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Jack Deville wrote:Start with like two to five RV-5s.
I really like ISIS. Caught em last time they came through (I think they're last tour) and was right up front for the whole show. Including a 40 minute Oceanic encore.
Everybody in that band had RV-5s on their boards. I want to say a minimum of two each. The bass player had three? Plus a few DD-Xs.
Seemed like the TR-2 was really popular with em as well.
And Fryette amps for guitar, Aguilar for bass.
Fryette overdriven tones with LOTS of reverb.

I can't speak for Aaron and Mike, but Jeff uses RV-3s, not RV-5s. He loves that reverb + delay mode and uses it everywhere on Panopticon and Radiant.

Saw them four times, all in the later stages of their run (06-'11).

Most of what made them special comes from the songwriting and the mix, not so much the individual tones.

bigchiefbc wrote:

Jack Deville wrote:Start with like two to five RV-5s.
I really like ISIS. Caught em last time they came through (I think they're last tour) and was right up front for the whole show. Including a 40 minute Oceanic encore.
Everybody in that band had RV-5s on their boards. I want to say a minimum of two each. The bass player had three? Plus a few DD-Xs.
Seemed like the TR-2 was really popular with em as well.
And Fryette amps for guitar, Aguilar for bass.
Fryette overdriven tones with LOTS of reverb.

I can't speak for Aaron and Mike, but Jeff uses RV-3s, not RV-5s. He loves that reverb + delay mode and uses it everywhere on Panopticon and Radiant.

Aaron used an RV-3. Jeff and Mike both had an RV-3 and an RV-5.

Anyway, anything with a big, huge low end and just a touch of clarity will do. I think Muff-style fuzz works fine for their later stuff. Really though, it was all amp drive. Mike Gallagher used a GE-7 (possibly as a boost) and Aaron Turner used an LAL Super-Oscillo Fuzz for some inbetweeny bits (and Stone to Wake a Serpent I think).

also: viewtopic.php?f=149&t=5205&p=433060&hilit=isis#p433060

GardenoftheDead wrote:

bigchiefbc wrote:

Jack Deville wrote:Start with like two to five RV-5s.
I really like ISIS. Caught em last time they came through (I think they're last tour) and was right up front for the whole show. Including a 40 minute Oceanic encore.
Everybody in that band had RV-5s on their boards. I want to say a minimum of two each. The bass player had three? Plus a few DD-Xs.
Seemed like the TR-2 was really popular with em as well.
And Fryette amps for guitar, Aguilar for bass.
Fryette overdriven tones with LOTS of reverb.

I can't speak for Aaron and Mike, but Jeff uses RV-3s, not RV-5s. He loves that reverb + delay mode and uses it everywhere on Panopticon and Radiant.

Aaron used an RV-3. Jeff and Mike both had an RV-3 and an RV-5.

Anyway, anything with a big, huge low end and just a touch of clarity will do. I think Muff-style fuzz works fine for their later stuff. Really though, it was all amp drive. Mike Gallagher used a GE-7 (possibly as a boost) and Aaron Turner used an LAL Super-Oscillo Fuzz for some inbetweeny bits (and Stone to Wake a Serpent I think).

also: viewtopic.php?f=149&t=5205&p=433060&hilit=isis#p433060

Interesting, I was going by an apparently older pic of Jeff's board, in which he had a second RV-3 instead of the RV-5.

Jeff went back and forth. I think they used to break the RV-3s like crazy so they always had some RV-5s on hand because you can get them anywhere. Mike talked about it a bit here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmi8oOK0NKk

dase wrote:I saw them and played with them on their first aus tour after panopticon came out and dudes were using those Hughes and Kettner t-factor pedals to push their amps. I had one for a while and didn't rate it much but it obviously worked with the rented backline they were using.

From what I can gather, Aaron used a few different OD pedals (mainly tube ones) with the distortion channel of his amp to get that thicker sound, while Mike I think used the G-7 to boost the bottom and tops.

Jack Deville wrote:I really like ISIS. Caught em last time they came through (I think they're last tour) and was right up front for the whole show. Including a 40 minute Oceanic encore.

Man that would have been AWESOME!

Jack Deville wrote:Fryette overdriven tones with LOTS of reverb.

I'm not actually sure if they would of used heaps of reverb with their distortion. I'd say light at most, heavier reverb on the clean passages.

This is my summary thus far;

I think pre Fryette, when they toured Australia anyway, they used Mesa rec's. In the states Mike used the Mesa V-Twin pre-amp and Aaron went through the Sun model T's (Both original and reissue) combined with the OD pedals. (Gear would have been easier to lug in home country)

Then I think in 08 Aaron started using the VHT's then moved onto the Fryette's (Mike followed suit soon after with the Sig X) and started boosting with the Thunder box to get that really thick clear sound.

Anyway, anything with a big, huge low end and just a touch of clarity will do. I think Muff-style fuzz works fine for their later stuff. Really though, it was all amp drive. Mike Gallagher used a GE-7 (possibly as a boost) and Aaron Turner used an LAL Super-Oscillo Fuzz for some inbetweeny bits (and Stone to Wake a Serpent I think).

I would say heaps of clarity not a touch. Listen to this and see what I mean;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pXAlbiAO2M

I LOVE THIS TONE! Especially when they kick into the distortion at the .46 sec mark. That's awesome.

I don't have amp drive with my amp, the whole purpose of the topic was to find a pedal that's going to give me what I'm looking for.

What do you think about the tone at the start of the song, would that be an amps OD/crunch channel? It doesn't sound distorted enough for a lead channel.
PS what amp is Aaron playing in this clip?

Early Isis sludge tones are the best. Celestial and Oceanic are two very dense records...I think as long as you have an amp with huge clean headroom and a healthy low end capability, most fuzzy drive pedals should take you there. I have rocked some Isis riffs with an Algal Bloom set to kill through my V4 with my drop B stratocaster and gotten pretty close to that sound. A RAT style pedal could do the trick too. I can't speak for the elements personally but I have a feeling that pedal would excel at such things too.

Make sure you're at least rocking a neck humbucker, if not a bridge humbucker too. I know Aaron started using teles with singles in the bridge at some point, but that early Isis sound was all les Paul and prs guitar tones.

I don't know if I'm seeing things but it looks like an original and a reissue Sun Model T boosted with a Maxon ROD?

Okay. RV-3s it is.
I dunno. It was loud. I was wasted. I saw lots of BOSS RV-Xs everywhere and it was sweaty and loud. I remember at least one of em saying RV-5. I swear.

And yes. The encore was epic.

This show was the only time I saw Isis. It was motherfuxing amazing

Saw them probably 10-12 times between 2000-2005, played a couple fests with them as well. I have a VHS somewhere of them playing "Panopticon" start to finish before it came out at a museum in LA, outdoors (a show I was at, though an acquaintance filmed it). Crushing band, though they kind of lost me, or I lost them, toward the end.

Holy wow, I would love to see that VHS sometime.

Next time I am at my dad's I will try to remember to look for it!

insubordination wrote:Saw them probably 10-12 times between 2000-2005, played a couple fests with them as well. I have a VHS somewhere of them playing "Panopticon" start to finish before it came out at a museum in LA, outdoors (a show I was at, though an acquaintance filmed it). Crushing band, though they kind of lost me, or I lost them, toward the end.

I mean I'd break up if I released Wavering Radiant too.