Topic: how can I get closer to his tone w/ this gear?

I have a strat (maple neck, 6100 jumbo frets, Suhr V60lp pups, 10s tuned flat)
Gibson Les Paul Std (seymour duncan 59s)
DSL 50 Head into 1960 4x12 ( we play around 4 volume wise)
ts-9 modded w/ 4558 chip
Dunlop rotovibe
Boss DS-1 japan
Dunlop Crybaby
Voodo labs Octave
Boss CE-5 Chorus
Danelectro Delay

The Gibson does a pretty good job but the strat sound is not there. I am really looking for the fat overdrive sound he gets. Its almost a fuzz tone. I had a Fulltone FD-2 which i sold last year by mistake. ugh.
Would a Carl Martin get me closer??

Re: how can I get closer to his tone w/ this gear?

Hey Sweeps! Joe is back in town and has been surfing the boards. Maybe he can answer that for you! I would like to know myself.

Rob

All my tears they fell like rain, cant you hear them falling?
Led Zeppelin: Since I been Loving You

Re: how can I get closer to his tone w/ this gear?

I certainly can't speak for Joe but I know he uses a clean boost, especially with the Strats (the boost function of the Carl Martin Hot Drive 'N Boost). It just adds some gain to the front end of the amp. He also runs the master volume in the 8-9 range and keeps the channel gain low which results in that really intense overdrive. Hot power tubes and the naurally overdriven gain provided by the boost bring a lot of umph to the party.

I have a Keely Ultra-Mod DS-1 that sort of gets at that sound, though there's no substitue for a Marshall with the power tubes running white hot.

Blessings,
Larry

"...play skillfully and shout for joy." Psalm 33:3b (honest, it really says that)

Re: how can I get closer to his tone w/ this gear?

PRACTICE.


Joe can get 'his tone' out of anything. He has even played in the past through Line6 amps because vintage Fender Twin Reverbs were not as road-durable.

Watch Joe play.  He solos with his pick, his fingers, and both his pick and his fingers at times. That really "makes" his tone in my opinion. The way he phrases notes are unique and part what sets his sound apart from other artists. All the gear in the world may look like it could duplicate JB's sound, but I think to sound like Joe you gotta play like Joe. Woke Up Dreaming sounds vastly different if you are fingerpicking (like on his album) or picking (as he does live). Know how to do them both and you are on your way. It is cool that guitar players can pay an uncanny attention to small details such as these when listening to other players...

Personally, I can get a sound that is my own; and when I play JB songs - I am comfortable that it is a faithful representation. I'd say play what 'you' think sounds good, and when you play JB or anything your guitar will sing to you. It is fun though to get up to date on all the gear people are using these days; but did you ever see JB's pedal board?! it takes up half the stage sometimes...

I doubt anyone will think this reply is helpful, but I thought I could add my 2cents.

laterz

- Nic from Detroit... posting on JB's Forum since 6-2-2006
Ask me about my handwound Great Lakes Guitar Pickups
Since 2010, Bonamassa fans have taken advantage of my JB friend discount = my cost + shipping. cool

Re: how can I get closer to his tone w/ this gear?

I agree with tone is in the fingers but Im not talking about his phrasing etc. I want the fat overdriven sound he gets out of his strats.
I plan on sending in my DS-1 and TS-9 to Keeley for upgrades this week. I wish someone has a pic of his controls on the DSL.

Re: how can I get closer to his tone w/ this gear?

there is a ton of information here as well on what he has used for equipment in the past.

http://bonamassabluesrock.com/

- Nic from Detroit... posting on JB's Forum since 6-2-2006
Ask me about my handwound Great Lakes Guitar Pickups
Since 2010, Bonamassa fans have taken advantage of my JB friend discount = my cost + shipping. cool

Re: how can I get closer to his tone w/ this gear?

forget his tone...find your own tone. Joe is Joe, you are you.

Re: how can I get closer to his tone w/ this gear?

Vette335 wrote:

forget his tone...find your own tone. Joe is Joe, you are you.

Of course , but that is not what I asked.  I wanted to know how he got the fat overdrive sound out of his DSL.  There are many moments JB cops licks from his favorite players with similar tones.

