Re: Joy Division Tone
Hi everyone. I'm wondering if anyone is familiar with Joy Division. I've come to really like the guitar tone on most of their records (like in the song "Transmission" or "The Sound of Music"). You know, that really honkey/growley tone.
What do I need? An SG? Stock pickups? Vox Phantom? Or is the trademark JD punk sound from the SG?
Please excuse me if I'm doing this wrong as I am a complete newbie to message boards. But here I go...
The Joy Division tone as it has been called, or more correctly, I suppose we could call it Bernard Sumner Joy Division guitar tone, I believe was achieved by...
A combination of things (As would be expected) Bernard used two different guitars in the Joy Division days,
1, A Shergold Masquerader (Supposedly modified with Dimarzio super distortion DP100 pickups)
2, A Gibson SG Standard (Small pickguard, possibly slim speed neck, possible modified pickups, certainly the pickup surrounds where modified from black to cream)
Both the above however being dual humbucker guitars.
But here is where I believe he really got his sound.
His Amp was an old 'VOX UL730' with a 2 x 12" cab. (He also used an Altair attenuator in combination with this amp)
This amp is a very interesting instrument in and of itself. (It's an early hybrid amp. In short it has a solid state pre-amp and vacuum tube power amp section) He would drive this amp at Max, effectively distorting the Power Amp tubes for his saturation affect, curtailing the volume with his attenuator.
The Amp also had a built in solid state 'Fuzz' effect. Which might of resembled the SolorSound Tone Bender Fuzz that I believe VOX was licensed to make at the time of the manufacture of this amp. Whether he used the built in Fuzz is another thing.
He also on occasion quite sparingly used a 'Melos echo/delay unit' and an Electro Harmonix Chourus/Flanger and an MXR 10 band graphic equalizer.
So as you can see, his sound was quite modeled. Not to mention he had a pretty unique technique. Not the most skillful guitarist however a very unique and powerful sound.
I personally believe a great deal of his sound was attributed to the 'VOX UL730' giving him that powerful edginess that he learned to utilize so well.
