QOTSA style tone attempt?

[Van Noord]

I always fail at this. As simple as the bands tones sounds, it is difficult for me to cop.
It doesn't help that all my amps are modern high gainers either.
I don't own a dusty 60's combo with bubbling, honky fuzzed out gain. So I gotta try to figure someting out.
I'm thinking of stacking OD pedals into a overdriven clean channel. Maybe that will work? But which pedals?
I got an 808, OD-3, Green Rhino & OCD. I think I'll try stacking two of them with their gain set high into my Recto's clean channel on pushed. I'm starting with the Mesa because the clean is warm and it can get edgy if you want it.
I guess I don't quite want a fuzz tone, but instead a cascaded gurgling overdrive almost on the doorstep of fuzz. :boggled:

 

[TheProphet]

Re: QOTSA style tone attempt?

Do you have a particular album in mind. Josh Homme's tone changed quite a bit over the years. I can get a pretty convincing Rated R tone using the Raw setting on my Single Recto.

I'd probably go the same route as you with the Pushed channel as well. FYI I'm not a huge fuzz guy, but the Swollen Pickle can be set in a way that it actually sounds pretty decent for QOTSA style stuff. Might be worth looking at. I can dig up a pic of my settings if you like.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: QOTSA style tone attempt?

You are trying to squeeze apple juice out of a steak.

Go get an Excelsior and a Big Muff as a start

get a Bassman or any old 60's / 70's head... I have a cool old Univox that can get close... use a barage of fuzz pedals... that's what they do. Overdrive and fuzz don't react the same way.

I got an awesome QOTSA style tone last night using an MXR Blue Box, a ZVex Fuzz Factory, a Big Muff Pi and a ZVex Box of Rock into a Marshall Class 5... using a Les Paul tuned to C.

 

[Van Noord]

Re: QOTSA style tone attempt?

Do you have a particular album in mind. Josh Homme's tone changed quite a bit over the years. I can get a pretty convincing Rated R tone using the Raw setting on my Single Recto.

I'd probably go the same route as you with the Pushed channel as well. FYI I'm not a huge fuzz guy, but the Swollen Pickle can be set in a way that it actually sounds pretty decent for QOTSA style stuff. Might be worth looking at. I can dig up a pic of my settings if you like.

That's great thanks. No exact Homme tone, maybe more of an Era Vulgaris sound than the fuzzed out self titled stuff. I really don't like fuzz much either. I'm going for more a filthy, over the top overdrive.

 

[Rockstar216]

Re: QOTSA style tone attempt?

Era Vulgaris to me had not as much Fuzz but enough of it. More like subtle overdrive but through an old radio. Like this. Not sure if you can see his pedal board or rack gear.

 

[Rockstar216]

Re: QOTSA style tone attempt?

Thanks for reminding me how actually sick this vid is and why I dont watch it to much

 

[Chris of Arabia]

Re: QOTSA style tone attempt?

Thanks for reminding me how actually sick this vid is and why I dont watch it to much

Whilst I know the tune well enough, I'd not seen that vid before - excellent stuff

 

[Agileguy_101]

Re: QOTSA style tone attempt?

You are trying to squeeze apple juice out of a steak.

Go get an Excelsior and a Big Muff as a start

get a Bassman or any old 60's / 70's head... I have a cool old Univox that can get close... use a barage of fuzz pedals... that's what they do. Overdrive and fuzz don't react the same way.

I got an awesome QOTSA style tone last night using an MXR Blue Box, a ZVex Fuzz Factory, a Big Muff Pi and a ZVex Box of Rock into a Marshall Class 5... using a Les Paul tuned to C.

100% this

As a huge user of many fuzz pedals and a 68 Bassman, I can say with certainty that it's an excellent way to get the Homme tone. You're not going to be able to get that kind of tone with any amp (except maybe an Electric Amp) or with overdrive pedals. I'd recommend a big muff variant for an all around Homme tone, or a SuperFuzz for the more splatty and squashed fuzz sounds. Also, you're not going to be able to get his tone going into a distorted amp - you gotta be nice and clean, or using a clean channel driven to power tube distortion. When I want to get the Homme tone, I put my Bassman around 6, where it's distorting very nicely with humbuckers, and kick on my Triangle Muff clone.

