Advice for recording guitar

D

David M

New member
I just signed up her this week and really like all the great advice I am hearing. I was hoping to get some advice on recording guitar.

I asked this question in another thread a few days ago but never heard anything. I have been trying to get a tone like the main riff on Photograph by Def Leppard. I am using a Blues Jr. Amp. and a Les Paul. I have tried working with my boss distortion pedal and tube screamer.

I am micing with an sm57 and a small condenser (C-1000 I think it is) through a Vintech 1272 pre amp. Any advice on getting the sound? The riff in Photograph (and in my original) is basically just played on two strings, but the guitar sound Def Leppard gets sound really thick. I imported the song on a track in my pro-tools session for reference, but I can't even get close to that sound.

Also I was wondering what advice anyone had on seting the input and output levels on my Vintech 1272. I ussually run the outputs on the Vintech into the balanced inputs on my M-Audio Firewire 18/14 and then pad the inputs on the M-Audio so I can get more color from the Vintech. I am pretty new to recording (only been at it about a year now) and just got the Vintech around 6 months ago.
 
I remember reading a guitar mag, probably 15+ years ago, that had the tab for photograph and some tips on phil collen's guitar tone, but I've long-since thrown it away. However, I'm guessing he wasn't using a Les Paul and a Blues Junior. A Jackson HSS strat copy through a Marshall stack with some chorus and perhaps a flanger would probably get you closer. That's just a guess, though, cuz I haven't heard that song in many years.
 
Actually Phil played a Destroyer on that record and Steve played a Les Paul. I do have a Destroyer but I am getting a better sound with the Les Paul. I am sure the were probably using Marshal stack, but teh Blue Junior is the only tube amp I have got.
 
The def Leopard albums were a classic example of 80's near Caligula level excesses of which sweetnubs is highly guilty of having committed in the past but hell i made some sweet scratch. "They" literally tracked 20+ guitar parts to get that "thick" guitar sound. Trust me, I know.
 
You're only trying to duplicate the guitar tone off the most overproduced album of all time with a practice amp. It shouldn't be too hard :p

As much as I hate them you would probably be better off using a modelling amp or Demonizer if you can't afford a marshall.
 
I actually found a sound that seems to be working. I am running my line 6 pod through my tube amp. I set the Pod on one of the Marshall settings with distortion. I put a Beta 57 in front of the amp and a condenser behind it, just a few inches from the back opening. I have the amp cranked up to about 8 - which is pretty loud and I set input levels low on my preamp so I could jack up the output levels more. I layered about 4 takes so far and the mix has the effect I was looking for.

I did a few takes with reverb, but then I thought it would probably be better to track everything dry and then later run all the guitar tracks through my Joe Meek compressor and my Yamaha reverb when I do the final mix. My guess would be that the reverb and compression sould be applied to all of the takes at once.
 
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