Holdsworth sound with other gear. .

[lareplus]

I don't own a custom made guitar or an exotic amp. Is there any way to reproduce that incredible cello like, saxophone like sound that he creates, using inexpensive equipment?

[ericmeyer4]

Re: Holdsworth sound with other gear. .

Here is a list of some of the gear he has used over the years. Link Here

Nothing seems overly custom or exotic. Most of that cello sound is going to come from technique than gear.

On the guitar side a strat with humbucker will get you part of the way for some of the tone. He used a A2 JB with double screw coils then later switched to a A2 59 with double screw coils.

[Archer_of_Fish]

Re: Holdsworth sound with other gear. .

Holdsworth has used pretty much everything.


Work on your technique

[Blix]

Re: Holdsworth sound with other gear. .

$350 Steinberger Spirit, Line 6 POD Farm:





Far from nailing Holdsworth tone, but ballpark, and I bet in Allan hands it would be way closer.

[voggin]

Re: Holdsworth sound with other gear. .

$350 Steinberger Spirit, Line 6 POD Farm:





Far from nailing Holdsworth tone, but ballpark, and I bet in Allan hands it would be way closer.

That was pretty cool. A touch of Steve Hackett in there, too. Nice.

[lareplus]

Re: Holdsworth sound with other gear. .

That was excellent Blix. . .do you think I would be able to get this sound running through my amp with a Line 6 pod? I know nothing of these devices, except that they are multi effects pedals. Looks like you ran a recording pod into your computer, but I am only interested in live play.

[ericmeyer4]

Re: Holdsworth sound with other gear. .

That was excellent Blix. . .do you think I would be able to get this sound running through my amp with a Line 6 pod? I know nothing of these devices, except that they are multi effects pedals. Looks like you ran a recording pod into your computer, but I am only interested in live play.

What is your current setup? Guitar, pedals, amps, ect?

[lareplus]

Re: Holdsworth sound with other gear. .

Fat strat, several possibilities for amps. . .friends! not much in the way of pedals. that's why I'm asking this question! : )

[Red_Label]

Re: Holdsworth sound with other gear. .

Yup... Holdsworth has used just about everything over the years. Trust me, except for his SynthAxe stuff, ALL of his tone/schtick is in his amazing fingers. He'd sound like him no matter what you plugged him into. And you can sound pretty much like him no matter what you plug into -- that is, if you can play ridiculus legato, wide-interval whole tone scalar passages as easily as tying your shoes!

Btw... my favorite Holdsworth peice has always been the solo to "Devil Take the Hindmost". I went through my Yngwie phase during the late 80's and could pick apart his stuff note-for-note by ear at speed. But Holdsworth stumped me! It was precisely those legato whole-tone phrases that made it so hard to figure-out exactly what he was doing. The guy is truly one of the most unique and talented guys out there (and always has been). A true "player's player". Always makes me smile a bit when some long-haired, tophat-wearing, low-slung, penatonic-centric, LP-playing rock star is thought of as the be-all, end-all of six string wizardry by so many... and a guy like Alan could walk down any street and not be likely to even be recognized. Such is pop culture and the music biz...

[Chickenwings]

Re: Holdsworth sound with other gear. .

volume pedal is good. a nice fuzz or maybe a rat. Its mostly the way he plays more than the gear.

[atreidesheir]

Re: Holdsworth sound with other gear. .

I remember reading somewhere he sets his amp for bass -0, mids-10, treble-0.
It gives an overdriven amp pretty close to his amp sound. He sounded good with those yamaha DG amps 10 or 12 years ago, and helped on pretest and some presets with their delay stomp pedal around that time too.

[Blix]

Re: Holdsworth sound with other gear. .

That was excellent Blix. . .do you think I would be able to get this sound running through my amp with a Line 6 pod? I know nothing of these devices, except that they are multi effects pedals. Looks like you ran a recording pod into your computer, but I am only interested in live play.

I don't know if a POD into an amp will do, you'll need at least to be stereo to get closer to his tone. He never use reverb, just cascaded stereo delays which creates an unique ambience.
Check out his tone here, you can hear the delays nicely here:



He still use his Yamaha Magicstomp boxes a lot live.

[lareplus]

Re: Holdsworth sound with other gear. .

Thanks Atreidesheir, Gibson175. . .useful comments. .

[lareplus]

Re: Holdsworth sound with other gear. .

AH doesn't play that much on the Rockett pedals video above but when he does. . .it is incredible.

[Red_Label]

Re: Holdsworth sound with other gear. .

$350 Steinberger Spirit, Line 6 POD Farm:





Far from nailing Holdsworth tone, but ballpark, and I bet in Allan hands it would be way closer.

Very nice! Tastefull. Got the whole "scoop-in" and vibrato with the trem thing going. Kept waiting for you to kick it into hyper-drive and "blow" ala Holdsworth.