 

[Chris of Arabia]

Re: QOTSA style tone attempt?

Whilst I might be a fraction off, I was messing with 'Little Sister' last night through the POD. I just used a default clean AC30 setting and added the Fuzz Pi as a stomp box - it needed the drive dropping down a little, but it was close enough for government work.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: QOTSA style tone attempt?

I get "Sick, Sick, Sick" tone with my Fuzz Factory set for extra gated splattery high-gain fuzz, or with the Blue Box with the octave effect rolled off.

Seriously. If the amps in your sig are what you're working with, you're best off grabbing any old Big Muff for like $40 and trying it through your JCM800 on clean. The Swollen Pickle would give you more tone-shaping if you wana start there...and I see 'em for like $50 sometimes. Easy problem to solve, you just have to go about it the right way.

You don't say "I want to change pickups but I hate soldering so I'm gona use a hammer." You use the tool that works for the job.

 

[Van Noord]

Re: QOTSA style tone attempt?

I tried stacking a Green Rhino and OCD and got really nice fuzz style tones easily. Used the pushed gain mode on my Rectos clean channel with 80% gain setting. Half level on both OD pedals and 3/4 gain settings on each. Basically three gain stages splatting and spurting ontop of each other. To me, it sounded better than a muff type fuzz actually.
But...as always...playing with that tone bores me. So I fired up the 2203KK and chunked on some glorious, super saturated Marshall gain and midrange.
Damn I love QOTSA, but playing with those guitar tones just doesn't give me a hard on at all.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: QOTSA style tone attempt?

That's because you're not doing it right :smokin:

 

[King IzzO)))]

Re: QOTSA style tone attempt?

Don't forget to use your tone knob.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: QOTSA style tone attempt?

You need to give in to some fuzz boxes, they are part of the key...the other part is soft clipped OD pedals and really skewed EQ's...get a nice noisy parametric EQ of some kind and start tweaking the mids until you get there...

 

[Van Noord]

Re: QOTSA style tone attempt?

Doubt it, been down this road before. Muff's, Vintage tube combos, this fuzz pedal, that fuzz pedal. I just think fuzz tone sucks overall I guess. Whenever someone plays with a fuzz and they praise how cool it sounds, I think it sounds terrible. Not my thing I guess.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: QOTSA style tone attempt?

Doubt it, been down this road before. Muff's, Vintage tube combos, this fuzz pedal, that fuzz pedal. I just think fuzz tone sucks overall I guess. Whenever someone plays with a fuzz and they praise how cool it sounds, I think it sounds terrible. Not my thing I guess.

That's fine but if you don't like using fuzz pedal you're never going to get a sound that was created using fuzz pedals.

I mean you;re asking how to get a great stereo chorus sound but w/o chorus...ain't gonna happen.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: QOTSA style tone attempt?

Q: How do I get the QOTSA tone?

A: Fuzz pedal.

Q: But I don't like fuzz pedals!

A: Okay.

 

[Van Noord]

Re: QOTSA style tone attempt?

Well, the sound I mentioned in my first post is the Era Vulgaris sound. I think QOTSA's guitar tone had matured on that album, and it's more of a staticy overdrive, rather than the all out fuzz of their early sound. Even some tacks on Songs for the Deaf are like the sound I'm describing. It is not just a simple click of a fuzz pedal and be done with it like many assume when they think of QOTSA.

 

[Chris of Arabia]

Re: QOTSA style tone attempt?

Well, the sound I mentioned in my first post is the Era Vulgaris sound.

It might be worth narrowing it down to some specific tracks then. Some seem to be using fuzz, others don't. Let's see if we can work out what's going on in the tracks you're interested in.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: QOTSA style tone attempt?

Hit us with some titles...

It's not just as easy as clicking on a fuzz pedal...never is with a fuzz.

They are a pain in the back side and your rig will often require some tweaking to get the most from them and/or an outside EQ like I mentioned...