Reb Beach´s tone on first Winger album. Any tips?

[WingerManiac]

Hi folks, Reb Beach is one of my favorite guitar players of all time and I LOVE his tone on the first Winger album. I did my research and basically, most people say his setup was like this: EMG´s, Boss SD1 and a Marshall Plexi (modded by John Suhr).

Personally, I´m not sure that´s all. I think his tone from that era has a lot of distortion, a lot of compression and some strange almost 8-bit character (I know, sounds weird). You can hear what I mean by listening especially to the demo versions Winger released some years ago.

So any opinions or tips how to nail that tone? Thanks a lot!

[DankStar]

Re: Reb Beach´s tone on first Winger album. Any tips?

I thought he used kittyhawk amps back then. I remember his leads had a ton of effects, probably some studio rack unit like a Yamaha spx90 or something.

[WingerManiac]

Re: Reb Beach´s tone on first Winger album. Any tips?

Thanks for the answer. Reb said he never used Kitty Hawkes in the studio, because they were really low quality and he didn´t like them. I think it was more a commercial thing with these amps.

However, you could be right with the studio rack unit. It would be quite difficult to find out what the setup was then ;-)

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Reb Beach´s tone on first Winger album. Any tips?

According to his web site:

"That said - I never used Kitty Hawk amps in the studio. Live, I would only use their pre-amp for my effects, which no one but me ever heard since my effects cabs were never miked. Kitty Hawk pre-amps were great (only the green one) and I wish I still had mine. Kitty Hawk amps were pieces of crap. We brought six heads on the road and within three days only one worked. The crew called them "****ty Hawks". I'm pretty sure that the Marshall I used on the first Winger record was a rental from S.I.R. I got to know all the serial numbers of the best Marshalls, and would have the guys hold the good ones for me when an album project was coming up. So the 'Headed for a Heartbreak' tone is the same as every other solo tone on the record, maybe just EQ'd a little differently or placed louder in the mix. I just get a nice, fat, gug-gug, chunky kind of sound through the Marshall and then kick in my Boss SD-1 distortion pedal for sustain. That is my tone and has been on every record I've done. There are no bells or whistles. I cut everything dry, so if you hear an amazing reverb or echo it is in the mix with an AMS, Eventide, Lexicon 480L, or some high-end monster like that. If you want to hear a good representation of my Bradshaw Marshall tone - get the Live Dokken record. They didn't have the budget to fly me out to fix the mistakes and the tone was not messed with.

If someone reeaally wanted to get my tone, I figure they would need $5000. They could buy a Suhr and tell him to recreate my Pensa Suhr Koa guitar with EMG's and then buy a Bradshaw head (2nd choice - Boogie Rectifier), a Mesa Boogie 4x12 cab and the all-important Boss overdrive pedal."

There is no magic here, just carefully selected amps, carefully mic'd, and then effected during the mix phase.

What is your budget, current equipment, and do you have any recent recordings of your current tone?

[Reckless Abandon]

Re: Reb Beach´s tone on first Winger album. Any tips?

Wasn't there a certain modded marshall that a lot of the same guys used to record? Beau Hill produced bands?

[WingerManiac]

Re: Reb Beach´s tone on first Winger album. Any tips?

TwilightOdyssey, thanks, I read that article too. I just felt that his tone sounds like more distortion than a SD-1 into a Plexi...
I play a bit different gear than reb, I´m not convinced about EMGs for example.

Reckless Abandon, correct, Reb said that for example Warrant used "his" particular Marshall to record Cherry Pie and blew it up while recording the album.

[Reckless Abandon]

Re: Reb Beach´s tone on first Winger album. Any tips?

TwilightOdyssey, thanks, I read that article too. I just felt that his tone sounds like more distortion than a SD-1 into a Plexi...
I play a bit different gear than reb, I´m not convinced about EMGs for example.

Reckless Abandon, correct, Reb said that for example Warrant used "his" particular Marshall to record Cherry Pie and blew it up while recording the album.

Sucks it broke with THAT band haha. I love hair metal so I'm only kind of kidding. Great sounding amp. I actually bought an 85 just because of Beach. Nice pickup.

[9unslin9er]

Re: Reb Beach´s tone on first Winger album. Any tips?



I've personally given up on the whole Plexi thing.

Might've worked for them but it doesn't work for me.

[WingerManiac]

Re: Reb Beach´s tone on first Winger album. Any tips?

9unslin9er, I love to play Seventeen as well. One of the coolest songs ever.

Nice tone, what gear did you use?

[9unslin9er]

Re: Reb Beach´s tone on first Winger album. Any tips?

Thanks man. Yeah, that song is 80's hair metal in a nutshell.

I'm using my mahogany 24.75" superstrat with a Duncan JB trembucker.

Into a Line 6 Pod straight into the monitor.