Another 10 'Alt' Guitar Tone Secrets: From FX pedals to tunings, and beyond...
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- Опубликовано: 16 июл 2024
- Another 10 favorite post-punk/alt/indie guitarists and the tricks they use to get their tones....be that through pedals, instrument choices, or novel tunings. As ever, music first, musicianship second, with the occasional dive into the tech behind their setup. A few demos, as appropriate!
00:00 Intro
00:43 Ira Kaplan - ProCo RAT
04:08 Geordie Walker - His "Killing Joke" Rig
09:06 East Bay Ray - Maestro Echoplex
11:12 Mark Mothersbaugh - EHX Frequency Analyzer
13:34 TUNINGS
14:02 Ricky Wilson (B-52s) - 4/5-string Mosrite tunings
16:27 Randy Bewley (Pylon) - Randy's "accidental" tuning
17:48 Alan Sparhawk (Low) - Open G tuning
21:15 Jeff Martin (Idaho) - Tenor guitar tunings
23:42 Ian Crause (DI) - MIDI "Sampling" guitar
25:09 Andy Summers - EHX Electric Mistress Flanger
27:03 Outro
CORRECTION!
Please note the use of an incorrect photo of Randy Bewley [at about 16:30]. That's actually bass player Michael Lachowski, not Randy. Sincere apologies...it was the only usable colour photo of the band I could source, and I'd spent far too long editing by this point, and goofed. A link to the article containing the original photo, where you can see Randy in full, is below...
eu.onlineathens.com/story/ent...
A FEW USEFUL LINKS RELATED TO THIS VIDEO (SPOILERS!!!)...
- An article about Geordie Walker's rig and setup (including some FX settings)
www.guitarworld.com/features/...
- A piece about Randy Bewley's guitar tuning and playing/writing style
athensmusicjunkie.com/2011/04...
- Idaho tenor guitar tab and tuning resources
slidingpast.com/tab/
Thanks for watching! 
Видеоклипы
RIP Geordie... my favourite guitarist of all time...
Alan not only is a fantastic musician, but such a kind human. My wife's first instrument was a slightly modified SG style bass that Alan owned for some years before giving it to my wife after she had mentioned being interested in learning an instrument
Always nice to hear that a musical hero is just as compassionate and kind as they are talented. "Paying it forward" like that is one of those acts that reminds you of the good that still exists in people out there. Thanks for sharing. D
Wow, this is awesome. Still can’t believe someone talks about the bands and players I actually care about and also knows gear. This is rare and super valuable. Keep it up. Thanks.
Really nice to see Ira Kaplan and Yo La Tengo in this video!
Many thanks for your acknowledgement of the amazing Geordie Walker, there's something incredibly unique to me with Geordies set up & the amazing sound & riffs & chords he came up with.
Absolutely gutted that he's no longer here with us. R.I.P. Geordie.
That’s the closest I’ve heard someone get to Geordie’s tone! Good on you brother!
It's not bad! A little more work on the amp end of things to solidify the lows and low mids would probably get it even closer. More volume would probably do it, without any further tweaking! Cheers, D
Great video! very informative! you're spot on about Walking on the Moon. when I first heard it I was transfixed by that chord. Still love it. And I think you did Kings and Queens very well. Rest in Peace, Geordie 💜
I keep my Rat with the gain set about 10:00 and when I want to push it to super dirty I hit the front of it with a Soul Food with the gain set at about noon. Love that pedal combo for getting punk and post punk tones!
Alan is such a legend for that
Honorable mention we all know and love, the secret sauce of the cure; Robert smiths use of the fender bass vi!
enjoying your work man
regarding the RAT. Graham Coxon used 2 on his board with a Shin-ei fuzz
Another double RAT man, eh? To be fair, I'd been looking to bring up Ira sometime soon, and he fit the bill for this video. Cheers, D
This may be a first for me. Thank you Googlies for this recommendation! I’m loving this so far. It’s the bands I was raised on. My dad explaining why each was great in his opinion. To this day I probably have these bands tattooed on my heart! And I’ve had a heart transplant!
