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Favorite Guitar Tones?


Dusty Chalk

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While seeing the new Bond film this weekend, I was seriously impressed with Jack White's guitar tone on the song during the opening credits. Does he have other songs that have seriously delicious guitar tones? I like everything from ridiculously processed (Isley Brothers -- Who's That Lady; Shotgun Messiah's Violent New Breed; Nine Inch Nails; Landmind-era Ministry; etc.) to some nice subtle compression with maybe a little bit of tube distortion (Tommy Bolin's Savannah Woman; Al di Meola's Ritmo de la Noche; Eric Johnson) to some nice dirty spittle-flying guitar tones (ELO's Ma Ma Ma Belle; godhead's Fall Away) to ...uh, I don't know what to call it -- let's just call it David Gilmour -- his Pigs (Three Different Ones), Dogs, Echoes, Shine On You Crazy Diamond -- heck, even Rob Dickinson pulled off some great guitar tones on Handsome. And yes, of course shoegazer -- Black Metallic, Just for a Day, Loveless.

So what are some of Jack White's songs with great guitar tones, and what are some of your favorites? I wanna hear.

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My absolute favorite "raunchy" guitar tone can be heard in Stone Temple Pilots song, Sex Type Thing. Particularly the tone during the chorus. Its full of mids and presence, but it doesn't go so far as to be 'farty'. Its just perfect.

The way its pushed up a little bit in the mastering during the chorus gives it a little bit of kick. :)

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Yeah, Julian Bream is nice, but classical guitars have too much "bloom" for my tastes, I much prefer the new style acoustic guitars that don't have those stupid resonances that are so hard to listen to. I don't know of too many classical guitarists that record with those, though, it's mostly the like of Fripp & co. (League of Crafty Guitarists, etc.) and other contemporary music makers.

A couple more:

Funk #49 -- Joe Walsh in the James Gang

the ultra-bright acoustic guitars on "Life's Been Good" -- Joe Walsh solo

the similar ultra-bright guitars on "Fire On High" -- ELO

the one-two eargasm of "Witch Hunt" & "Vital Signs" on Rush's Moving Pictures

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Pete Townshends SG + Sound City/Hiwatt rig from The Isle of Wight 1970 is almost unbeatable for me; I don't think you fit more rock into each chord than with that tone.

I also love Michio Kurihara's totally jarring and insane sound in his solo on Boris & Michio Kurihara - Rainbow's title track:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1z0FGxWi7Q]YouTube - Boris with Michio Kurihara - Rainbow[/ame]

Jeff Tweedy has kind of a similar effect on "At Least That's What You Said", apparently he was trying to replicate one of his panic attacks on guitar.

Lesse... there's anything by Jimi, especially "Who Knows" off Band of Gypsies, also Eddie Hazel from Funkadelic on the entire album Maggot Brain--totally sweet fuzz/wah stuff.

And on the subject of P-Funk, how about their bassists? Not just Bootsy's filters and tons of effects either, check out Rodney "Skeet" Curtis on "Who Says A Funk Band Can't Play Rock?" Beautiful Alembic tone.

Cecil McBee, who played alot with Pharoah Sanders and a bunch of guys on Strata East has a really earthy, soulful upright sound. Fred Hopkins of Air (the trio w/ Henry Threadgill, not the french dudes) does the opposite but equally well with his totally grinding, vicious plucking.

Rodrigo Y Gabriela probably have my favorite acoustic guitar tone, especially Gabriela's strumming/percussion.

As for Jack White, he has some cool whammy pedal stuff on "Little Cream Soda" on Icky Thump, but really anything with him usually has some cool axemanship.

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This is a tough question and I've been considering it for a few days, since I wasn't sure. I've decided that my favorite guitar tone is Wes Montgomery's. Not only for being very personal and easily recognizable, but for being spot on for the music he makes. After all it was the first time I heard Wes Montgomery when I was about 8 years all, on my aunt's Hifi, that I decided that I needed to learn to play guitar and that I needed to investigate that jazz thing.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm right with you on Jack White. His tone is also phenomenal live. So far as I can tell, it is produced solely by mid-60s guitars manufactured for Sears through a digitech whammy and then straight to two Fender twin reverbs. In other words, really basic shit. Nonetheless, he makes that thing sing.

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Shawn Lane on "Time is the Enemy"

Buddy Guy on "Stone Crazy"

Devin Townsend on "Terria"

But all-time favorite has to be Steven Wilson on "Up the Downstair" and "Voyage 34." NOT the shitty remasters - the originals. Don't get the remastered - which is actually re-recorded - Up the Downstair. It's a travesty. Most of it is re-recorded and all of the original emotion is gone. Get the original instead even though the production sucks.

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Well there's the shoo-ins like SRV, Jimi Hendrix, Albert King and the other Blues greats.

Take them out of the picture and it gets more interesting.

Michael Timmins from the first Cowboy Junkies album, when they were still a garage band. A quick sample:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttYSs27FlGU

Blue Rodeo also scored a nice one on 5 days in July

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  • 3 weeks later...

Okay, I have to add Timeout Drawer (specifically the album Nowonmai) to my list of favorite tones. When they go into full on rock mode, I just get these wonderful little feelings of bliss. Cases in point, "Blue-Eyed and Full of Horror" and "What Looked Like Morning was the Beginning of Endless Night" and the track that can be found on their MySpace and a bunch of other places, "Bursting with Tears, I Commit to Destroying You". I think they're doubling the guitar with some Moog, that's part of why I heart so much.

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the one-two eargasm of "Witch Hunt" & "Vital Signs" on Rush's Moving Pictures
Those are my favorite two, but the whole album is good. Some of the stories from that album are particularly interesting -- Alex standing on a boat in the middle of a lake to get that just right wind-whipped sound during "Red Barchetta" is a favorite.
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  • 1 year later...

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