Guitar Tone

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Lundy
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Guitar Tone

Post by Lundy » Tue Oct 10, 2006 2:19 pm

I am wondering if anyone could help me with achieving the guitar tones heard on a couple of albums - Braid's "Frame & Canvas" and Cursive's "The Ugly Organ." I know both bands use Marshall heads live; however, I have no idea what they do in the studio. I'm using a Mesa Boogie Stiletto. Any direction would be great, thanks.
Urbana's too dark.

JustinHedrick
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Post by JustinHedrick » Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:52 pm

what kind of guitar are you using? if i remember correctly, both braid and cursive use humbucking guitars, like les pauls.
another metal guitar tip is to put a fan in front of you while you play, so it blows your stupid long hair around like the solo is BLOWING YOU AWAY because you're a fucking tool.

Lundy
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Post by Lundy » Tue Oct 10, 2006 7:57 pm

I'm using a Gibson SG Standard - the same as Braid. Tim from Cursive plays a Les Paul.
Urbana's too dark.

JustinHedrick
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Post by JustinHedrick » Wed Oct 11, 2006 7:16 pm

cursive's tone on the ugly organ strikes me as being mid-rangy and percussive. um......i guess i'm not being much help.

justin
another metal guitar tip is to put a fan in front of you while you play, so it blows your stupid long hair around like the solo is BLOWING YOU AWAY because you're a fucking tool.

Lundy
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Post by Lundy » Wed Oct 11, 2006 10:28 pm

Yeah - that's my guess with Cursive too - really middy, almost cello like (I realize that there is also a cello playing with him, but his guitar takes on that sort of tone). I just haven't been able to figure it out. Nice signature by the way. :lol:
Urbana's too dark.

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workshed
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Post by workshed » Thu Oct 12, 2006 10:02 am

My impression with Braid is that they don't use a ton of gain. Also, it can depend on *which* marshall head they are using. If it's a JMP, or JCM800, or JCM900. Tones can vary a lot from amp-to-amp. Since they recorded with J Robbins at Inner Ear, you might be able to expand your search by checking out the Inner Ear gear list:

http://www.innerearstudio.com/gear.php

Or, heck, you might even e-mail J Robbins and ask him what they used:

http://www.jrobbins.net/

The worst he can do is not respond.

-Bret

Lundy
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Post by Lundy » Thu Oct 12, 2006 10:28 am

My first thought was to e-mail jrobbins, but his e-mail address is not on his site - only the emails of his 'assistants.' Braid is using a Marshall JMP Head. If I can get a second of free time today I'll post specific clips of the tone I'm asking about.
Urbana's too dark.

numberthirty
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Post by numberthirty » Sat Oct 14, 2006 3:11 pm

I know there is an email address for Bob on the City on Film Daily. You could try e-mailing there to see if he could fill you in on exactly what they were using gear-wise during the recording.

thethingwiththestuff
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Post by thethingwiththestuff » Sat Oct 14, 2006 6:33 pm

be sure to practice your octave-and-open-string scales......

KennyLusk
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Post by KennyLusk » Tue Oct 17, 2006 7:55 am

To be honest, I believe you can get most of the same tones pretty cheap using a Lead 100 MOSFET head. Not the 80's red model, but the early 60's Lead 100 from Marshall. The 1964 Lead 100 has a great, raucousy, clean punk sound.
"The mushroom states its own position very clearly. It says, "I require the nervous system of a mammal. Do you have one handy?" Terrence McKenna

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Silverjet89
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Post by Silverjet89 » Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:10 pm

[/quote]To be honest, I believe you can get most of the same tones pretty cheap using a Lead 100 MOSFET head. Not the 80's red model, but the early 60's Lead 100 from Marshall. The 1964 Lead 100 has a great, raucousy, clean punk sound. .[/quote]


Early '60s Lead 100 MOSFET? Huh? The MOSFET transistor wasn't even invented yet. Marshall didn't even make a solid state amp until the '70s. Heck, they didn't even make a 100 watt amp until '65.

According to the Marshall book the Lead 100 MOSFET was only made in the '80s. Not a bad amp though and you can find them for $200-$300 bucks

Lundy
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Post by Lundy » Tue Oct 17, 2006 9:34 pm

I'm already using a mesa boogie amp. Thanks for the tip though.
Urbana's too dark.

KennyLusk
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Post by KennyLusk » Wed Oct 18, 2006 7:13 am

Silverjet89 wrote:
To be honest, I believe you can get most of the same tones pretty cheap using a Lead 100 MOSFET head. Not the 80's red model, but the early 60's Lead 100 from Marshall. The 1964 Lead 100 has a great, raucousy, clean punk sound. .[/quote]


Early '60s Lead 100 MOSFET? Huh? The MOSFET transistor wasn't even invented yet. Marshall didn't even make a solid state amp until the '70s. Heck, they didn't even make a 100 watt amp until '65.

According to the Marshall book the Lead 100 MOSFET was only made in the '80s. Not a bad amp though and you can find them for $200-$300 bucks[/quote]

1967, sorry, my bad for the typo. I don't care what your book says. I owned [and played through] a 1967 Marshall Lead 100 MOSFET head and MATCHING half stack loaded with 4x10's for 5 years.

The Lead 100 you're speaking of that's made in the 80's is the model 3210. Different animal, amigo. And MOSFET was experimental through the 50's until the mid 60's when surface problems were finally resolved. By '68 MOSFET was being used more in commercial circuits.

Here's a picture of a '67 Lead 100 MOSFET in all it's glory:
http://www.musicgoround.com/gear/invent ... ?id=271015

I'm not trying to argue here; just setting the record straight.
"The mushroom states its own position very clearly. It says, "I require the nervous system of a mammal. Do you have one handy?" Terrence McKenna

uk03878
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Post by uk03878 » Wed Oct 18, 2006 8:23 am

Marshall history line states their first tranny model was 1974 - http://www.marshallamps.com/heritage/fi ... _30_02.asp
Interestingly that picture you showed for the MOSFET 100 - seems not look a 1960s Marshall (I had a 1967 JTM45 once - it was all black leather and script logos)

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Post by Professor T » Wed Oct 18, 2006 1:23 pm

I read up on the Stiletto. With it's el-34s you should be able to get close.

I would set it to crunch, and roll back the gain until you absolutely can't play any riffs anymore, then just put a little tiny bit back on it. Then play it like that for a week. At the end of that week, take off a little more gain. Keep doing that until it sounds like "All Right Now" by Free. At full band volume, you can probably roll the lows off all the way, then bring them back in until it doesn't sound like ass anymore. Just guessing from jcm 800 experience, this could be around 3-4. Then it's probably mostly mids, up around 7-8 and set the highs a bit higher than sounds good and you'll stand out well in a band mix.

Just my total wild guess.

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