What guitar tone blew you away?

Whenever someone mentions a “glassy” tone, this is what comes to mind. Smooth, shiny, glass!


This is the last album by Fear Factory to use Dino’s modded Marshall before it got Metallica’d and like Hetfield’s it’s never been relocated and nobody can replicate it exactly because no-one is sure exactly what the mods were besides “probably a José.” Not to mention this riff is so heavy it should be illegal.


Continuing the trend of modern metal bands who had a different sound earlier on and who used Marshalls before going digital (yes, I know they used Mesa in-between) I just love the whole sound of this album and virtually no-one talks about it. This time I do know exactly what’s going on. Guitar is the Ibanez Universe into a 2203 with the old TC line-booster. Frederik was going for a cross between Ride the Lightning and Among the Living and I think he pulled it off.

Not to mention that bass! I was actually able to get in touch with Peter Nordin and he told me what he used. Ibanez Soundgear into an Acoustic 370 with an 18” PA speaker. On paper it’s a pretty weird sounding rig but I can’t get enough of that really up-front, metallic, piano-wire bass. I wish all metal had bass like this.


I’ll probably remember more later. My memory of the entire last 20 years is like swiss-cheese.

Honourable mentions are Deep Purple In Rock, especially with Lord’s Organ alongside Blackmore’s guitar. Black Night was the song that left me with the unscratchable itch for heavy music. To this day, it’s a killer song. The drumming, the guitar leads, I hadn’t heard anything like it and Status Quo - 12 Gold Bars. Going back and listening again, I remembered the guitar being so much heavier than it actually is but I love that about those old rock records. It’s a testament to just how iconic the riffs were. They just stick in your head more than the actual sound of them.
 
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Early on, first for me had to be the Brad Gillis tone on Speak of the Devil. To my young ears that sounded like a cool mix of VH and Sabbath. Other favorites, Mike McCready's tone on Mad Season record, Pepper and Kirk on Down's Nola record, Van Halen 1984, Dime on Vulgar Display of Power, Metallica Kill 'em All. Was it supposed to be just one? Haha! It changes all the time.
 
McD said:
Early on, first for me had to be the Brad Gillis tone on Speak of the Devil. To my young ears that sounded like a cool mix of VH and Sabbath. Other favorites, Mike McCready's tone on Mad Season record, Pepper and Kirk on Down's Nola record, Van Halen 1984, Dime on Vulgar Display of Power, Metallica Kill 'em All. Was it supposed to be just one? Haha! It changes all the time.
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I always liked Brad's tone on that album. Much better than Randy's tone on his live album. I don't know how much of Speak of the Devil was actually 'live' as it does seem pretty well overdubbed, though.
 
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I adore Cruciamentum's tones. I can never decide whether I like the tone on "Convocation of Crawling Chaos" or "Charnel Passages" more, but they both rule:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1R9Irf7lwA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wtXpyEK344

Also up there are Demoncy's "Joined in Darkness", Incantation's "Onward to Golgotha", and the classic Dismember and Entombed records:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6LG4mxHuJI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DSJvZev-gw&list=OLAK5uy_k0LZpg2-MXYqo4ZkFiq-QQJnv_taUCUTM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2eQMN9-W9o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsdWLtPAVqM
 
Guess my infatuation with Gray Moore and how he used touch and the guitar volume is why I really love this guy! Eric Steckle and his Mezabarbara MZero overdrive just blows me away!
 
Ascension said:
Was early on a HUGE deep Purple fan but never heard page play humbuckers much. Thanks for that clip!
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The first 4 DP albums were all humbuckers. He used an ES335 for most of In Rock, too. His tone was great after, but in a different way.
 
I've heard/introduced to more Dokken & George Lynch through this forum than I've listened elsewhere. There's been a few Lynch songs that I thought absolutely nailed high gain rock.
 
I've avoided this thread for some reason, but decided to weigh in. So many good tones out there from Chet Atkins to the latest YT sensation. I think we all agree on Van Halen 1, do we not? Billy Gibbons is a master of tones - from buttery sweet to nastylicious! The first King's X album knocked me out. Ola Englund catches my ear frequently. I loved Adrian Belew's clean tones in the 80's and 90's. Satch has had some good ones. There isn't just one guy with one tone for me. I like all the flavors, colors, and textures.
 
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Mincer said:
I always liked Brad's tone on that album. Much better than Randy's tone on his live album. I don't know how much of Speak of the Devil was actually 'live' as it does seem pretty well overdubbed, though.
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I only recently learned it was overdubbed vocals. When I bought the record that was the only way I could hear those old Sabbath songs. I'm one of the rare players that prefers Randy's tone on Tribute over Blizzard, Diary and the QR stuff. So much bigger live!
 
ICTGoober said:
I've avoided this thread for some reason, but decided to weigh in. So many good tones out there from Chet Atkins to the latest YT sensation. I think we all agree on Van Halen 1, do we not? Billy Gibbons is a master of tones - from buttery sweet to nastylicious! The first King's X album knocked me out. Ola Englund catches my ear frequently. I loved Adrian Belew's clean tones in the 80's and 90's. Satch has had some good ones. There isn't just one guy with one tone for me. I like all the flavors, colors, and textures.
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+1 on Adrian Belew, but going back to '79 with Zappa.
 
piblock said:
This is just for fun.

Please post a single example of tone that just blows your mind.

A tone that you would love to just be able to plug in and get THAT sound.

It can be a live tone easily duplicated, it can be due to studio magic, it doesn't have to be attainable by just plugging in to your amp and playing, even though that's the dream.

For me, it's that main riff in Bring it on Home, starting about 1:45 in the video below.

From what I gather, it's double tracked. Probably the dragon Tele through a cheap solid state amp cranked so loud that it's about to blow the planet up and rip straight through the time space continuum. The second track may be guitar to fuzz,.then straight into the console / on to tape.

However it was done, I remember the first time I heard that riff (I was young and stupid, and probably started the album over after a minute into the song to get back to Whole Lotta Love. Then one day I just listened all the way through) and thinking "What in the holy ****balls is he doing there?!"

I used asterisks there so I don't get banned like I did on the gear page.

Jimmy Page obviously gets a whole lotta love as a guitar player, but this riff is generally overlooked when discussing his talent. He was a magician in the studio.

What guitar tone, either an entire song or just a snippet like that riff, just blew your mind?


https://youtu.be/JYmAC7EyBW4
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PJ Harvey’s guitar tone on her 4 track demos album blew me away. I’m told she used an MXR Distortion+.
 
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