Vintage guitar vibe - how to....

  • Thread starter Thread starter schenkerguy
  • Start date Start date
S

schenkerguy

Member
Hey all!

I just recorded a guitar track today for a song I'm doing, a remake of Town Without Pity... Just some simple bass and drums for a guide, still lots of work to do.

Lately I've really been getting into that vintage Gretsch kind of sound, and I plan to get a hollow body axe soon. But....

I think I got kind of a cool sound out of my old guitar, by putting on some flatwound strings, it's the first time I've ever tried them!

I plan to buy an Ibanez AFST75 hollowbody fairly soon, been researching a lot...

You can check out my "Gretschy" track here:


Any comments on the guitar sound or playing appreciated!
 
Well OK, you asked for it:
Great playin' !! Is that a Pod, J station, or another modelling unit? or maybe a SS device like an OD pedal in the signal chain? The distortion on the louder multi-string passages sounds like one of those to me....kinda artificial and missin' somethin', maybe a just a little too much distortion for a vintage vibe. Just my humble opinion. Sounds like a good solid guitar tone underneath though, that sounds way better in the less distorted passages. I believe you are on the path of guitar righteousness, brother.
I think a lot of the vintage 50's and 60's guitar tones were in large part because of the heavy string gauges they used to use back then, probably a lot of flatwounds, too. What gauges are on yer guitar?
 
That really sounds like it should be a James Bond theme song.

I like it. A male singer like Barry Mantilow or a opratic female would do wonders.
 
Oh... couldn't fool you huh? Yes, it was an amp simulator! It's "Amplitube" which is a vst effect in Cubase. (www.amplitube.com)

I could definately turn down the distortion a tad. That's the good thing about using a vitrual amp, you're not comitted to anything! I can change any setting at any time later.

The strings I used were D'addario ECG-23, which I believe is a 10-28, flatwound. Never tried 'em before!
 
Hey, I'm no purist - I use a J-Station. My wife would run me out of the house if I were to record stuff with a real amp, even my Fender Champ!
To my ears modellers can sound ok on clean settings, or maybe full-on distortion, but their big weakness is the mild overdrive/transition stuff - seems like when you hit a certain threshold they get flatulent. The transition zone from clean into distortion I would say is too narrow, and their "early" distortion tone is artificial and transistor-ish, chords lack definition.
I have a limited-feature demo copy of Amplitube and messed with it a little a while back, I liked it a lot better than Revalver, (which was too weird for me), but not as well as my hardware based J Station.
Your playing deserves a better platform than a modelling amp; that piece would sound so much better thru a real amp, but I'm guessing that you have similiar recording limitations.
Hey - read my thread "Has Anyone Tried This" - reading and replying to your post reminded me of an idea I had recently for improving the sound of existing modelling amps...
 
Well, I have a Marshall 4x12 to record, but 2 Peavey combos to power it. No tube gear, though I'd like to get some. I've really had better sounds from this simulated stuff than I ever got from real amps, but probably didn't have the right gear!
 
Peavey SS stuff probably is a notch below the simulators...and there is an art I'm sure to getting a good sound mic'ing even a great amp, I wouldn't know where to start.
 
I just bought an Ibanez AFS75T. It's not a perfect guitar but the price is right. Change the strings before you even plug it in. Let me know if you want me to answer any questions.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top