Translate GR components?

Hello everyone,

Everytime I ask someone how I can get a sertain tone out of GR2, people tell me to look up what gear the guitarist uses.

Fair enough, though, I don't know how the 'real' gear translates itself to GR2 components. For example: I want to get a B.B. King sound, so I looked up "B.B. King rig" in google and got the following:

"King always plays his signature Gibson Lucille through a Lab Series 2x12 combo"

So I need the Lab Series 2x12 combo. How do I know what this is in GR2? Is there some sort of list or dictionary?

Maybe someone sees it as a challenge to create such a list and all of us less experienced GR2 users can benefit . That would be great!

 

There really isn't a LAB combo; LAB was a solid state amp made by Gibson for a while in the late '70s-early '80s.

BB's second choice for an amp's a Twin Reverb though; the Twang Reverb covers that. For the classic BB sound, turn the volume up around 8 or 9, the bass at 3 or 4, the mids and highs to 7 or 8 and the bright switch on.

ew

 

Thanks for the info. I tried it and it sounds good.

But how do you know this? Is it experience or is there a site somewhere explaining things?

 

Both, kind of. I remember reading an interview a long time ago with BB where he described his amp settings, and I've used those settings with a Twin before to get the sound. An old roommate of mine back in the late '70s owned a LAB, so I was familiar with what BB's settings would sound like with that amp.

As long as we're on the subject of blues and Fenders, take the Twang again with BB's settings. Turn the volume and treble all the way up and use the 4x10 tweed cabinet. You're in Albert Collins/Super Reverb territory now

ew

 

I too believe if someone (opportunity could be knocking EW) compiled all this information into a GR cookbook they would have a very popular E-Book (pdf format) that could be sold for a fair price and do very well. Maybe even sell it to NI for inclusion with GR.

There are many of us who don't have years of experience with real amps and gear. I know what sounds good and what sound I'm looking for. Through experimentation I have found what I like but it would be great to have a better idea of what I'm doing.

 

I would buy it...definitely!

 

guitargeek.com is another forum that I spend a lot of time on and it has TONS of info on famous players rigs. If you find a piece of gear and you don't know what it is like say a, Fulltone Fulldrive II, you can look that up and find out if it's based on another circuit. ( the FFII is based on a tube screamer circuit, but it has more bass) so, you open a "screamer" and then turn the trim pot in advanced mode for the bass up, and there you go...

 

I've checked out guitargeek.com, and it appears there haven't been any updates since 2004... Gear reviews in full text are unavailable, and there aren't any of these anyway since 2002.
It's a nice enough archive though, and the idea behind it is good! Wonder what happened to them - it seems like a desolate website; perhaps they were hijacked by aliens! Any info?

 

I should have mentioned. you're right, the site itself is dead, but the forum is really lively. if you go into "geekchat" and then check out "complete that rig" that's the forum where people post pics of rigs they've seen at gigs, like, "most complete john frusciante pics" or whatever. and the stompbox forum has tons of great info about effects.

 

Ahh! Thanx.

BTW I found a link for a much smaller site with some of the same concept, that focuses on jazz guitarists, from Django via Wes to Metheny, Stern and Scofield:
http://www.jazzguitar.be/guitar_setup.html
It's interesting to read how so many of these folks who rely on transistor amps for instance.

Another note: you can duplicate your favourite guitarist's rig down to the same plectrum but still not get the sound. Of course: so much of the sound comes from the hands and fingers and the mind(!); even when buried in effects, at least the phrasing comes through.
But what is also left out of all these rig setups is how they are recorded, and how it can affect the sound fundamentally. I think it was EW who in another post reminded that (parts) of the first Led Zeppelin album was played on a Tele (unmodified), through a little known small amp. Still I think everybody agree the sound is absolutely huge, and at least I have suspected a Les Paul through a Marshal stack at blasting volume. But it's not, and it appears the technician had a few tricks up his sleeve when it came to choosing the right microphone and placing it (them?) right. A similar concept was used on another 'guitar album' from that time, Layla with Eric Clapton and Duane Allman. Here they used the Pignose practice amp throughout - and sure it wails!
Some seemingly simple setups are also more complex than expected in the recording situation; I read somewhere that Mark Knopfler's sound on the debut (with 'Sultans of swing') which have such a dry and down to earth quality, is the result of a very elaborate setup with front and back miking of at least two amps; a Fender Twin and perhaps unexpectedly a Roland Jazz Chorus (transistor amp).
As everybody who have experimented with the cab sims in GuitarRig probably have discovered: changing the virtual mics and altering their placement can mean night and day for a setup, going from 'ok' to great.