Love that Nashville style tele
That's my "does-it-all" parts Tele! It's a mix of a few cheap parts, some custom parts/pickups, and hand-finished using milk paint. It looks a little "rustic" up close, but it's got a ton of neat switching options, and is a little "thicker" sounding than the average Tele. Cheers, D
I second that. I really like the pick guard.
Love this! Took me forever to embrace a Rat pedal but now I don't have a pedalboard without one! Low and Alan Sparhawk got me to try Open G tuning and I wrote some of my favorite riffs with it. As far as the Police, Sting gets too much credit and God knows gives himself too much credit, always thought Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland was the secret weapons of that band.
Cheers Mike! I came to RATs a bit late in the day too, but discovering those sounds in the first quarter of the gain knob really opened it up for me. I tend to switch between Open G and DADGAD for general purpose stuff, with the odd visit to a slack "Hawaiian" tuning called D Wahine (DADF#AC#) if I want to heighten that slightly unresolved/diminished sound.
Yeah, Sting's kind of full of it! Another Summers nostalgia aspect for me is Ralph Denyer's "The Guitar Handbook", a classic guitar beginners' guide. Andy wrote the foreword for the 80s editions, when I first started picking up a guitar, and I remember buying it for pretty much that reason alone! D
That band, musically, is Copeland.
When can a mere drummer make a band? Well, when they're essentially a Rock band for people who aren't into guitar.
This fits the exact niche information I was looking for. Fantastic breakdown
You've featured some of my most favourite guitarists here! Geordie is always overlooked, and I've only been able to get his sound using amp sims etc... On my laptop. Of course the doubling is important, and being in stereo, which you wont get on a budget guitar multi fx. On the verse of Eighties, that classic riff in the verse was played on the neck pickup, and the verse on the bridge pickup.
Yeah, been on a bit of a KJ kick lately, and when I got the Micropitch recently, I realised it was perfect for that stereo detune w/ separate delays left/right that Geordie uses. The amp bit is always going to be a bit of a compromise, but for a bedroom stereo setup, this arrangement worked pretty well for me. Cheers! D
I don't know what I was expecting but it was not this. Fantastic video! This is my first video from you. I was literally thinking when you got to The Police "that one chord ring from walking on the moon!"and then you did it, and just the one hit!!! Hilarious.
Thanks. Y'know I did record a few extra bits from "Walking", but when I started editing, it just worked best with that single "splang!" That one chord just obsessed me as a kid, and I took it as a sign not to mess with it. Glad you enjoyed! All the best, D
great video as always!
This is so thorough and good. Well done dude
Keep the work. Love this channel!
RIP Kevin „Geordie“ Walker :(
Killer video, great work.
Excellent.
Interesting content, thank you!
Terrific. Thank you for your vids.
Very interesting! Great video ! Thank you.
Super cool video!!
Good work - appreciated!
Interesting stuff. Keep up the good work.
This is a great video. Thank you!
This is an absolutely TREMENDOUS video, well worth the wait! Love your choices and your tech explanations, and of course your recreations. I especially enjoyed the section on Idaho, I too have a Warren Ellis tenor and to know that there are so many tunings that can be used (string gauge allowing) is mind blowing. Excellent work - looking forward to more!
Thanks, and glad to know there are Idaho/tenor fans out there who appreciate this! I did modify the video description to add a link to the tab page at the Idaho website, which is an absolute goldmine! All the best, D
I honestly had no idea that Idaho used tenor guitars, and I loved them, back in the day. I myself keep a Squier Mini (22.72" scale) strung in octave mandolin tuning (GDAE), and it's fabulous. I do a cover of The Cure's "Boys Don't Cry" with that guitar.
That 22-ish inch scale is essential for that tenor sound, I think, so the Squier mini sounds like a good option for that. I did add a link to the Idaho tunings and tab in the Description, so check that out if you're interested! Cheers, D
That's a great Idea! What gauge strings work best for you in that tuning? Cheers
This is one of my favorite videos you’ve made! Thank you for making it!
Thank you. I'm in the planning stages of doing another one in a similar vein, but it's getting harder to do these purely "solo". Hoping to get a little assistance with the next one! D
Excellent video, Darren
Thanks Matt. For whatever reason, this one was pretty hard work to finish off, so really happy to hear this kind of feedback! D
Loved this… Really glad I came across your channel and having just finished Andy Summers excellent autobiography your final choice was the icing on the cake.
