Messin' with the Tommy Bolin setup

[TwilightOdyssey]

So, the new Strat has me experimenting with ways to get it into my setup. Loving it thus far!

I set up my poor man's Bolin Rig this AM and did a quick recording. This is with a Tascam DR-1 about 7-8 feet away in a fairly lively room, and the condenser mic's are bright, so it gets peaky when I have the phase and fuzz on, but it sounds a lot more mellow in-room.

Guitar + pedals:

Amp:

I was running into the Swamp Thang pair of my 4x12.

 

[JeffB]

Re: Messin' with the Tommy Bolin setup

Ssl1 sounds very good in this axe, Ben. I can hear why you like it with your rig. Maybe i should give it another chance.

Loves me some Tommy Bolin..well..solo stuff anyway...not mkiv

Whats the scoop on that bolin fuzz?

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Messin' with the Tommy Bolin setup

Loves me some Tommy Bolin..well..solo stuff anyway...not mkiv

wha-wha-WHAT?

You need to listen to Gettin' Tighter!!

Whats the scoop on that bolin fuzz?

Dead nuts replica by Theo of Bolin's actual Sam Ash fuzz.

 

[kevlar3000]

Re: Messin' with the Tommy Bolin setup

Hell yes, love it...

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Messin' with the Tommy Bolin setup

very cool!

I want to compare the Hartman Bolin to my Astro Tone just to see...my Astro Tone sounds a LOT like that clip!

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Messin' with the Tommy Bolin setup

Hell yes, love it...

Heh, figured you would!

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Messin' with the Tommy Bolin setup

Rig test, Part II: SG R-1 set to the middle pickup, Moog circuit engaged.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Messin' with the Tommy Bolin setup

very cool!

I want to compare the Hartman Bolin to my Astro Tone just to see...my Astro Tone sounds a LOT like that clip!

We will have to meet on the middle of a bridge somewhere lol.

I know the Astro Tone STARTS where the Bolin fuzz IS, and then it adds a bit more in terms of versatility; kinda like how the Naga Viper starts with the Rangemaster and goes beyond it ...

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Messin' with the Tommy Bolin setup

Very cool!

When did you get that SG??

Maybe I'm late to the party or maybe my mind is gone but I don't remember that one!

Have you ever tried the AM Astro Tone???

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Messin' with the Tommy Bolin setup

Very cool!

When did you get that SG??

I picked it up last year and absolutely love it. It's an all-stock RG-1, with the Moog tone circuit; one of 200 ever made. There are several floating round if you look for one, but most have the circuit removed for some silly reason. It's absolutely brilliant if you take the time to dial it in. Or, you can go totally passive with the pickups.

Have you ever tried the AM Astro Tone???

Not yet. They have it at Ludlow Guitars, but I've not felt the need to play it. The Bolin does everything I want it to and I have the Fulltone or the Fuzz War (plus my ColourSound and Mongoose) if I want a different flavour ...

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Messin' with the Tommy Bolin setup

I picked it up last year and absolutely love it. It's an all-stock RG-1, with the Moog tone circuit; one of 200 ever made. There are several floating round if you look for one, but most have the circuit removed for some silly reason. It's absolutely brilliant if you take the time to dial it in. Or, you can go totally passive with the pickups.

Right on!

Not yet. They have it at Ludlow Guitars, but I've not felt the need to play it. The Bolin does everything I want it to and I have the Fulltone or the Fuzz War (plus my ColourSound and Mongoose) if I want a different flavour ...

I hear ya...I was just curious...if you ever get interested let me know. I might be willing to send you my Astro Tone to do a nice A/B if you wanted to!

 

[51501984]

Re: Messin' with the Tommy Bolin setup

wha-wha-WHAT?

You need to listen to Gettin' Tighter!!


Dead nuts replica by Theo of Bolin's actual Sam Ash fuzz.

Yes, come taste the band is a great disc. Didn't Bolin use an echoplex for an effect that sounded a spaceship taking off if that makes any sense ,he did with billy cobham , deep purple and the James gang

 

[JeffB]

Re: Messin' with the Tommy Bolin setup

Sorry..just not a big MKIV fan...at least as a version of DP. Id be ok with it as another bands work, but ito me ts like Zeppelin without page, plant, and JPJ..just plain wrong....call the band something else, and move on.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Messin' with the Tommy Bolin setup

Sorry..just not a big MKIV fan...at least as a version of DP. Id be ok with it as another bands work, but ito me ts like Zeppelin without page, plant, and JPJ..just plain wrong....call the band something else, and move on.

Unfortunately, at that level it's no longer a BAND, it's a corporation. That would be like renaming Apple after Jobs died!

 

[Fusion1]

Re: Messin' with the Tommy Bolin setup

Yeah, "Come Taste The Band" is very underrated. My favorite on their is Glenn Hughes song "This Time Around" with him singing over Jon Lord's piano. One of the best ballads ever. Then Tommy comes in in the "Owed To 'G'" section, playing a similar progression as Jon Lord's part. I find it amazing that it just so happened to gel like that as it wasn't Tommy trying to fit in a part that sounded like Jon Lords, but it was an idea Tommy already had, it just so happened to be a very similar riff and in the same key even.

Yes, come taste the band is a great disc. Didn't Bolin use an echoplex for an effect that sounded a spaceship taking off if that makes any sense ,he did with billy cobham , deep purple and the James gang

Can that Hartman fuzz get the same tones as on the Billy Cobham Stratus album? It's weird to even think that it is Tommy Bolin on that as he never came across as a fusion player in the stuff I was familiar with like the DP stuff and the Games Gang and earlier Energy and Zephyr stuff.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Messin' with the Tommy Bolin setup

Can that Hartman fuzz get the same tones as on the Billy Cobham Stratus album?

Theoretically; it's a replica of his Sam Ash fuzz, but Bolin was not a gear head at all and never kept track of what he used when (he also never talked gear in any interviews, to my knowledge) ... so, literally, it could have been ANYTHING on those sessions.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Messin' with the Tommy Bolin setup

Got a Pedaltrain Mini to house the essentials. Pics forthcoming.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Messin' with the Tommy Bolin setup

Got a Pedaltrain Mini to house the essentials. Pics forthcoming.

Nice!

Love my mini!

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Messin' with the Tommy Bolin setup

I have learned a few things with the "Bolin" setup:

- The BOSS TU-2 is a pretty sizable tone-suck, at least with low output single coils
- I REALLY like my tone when I'm only going through a couple of pedals
- Conventional wisdom is all well and good, but sometimes doing something 'wrong' can be so right. In this case, I am running Echo > fuzz > phase, as Bolin did. By today's wisdom, this is not the 'correct' order, BUT -- it sounds great!

 

[JeffB]

Re: Messin' with the Tommy Bolin setup

Todays music sucks, so why worry about their wisdom?