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Joe Bonamassa Forum → Joe's Guitars, Amps and Gear → Joe's Big Reverbicated/delayed tone.
delays should always go in the effects loop- they're way too hard to control if they're in front of the amp...
delays should always go in the effects loop- they're way too hard to control if they're in front of the amp...
If you have an effects loop that is! None of my amps have one. You are right, the delays can get out of hand if you are not careful. Still...my Maxon AD999 sounds amazing split (dry/wet) to my THD Univalve/Fender Champ!
kwsjb1238 wrote:delays should always go in the effects loop- they're way too hard to control if they're in front of the amp...
If you have an effects loop that is! None of my amps have one. You are right, the delays can get out of hand if you are not careful. Still...my Maxon AD999 sounds amazing split (dry/wet) to my THD Univalve/Fender Champ!
Thats pretty much the only way a delay can be run in front of an amp and still sound good- if you're using a multi amp setup, and you have one wet one dry amp you have that one dry amp which creates the base behind which the wet amp's delay can fit... if that makes any sense at all...
After a lot of fooling around after asking this question back in january ive found the right combination. oe your right, the DD-3 far excedes any other pedal for the kind of delay im looking for. What also really helps the over all sound is a compressor. Right now im using a Boss Compression/Sustainer. I think it has a little too much coloration to the tone, but Im running a Marshall JCM900 half stack, so the tone is great from scratch, so the sound is really good. The next thing I was gonna ask Joe about Tone: How do you smooth out your marshall gain so well? I find that my marshall has a really punchy bright gain, which is good for some things, but I noticed that Joe has this smooth as butter distortion coming out of his marshalls, any tricks on how to do that? The compression helps to smooth it out a little, but it could still use improvement. my settings on the marshall are Bass 10, Mids 6 or 7, Trebel 2 or 3, and Gain 10. all comments welcome.
Peace,
Conner
That's funny that Joe mentioned his setup is basically EJ's late 80s setup... I just got back from my first experience (hopefully first of many) seeing Joe live and for a few songs I kept thinking "Eric Johnson." 
Something about the smooth gain, bits of delay, and crazy pentatonic runs heh. The show was disgustingly awesome, but I'll save my gushing for now.
I'm obviously not the perfect person to give tone advice, especially when the question is asked directly to Joe, but hey. Re: smoothing out gain..
I don't own a marshall at present, but I do play through a Sovtek Mig60 head somewhat frequently which is vaguely similar (One channel w/two inputs, EL34s, I've even heard a few comments that the schematic was a 'JCM800 Ripoff' but I don't know nearly enough to say how inaccurate that is... I know it definitely sounds pretty different than the 800s I have experience with, but hey) but among amps like that I've found that the only real satisfying way to get that buttery smoothness is (sadly) to crank it... for lack of better terms there's a certain smoothing out and almost compressed quality that driving the power-section introduces that's pretty divine. (I say 'amps like that' because I've been able to get a pretty slick, smooth high-gain tone out of Mesa gear even at lower volumes when the power stage is barely working.) I also keep the tone control backed off on anything other than my Les Paul when I'm shooting for those sorts of tones too.
Also, my experiences with the JCM900 (a rehearsal space I used to play at pretty regularly was equipped with a few) are... well, not bad at all, but (again for lack of a better term) generally the gain seemed pretty 'harsh.' Backing off the gain setting might help smooth things up for ya (not to mention, iirc the JCM900 with the gain dimed is... well, that's an awful lot of gain)
If Joe uses a DD-3 Delay, and he puts everything at 12 o'clock, does that include the "Mode" as well? In other words, does he use the 800ms Mode or a different one?
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Registered: 2008-05-22
Posts: 1
E-mail Re: Encyclopedia Of Joe Bonamassa Guitar HelpHi. I'm new on this post. Very nice thread. Being a tone hound also I was checking out who uses what cables of all things.
I've been a fan of Joe's since I first heard him in Pittsburgh several years ago. Joe's tone has always been amazing and very versatile. You can hear the influences he's going after on a particular song whether trying to cop E.J's tone or Jeff beck, BB King. And..he nails them. When I saw his rig I knew he was a guy who was into the "tone" thing. Not just the choice of amps ..Two Rock, Dumble, Fuchs, Marshall Silver J's, etc but the cables (monogami) Mic's (seinheiser 421's on this night)..it all adds to amazing tone.
Being a fellow endorsee of Fuchs amps, I tried contacting Joe last summer when he came through Pittsburgh. I wanted to say hi and talk gear. Specifically the verb/delay thing.
I'm curious why Joe likes the Boss or Keeley delay pedals (both great) over rack mount gear. I find that mounting a few choice pedals in my rack, along with an amp/effect switcher and a multi effect unit where I can have everything pre programmed including amp channels, delay and verb settings along with any combination of pedals all accessible with one button on a midi controller. I had only had my Fuchs ODS deal for a few months and was still dialing things in. Unfortunately Joe never called back so I never hooked up with him. I'm still curious though.
Back to my cable quest. I might try the Monogami's Ihear a lot about them and the Lava cables. I'm really not into spending $189.00 on a 15 ft Lava VDH though. The Lava ECL comes highly rated as well as the slightly more expensive Vovox. Unlike Joe I have had great success and luck with the Planet Waves. Great tone and reliabilty for the same price as Monster (which sound like there's a blanket over your amp)
Anyway. Nice thread!!
