Getting the Joe tone.....

I've really, for the first time today, been trying to get as damn near as I could to the various JB Tones.

Now I realise that I'm not gifted with Joe's fingers (and much to my disappointment Gibson don't incude them in the JBLP case candy- which may or may not result in litigation- it's with my people at the moment ;-) )

However- this is what I've done and it's gotten me close-ish....

I took the tones from Happier Times and The Great Flood as being pretty accurate JB sig tones.

I'm running into a Plexi Cornell 18/20 and a tweed twin- the Plexi just on the verge breaking up  and the Twin just slightly crunching at full guit vol....

All FX are straight into the front end of the amps via a stereo buffered splitter.

For the big wet sound I have a Skrydstrup DDL at c. 300ms 4 repeats medium mix, into a Boss RVV10 (mini rack unit) on hall, with about 30% wet mix. That gets me very close.

Then, for chords and fills I am using the Cornish Soft Sustain, biased to bass heavy, vol 50%, sustain 75% and then for lead I add the Cornish G2 Germainium O/D with 50% vol, 25% tone, 95% Drive. (again bass heavy). The G2 really gets close to Joe's main lead sound. It's like a better version of a Way Huge Pork Loin- very Marshally.

Now, that sounds pretty saturated, but the absolute key IMO is using the tone and vol controls on the LP to roll off. Keep adjusting to get the sweet spot for each part, and try and get the volume so if you play a full 'cowboy' chord (eg an open G or D) you can hear every string ringing rather than muddy gloop.

I then tried to get somewhere near a saturated JB tone (Just Got Paid) and found the above works pretty well as a base, just swap the G2 for a P2 Fuzz (50% vol, 40% tone, 60% gain) and season to taste with a soupcon of appropriate wah.

For something like Lonesome Road Blues I found my tube OD (jester) slightly better (sort of honkier- bassier!)  than the G2.

I'll be getting an old old TS9 next week and I think that could do the job of the SS3 too.

Add tremolo, chorus etc to taste and as song dictates......I'm reckoning trem is a great part of Joe's tone in small doses- very subtle. (I use a Digitech IPS33B rack unit for trem and a TC SCF for chorus.)

I shall record some clips at some point (when I get the nerve)

I'll say this and I do not want it to sound in any way arrogant:- as a fervent Gilmour-ist, I have pretty much nailed David's various tones over the years with less difficulty; I found Joe's harder to replicate or get close to. Can't explain exactly why? Maybe it's the fact he's a lot more 'chordal' anf 'filly' than DG.

I'm convinced that layering the reverb and the delay together is a very important part of getting 'the tone'.