Joe's articulate solo tone

Hello Jordy, and welcome to the forums.

Probably first point of contact for you will be to sift through this thread:

https://forum.jbonamassa.com/viewtopic.php?id=1377

It has a long discussion about Joe's tone.

In order for some of the expert players on here to help you (I'm not one of them), it might be helpful if you can let us know things like (a) what guitar you have (b) what amp/s you play through and (c) what pedals you have.

Usually we can give you an idea of how to combine them to get something close to Joe's tone.

But in a nutshell, yes the speakers are an important factor, and don't forget that Joe has them in large 4x12 cabinets too, so if you have a single 12" speaker then it's not quite going to be the same.

Joe was also running through two amp head at that show, and had them set up as a wet/dry rig.  Not much sense in going into too much detail there unless you are running a similar two amp setup, I think.

Anyhow, let us know what you've got.  Oh, and if you've got clips, post those too!

End of the day, you are looking for 'Jordys Tone' rather than Joe's Tone...

Generally, it has a lot to do with him being influenced by EJ. Watch "The art of electric guitar" with Eric Johnson. He talks about string dampening, and only letting the string ring out that you want to. Hours and hours of practice as well.

For gear, it's a loud amp on the edge of breakup...think early Cream, or even some of Keith Richards tones. Not too much treble, good bit of mids as well as bass. My general rule with any amp is to start with the treble on 4, middle on 5, and bass on 5 - then go from there.

kOnce that's done you hit the amp with an overdrive pedal that has the level set rather high with the drive rather low - which pushes the amp sonically, but not in the same distorting manner that would happen if you dimed the gain.

Dont forget the delay, either. That's the fairy dust on top of the equation that really accentuates those lines.

Here's how I see what I hear that makes a difference:
1. He runs at least two amps, so even if something "sounds" distorted, there's probably another amp that's still clean (or cleaner) so you can hear all the notes (both clean and dirty) at the same time.

2. His volume on the guitar is never on '10' Joe will preach up and down that you're losing nuaces in tone by keeping your guitar 'up' all the way. Rolling back on the volume not only cleans up the tone, but it allows you to turn the amp up louder a little bit. Plus if you're rolled back at 5 or , you can get a little more gain rolling up to '8'

3. Joe doesn't play sloppy. There's not 'string-noise' this is hard to explain. It's like if you've ever tried playing a guitar so when you hit a note, the other strings aren't buzzing or ringing... they're muted. It's right-hand technique and it lends to cleaner and more articulate solo tone.

4. His EQ settings on the amps have the highs rolled off. If your amp is setup like Metallica (bass=10 mids=4 high=8) you're not going to get this tone. The louder you get the more you should roll back the bass. Keep the highs around 5 or 6 and use the mids to cut through the mix in a band setting. Volume is arbitrary in my opinion... the higher the mids the more your guitar will cut through the mix, the lower - the greater the chances of the tone getting lost in the band sound. find the sweet spot with the mids.
Before I learned this, I always did B9M8H7, and I never realized how much of an impact the EQ settings were on a good amp. Hearing it "to taste" playing alone is WAY different than how it would sound in a band setting... Now once I get the desired volume, its good... everyone's happy - but if I can't hear myself... instead of turning up the Master, I'll turn up the mids a little bit. If you have a Silver Jubillee, Joe said you leave the bass up all the way.

I would say the cheapest and easiest way to capture it is #2 and #4.

- 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.

Great tips guys, thanks so much! All that about using the mids to cut through the mix is exactly what i was looking for, and i agree its all about Joe as a player getting that tone. Having said that its sometimes seemed a little disheartening, like 'if you dont have it now then you never will' cos its all in the fingers kinda deal. No, once again thanks guys, saves me spending a load of money on pedals etc (which i dont do anyway) then being dissapointed. If youre interested, you can hear my tone on Youtube (JordyT008) even though i havent posted anything lately so its not 100% accurate. Thanks again!

Even though it is all in the fingers (or perhaps more precisely, all in the ears), that doesn't mean you'll never have it, it just means you have to keep working at it.  Joe wasn't born with great tone and technique, he worked his **** off for a long time to get it.  So don't get disheartened, stay motivated to keep playing!

Good call not the double amps, NPB, I forgot about that.  Having that extra layer of clear(er) tone is nice.  Speaking of pedals, I wonder if that's what the Sparkle Drive was sort of intended to do?  Never tried one, but it seemed like a neat idea.