Snork Posted January 8, 2004 Report Posted January 8, 2004 how does he achieve that strange tone? I love his tone and I want to build a guitar like his Lucille however I haven't the foggiest clue what his tone comes from. Playing with thumb maybe? Tube amps? I dont think all of it comes from his guitar. although that nice semi hollow contributes. From the gibson site it says that he uses alnico magnets *** my first guess was 57' classics if anything but alnicos??? those are biting if im not mistaken and kings tone has always been very smooth. can someone fill me in? Quote
Snork Posted January 8, 2004 Author Report Posted January 8, 2004 almost as enigmatic as SRV's tone. PLEASE help. This very well may be my next guitar, or a zakk wyde-esque custom. Quote
jbkim Posted January 8, 2004 Report Posted January 8, 2004 Hmm... I have a feeling a lot of it comes from his fingers. Give him an BC Rich Warlock through a pignose amp, it'd probably still sound like him. Solid Body Guitar and Bass Chat?!?! Quote
Snork Posted January 8, 2004 Author Report Posted January 8, 2004 oh come on give me a abreak lol. yeah it probably does buti dont know if it would sound THAT smooth through a warlock lol. Quote
syxxstring Posted January 8, 2004 Report Posted January 8, 2004 I believe he uses lab series l5 amps. Wierd solid state deals that never caught on. He lives here in town and I've talked to his amp tech. He owns piles of these things to keep the main ones running. Lab Series Amp Quote
Snork Posted January 8, 2004 Author Report Posted January 8, 2004 strange..............i would have never guessed. thanks though! i wonder how much of a difference that actually makes in his sound... damn. whatever i like the guitar. But i think ill build a zakk wylde esque guitar. cause zakk wylde is also the MAN! Quote
ovation22 Posted January 8, 2004 Report Posted January 8, 2004 I would have figured him for a tube man... I would bet that nyjbkim is right. His distinctive one finger vibrato is the key to his sound. Lucille probably is a big part of it too, but I would bet he could pull it off with just about any guitar. A Peavey rep once told me that he heard Eddie play through a little practice amp and it still sounded like Eddie... Quote
soapbarstrat Posted January 8, 2004 Report Posted January 8, 2004 Semi-hollow guitar. 24 3/4" scale. Heavy gauge strings (set of 12's or maybe more). Probably medium jumbo fret size, but not sure. Not sure if his strings are flat-wound, nickle, or what. he does use a tube amp sometimes too, not always the lab Quote
Adam Brown Posted January 8, 2004 Report Posted January 8, 2004 I thought that he had a vari-tone knob on his guitar somewhere... I think that it might play with the magnets somehow Quote
canuckguitarist Posted January 9, 2004 Report Posted January 9, 2004 I thought that he had a vari-tone knob on his guitar somewhere... I think that it might play with the magnets somehow Yea, he does. Good point. Quote
guitar_ed Posted January 9, 2004 Report Posted January 9, 2004 Hollow body guitar, no F holes, varitone doohickey, humbuckers. Hate to say it, but if you really want the BB sound, you might have to buy one. But another question: When you say BB or EVH sound, do you mean the guitar/amp combo, or the playing style which has a HUGE impact on what you hear. BB or EVH on an accoustic guitar or a Tele will still sound pretty much like BB or EVH. BTW: BB calls his one finger tremelo "the butterfly." Guitar Ed Arrogant and proud of it. Quote
Grindell Posted January 9, 2004 Report Posted January 9, 2004 I remember Dan Erlewine saying somewhere that his pickups were out of phase, and that accounted for some of the sound. Quote
Drak Posted January 9, 2004 Report Posted January 9, 2004 From what I've read over the years, one of the biggest parts of BB's sound is that his HB's are wired out of phase (or he has a switch to do it) and he always uses the same position (2, both pkps on, all the time) Wire yourself up a 2-HB semi-hollow guitar, using the exact same pkp for both positions, nothing very hot, and wire them out of phase, with the amp set for clean, highs down a bit. You'll hear BB. There is a particular tone that out of phase HB's give off that doesn't sound like anything else, especially mixed with a semi and an amp set for clean. NO DIRT! The downside is this: if you wire your guitar up so that you can switch it in and out, or you simply just use one pkp by itself, most people won't give the OOP sound much of a chance because when you switch to normal, or one of the other pkps, it is WAY louder, WAY fuller, WAY more dynamic, and much more robust in comparison, so most will write the OOP sound off very quickly. BAD mistake if you like blues. In this instant satisfaction world we live in, no one is willing to set it and forget it and explore the OOP sound for a few days straight, no chaser. But if you just leave your guitar in that position and play that way for several days, you will really understand the beauty of the OOP sound. The best way is to take one semi-guitar and wire it that way with no other option. It's a person's perceptions between the two sounds that kills off interest in the OOP sound, but it's a kind of unfair comparison. If there was some way to compensate for the volume loss the same instant you flicked the switch, so the OOP sound was as loud as in the other positions, I think more people would take notice of it. It's almost like you have to get over your own concious thoughts to 'stay' with an OOP sound for more than a few minutes, but it's only because you think you're getting so much more in the other positions. Which is a wrong assumption if you give it a chance. Someone tell me when they ever saw BB reach up and hit his selector switch...NEVER! (at least I'm pretty sure!) Quote
