How to get 'That Sound'
Author: Oxygen Music Date Posted:3 October 2016
Replicating the tone you hear from your favourite guitarist can be a venture more perilous than navigating a cliff face without a harness . . . Okay it might not be quite that catastrophic if you slip up with your sound but the frustration might make you want to jump off one if you can’t find that elusive ‘Tone’ we all bang on about so much.
So to help out I thought we’d take a look at some of the more influential players and help remove some of the mystique behind their ‘sound’ for you. Today we’re going behind the locks of the Guns N Roses God Slash for a peak at how he creates his sound. This is by no means a comprehensive list but will give you a great starting point to honing your own distinct sound.
The use of Dunlop’s Crybaby is a given, Slash uses a rack mounted version nowadays controlled by a volume pedal. Due to his high gain tendencies a noise reduction pedal is essential to helping control his sound, and a compressor helps to keep his sound full and even. Slash uses a Boss DD-5 digital delay and a 10 band graphic EQ plus a 7 Band Boss GE-7 for solo’s. Along with Dunlop’s Heil talk box and various cabinet/tube head combinations. So if you’ve aspired to model Slash’s sound, grab a guitar equipped with quality humbuckers, flick your selector to the rhythm pickup, roll off the tone and (importantly) crank the gain hard on your tube amp!
Want even more Slash Saturated Sound? Try out MXR’s signature Slash Octave Fuzz pedal to take your sound to a whole new level. Experimentation with pedals to find that magic combination to suit your sound is so much fun, come in to Oxygen Music and see which pedals speak to you, once you understand the fundamentals of a pedal board structure the rest is totally up to you!
Come along to Oxygen Music’s Pedal Expo Saturday 22nd Oct, Free Event 10am – 4pm. Oxygen College, 23 Gordon Avenue, Geelong West in our Gallery room (opposite side of street to the main college building) to try out a HUGE range of pedals and check out demonstrations of the latest technology!