YES 90125 Guitar tones

[WhoFan]

I'm a huge fan of the Yes Album 90125.... Something special on that album for my ears. Trevor Rabins huge space-ish tones on that album rock!!!! He is a great player.. I've never heard much off Big Generator, the album after 90125... But 90125 is one of the few YES albums i can say i really really like!

Does anyone out there have in depth info on Rabins Strat and amps and effects on those mid 80's albums.... I know for the Big Generator tour he had a huge Bradshaw system with a few Marshall 800's and a little lead 12 solid state Marshall head that he claims he used a lot.... His early 60's strat that has some sort of painting on it is kind of neet.... what pickups are in that...?

And for the big gear question.... How would one copy those tones and effects on a smaller scale without using a Multifx modeling unit like a POD.... How and what set up (amps and FX's) to pull off some of that stuff in a live setting...

WhoFan

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: YES 90125 Guitar tones

I'm a big Rabin fan and I was at the Big Generator concert here in Florida in the mid 80s...

He used Eventide and I think the ADA or ART rack stuff to generate alot of the tones you hear on that 90125 album...He was very fond of his 62 strat and may have used Westone guitars...He was also using the Ampeg line of amps at around the time Lee Jackson was teaming up with Ampeg...I did see Trevor using the Marshalls but it was later into his career with yes and on the Jack Frost movie he did with Michael Keeton...

One of the best guitarists in the world,but he is equally that as a vocalist and he started out as a classically trained pianist before switching to guitar..The guy can rip but he also has alot of taste and a great voice...

 

[LesStrat]

Re: YES 90125 Guitar tones

Agreed.

 

[WhoFan]

Re: YES 90125 Guitar tones

The Instrumental Cinema is one of my favourite pieces of music i have heard! Those guys are ripping on that.... kind of scary how well that is done! I heard a live verson of that with Steve Howe playing thru his Twin or something... not the best tone for that tune...

I picked up the remastered 90125 cd and i like a few of the bonus tunes from the early line up that called themselfs Cinema before they decided to call the band Yes after getting Anderson back in.....

I'd love to be able to put together a somewhat protable rig that i could get that type of flexiblity and fxs like Rabin has..... I think i would almost need a rack like Gilmour in Floyd... Rabin seems to use a Harmonizer a bit doesn't he...

I was wondering if that Danoelectro pedal that was sopposed to sound like a sitar would work for playing "It Can Happen"? If it did work i guess it could be used for Genesis's I Know What I Like as well....

WhoFan

 

[Mincer]

Re: YES 90125 Guitar tones

He is one of my favs as well- pick up the Yes album 'Talk' as well as his solo cd 'Can't Look Away' for some wonderful guitar tones....for 90125 (one of my fav Yes cds), he used his Strat- later on, he got a signature westone guitar, and used Ampeg amps. An underrated player for sure- he has some very wonderful guitar sounds- check out 'The Calling' off of the Talk cd...mmmmmmmm

 

[milkbone]

Re: YES 90125 Guitar tones

I think he wrote alot(if not all) of the stuff for the movie"Rock Star" and I believe he played on it too.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: YES 90125 Guitar tones

Owner of a Lonely Heart was listed as one of the 50 greatest guitar tones of all time in Guitar Player Magazine's issue on the same name. There was some detail on his rig in the short blurb in there. The issue came out within the last year. If you can't find a copy, PM me and I'll go dig it out. I know I saved that issue.

 

[tone4days]

Re: YES 90125 Guitar tones

always interesting to me to see this kind of topic ...

i am a big fan of YES ... but i absolutely HATED that YES album and thought Trevor Rabin's playing and tone to be very irritating and uninspiring from the first listen all those years ago ... i thought the compositions were similarly lacking - a ghost of the previous YES greatness ...

but it's cool to me that so many knowledgable tone brothers dig it ...

room at the table for everyone

cheers
t4d

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: YES 90125 Guitar tones

Owner of a Lonely Heart was listed as one of the 50 greatest guitar tones of all time in Guitar Player Magazine's issue on the same name. There was some detail on his rig in the short blurb in there. The issue came out within the last year. If you can't find a copy, PM me and I'll go dig it out. I know I saved that issue.

Did you find that magazine, Rich? I'd be interested in his Owner of a Lonely Heart tone/gear set-up.

 

[Mincer]

Re: YES 90125 Guitar tones

i know the solo was a harmonizer set for 5ths, so it is a bunch of stacked 5ths. neat idea.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: YES 90125 Guitar tones

I'll try to remember to look for the mag tonight. If I remember correctly, I found the signal chain surprising, not the effect used, but their order. Details to follow.

 

[The Golden Boy]

Re: YES 90125 Guitar tones

I really liked the tonal quality of that record. Everything sounded so crisp and... I dunno... digital. Much like the Asia record that came out around that time- sounded just great.

