The "How'd they get that tone?" thread?

[Blurillaz]

I thought it might be useful for there to be one big thread, where we can ask each other questions on how musicians got certain tones on songs 'n' stuff like that, instead of making a new thread for every question~

I'll start off
Joy Division- She's Lost Control
I don't know if any else here listens to them but I'm curios obout how Bernard Sumner got his tone here...
It soudns like he has his amp cranked for teh distortion, and almost like he has a fixed wah, but as far as I know, he only used a Boss BF-2 flanger and some other chorus pedal... (Clone Theory?) What kind of EQ settings would get this sound, Treble-7, Mids-8, Bass- 4 perhaps?

[Roseweave]

Yeah, I always get close to this and then compare it and realise I'm not that quote after all.

[Blurillaz]

Well, what guitars did he use around then? Was it a Gibson SG?
I guess it would be pretty hard to replicate with single coils...

[Roseweave]

Are you sure? It had that kind of clangy note clarity you only tend to get with single coils. Could be PAF humbuckers though.

[Blurillaz]

I'm watching some of their live stuff, he has an SG, possibly a copy, through a VOX (Can't tell what model) I've read somewhere the only way he could get his distortion was cranking the vox, and that is why Peter Hook plays higher notes on his bass, because otherwise he couldn't hear... Later, I think Ian Curtis had a Vox Phantom, but he didn't play guitar that often on the recordings, only when Bernard couldn't do it how he wanted.... I don't know if Bernard ever used Ian's phantom though.

[Roseweave]

i imagine he was using PAF style pickups into whatever Solid State Vox amp was around at the time.

[Blurillaz]

Hm, that sounds likely.
If anyone has ever heard of a band called "My Dad Is Dead", they seem to be able to cop that tone almost exactly. Listen to "Too Far Gone"... I doubt it, but if anyone has some connection with that band, possibly they could help finding that tone?

[Blurillaz]

This is the 10000th post in the gear sub-forum

[eti]

Oddly enough I just watched the Joy Divison documentary last night...

In this clip he's using a customized Shergold Masquerader

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVc29bYIvCM[/youtube]


http://www.shergold.co.uk/neworder.html woo-hoo! DiMarzios!

The studio version sounds like the part is doubled by a bass, or another guitar. You could split the signal to two amps with two different tones, one growly, one with a fixed wah and get pretty close.

[Roseweave]

Here's his rig in 1980 -

http://www.guitargeek.com/rigview/297/

Like I said though at the time I think he was using some SS Vox amp, it's an SS version of the UL730.

The SG was probably an early 70s model so a modern one with the higher resistance pickups won't get that kind of string clarity, like I said you'd need to sawp in some vintage PAF style pickups, or find some beefy Single Coils.

[Blurillaz]

Oddly enough I just watched the Joy Divison documentary last night...

Do you mean Control?

The first time I watched it, I actually wasn't into JD very much, so I was just watching it to see the actor who played Ian Curtis do his dance, and for him to have a seizure. I deserve a couple for that.

[Blurillaz]

Here's his rig in 1980 -

http://www.guitargeek.com/rigview/297/

Like I said though at the time I think he was using some SS Vox amp, it's an SS version of the UL730.

The SG was probably an early 70s model so a modern one with the higher resistance pickups won't get that kind of string clarity, like I said you'd need to sawp in some vintage PAF style pickups, or find some beefy Single Coils.

I dunno, guitar geek isn't reliable at all when i comes to guitarist's rigs....
The Vox and BF-2 are right for sure, but I was under the impression he didn't use any effects aside from the BF-2 live... Oh well.

Maybe if you put Bare Knuckle "The Mule" pickups in a homemade SG, you'd get much closer to his tone.

[eti]

Oddly enough I just watched the Joy Divison documentary last night...

Do you mean Control?

I mean this: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1097239/

The first time I watched it, I actually wasn't into JD very much, so I was just watching it to see the actor who played Ian Curtis do his dance, and for him to have a seizure. I deserve a couple for that.

Glad to oblige:

Here's his rig in 1980 -

http://www.guitargeek.com/rigview/297/

Interesting! I was thinking that it might be possible to get that simultaneous low-end growl, and high-end fixed-wah-like tone with a decent graphic EQ.

[Blurillaz]

Glad to oblige:

Thank you for your patronage.

[Roseweave]

I actually get pretty close with my Lunchbox. Just need to add some verb or delay.