Re: how can I get closer to his tone w/ this gear?

sweeps wrote:
Vette335 wrote:

forget his tone...find your own tone. Joe is Joe, you are you.

Of course , but that is not what I asked.  I wanted to know how he got the fat overdrive sound out of his DSL.  There are many moments JB cops licks from his favorite players with similar tones.

This Months guitar Player Magazine has all of his gear he uses. Its on the very last page of the mag! Hope this helps. www.guitarplayer.com

Rob

All my tears they fell like rain, cant you hear them falling?
Led Zeppelin: Since I been Loving You

Re: how can I get closer to his tone w/ this gear?

I believe if you check out the net there exsist latex gloves from Joe.They are specially
treated with samples of his DNA,dude you will rock and sound just like JB.Seriously if you
were famous people would want sound like you,only they couldn,t because we are all one of a kind.As musicians we,re all looking for that perfect sound, my tip let it be your perfect sound.I play strats,gibsons and a PRS through a Line 6 Spider ( the original one ) i,ve got
the sounds i want all in my little tiny computer chip and for me it sounds awesome.
thanks for your time everybody Steve from Munich (but made in England).

Re: how can I get closer to his tone w/ this gear?

I am not trying to SOUND like JB. To do that I would have to play like him. In other words use his note choices or style.
Again, my question was his TONE. ie. settings, pedals, speakers , to achieve his fat fuzz sound while using a DSL amp.

12 (edited by Big Rob 2006-10-29 23:41:28)

Re: how can I get closer to his tone w/ this gear?

flubdig wrote:

I believe if you check out the net there exsist latex gloves from Joe.They are specially
treated with samples of his DNA,dude you will rock and sound just like JB.Seriously if you
were famous people would want sound like you,only they couldn,t because we are all one of a kind.As musicians we,re all looking for that perfect sound, my tip let it be your perfect sound.I play strats,gibsons and a PRS through a Line 6 Spider ( the original one ) i,ve got
the sounds i want all in my little tiny computer chip and for me it sounds awesome.
thanks for your time everybody Steve from Munich (but made in England).

jeeze some people truely give jackass a bad name.


theres some steps you can take to "fatten" up your tone, one of the biggest things (especially for the strat) if the tone knobs on your guitar, turn the tone knobs for the treble pickups, if you havent already wire your tone pickup on your strat to the treble pickup instead of the middle pickup, very simple procedure.

for the dls 50, (great amp btw) dont like the 75 watt speakers in the cab tho, turn your bass all the way up, mid about 2 oclock, treble about 10 - 11 oclock. (no reverb at all) and dont worry about the Carl Martin HDNB, he doesent use the drive side of it at all, its pretty much a waste, grany and nasty, spend a bit of less money and get the CM hydra boost if you decide you want a clean boost. its pretty much the boost  without the hot drive.

also very important, effects loop. everything thats not true bypassed put it thorugh the effects loop of your amp, delay, chorus, and the dunlop stuff.

leave the crybaby,the ts9, ds1, the octave straight in..

last you probally know he plays it all in stereo. seriously adds to the fat tone, Joe uses shure beta57's (better pressue from the regular 57s i believe) also if your looking for something that takes alot less eq'ing look into a sennheiser e609...theyll take alot more pressue than a 57 and are much easier to find a sweet spot with.

also Joe obviously uses a baffle, if you dont have baffle turn your amp againt a wall, and let the sound go up instead of straight out. and also get away from your amp, get a good 20ft cord and stand away from your amp, youll be able to hear what you sound like much better.

one last thing (someone correct me if im wrong) during the sort of "four head" style he uses he only runs the silver jubilee that was used for every amp setting (like in the vid, "marshall - budda sd80" "marshall - Budda SD30" and finally "marshall - Marshall" i read once he only ran the effects loop through the one marshall so, when he had the wet delay, the other side of his tone would be dry (like i said someone correct me if im wrong)

ANYWAYS IM OUT OF FINGERS goodluck on fattening up your tone hope this helps

Re: how can I get closer to his tone w/ this gear?