 

great post!

for the record, Jimmy Page produced those records and he was/is the wizard with the mics.

 

It's not really surprising. They're small, powerful and clean. Also, many jazz guitarists use hollowbodies, where any form of distortion will cover up all the little resonant give and takes going on in a hollow box.

Yep, which is why I'd shy away from doing the cookbook that was suggested. I could see too many people saying that they still don't sound like *insert name here*

Yeah, that was me. And yeah, it's all about the placing

Now that one I didn't know. I didn't even think Pignoses were out when Layla was recorded (1970). I can see where some of Duane's tones might have been through one, though.

Clapton's usual rig at the time was a Fender Showman through a Dual Showman cabinet. Pull up the Twang, turn everything up to 10 (except for the reverb; that's on 1) and run it through the TwangINIT with the size increased by 25% (giving you a 2x15). Don't forget the CryBaby in front (or the Fuzz in front for your Dominos do Cream covers)...Duane's was a Plexi and a 4x12 (and sometimes an 8x12 Super Beatle cab). However, he used JBLs in his Marshall cabs; you'd probably be better off taking the 4x10" tweed and enlarging it by 20% than using a Plexi cab. Or, you could stack two Twang cabs.

Some more great examples of Pignoses are Joe Walsh's first solo album and Frank Zappa's Stinkfoot; the latter's a Pignose and a Mu-Tron.

Mark Knopfler's a master of using extremely complex setups to get pristine, "simple" tones. In the '80s and '90s, he used multiple open and isolation cabs with multiple amps in his live rig as well as in the studio. The last time I saw him, all his amps were offstage and running through iso cabinets; he didn't have a backline at all.

Amen, brother...

ew

 

Thanks for the comments!

Don't hang me if I'm wrong - it's many years ago since I was anything near a Clapton fan - but I am quite certain that the Layla sessions were recorded in a Villa near other houses, and they chose the small amps because they didn't want to disturb the neighbours, because they wanted to keep the informal atmosphere with lots of jamming going on and/or of course: because it simply gave the right sound...

The Dual Showman, Fender's largest amp and cab combo, was Clapton's choice in (late) Cream ('68) and the 'supergroup' Blind Faith with Steve Winwood ('69), but then he had a sudden style change later that year when he started to play with soul duo Delaney & Bonnie and switched from Les Paul to Stratocaster and a much lighter sound - which he somewhat carried on with into the Layla sessions the followint year. In his live comback in '73 I believe the Dual Showman was in place again, as well as a Les Paul, but I think a Pignose is visible on stage too!

The Dual Showman was of course Fender's response to the popularity of the Marshall 100W stack. It never caught on that much; Johnny Winter may be the only high profile player from the 70's to use it for a length of time. I tried one once, I think it has a different circuit desgin than their other amps, and somehow it didn't have the same bright and punchy qualities as their combos have (I have a well kept Super Reverb at home). It faded away... - and you don't need to include this as a virtual amp in GR on my part!

Now this was pretty nerdy. I apologize...

 

You guys don't get the point of my post.

I don't want to sound exactly like *insert name here*, I want to know what *insert name here* uses, so I'll know what I have to use in GR2 to get something like that sound.

It's also nice to know what the GR2 components are in 'real' life.

Look at me like this: I don't know jack about amps and want to know more about what amps are used in different situations (also nice to know this from a historic point of view)

So start working on the cookbook!

 

OK. Hope we can count you in then? This thread has given a few links which is a large resource on what you seem to be after already. To extend the search, I would recommend something as simple as a Google search. 'Jimi Hendrix equipment' will actually give you a lot of (interesting) hits. You can also search inside the guitar publications, like Guitar player (http://www.guitarplayer.com) for artist interviews, where they very often talk about gear.

 

I won't hang you, but you're wrong...Layla was recorded at Criteria Studios in Miami. I think you're thinking of 461 Ocean Boulevard...

And, the Pignose didn't come out until 1972 or so.

ew

 

There is a GR2 mod that works with previous versions of GR2,

but here is an image of the mod:

 

that looks pretty cool. any links for where to get hold of it?

 

Download: http://brohymn.com.sapo.pt/Mod.zip (works with 2.02, not the 2.2 version)

Forum link: http://www.guitarampmodeling.com/viewtopic.php?t=521

 

Well, as 2.02 has so many issues...

I'll go for stability over GUI.