Managed to track down a really nice MIJ 97 made ‘62 reissue telecaster and have been beavering away within my Headrush gig board and am now chiming away Dm11’s like there’s no tomorrow.
😏
Love this analysis, I still have my Turbo Rat I bought in 1991, my first pedal 🤟🏽 New Subscriber here 🤟🏽🎸❤️
Nice one. My actual first pedal (a Boss Flanger) is long long gone, but my original beat-up "gigging" overdrive from the mid/late '90s is still with me...a Danelectro Daddy-O Ovedrive. Welcome aboard! D
I love Andy Summers.
Great video. I picked up an electric tenor several years ago and do not regret it one bit. Great instrument.
Ben listening to Bill Orcutt after seeing his Tiny Desk concert on NPR. Another one who used less than 6 strings on his instrument. His music for 4 guitars is worth checking out if you haven't heard.
Thanks. Aware of Orcutt, and been meaning to chase up some of his more recent stuff. Will definitely check out your recommendation! D
You're so cool. Thank you
very interesting.
Glad the algorithm suggested your channel!
Cheers! It's taken a while for the algo to find the right audience for this stuff, but it seems to be doing a much better job of late. D
I also have to say that back in the day, I disdained the ProCo RAT, because it looked cheap and sounded harsh to me, but in recent years, I've come to realize it has great potential, and my favorite RAT sound is the "Clean RAT", which is a RAT that has no clipping diodes, so all the distortion comes only from the op-amp. ProCo never made the Clean RAT available as a standalone pedal; it only came as part of the Deucetone RAT pedal. Many makers of RAT clones now include a mode without the clipping diodes, and a lot of pedal makers are discovering that removal of the clipping diodes is a great option for many other overdrive and distortion circuits. The Analogman King of Tone is one that famously offers that option, and its circuit design had its origins in the Marshall Bluesbreaker.
Great video. I’m really only familiar with about half the artists you included, but all of the segments were interesting.
(I wasnt aware Ricky Wilson used alt tunings, much less removed strings! I was able to figure out “Planet Claire” without using either. Another string-discarder is Bill Orcutt, who apparently started on a thrift shop guitar missing a D string, and he just kept playing that way.)
If you experiment with Alt tunings, it becomes readily apparent that accommodating all six strings isn't always desirable.Five seems to eliminate some issues, though it sometimes works to double up .
TBH, I was initially concerned that I was confusing myself using too many, but then I realized how critical it can be to writing original compositions and achieving fresh sounds.
I'd love to see Adam Franklin of Swervedriver included.
Separately I'm a huge fan of tenor ranges, including a Yamaha Guitarlele that I bought as a "travel" guitar, kind of as a gimmick to play to my kids in a campground... but it's a real stayer. Very versatile, in sound, but also in feel - sometimes it's nice to have a nylon string feel. I'm hardly going to play Bolero on it, but it certainly has a role.
New fan here, just discovered your channel, absolutely love it!
Thanks for info, will definitely include some of this in my playing
Cheers! Being introduced to alternative tunings was a pure "lightbulb" moment for me, and I've never looked back...in fact "standard" tuning is now the one that feels slightly compromised and weird to me! D
For sure, they really help when you are in a bit of a rut, it's like playing a completely new instrument.
Out of interest, I have been toying with the idea of getting one of those Warren Ellis Tenors, would you recommend?
Thanks a million!
My Warren Ellis is one of the very first ones, but they do a ton of different variations now, with different pickups etc. Mine's been solid, but I did change out the pickup for something a little clearer and more "laid back". Build quality is good, and nothing else needed any work. I did find it was far happier tuned GDAE than CDGA. There's wiggle room with string gauges to make most things work, and you can usually get away with using 4 strings out of a standard 6 string set if you shop around.
