Inspired by some recent threads, I've got some questions:

- Which amp settings does Keith use? (I know in some old thread on this board, somebody posted pictures from the amp settings, but these are very unclear to see them precisely)

- In which songs does Keith use or can you hear the fulltone analog delay?

- How does Keith get his sound clean and tight? Does he have a compressor and a noise-gate in his rack? How does this system work precisely? Can anybody give me some insights in how those professional guitarist get their live sound via all those rack effects (and why are they necessary? is an expensive and good amp not good enough alone?).

another guitar question:
- guitar players like Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), Wes Borland (Limp Bizkit) and the guitarplayer from Papa Roach have a VERY VERY VERY tight and solid sound on their records... but what is even more stunning is the fact that they manage to get that sound live too!!! but when I play on a Mesa Boogie amp in a local musicstore and turn it up loud without too much of gain, I don't really get a sound that's THAT tight as those famous modern guitarplayers. How do they get this sound live??? Is it the rack compressors/noisegates that do the trick???


thank you!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-04-07 17:19 by mrrockandroll.

If we only had better pictures than this one...



it's pretty though to tell what's what in that rack.

>> In which songs does Keith use or can you hear the flextone analog delay?<<

You mean the Fulltone TTE, don't you

yes I meant that one haha ;-) thanks for remarking!

Somebody posted a blown up version of that picture a while ago. I remeber thinking that, if they could be bothered, somebody familiar with the tweed twin control layout could possibly figure out the settings from the chicken knobs.

mrrockandroll Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Inspired by some recent threads, I've got some
> questions:
>
> - Which amp settings does Keith use? (I know in
> some old thread on this board, somebody posted
> pictures from the amp settings, but these are very
> unclear to see them precisely)

I don't have the pictures right here with me, but if I recall it's something like treble 6, bass and mid on 4, volume on 8.

>
> - In which songs does Keith use or can you hear
> the fulltone analog delay?

I am not sure as I haven't listened a lot to the 2006 shows, but I would imagine tracks like Rain Fall Down and Slipping Away.

>
> - How does Keith get his sound clean and tight?
> Does he have a compressor and a noise-gate in his
> rack? How does this system work precisely? Can
> anybody give me some insights in how those
> professional guitarist get their live sound via
> all those rack effects (and why are they
> necessary? is an expensive and good amp not good
> enough alone?).

I am sure he uses a compressor, but I don't think he uses a noise gate. Keith's sound is mainly his twin amp turned up really loud, so the speakers and tube rectifer start to compress. The sound is picked up by a Shure SM57, and I bet there's some PA processing done: a bit compression, maybe some EQ-ing and a touch reverb is added.

> - guitar players like Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters),
> Wes Borland (Limp Bizkit) and the guitarplayer
> from Papa Roach have a VERY VERY VERY tight and
> solid sound on their records... but what is even
> more stunning is the fact that they manage to get
> that sound live too!!! but when I play on a Mesa
> Boogie amp in a local musicstore and turn it up
> loud without too much of gain, I don't really get
> a sound that's THAT tight as those famous modern
> guitarplayers. How do they get this sound live???
> Is it the rack compressors/noisegates that do the
> trick???

In a music shop you can never turn up a Boogie loud enough for it to sound tight and compressed. But the players you mention all use a tremendous amount of effects, mostly lim iters and compressors to get that really tight, bottom heavy sound.

Mathijs

"I don't have the pictures right here with me, but if I recall it's something like treble 6, bass and mid on 4, volume on 8."

thanks Mathijs :^)

Interesting. That's pretty much the same settings I usually settle on when using an amp with a similar tone stack.

In this picture the mics are either Neumann U87 Ai or U89i



It seems like they used Neumann mics on the Licks tour and Sure Sm 57s on ABB tour.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-04-08 03:26 by open-g.

MarcJ once posted some close up pics from 2003 tour of Japan on this thread.
[iorr.org]

There's a lot of presence dialed in on this one. looks like 9 or 10 - wow.
middle - 8
the rest?......... don't strain your eyes too much

courtesty MarcJ

Mathijs Wrote:
> >
> > - How does Keith get his sound clean and tight?
> > Does he have a compressor and a noise-gate in
> his
> > rack? How does this system work precisely? Can
> > anybody give me some insights in how those
> > professional guitarist get their live sound via
> > all those rack effects (and why are they
> > necessary? is an expensive and good amp not
> good
> > enough alone?).
>
> I am sure he uses a compressor, but I don't think
> he uses a noise gate. Keith's sound is mainly his
> twin amp turned up really loud, so the speakers
> and tube rectifer start to compress. The sound is
> picked up by a Shure SM57, and I bet there's some
> PA processing done: a bit compression, maybe some
> EQ-ing and a touch reverb is added.


"So the speakers and tube rectifier start to compress" --> Can you elaborate on this? What is the tube-rectifier (when I look the word 'rectifier' up in a Dutch dictionary, it says 'verbeteraar', but I can't see the link with that definition)?? And how come they start to compress?; is it because the speakers get an overload of sound?

To get poweramp distortion we MUST hit the power tubes with a large amount of the guitar's signal. The only way to do this is by turning the volume knobs up. There will be a point when you notice that your amp doesn't get much louder, but the amp feels more dynamic and sustains. This is when you know you're in poweramp distortion land.

read along this site
[studentweb.eku.edu]

From the same website as above:

The sound, or effect, that a tube rectifier often contributes is described as "sag."

What is sag? It's the compressed, spongy feel that vintage amplifiers have. With sag our amp will be more "touch sensitive" at loud volumes, and notes will seem to blossom as they're picked. There will also be a decrease in clean headroom and bass response. Note that sag isn't the same as having a compressor. Having sag after distorted preamp tubes smoothes out "raspiness," which should help out our Hot Rod's tone. A compressor can not do this. It also lowers clean headroom, and takes "punch" away from the sound. Sag is great for the blues, but not so hot for styles where a more "in your face" sound is needed. Most harmonica players prefer tube amps with lots of sag.