Snork Posted January 9, 2004 Author Report Posted January 9, 2004 interesting! thats a weird set up! Quote
Snork Posted January 9, 2004 Author Report Posted January 9, 2004 btw what does phased out mean in the pickup language? Quote
Drak Posted January 9, 2004 Report Posted January 9, 2004 They are sensing the string in opposite ways, cancelling out certain frequencies. It's not weird at all, just not that popular these days. It's one of the most basic pkp mods you can do when wiring. Actually, since I use a lot of different pkps in the same guitar sometimes, hell, almost 1/2 the time when I wire one of those modded puppies up for the first time, I almost always wind up with a pkp that's OOP and have to go back in and switch the wires back around. It's just alien-language to you Metal and Shred-heads! Quote
Snork Posted January 9, 2004 Author Report Posted January 9, 2004 well i'm making a blues guitar but i'm going to do some rock stuff. and its a single coil could you explain how to do it? and is it any good for rock and does it produce a GREAT BLUES TONE? thats really what i am after with this guitar. Quote
Drak Posted January 9, 2004 Report Posted January 9, 2004 Sorry Snork, great blues tone is all in the fingers my man. HB OOP is an acquired taste, I don't think I'd recommend it for you just yet. For a basic good blues tone, just stay away from hot pickups and buy something that actually has some tone and dynamics to it, a set of Lace Hot Golds or Holy Grails or Lawrence 280's or what TSL recommended (Van Zants?) Don't make it harder than it is, you don't need to be a pickup nazi to find a good blues tone in pkps, with the offerings out there today you will almost fall over them, you just have to stay away from ultra-hot pkps (which is hard for you young'uns) And don't make the common mistake of trying to make your very first guitar do everything under the sun, it's a waste of time to do that. Just stick with solid winners as listed and move on to the next dept. PS, that thing with the munkey-grip is a BLUES guitar? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!( ) Quote
Snork Posted January 9, 2004 Author Report Posted January 9, 2004 lol yeah it is! blues rock. and the pickups im getting are lace holy grails. i love the quack on those mothers. can you post some sound clips of the OOP or whatever? Quote
Drak Posted January 9, 2004 Report Posted January 9, 2004 No, but I CAN show you a REAL blues guitar! Quote
Guest Litchfield Custom Gutars Posted January 9, 2004 Report Posted January 9, 2004 Here's my suggestion. Lucille has a Gibson 490R 498T set if I recall correctly. The Varitone is alot the same as the push oull pots on the Jimmy Page Les Paul. I'd go for that wiring. IMO, it is easier and more versatile. The other option is a 5 way HH setup ala Ibanez RG. Quote
Drak Posted January 9, 2004 Report Posted January 9, 2004 Jeesus. My first impression: "Ya actually gonna play some music on that thing or land it on a runway?" I stopped being into those knob-dickin' guitars years ago, 9 out of 10 of those options all sound the same 1/2 the time. Some people are just attracted to knobs, the more, the better, keeps them from actually concentrating on playing... I would say that most guys go thru a phase where they want a guitar that can do all that crap until they own it long enough to find out that there's only 2-4 really good usable sounds, then they go find a guitar that makes those 2-4 sounds. Quote
jbkim Posted January 9, 2004 Report Posted January 9, 2004 Hmm... I wonder if the "Replication or Distribution is prohibited" line in that guitarelectronics diagram extends to posting the picture in this forum... vs. a link to the page. Quote
Drak Posted January 9, 2004 Report Posted January 9, 2004 they usually mean with personal gain in mind...as in to add it to your own wiring book or adding it to a site that you make money off of... And Litch, I think you're WAAAAAAAY off track with that diagram in reference to BB King's tone. Read the topic, listen to a BB King record, then look at your posted pic again. Just think about it for a minute...or two. BB's tone (like the man) is simplicity itself. BB is the last person in the world to try to use a setup like you listed there, that picture does not say to me 'BB King tone' at ALL. You take 2 HB's, 2 wires apiece, switch one of them around, and BANG, you've got it. No need to complicate things. Quote
Snork Posted January 9, 2004 Author Report Posted January 9, 2004 yeah he is a simple player with a simple tone. but i just am trying to find out what makes that awesome tone. i think you guys have pretty much answered it thank you all for your input! but i think im going to build a zakk wylde-esque les paul custom next. then the bb king. then a 7 string archtop. Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.