Vito Bratta sound

[paulyc]

Re: Vito Bratta sound

Necro bump- this thread is wrong on the amps... Fight to Survive and Pride were one of Leslie West's (of Mountain) Marshall Superleads with the treble and bass channels wired together and a master volume added (probably on the back) of the amp. The strat used to record both records was a 70s Fender (that Michael Wagner told him to never get rid of 'cuz it sounded so good, and was only replaced with the ESPs because the Floyd Rose mounting screws were falling out) with a Duncan JB and a D word HS-3 in the neck through an EARLY Ibanez tube screamer (808 version). What you hear is pure EL34 grind plain and simple, hardly any preamp distortion at all. He should have stayed with that instead of the ADA and Carvins and the Steinberger/EMGs...

 

[51501984]

Re: Vito Bratta sound

The bump of this almost 8yr old thread just prompted me to dig out the Big Game CD. Gotta love Vito

 

[Spungewurthy]

Re: Vito Bratta sound

The biggest difference between "Pride" and "Big Game", IMO, is that Pride sounds all-tube, whereas Big Game sounds like he's mixing in more "direct" signal or solid state amps.

I don't particularly care WHAT it was he used to get the tone on Big Game, I'm just saying that it's got a more immediate response/attack, and a less warm, "tube-y" tone.

I prefer the TONE on "Pride", and the rehearsed, melodic solos of "Big Game".

Here is an interview right after Pride came out. He used a '79 strat with Duncan in bridge and HS-3 in neck. He doesn't specify 59 or JB, but his current ESP's had JB's so that obviously got him the sound he liked. Strat into tube screamer into 100w Marshall with master volume = PRIDE dirty tone. JC-120's for cleans. He had just discovered the ADA, but that was POST Pride. I'm with you. Big Game kinda disappointed me in terms of his tone with a few exceptions like Little Fighter.

 

[swissmountain]

Re: Vito Bratta sound

I've been researching this awhile...and I *finally* found my old interviews with him.

Here's the scoop:

On Pride (which is in my opinion, his *best* tone)...he used:
* "Master Volume Marshall" (probably a jcm800 of some sort)
* Tubescreammer (this accounts for the 'honk' heymcz refers to)
* 70s era sunburst strat with seymour duncan 59 in it.
* Various Michael Wagener studio jape

What you see in the wait video is one of hte custom shop strats that ESP made for Vito prior to his move to stienberger. Those guitars had a Floyd Rose, Duncan JB in the bridge and a Dimarzio HS-3 in the neck.

Many thanks for posting this. Glad to see some increasing interest in this talented player.

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: Vito Bratta sound

I was trying to get close to Vito's tone (one of my all time favorite players) on Pride with my McCarty which has a Brobucker in the bridge and ADA MP-1 into the loop of metal panel 1987/2204 50W amp. It was good but not clear enought... the open chords on wait for example... So then I've ditched ADA MP-1 and tried it with the preamp section of my amp and EHX's tubescreamer. The results were even better.



After all this, I wanted to write about this and so I did an internet search and found this old but GREAT thread! It deserves another bump!

B

 

[Shooter.556]

Re: Vito Bratta sound

You really can't go wrong with a JB if you're aiming for 80s Hair Metal tone.
It pretty much defined 80s guitar tone.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Vito Bratta sound

My other guitar player uses one in an Ibby RG, and one in a Les Paul. I use a JB8 in a Les Paul style. Imagine that….