How to get that Stoner Rock Guitar Sound ??

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jules
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Jules

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Hey,

How do Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, etc.. get this butter-soft bass-saturated guitar sound? Y'know what I mean?

I was trying to reproduce this, but hmm.. no good effects.

Is this a matter of gear?
A matter of amplifier adjustment?
How can I influence it during mixing / recording?

C'mon, I know a lot of You can answer me this question! :)

Thanks a lot

Jules
 
well, I think it's definately a humbucker pick up you hear.

probably some of the tone rolled off, very unlikely a flat out tone knob on 10.

Im sure the amp, amp settings, room, mic, mic angle, ears etc also playa role.
 
They're humbucker pickups (Les pauls, SGs, etc) and they produce that driving rock sound distorted. Not to mention they do massive EQing and have killer amps, but you just cant get that sound with a single coil pickup like a strat

Dave
 
And to me it sounds like they are using the neck pick up rather than the bridge pu. Or at least both.
 
If stoner rock is similar to stoner metal, then I think I know the guitar sound you are talking about..

You can get close with a les paul sound on the neck pick up, but there is actually a tone called "classic fuzz" that has those qualities. You can find that in a pedal form or an amp simulation.

This is that groovy, slightly bass heavy, heavily compressed, creamy tone ala smashing pumpkins right? If so, then look for something described as "classic fuzz".

Cy
 
well first of all their tone is super crappy so I suggest you use whatever's really crappy. but seriously, just add a bunch of distortion, preferrably more than one pedal with distortion at about 5 and add an overdrive pedal and EQ and stuff... you can use a single coil bridge postition for this because the hum doesn't even matter in this type of music.
 
rxQueen said:
well first of all their tone is super crappy so I suggest you use whatever's really crappy. but seriously, just add a bunch of distortion, preferrably more than one pedal with distortion at about 5 and add an overdrive pedal and EQ and stuff... you can use a single coil bridge postition for this because the hum doesn't even matter in this type of music.
Click to expand...

Wtf are you talking about?

The key to crunch is humbuckers and a tube amp.
 
Fuzz box comes close, even if you do use a single coil...
 
Jules,
They tune their guitars down 2 whole steps - C,F,Bb,Eb,G,C (low-to-high)
Josh Homme plays an Ovation Electric Guitar, as well as a Gibson Marauder, through Ampeg Tube Amps.
"Buzz" from the Melvins & Fantomas, gets a similar tone through Marshall Amps, with his Les Paul, so there is no definitive set-up to get the tone that you're after, just keep experimenting.
Good luck!

Take care,
Tony
 
I've never heard who you're talking about but I'd take a guess that it's more feedback than distortion. There is no substitute for volume.

Try any older tube amp, crank the volume and bottom end and go from there.
 
TexRoadkill said:
Wtf are you talking about?

The key to crunch is humbuckers and a tube amp.
Click to expand...

a tube amp is not a necessity. it's good if you have it but look at some great guitar players with awesome tone that use solid-state amps. Dimebag Darrell is one of the few that uses solid-state amps both for recording and live.
 
rxQueen said:
Dimebag Darrell is one of the few that uses solid-state amps both for recording and live.
Click to expand...

Darrel has got nothing to do with Stoner Rock...
 
BrettB said:
Darrel has got nothing to do with Stoner Rock...
Click to expand...

the only reason I mentioned him was to emphasize his good tone without the use of a tube amp. doesn't sound like you read the whole thread before posting.
 
from my listening experience, much of the stoner rock-type stuff i hear is probably played on neck pickups-less sharp articulation through the pickups-though queens of the stone age have some brightening on the top end. i would just tend to say on average-lots of bottom, average mids, average to light highs, neck pickups, amp cranked.
 
Ampeg V4 Amps, with NOS 7027 tubes, use a 4x12, two cabs if necessary. I believe the distortion pedals you most want to stick to are the basics; a Rat and a Big Muff should get you most of the way there. The neck humbucker is a good bet, though that Ovation that homme plays seems to get that sound through the bridge pickup. Remember, he only used that one guitar for 90% of the Kyuss stuff, and never found another guitar that did quite the same sound, so... good luck.
 
I get a pretty good 'stoner tone' and all I use is my Trademark 10 amp. Check out my song "a wanderer" (hit my www. button) to hear what I'm talking about. Part of it is tone and hard panning is a factor too.

The Pod has a pretty nice fuzzbox model that will work for us poor homerecorders. I don't think volume is necessary in the world of amp modellers but I'm sure the QOTSA had very loud amps in nice rooms being multi miced. I love their use of harmonics and percussive type guitar elements.
 
I've been researching this for a few year now, and I think I know how to do it.
You need a Dimarzio pick-up, a Boss SD-1, some sort of compression pedal cranked up kinda hard, and a Ampeg VT-40. Don't turn the distorsion knob to high on the SD-1.
 
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