I say go for it! D
@allancarey3273
Just got an Eastwood promo email and noticed they're doing an extended Father's Day offer until midnight tonight...20% of in stock guitars with the code HAPPYDAD20. Not endorsing or gaining anything from this, just passing it along in case you were seriously thinking of springing for one of the tenors! D
@@discellany Great stuff, I'll have a look now! Thanks a million for the heads up
Good video and nice to hear these guys given some credit! (just for reference, you mention John McGoch - it’s John McGEoch)
Thanks. Happy to be corrected RE: JM. It's one of those names I've always heard people pronouncing both ways, and I clearly backed the wrong 'un! D
Siouxsie forever
The pickguard on your telecaster is delicious; just unfamiliar enough as to be it’s own thing and yet extremely at home on the guitar 👍
Thanks. I drew it out myself and cut it by hand from a pickguard blank. Might still have the original template knocking around somewhere! D
@@discellany I’ve done the same! With no fancy router or anything so it’s a PITA but def satisfying every time I lay eyes on it.
I met Ray after a gig. What a very decent chap!
Nice one! Always good to meet musical heroes and find they're as agreeable as they are talented. Scary old punk rockers tend to be absolute pussy cats in real life! Cheers, D
@@discellany I’ve also met Lemmy and he was a Tosser. Total knob. Who else….? Andy Gill was lovely and very funny. Not at all like his stage persona. Andy Cairns from Therapy? was……… Shitfaced.
Great stuff, & a few picks I wasn’t expecting. Interesting my two favourites ‘East Bay Ray’ & ‘Ricky Wilson’ both come from a similar aesthetic, my other favourite ‘Poison Ivy’ would happily slot in with those .I was trying to think of someone whose left a mark on me who you haven’t featured..Possibly Greg Ginn, who I thinks legacy seems more extraordinary as the years roll by, even when he plays styles I’m not as interested in ie his band ‘Gone’ for instance.
Cheers Harris. Tried to mix it up a bit here, and it seems to be going down OK! D
@@discellany btw someone’s just shared a link with me ‘Fender Shields Blender’ designed in collaboration with Kevin Shields.I have no idea about guitars...but it’s yours for £449.00!!! I have no idea if that’s expensive
I think they lifted the embargo on this bad boy today, because a bunch of the usual pedal channels have published on it in the last few hours. At heart, it's "just" a Fender Blender fuzz, which you could kit build for about £50-60...but they've added a bunch of extra features and snazzy bits, all included following design input from KS himself. Shoegaze cork-sniffers will lose their shit over this...guaranteed!
I dunno... I'd have a really hard time parting with that much for a fuzz pedal. That's more like new guitar or amp money to me, or at the very least, a big-nuts "does-it-all" delay or reverb pedal. I see old-school handbuilt vintage fuzz clones priced in that ballpark, but they usually contain some ridiculously hard-to-source transistors which cost an arm and a leg. I seriously doubt that's the case here. Cheers, D
Just discovered your channel. The Beaster video is fantastic. How did you put the Geordie walker sound together? I’ve been trying to approximate his tone with a headrush modeler for ages. And I always go wrong.
Thanks! There's a link in the description to an article breaking down Geordie's rig...I just approximated each step as best I could using pedals...a little Marshally, low-ish gain drive, the BED for DMM-style slapback, the Eventide Micropitch doing stereo slapback with modulation, and then into separate amps (I'm using a pair of Voxes...an AC15 and a Night Train). Listening back, my take still sounds a bit thin. A bit more volume from the amps and it would probably fill out, and sound a bit closer again. D
@@discellany thanks for the detailed reply. I’ll check out the link. it’s getting the amps right that’s defeating me. I’m using twin JCM800s on the modeler but can’t seem to dial it right. I’ve got the signal going into a DMM model and then split into two detuners that have similar control parameters to the ADTs. But it either sounds too thin or too flubby. Anyway, keep up the great work on the channel! If you’re a fan of tech and culture, with as many music references as I can sneak in, I do a radio show in Malaysia called Mattsplained. Yes, it’s a podcast, too. So you can find it blah blah blah. But feel free to check it out if you’re interested.
Cheers Matt, will check it out!
If it helps any further, Geordie's Burman amps are (according to a fellow commenter here) much closer to a Hiwatt in tone and design...so probably much cleaner, tighter, ballsier, barkier than the average Marshall. D
@@discellany yeah. I’ve got a hiwatt IR but no amp. I’ll figure out what the headrush has that similar. But I’ll try it your way with Vox(e)s first. thank you!
