emulate his last 30 years of recording with keyboard players.

I’m currently running my guitar though a Digitech GNX 3000 which goes to a Boogie Strategy 300 power amp and then into two Avalon direct boxes and into the mixing board. I’ve just started eliminating speakers and mics. For my current road tour, I then send the mix through two Bose L1 PA towers and 4 subs. I also am now playing acoustic with a Parker Fly acoustic guitar through a Digitech Jamman and into the Midas Venus mixing board. The entire mix goes through a Peavey Kosmos rack unit which adds some thump and clarity before hitting the Bose.

Read the whole interview: Whatever Works for Jennifer Batten

Here is some more information about Jennifer Batten — Wikipedia

and

http://www.batten.com/

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ST,

Thanks ST! I have never really listened to JB before, lumping her in with the myriad of other shredders without due consideration.

Yeah, the 80's "hair" stuff on the video is 80's style and it has that "kitsch" but it is very skillfully done. (I do like it: I grew up on 80's hard rock). :-)

I REALLY liked the new stuff on "Whatever" - she got quite adventurous with it and goes in directions that expanded my repertoire of what I like. Thanks again!

...Mark

Hi Mark,

I am glad you found something there. I too was interested in what I heard in the "Whatever" tracks.

To all - check out Jennifer Batten - Media.

I believe Ms. Batton played bass in Henley's band in the early 90's, maybe late 80's. First concert I ever took my sons to - blew them away! She was very good as a player, and very stylish.

quote:

Just came across this and thought it would be of interest to Guitarists.

Whatever Works for Jennifer Batten

OMG - What an incredible player.

She is truly one of the Guitar Goddess's of our time.

I've corresponded with and spoken to Jennifer a number of times over the past few years as she was deciding on and then using the L1 system around the world (she is wildly popular in Japan, among other places).

She is an extraordinarily nice, respectful, serious, and smart person -- a real delight.

Ken

Hi Ken et al...

Been off the board for a while now (spending time playing instead of reading online thanks to the L1s!) but what a nice surprise to login today and read how JB (WONDERFUL PLAYER!) is using the GNX3000 and a pair of L1s with 4B1s - I've recently left behind my old trusty POD XTLive and switched to the GNX3K and been stunned how much more responsive and powerful a tone I'm getting through the stereo pair of L1s coupled with the dual double bass setup - really nice!!! Nice to see the big time pros adopting the New Approach even when they could sink tons of cash into bis stacks. Just goes to show how the New Approach isn't simply for "small spaces" and for singer songwriter types. I've all along contended that the L1 set up properly can shutdown an old school stack! Good times musically, aye mates?

Yo b,

Thanks for the great encouraging words, man.

All kinds of musicians are using the New Approach. The diversity is just staggering.

We're enormously grateful to all the many tens of thousands of musicians who have made the switch.

We're also acutely aware of the fact that we still have so much work to do.

In a sense, we're satisfied that the New Approach constitutes a technical way to achieve better live music.

Now we have to work on MORE better live music.

All the best,

Ken

quote:

Originally posted by bdotson:
I've recently left behind my old trusty POD XTLive and switched to the GNX3K and been stunned how much more responsive and powerful a tone I'm getting through the stereo pair of L1s coupled with the dual double bass setup - really nice!!!

Any details on your use of the Gnx3000 and the L1 ie
L1 presets or flat?
GNX3000 presets stock or custom?
I'm looking for new country radio tones, Twin, Deluxe,
Matchless to Marshall type tones.
Thanks

quote:

Originally posted by Ken-at-Bose:

We're also acutely aware of the fact that we still have so much work to do.

In a sense, we're satisfied that the New Approach constitutes a technical way to achieve better live music.

Now we have to work on MORE better live music.

Oooooooooh - sounds interesting!
More Bose magic in the offing......


Care to spill the beans Ken?

I'll post my patches as a bundle soon. I'm using channel 3 on both L1s so- yeah - ABSOLUTLEY FLAT EQ! Regarding the various performance modes on the pedalboard, I've found that the ONLY way to use the GNX3000 live is in stompbox mode due to lag time issues in patch switching that are inherent in the gnx's firmware. An update is supposedly forthcoming but (to quote Russell Watson from, the Enterprise theme) "it's been a long road getting from there to here..."

So anyway, my patches are all set up in stompbox mode and most utilize the expression pedal as a solo boost (set it up to engage compressor, add a bit of verb, and at minimum the patch volume is 60% or so of max, while at toe down on the expression pedal it sets the patch volume to 100%). The amp switch comes in handy as I use a Les Paul Studio with a Graphtech Ghostbridge in it so I get great acoustic tones by switching to the piezo on the guitar and switching the GNX amp over to a custom tweaked acoustic sim. I can go from my standard electric tone to a rich acoustic instantly.

