I'm Going To Go In The Studio Today And Record A Bunch Of Pickup Sound Samples

JOLLY

JOLLY

Super Simonologist
I figured I would do this for you all, so be prepared to hear sound samples of all of the pickup configurations in my signature in a few weeks.

Honestly, I don't know how long it will take me to do them all. Seeing as how I don't have to pay for any of this, I guess it all really depends on when my buddy can fit me in to his schedule. I'm going to try and record my five Gibson Les Pauls today.

My plan is to record them in a song type setting somewhat the way I did my last Duncan pickup soundclips years ago. There will be drums and bass going along in the clips. I'm going to kind of have this big full chord intro followed by a riff in which a solo (bridge pickup) is played over. It will then go to a clean part which uses both the bridge and neck pickups together at the same time. There will be a little lead type lick (neck pickup) that is played over that clean part. I will then probably go back into the main riff and then end the song. My guess is that each pickup sound sample will be around two to two and a half minutes long.

I'm going to use my Marshall JVM410H as the amp. I'm going to keep all of the settings pretty much flat for the most part so that you will really be able to hear the differences in the pickups. I'll probably keep the bass, middle, and treble all at around one o'clock or so. I may even take a 5150 half stack along with me, but I'm not sure yet.

I really don't even know how much will even get done today. I've got to lay down the bass and drum tracks as well.

Hopefully I will get these combinations recorded today.

Pearly Gates/Pearly Gates
10K Antiquity/Seth Lover
Duncan Custom/59
Screamin' Demon/Jazz Bridge
Custom 5/Overwound Jazz neck

Now I know I'm not playing all of these in the same guitar, and they all don't have the same pots, and all the woods aren't the same, and some of the guitars have a Floyd Rose, and all that blah blah blah crap, but give me a freakin break. If you're going to be all worried about that crap then don't listen to them. You'll be able to hear the same riffing going on with the same amp, the same amp settings, played by the same player, and in a "song type" setting.

And if any of you are worried about the competency of who will be engineering and recording me, you shouldn't. He knows what he's doing. He's Kings of Leon's front of house soundman and he's been doing this for a long time. He knows the reason why I'm doing it, and he thinks it's a great idea and wants to make everything perfect. He's got a really nice studio at his house as well.
 
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Re: I'm Going To Go In The Studio Today And Record A Bunch Of Pickup Sound Samples

Awesome Jolly!
 
Re: I'm Going To Go In The Studio Today And Record A Bunch Of Pickup Sound Samples

That sounds cool. Looking forward to hearing the clips!
 
Re: I'm Going To Go In The Studio Today And Record A Bunch Of Pickup Sound Samples

That's great. I'm also glad that you're going to be using a real tube amp instead of a modeler. Looking forward to listening to it.
 
Re: I'm Going To Go In The Studio Today And Record A Bunch Of Pickup Sound Samples

Well, I didn't get one single guitar recorded....lol. I layed down a bass track, but that didn't take any more than 15 minutes probably. We spent at least 4 hours just on the drums alone. Brent's meticulous as hell, and I'm glad that he is. We're going to get back at it on Thursday. I have a feeling that this is going to really turn out very very well. It may take awhile, but it's going to be very well worth the wait, I believe.
 
Re: I'm Going To Go In The Studio Today And Record A Bunch Of Pickup Sound Samples

RE; "I'm Going To Go In The Studio Today "

...Hope they have decent facilities.
 
Re: I'm Going To Go In The Studio Today And Record A Bunch Of Pickup Sound Samples

****'s gonna rock dude! Can't wait to hear it.
 
Re: I'm Going To Go In The Studio Today And Record A Bunch Of Pickup Sound Samples

Looking forward to hearing the clips.
 
Re: I'm Going To Go In The Studio Today And Record A Bunch Of Pickup Sound Samples

So lookin' forward to hearin' it!!!! Thank you for doing it, I know that is a major undertaking! Cheers! JIMO
 
Re: I'm Going To Go In The Studio Today And Record A Bunch Of Pickup Sound Samples

Thanks fellas. Like I say, it's probably going to be awhile before these are completed. Brent really wants this stuff to sound waaaaay better than I even do, and that's a great thing.

On a different note, my cat's and I ate Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw's salmon yesterday, and it was awesome!! lol. Brent's wife works for some major music something in Nashville. Yesterday was the Kenny Chesney/Tim McGraw huge concert at LP Field. The catering company gave her all kinds of food to bring home, and some of it was these HUGE salmon filets or whatever they're called. It was the best fish that I've ever eaten, and definitely the best that Simon and Trip have ever had.:)
 
Re: I'm Going To Go In The Studio Today And Record A Bunch Of Pickup Sound Samples

Cool. I recall a similar thread a few years back, on a smaller scale, using Megadeths " symphony of destruction " to test various duncans. ;-)
 
Re: I'm Going To Go In The Studio Today And Record A Bunch Of Pickup Sound Samples

Varg said:
Cool. I recall a similar thread a few years back, on a smaller scale, using Megadeths " symphony of destruction " to test various duncans. ;-)
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Well, I hope you're not expecting me to play anything as awesome as that....lol. If you are, you might want to just go straight ahead and throw your expectations right into the ground and stomp on them.;)
 
Re: I'm Going To Go In The Studio Today And Record A Bunch Of Pickup Sound Samples

Awesome! Looking forward to hear them all. Thanks Jolly.
 
