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Post by t.olsen on Jan 27, 2012 7:28:24 GMT -7
Hi guys I am working on this ZZ Top song which is to be honest the reason to start my guitar career at the age of 40... I use a Les Paul standard with my wreck and a boss MT-2 at the moment but this is not that heavy compressed sound Billy used on Eliminator.Perhaps there are some more people playing this song or even the similar Sharp dressed man and are as interrested as I am to come as close as possible to the Reverend's tone with the help of another pedal.Any advice will be highly appreciated
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Post by dock66 on Jan 27, 2012 8:30:22 GMT -7
I found this on another forum wrote by 11 Gauge which I thought was pretty good.Just passing along the info...I hope this helps.
There are a few "eras" of ZZ Top, and should be addressed if trying to get these tones.
I think that trying to replicate every facet of Billy's rig is an exercise in futility. He's got a lot of collectible and somewhat rare gear. He's also got a ton of custom built stuff that you or I will never be able to own.
So let's go by eras, and try to find some reasonable workarounds:
- Earliest stuff - primarily collectible old guitars through old Marshalls and tweed Fenders. So good candidates are dirt boxes that will give you plenty of midrange, with a sweet spot at relatively lower gain, at least compared to other eras. This could be as simple as a slightly modified Boss DS-1 (modded for lots of mids that don't sound muddy at low gain). You might also try a Rat at lower gain settings, which should give you the mids. It will also give you a bit of the greasy tweed characteristics at the right settings as well (but it might be too much gain at that point). You could then work your way up to more expensive pedals like the Dirty Little Secret, which have a "rock" mode - basically a plexi amp simulation. If you are serious about the "amp in a box" tones, by all means check out the appropriate pedals at OLC. There are a TON of distortion boxes that could get the early era tones if they sound good at lower gain, and have lots of midrange.
- "Second" era - I didn't know what else to call this. Basically the period where Billy's tones get a bit more processed sounding. Stuff like Cheap Sunglasses and such. I think that many boxes that could be used for the earliest era might be usable. Since I tend to hear more distortion and less midrange, I think that choices can be a bit more generic.
- MTV era - Many processed rigs that will give you a "higher gain for the period" Marshall tone should work. Again, more distortion than the "second" era, a bit less mids, more pinched harmonics, "rack rig" tones, and the sound of high output humbuckers (Pearly Gates from earlier stuff has a relatively low output bridge 'bucker). A Boss DS-1 in stock form might even be sufficient!
- "Rhythmeen-forward" era - Unless Billy has reverted to some previous era's gear, this is the one that he currently uses. He went back to using a bunch of really old and rare guitars, and pulled a bunch of old amps out, as well. But he also mixed in some of the MTV era stuff, too. There's a stereo split on each track of the Rhythmeen album that has a mic'ed amp on one side with a D.I. track on the other (primarily a Marshall JMP-1, IIRC). It's not true stereo, as these two tracks were mixed a bit, and then stereo effects were mixed at the console. Billy also started using the Bixonic pedal and other sorts of odd pedals. Lots of tweed amps on that album.
...So this stuff might be the hardest to ape. You need pedals that will do old Marshall and tweed tones. You need something like the Xpandora, which is really much more than your average fuzz. You probably need at least two pedals, maybe three, IOW. Again, I don't think that they need to be anything particularly special (other than the Bixonic), as long as you can get the lower gain Marshall and tweed tones, and the higher gain Marshall rack preamp tone. But you may want to look into some of the amp sim pedals at OLC if you really want to get close to the tweed grit and harmonics on some of the tracks.
Just keep in mind that you are shooting at a moving target, and possibly making this harder than it need be. Billy just has a ton of gear at his disposal. There's also all sorts of stuff like Orange amps, Kendrick amps, and other relatively more recent gear, but much of it has been custom tailored to Billy's preferences. __________________
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Post by t.olsen on Jan 27, 2012 10:00:15 GMT -7
Well I already own the expandora and the Boss together with Expandora comes a little closer.Problem is that I have a lot more noise with them together but I guess it's from my crappy power supply.Anyway I found something really surprising in an interview with Terry Manning who was Billys long time engineer : www.woodytone.com/2010/09/30/engineer-billy-gibbons-eliminator-gear/He only used this legend amp fully cranked up with a custom made guitar...I do not know if that's the truth but as you said Billy is a gearhead and has always a lot of pedals and strange stuff and more important - he will never talk about his secrets And even if it is true and I live in my own house I cannot kick a 50 watt amp to get the tone without blowing my roof away.But perhaps there is a wonder weapon that comes close to the tone.
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