Brian May sound on Boss GT-6
LarsA
Boss GT-6? If so, could you please advise the settings?
Dr. Zontar
> Does anyone have experience with setting up Brian May sounds on the
> Boss GT-6? If so, could you please advise the settings?
Getting a Brian May sound on ANY multi-effect box is hard. But start
with the Vox amp model (I think Boss calls it "VO") and mess with the
gain level. May uses a treble booster for overdrive, so experiment
with different preamp settings.
It helps if you have a copy of his Red Special guitar. Good luck.
- Rich
RichL
Heh. I've got the guitar *and* the Digitech Brian May pedal and it
still doesn't sound like Brian May all that much (excluding the ability
factor, of course).
On the other hand, Brian May replica -> Keeley Java pedal (treble
booster) -> AC-30 *or* Epi Valve Jr. -> celestion greenbacks comes much
closer!
The Digitech pedal might work better (as would any modeling pedal,
really) through an amp with a flat frequency response (like a keyboard
amp, e.g.), but I don't have one.
Electro Artisan
>Dr. Zontar <drzo...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> On Jun 23, 5:15 am, LarsA <lars.ander...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>> Does anyone have experience with setting up Brian May sounds on the
>>> Boss GT-6? If so, could you please advise the settings?
>>
>> Getting a Brian May sound on ANY multi-effect box is hard. But start
>> with the Vox amp model (I think Boss calls it "VO") and mess with the
>> gain level. May uses a treble booster for overdrive, so experiment
>> with different preamp settings.
>>
>> It helps if you have a copy of his Red Special guitar. Good luck.
>
>Heh. I've got the guitar *and* the Digitech Brian May pedal and it
>still doesn't sound like Brian May all that much (excluding the ability
>factor, of course).
>
>On the other hand, Brian May replica -> Keeley Java pedal (treble
>booster) -> AC-30 *or* Epi Valve Jr. -> celestion greenbacks comes much
>closer!
>
>The Digitech pedal might work .better (as would any modeling pedal,
>really) through an amp with a flat frequency response (like a keyboard
>amp, e.g.), but I don't have one
Why expect a pedal that is completely unlike anything that Brian May has ever
used would sound like him. ATMO, the Digitech "house sound" is so strong that
at its best that pedal sounds like May trying to play someone else's all
Digitech rig and not quite getting it.
The Vox AC30 with a treble booster in front of it is such an amazing and
versatile combination it makes no sense to not go with it. It worked well enough
for May, Rory Gallagher, Richie Blackmore and about 43,000 other guys, none of
whom sound quite like any of the others.
If I had to try to do Brian May, it would be with a treble booster, my DD5 and
two amps - the delay in an effect loop on the first amp with the stereo pedal
outputs going to both. Three amps and two delays would be even closer but
unwieldy without having Pete Cornish handy.
Early Brian May sounds are complicated by the Foot Phaser (try finding one of
those). Does the Digi-pedal have a mode that lets you select just one effect to
use - if so, that would be one to try. There are also some fuzz sounds on the
first two albums that could either be a fuzz box of some sort or the Deacy amp
being pushed over the edge. I've gotten something very close with a fuzz face
clone and some care with the guitar's volume control.
Shhhh, this is my secret identity
RichL
Agreed. When I bought the digitech pedal I didn't have the treble
booster, plus I wanted to have something that would come close at
reasonable household volume. Then later I got the Keeley pedal and the
Valve Jr. and that did the trick. The AC-30 does better of course, but
I can't run that at the level needed for very long and still keep the
neighbors happy.
> If I had to try to do Brian May, it would be with a treble booster,
> my DD5 and two amps - the delay in an effect loop on the first amp
> with the stereo pedal outputs going to both. Three amps and two
> delays would be even closer but unwieldy without having Pete Cornish
> handy.
If I wanted to do it live, yeah, three amps ideally, and two delay
pedals. You'll often hear two echoes on Brian's stuff, and most of the
digital delay pedals either give you a single echo or a continuous,
decaying train. I'm not all that familiar wtih the DD-5 but I see it's
only got 2 outputs; Brian often used two Echoplexes in the old days and
fed the outputs to two separate amps with the straight signal going into
a third. But things would get awfully complicated and unless I was
doing a Queen tribute thing as the whole gig, it's probably not worth
the effort.
> Early Brian May sounds are complicated by the Foot Phaser (try
> finding one of those).
Getting by with a Phase 90 at the moment...
> Does the Digi-pedal have a mode that lets you
> select just one effect to use - if so, that would be one to try.
Most of the modes are modeling sounds from specific Queen songs and
therefore involve more than one effect. There's some control over the
degree each effect is heard. But my recollection is vague -- I haven't
used the pedal in many months, though I'm tempted to go straight into
the board from the pedal while recording. I haven't tried that yet.
But as I said, I've been able to capture most of what I'm looking for
with discrete pedals.
> There are also some fuzz sounds on the first two albums that could
> either be a fuzz box of some sort or the Deacy amp being pushed over
> the edge. I've gotten something very close with a fuzz face clone and
> some care with the guitar's volume control.
Hmmmm, I've always thought that it was a cruder version of the treble
booster, or maybe that he's just hitting the amp harder than on the
later albums. My impression is that the Deacy was mainly used for those
multi-tracked guitar orchestration parts.
> Shhhh, this is my secret identity
?????
Electro Artisan
That's why I'd go with just two amps and a pedal with two outputs. I haven't
made a study of his rig, but I have played around with multiple amps and delays
in that style and it is a blast. The DD5 (any modern digital delay really) is a
lot more flexible and powerful than the old Echoplex so the reduction to two
amps doesn't hurt nearly as much as it might. I can't pull off as many layers as
Dr. May, but then again I can't pull off as many layers as Dr. May.
>> Early Brian May sounds are complicated by the Foot Phaser (try
>> finding one of those).
>
>Getting by with a Phase 90 at the moment...
>
>> Does the Digi-pedal have a mode that lets you
>> select just one effect to use - if so, that would be one to try.
>
>Most of the modes are modeling sounds from specific Queen songs and
>therefore involve more than one effect. There's some control over the
>degree each effect is heard. But my recollection is vague -- I haven't
>used the pedal in many months, though I'm tempted to go straight into
>the board from the pedal while recording. I haven't tried that yet.
>But as I said, I've been able to capture most of what I'm looking for
>with discrete pedals.
I'd expect the pedal would be at its best running straight into a board like
that.
>> There are also some fuzz sounds on the first two albums that could
>> either be a fuzz box of some sort or the Deacy amp being pushed over
>> the edge. I've gotten something very close with a fuzz face clone and
>> some care with the guitar's volume control.
>
>Hmmmm, I've always thought that it was a cruder version of the treble
>booster, or maybe that he's just hitting the amp harder than on the
>later albums. My impression is that the Deacy was mainly used for those
>multi-tracked guitar orchestration parts.
I don't really know what was used for what. But notice there's some
uncharacteristic raspy stuff on the first album that sounds more fuzz than a
pushed amp or the not-clean treble booster.