The amp I devised is pretty good for modern country stuff - great sustain and yet nice smooth clarity in it as well - similar to a Rascal Flatts style lead tone.One of the groups I am in covers a lot of New Country so if it's Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Chesney etc., this sim does pretty nicely. Perhaps it has a bit of classic rock flavor in it somehow as well as I can tweak it a bit to get some chunky stuff happening - even some Paul Gilbert action in there with some mid tweaking. My favorite thing about the GNX3K is how I can roll of the volume on my crunch tones and it will clean up wonderfully! The sim I use for this is a tweaked/warped ENGL model. It does a decent class A clean tone as well which is kind of strange as I think the ENGL itself uses EL34s i think - giving it a bit of a hot rodded Marshall tone. The smoothness of it and helps a lot though - great for chordal lines with picking and crunch simultaneously. On the stomp button I typically like the Sparkle Drive as I can play the the "clean" parameter and get lots of sustain without too much loss of clarity. Again, it will be in the bundle when I post it. I'll also be sending it up to Digitech's site soon.

Regarding patch arrangements, I tend to arrange my patches based on the various mod effects I am using so it's essentially a basic strong tone core (the acoustic on channel A and my crunch on channel B) with similar delay/verb/expression settings duplicated on each patch but named after the different mods (flange, phase, univibe, tremolo, vibrato, panner, rotary) with a few exceptions: I occasionally have a two channel setup where I forego the acoustic on amp channel A and instead use a cleaner version of my main crunch amp in its place. I have a pretty standard slightly "ducking delay" (spread delay model - very wide and ambient running stereo!) that runs a higher wet mix on clean soft tones but drops back for solo cranked tones - again, gotta love the volume "bloom" quality on the gnx that is so much like a real tube amp!

I also have some "goodies" like a group of 7 patches with a harmony third for that Thin Lizzy/Boston/Allman/RacerX dual guitar solo tone. On these patches (named "DUAL A" or whatever key it's in - I used majors as I can utilize relative minors as needed) the crunch amp is on both A and B amp channels but one is set at 60% volume while the other is full. This allows you to use the expression pedal to toggle the harmony on and off. I also go ahead and set the verb more like my normal solo ambience since the expression pedal is now used for something different than my norm. The key when using the intelligent pitch shifter (IMO) is to set the mix as dry as you can while still making out that harmony part - otherwise you'll end up with a plastic sounding processed tone. Harmonizers tend to do this often on upper harmonies - just as they get muffled on lower ones. The GNX3K has such a great realistic organic tone to it that it would be a shame to ruin a great sound with too much processing! Overall, even on the weirdo patches I'm about to mention, striving to keep that good central tonecore up front and clear is essential and where the combo of the GNX and the L1 work especially well.

Other "goodies" include several variations on the talkbox theme (synthtalk, pedal ya ya), a good U2 patch, a Tom Morello patch, a Brian May echo patch I setup, my Whammy+ patch which uses a HUGE flange you can kick in/out along with a 2 octave whammy and the May delay - it's sicko.

I'll add that I use a GR20 Roland synth and a Boss RC50 Loop Station so I can work around the GNX's lag issues on pitch change by holding synth tones or looping parts to cover the patch changes. Even without these two tools in the kit, the GNX3000 simply eclpises my old PODXTL! I can't tell you what a difference there is between these two processors - expect to say it's as startling as the change I underwent going from the triple system to the New Approach! The POD was easy enough to get a decent tone with but it was dead and klunky in terms of response (yeah, the roll-down-the-volume-to-clean-it-up-crunch-thing but also there's some slight latency when playing through the POD it seems - dunno for sure?) I'll also add that the sustain on the GNX3000 simply dwarfs the POD. The notes are so lively - they seem to spring off the fretboard - harmonics and musical feedback as well. The tones just seem bigger, richer, more harmonically full and authentic - exactly what attracted me to the L1 System in the beginning and what makes this pairing of processor and PA so powerful.

Sorry for the encyclopedia. Patches are forthcoming - promise!

bdotson,
Thanks for the "encyclopedia". I would like to try the factory Class A patches and the Sparkle Drive patch sounds cool. I have messed around with a GNX3000 but I dread tweaking all the patches I would need. I spent much time tweaking my modeler several years ago and I haven't used real amps for many years so I'm kindof out of touch with how a real amp feels.

I figured if Jennifer could play through anything she wanted and a GNX3000 felt organic through the L1 system that I might make the jump to a newer amp modeler.

I have two complete guitar systems using the old Johnson J-Station, a Roland Gr-30 and the Graphtech Ghost system with Graphtech preamp. All this is controlled with a Behringer FCB1010 for "one button" simplicity on stage since I use electric guitar tones, keyboard tones and acoustic tones during most songs.

One system is for my classic rock band of many years and one system is for my new Bose L1 country/rock band. The L1 system brings out the modeler artifacts and a "lifeless" feel that the compressor can't completely revive.

Do you have any audio clips of the GNX on the internet? thanks

Not yet - looking to post the patches early this week though.