Thanks for the serious answer. I took your advice and started using my FX Loop on the amp. That did help. I also bought the JB Technique DVD and learned some good advice about using my tone pots more.
I did find it interesting how  Joe's 4x12 is stereo and split to use one amp in one set of speakers and the other in the the rest.

14 (edited by NPB_EST.1979 2006-10-30 12:36:13)

Re: how can I get closer to his tone w/ this gear?

yeah, the dvd is good.  I'm still working on the violin sound. It is so much harder an the LP than a strat.

I use both inputs on my marshall cab as well because the ohms line up with the two outputs on my rivera combo, and the amp is fooled into thinking its stacked.

I wish there wasn't flame bait in the freakin GEAR section...for God's sake. I hope my previous statements did not come off that way.

- Nic from Detroit... posting on JB's Forum since 6-2-2006
Ask me about my handwound Great Lakes Guitar Pickups
Since 2010, Bonamassa fans have taken advantage of my JB friend discount = my cost + shipping. cool

Re: how can I get closer to his tone w/ this gear?

With my DSL I have 2 outs and the 1960 4x12 cab as 2 inputs.
If i use both does that make the cab stereo?? I have a CE-5 chorus in the FX loops and it also has 2 outs so Im confused as to how I can use them. DOes that make sense?
I thought I would need to amps being fed from the CE-5 to be stereo.

16 (edited by Big Rob 2006-10-30 18:13:54)

Re: how can I get closer to his tone w/ this gear?

if theres two outs in the cab i believe that they would just be High out and low out? and no not really hooking both in would not exactly be stereo(the way npb puts it, it might help tho) (and be sure to read up on your oms before you get too in depth with that) you can however install a stereo selector into your cab i believe, alowing you to hook two heads into one cab

(say if you had two dsl's, you could hook one into the top 2x12s and one into the bottom 2x12's. you can even mismatch the speakers for different tones. and like Joe has with the lehle amp selector, you can switch from one, to the other and to both for a big fat sereo lead tone, the best thing to do tho with one head and one cab for that big tone is to mic it through a pa, (i would like to hear some more input on this subject if anyone else has anymore info)


and yes for the loop

you got a loop in and a loop out right? well like on the main effects chain Example:


[ AMP ---- Pedals ---- Guitar


take the pedals you want through the effects loop, lets say for the delay or chorus...


[EFFECTS LOOP OUTPUT] into your chorus out, run your chorus INPUT to the Delay OUT, run your Delay INPUT to the [EFFECT LOOP INPUT] btw im only saying this because i wasnt clear on if you knew exactly how to use the effects loop, if you do my bad i just wasnt sure.




also nah NPB, its just the way that guy came off with the latex glove bs, sweeps pretty much has shown he doesen't want to play exactly like JB, and has scorned the petty attempt to label him with an ego.

Re: how can I get closer to his tone w/ this gear?

That is pretty much how I have it setup minus the double speaker cable to the cabinet. (i just use 1)
I just wondered how to use the stereo feature of the Marshall 1960 cab with a stereo FX. I guess you really cant. Thats cool though.
I appreciate all the answers from everyone. Since I found the BIAS instructions on here and fixed my tone im obsessed with the little things now. My rig has never sounded better or more inspiring. The only thing I really need now is a good boost pedal. Im sending my TS-9 into keeley next. smile

Re: how can I get closer to his tone w/ this gear?

sweeps wrote:

That is pretty much how I have it setup minus the double speaker cable to the cabinet. (i just use 1)
I just wondered how to use the stereo feature of the Marshall 1960 cab with a stereo FX. I guess you really cant. Thats cool though.
I appreciate all the answers from everyone. Since I found the BIAS instructions on here and fixed my tone im obsessed with the little things now. My rig has never sounded better or more inspiring. The only thing I really need now is a good boost pedal. Im sending my TS-9 into keeley next. smile

Hey, for a good, cheap boost pedal, the Seymour Duncan boost is really great.  It's a completely clean boost that doesn't color your sound at all- I use it all the time.  It's great for that little boost for a solo etc.  Its only like 79 bucks...

"Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought-- particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things." - Woody Allen

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