Choice content!
Eastbay ray uses a line6 dm4 now and a boss compressor after it into a dirty amp usually a old marshall
Yeah, modern day digital emulations of tape/analog/drum delays are generally all pretty great, and much more durable than an original. If the dl4 adds a little of the preamp flavour too, then it'd probably be indistinguishable to most people (particularly in a live setting). Cheers, D
But it is essential that you run the delay into your distortion wether it be from a pedal or amp it intensifies the echos in a particular way you can't get otherwise it can get out of control pretty easy but riding that wave is part of the sound as well
play more!
Found your channel a few weeks ago on the home account and thought I subbed ? Didn’t, so I did after watching / liking your newest entry, I subbed on Television and thought I’d do the same on my personal account. I really dig your content and would love to see your channel grow. Be safe, keep pumping out the vids. Very interesting , informative.
Cheers for the sub, and glad you're enjoying the videos! D
burman amps were from newcastle high headroom incredibly loud more hiwatt /orange stage amps not marshall like at all love the info keep it up
Cheers, and thanks for the correction. It makes sense that they would be higher headroom, I guess, because I did read Geordie's were running on KT88s (not sure if that's stock, or a modification) which I always associate with big, bold, ballsy tones. D
Sorry, but I should point out that that's Micheal pictured and not Randall. Randall is to the right of Vanessa in the band photo.
Appreciate the correction. It was tough finding a good quality, colour "period" picture of Pylon from the early 80s...and to be honest, I nearly lost my mind editing that video...easily 16 hours of work went in to that over the space of a couple of days. Not sure I can do much to fix that using YTs limited "live" editing, but I'll see what I can possibly to do fix that. Thanks, D
@@discellany thank you so much for the incredible video! Being a guitarist means that I have to endure the fact that 99.9% of guitar-specific content has virtually nothing to do with the music I am most connected with. Finding your channel yesterday was such a joy. Thanks again!
Seriously, thanks for watching, and glad you enjoyed the video despite my photo goof. I'd love to be able to superimpose the correct image, but it's sadly impossible without re-uploading an edit of the video. I've added a correction to the description below the video, with a link to the article and the original photo I cropped incorrectly. D
Never heard about most of these bands...
Pic seems to show two Rats set the same?
Yeah I did notice that! I did read he used them at different gain settings, but I know he tends to use a two amp setup, too. Could be he likes the gain set the same for each amp? He could run them clean-clean, clean-dirty or dirty-dirty, and use his Boss drive for the purely lighter stuff. D
How do you get a new subscriber? Talk about Pylon!
Yeah, it's my secret sauce!
But seriously, a few weeks back, I tweeted something about "Crazy" clearly being the best song on "Dead Letter Office", and Vanessa Briscoe Hay liked it. I very nearly pulled a full-on fanboy faint!
Yes, I quite like me some Pylon. Cheers, D
S U B B E D
Devo are ‘Prog Punk’
your 50ms when discussing Geordies snapback is off... its about 150ms. 50 ms is almost undetectable, not a slap at all.
Checked back and I did actually say "between 50ms and 150ms". 50ms is about the tightest shortest slap you can get/hear, but it's still there...somewhere around 100 is a more usable "normal" setting, I'd agree. D
@@discellany Apologies... I was referring to the graphic you used while discussing it.
Dude - You've got to figure out how to synch your audio and video. I like your content but that part makes it hard to watch.
It's synched perfectly when I upload it. If you're watching on a mobile device, it'll probably be an issue with caching or streaming performance. I'm just not getting across-the-board reports of issues, and this video (plus the other you had the same issues with) have been viewed by thousands of other viewers. Cheers, D
Very american point of view of what post punk music was….
Just a catch-all term for everything that came after punk, really...new wave, indie, alternative, etc. I wasn't overthinking my choices, so no agenda here. Whatever. D
Never checked out Low until today! Cool stuff and i love alternate tunings. Thanks!
It genuinely warms my heart to know I've helped (in however small a way) to introduce someone out there to the music of Low. You have some very rewarding listening ahead of you! Cheers, D
"Alt tone", aka NO TONE. . . . . . . . .