Re: I'm Going To Go In The Studio Today And Record A Bunch Of Pickup Sound Samples

JOLLY said:
Well, I hope you're not expecting me to play anything as awesome as that....lol. If you are, you might want to just go straight ahead and throw your expectations right into the ground and stomp on them.;)
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:lol: Well, those clips only used the first verse and bridge into the chorus, there was no shredding involved, just a minute or so of very simple riffing hahaha!
 
Re: I'm Going To Go In The Studio Today And Record A Bunch Of Pickup Sound Samples

Just a little heads up of what's going on at the moment if anyone cares. After two sessions that were around 4 hours each, I have The drums and bass down. There will be tweaking on them and most likely their sounds will totally change via drumagog. Brent's not really into my cymbal/high hat sounds, and that's cool with me since he has the ears. I went direct with the bass and it sounds pretty good, but I'm personally not too happy with it's tone seeing as how I was a bass player for over 12 years.

I think we're going to take that direct bass sound and run it through my Line 6 Bass Pod, at least I hope so. Therefore, we're going we can take that direct bass sound, run it through the Bass Pod, and I can tweak it as I hear the song playing. I'll be able to get the exact tone I want. Now Brent is a great bass player, and always has a great tone when he plays. However, he's into my idea of doing the same thing. It's kind of like, "we have the cchnology, why not?".

I've only laid down one guitar thusfar and that was my Gibson Les Paul loaded with a Duncan Custom/59 combination. I must admit, and I can't believe it, but my idea as far as keeping the bass, mid, and treble was a great idea. I must admit that it sounds prety good, and I think it's a good idea of being able to show each pickup's true tone in a sense.

I have my Marshall 1960A cabinet out in the garage. It's mic's up with a Shure SM57 and a Sennheiser E609 on different speakers. My Marshall JVM401H is upstairs with us so I can tweak it if need be, but that's not going to happen.

It blew Brent's mind yesterday when I cranked up, started playing, and we were just upstairs listening through the monitors. He looked at me and was like "Holy Crap!!". I told him I thought it had too much distortion/gain and he thought I was crazy. This was right after I had cut one rhythm track. However, I told him I was going to double track the guitars. He was like, "hell no, that sounds amazing as is". I told him, "No, just let me turn the gain down to 11 o'clock and double track". After I did that he said "good call on the distortion reduction, man".

I did the entire song on guitar, blah, blah, blah....It sounds pretty damn good thusfar if I don't say so myself. I've sent the rough mix from yesterday to a couple of forum members just to get an idea of what they think. I got an email back from one of them, and I think his reaction was something to the affect of "I need to go pick up my teeth off of the floor" or something like that.

Anyways, after listening to the arrangement and rough mix from yesterday, I'm going to add a few different things and make a few arrangement changes here and there to make it better.

Brent and myself both want to make these sound samples so damn dood that Seymour, Evan, Cathy, Scott, Frank, and everyone else at Seymour Duncan just go......HOLY CRAP!!, That's awesome!!:)
 
Re: I'm Going To Go In The Studio Today And Record A Bunch Of Pickup Sound Samples

Seriously Jolly, why don't you just use an existing drum/bass backing track? As a demo of sound samples, people will only listen to, at most, 30 seconds-a minute of the same song repeated, I'm not sure all your hard work will be appreciated.
 
Re: I'm Going To Go In The Studio Today And Record A Bunch Of Pickup Sound Samples

Varg said:
Seriously Jolly, why don't you just use an existing drum/bass backing track? As a demo of sound samples, people will only listen to, at most, 30 seconds-a minute of the same song repeated, I'm not sure all your hard work will be appreciated.
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I just can't do that, man. That's just the way I am. There's musical things that I hear in my head, and that's just the way they have to be, and the way they have to be played, and have to sound. I'm not trying to impress anyone or anything. Critical acclaim doesn't really make a damn to me. It's a personal thing with me. I'm somewhat of a perfectionest when it comes to recording. I want my music to sound better than the way that I hear it in my head. Sometimes I'm lucky and I can get away with those sounds.

I'm not really looking for people to appreciate nor understand the hard work that I put into getting everything correct that I hear in my head. Not to sound self centered or anything by any means, but it really is all about me when I put my heart and soul into a musical something. It's something that I absolutely love and enjoy. It's my passion. If other people like it as well, then that's a major added benefit.

I love being able to translate the sound that I hear in my head into an actual musical product that I can listen to physically. It's a beautiful thing.:)
 
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Re: I'm Going To Go In The Studio Today And Record A Bunch Of Pickup Sound Samples

JOLLY said:
Brent and myself both want to make these sound samples so damn dood that Seymour, Evan, Cathy, Scott, Frank, and everyone else at Seymour Duncan just go......HOLY CRAP!!, That's awesome!!:)
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Holy Crap, that's awesome!

Seriously, this is quite an undertaking. We're involved with something similar ourselves, but using the same guitars.

Don't breathe too many solder fumes. Better yet, use a Liberator. And good luck.
 
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