I saw one of his vids, one thing i know is that he has his normal rig, and then his european one, coz shipping it all and.. yeah, he has another one for europe. Dunno which rig it is, but one of them has wet and dry, this could be an old fact, probably is, but anyway, it brings out evry note after u play it, far far better than most delays, but when anybidy plays a wrong note, that also is exagerated LOL
I saw one of his vids, one thing i know is that he has his normal rig, and then his european one, coz shipping it all and.. yeah, he has another one for europe. Dunno which rig it is, but one of them has wet and dry, this could be an old fact, probably is, but anyway, it brings out evry note after u play it, far far better than most delays, but when anybidy plays a wrong note, that also is exagerated LOL
The wet and dry refers to the 2 outputs on his dd-3 a direct out is the dry and the delay out is the wet this gives you your normal sound then thru a seperate amp / speaker the delay I do it sometimes with the lead singers spare amp
Joe gave me a tour of his rig and guitars last week and this is fairly simple setup other than splitting the signals to four different amps, three class a with el34 and one with 6l6's. A few things I noted for his tone is that he plays at high volume,has alot of head room and obtains his cleans mainly by rolling of the volume. He routs through an 808 tube screamer for a little boost and a copper top fuzz face that was made for Eric Johnson to a boss delay, a wah, I think Vox and an analogue tremolo that a fan gave to him. He runs the tremolo FULL TIME at a very low level and the repeat is set fairly slow, he also has a Caeser Diaz tremodillo. The real secret of his big tone is that he is playing through multiple amps, two cabinets and baffles the speaker cabs with a plexiglass baffle and they are miced with four seperate microphones. So Joe is playing a stereo rig that sounds BIG when he runs it through the House speakers and feeds a signal back to the stage monitors. Joe is playing through a direct cable and has wireless for his piezo setup as well.
Oh dont forget that hurdy gurdy deal that gives him that Jimmy Page frequency feedback, aint it cool.
This is Too Cool.... I was just listening to "So Many Roads" from You And Me while out for groceries. I was thinking: "How does he get that sound?" That song written By Jim Marshall is one where Joe's Playing (phrasing and rhythm pentatonics) very much reminds me of Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Leave My Little Girl Alone". In both cases, part of the rhythm in the song is actually from pentatonics- but there's something very different about "So Many Roads" and "Leave My Little Girl Alone"... And, in a nutshell, this is it.
The sound of "So Many Roads" is clearly partially coming from that DD-3... but those Fat, Ethereal, Freeze-Dried seventies sounds that I really Love in Joe's music are composed using true Stereo Amplification (clean & saturated). That's where "So Many Roads" really is different than that classic from SRV... In that song, I can't help but compare Joe to Stevie. Although there are songs where his influence is from some of his other favorites.
Now, if I can only get the "Joe Unit" to Play the song "Black Night" at RAH and... put out some more of those DARN tabs- Like for Sloe Gin or LFNIP
Running in stereo is a big part of his sound one side dry one side wet.
This is a point I ain't got right yet. Does one amp get the direct signal and the other just the effect signal? Or does one amp get the direkt and effect signal and the other has no effect so that you can call it dry?
jim m wrote:Running in stereo is a big part of his sound one side dry one side wet.
This is a point I ain't got right yet. Does one amp get the direct signal and the other just the effect signal? Or does one amp get the direkt and effect signal and the other has no effect so that you can call it dry?
Yes the Silver Jubilee has the effects and is always on. It has the delay through an effects loop. He swithes to one of the other three for the dry signal. The effects signal is panned to one side and the dry signals will be panned to the other. He does add reverb to the dry side and possibly a clean boost.
This is the way I understand it but I could be wrong. Joe will usually correct me when that happens.
Strange. If the Marshall just play the wet digital signal and no direct signal, isn't it a waste?
Stil confusing to me. It would mean that the other amp is doing the main sound and the Marshall is just adding the effect flavor? Mmmhh??
delays should always go in the effects loop- they're way too hard to control if they're in front of the amp...
I have always had my delay in front of the amp. They have a really cool feature on most of them called a volume. This makes it really easy to control. You can turn it up or down with out any problem. Then you can adjust the time you want the delay. I usually go for just less then a second to add some flavor.
I use a DD6. Soon to be a Vintage Echo by Ocean EFX. It will be in front of the amps too.
Hey Les Klaus, It's not merely the delay you're hearing... you still have that great Marshall tone going on, just with some added delay. The other (dry) amp is not a basis for the majority of one's tone. I run a '79 JMP 100w and I love the tone but I do wish it had a loop built in. They didn't really do that back then too much if at all. It's mint and stock and I don't really want to mod it, so my delay is in the front end... which I do not like. but.....
Mark
If Joe uses a DD-3 Delay, and he puts everything at 12 o'clock, does that include the "Mode" as well? In other words, does he use the 800ms Mode or a different one?
I'd like to know that too. Anyone?
kwsjb1238 wrote:delays should always go in the effects loop- they're way too hard to control if they're in front of the amp...
I have always had my delay in front of the amp. They have a really cool feature on most of them called a volume. This makes it really easy to control. You can turn it up or down with out any problem. Then you can adjust the time you want the delay. I usually go for just less then a second to add some flavor.
I use a DD6. Soon to be a Vintage Echo by Ocean EFX. It will be in front of the amps too.
I'm using a DD-20 in front of an extra amp, which does only play the delay sound, but I think, the big problem of using a delay in front of an amp is that it will be really quiet if you turn down your guitar's volume knob a bit. If you use the delay in a fx loop, the signal will be pre-amplified, and the delay pedal will put out a nice sound anyway.
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