Looking back, it sounds dated, but it's still very cleanly done. I'll have to dig that out- I think I brought that from my folks' house...

 

[Mincer]

Re: YES 90125 Guitar tones

I've been listening to it this past week, and the vocal arrangements are certainly the most complex Yes has ever done. In fact, any Rabin-era cd is pretty dense sonics-wise than any other era.

 

[WhoFan]

Re: YES 90125 Guitar tones

always interesting to me to see this kind of topic ...

i am a big fan of YES ... but i absolutely HATED that YES album and thought Trevor Rabin's playing and tone to be very irritating and uninspiring from the first listen all those years ago ... i thought the compositions were similarly lacking - a ghost of the previous YES greatness ...

but it's cool to me that so many knowledgable tone brothers dig it ...

room at the table for everyone

cheers
t4d

I find the same thing with fans of the original Genesis Line Up.. Once Phil took over vocals a lot of fans went away.. But oddly my favourite Genesis album is Seconds Out..... I have the YES box set that came out in the early 90's and my favourite stuff on there is the 90125 live stuff and out takes from that period... Last Night i was listening to the Yes cds House Of Yes recorded at House Of Blues and the sound on that set sucks... there is no bass! Ever hear that one? yikes..... Chris's bass is no where in the sound scape...... either is the kick drum.

WhoFan

 

[WhoFan]

Re: YES 90125 Guitar tones

He is one of my favs as well- pick up the Yes album 'Talk' as well as his solo cd 'Can't Look Away' for some wonderful guitar tones....for 90125 (one of my fav Yes cds), he used his Strat- later on, he got a signature westone guitar, and used Ampeg amps. An underrated player for sure- he has some very wonderful guitar sounds- check out 'The Calling' off of the Talk cd...mmmmmmmm

I have few copies of Talk on tape... a local store had lots of copies for $1 on tape so i bought a few..... Sounds like a good album.

I have a Guitar World mag from about 87 with a little story on his gear for Big Generator.... i should try and find it... but it says nothing about the 90125 era. He used Ampeg amps on 90125? What models i wonder? Combos? heads? Does anyone know what the pickups are in his strat? I know they are not stock... some sort of replacements.... I did read that his strat was a red colour at first and he bought it at a music store in the early 70's.. It was said to be from the early 60's and some warehouse had it sitting for 10 years before they found it...... I know the neck was warped when he bought it..

WhoFan

 

[WhoFan]

Re: YES 90125 Guitar tones

I'll try to remember to look for the mag tonight. If I remember correctly, I found the signal chain surprising, not the effect used, but their order. Details to follow.

cool! post any info you may find please.....

WhoFan

 

[tone4days]

Re: YES 90125 Guitar tones

I find the same thing with fans of the original Genesis Line Up.. Once Phil took over vocals a lot of fans went away.. But oddly my favourite Genesis album is Seconds Out....

for me, it's 'trick of the tail' ... i can enjoy everything up to and including 'duke', even though you can see how the seeds of the 'pop' genesis were taking root ...

with Yes, i even liked drama even though anderson wasnt on it ...

for me, only steve howe is and will ever be the true guitarist for Yes

t4d

 

[Mincer]

Re: YES 90125 Guitar tones

i liked Peter Banks too...lately Howe's tone is not good- and he tends to noodle over most of the last 10 years of stuff rather than come up with 'arrangements' like he used too. He seems to save a lot for his solo albums. Compare his sound from Yessongs to any recent tour- his current sound is tiny and thin. And I am a huge Howe fan too- I think he needs some advice on his setup. His distortion sound lately is just terrible.

 

[tone4days]

Re: YES 90125 Guitar tones

... his current sound is tiny and thin ... His distortion sound lately is just terrible.

another data point supporting the t4d theory that aging rock guitarists' tones get thinner to compensate for their loss of treble hearing ? ... to them, it still sounds the same ... whatcha think?

t4d

 

[Mincer]

Re: YES 90125 Guitar tones

hmm, maybe, but it it is the whole body of the tone that dropped out of the middle...kind of like if you plugged the guitar directly into a power amp. Even his ES175 is super thin, and on the 5 or 6 times I have seen them last, they actually pull the band volume down when he takes a solo so it cuts through. He is using 2 Fender re-issue 65 Twin Reverbs in stereo, and I think (this is what it sounds like) he has one clean all the time, and the 2nd one (they are right next to each other) he will run his Korg A3 distortion though, which is an awful, awful first generation digital multi-fx. The clean sound is always along with the distortion, riding underneath. It might be a good idea- I sometimes run my piezo pickup ckean under distortion- but his setup sounds bad. It is worse when he uses his Tele (which sounded so good on Relayer) or a Strat.