Guthrie Govan Discussion :: View topic - Aristocrats Tone
Help support this site by shopping at Amazon through our link.
Guthrie Govan Discussion Forum Index

Guthrie Govan Discussion
The Official Guthrie Govan Discussion Board

www.GuthrieGovan.co.uk

 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

 

 
Aristocrats Tone

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Guthrie Govan Discussion Forum Index -> Guthrie Tones and Gear
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
guitarist1977



Joined: 29 Nov 2014
Posts: 1

PostPosted: Sat Nov 29, 2014 5:14 pm    Post subject: Aristocrats Tone Reply with quote

Hi everybody,

I wonder how Guthrie made his tone on first Aristocrats album. No matter how I try, I can't reproduce it.

I know that he used his Suhr guitar, Suhr Badger 30 and Suhr Koko boost to record this album.

Do you know how to reproduce this kind of tone?Here is an example from Sweaty Knockers.

https://soundcloud.com/alexander-drobitko/sk-1/s-siEwU


Many thanks.

Alex.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
alexkhan



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Chino, CA

PostPosted: Sun Dec 07, 2014 5:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think only Guthrie knows that because I've heard him duplicate that sound over and over again on dozens of shows I've seen - including when I was the band's tour manager during their first several tours. Even these days with a whole new rig of the Charvel GG Signature Model guitar and Victory amps and cabs, he has no problem duplicating the studio sounds over and over again night after night. In fact, I feel he sounds better now than he ever has.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: the gear has very little to do with a player's overall sound. Sure, you're not going to use a Tele or a Gretsch hollow-body through a Fender Twin Reverb combo to play modern metal but within the same range of gear for certain styles and genres, it's really the player - the hands, the ears, the mindset and the approach. Many great players (Steve Lukather, for example) have said that they played through Eddie Van Halen's rig back in the 80's and they couldn't sound like him at all.

I've played Guthrie's rig (down to the pick) quite a few times and there's no way I can sound even close to the sound he's getting. I have heard other accomplished players play through Guthrie's rig and none of them sounded close to Guthrie sound-wise - not even close. I'm not talking about playing as well as him - just the sound. It's not the gear. I remember going to some music stores in Europe while I was on a clinic tour with him and he'd pick up and play some guitars unplugged. The guitars sounded a certain way in his hands but sounded completely different in mine.

I've heard this being repeated over and over again when I was running the Tone Merchants business and all kinds of players would come and go playing through the same identical rigs with the same guitars. They all sounded different. It's when I was at Tone Merchants that I realized that it's about the player and not the gear. In my estimation, the player alone determines at least 90% of the sound. Of course, as mentioned before, the gear has to be within a certain category for what that player does (ex. - a vintage Marshall, an 80's-style hot-rodded Marshall, an overdriven Fender, a "modern" high-gain Mesa Dual Rectifier type of amp, etc.), but after that it's all about what the player decides he needs to get the sound he hears in his head and how he approaches it with the way he plays - the dynamics in his picking, the way the notes are shaped by the fretting hand, vibrato, etc. There are literally endless variables involved that really have nothing to do with gear.

So it's all about practice. You get to a certain range of gear and then it's all up to you to produce it. That's the thing I learned from Guthrie. He showed how he can coax more different sounds out of a guitar plugged direct into an amp with no effects whatsoever than most people can do with a huge refrigerator size rack full of effects processors and/or a gaggle of pedals strewn about on the floor. You can do so much more with your hands - adjusting the volume and tone pots on the guitar, changing pickups, varying your pick attack, where you pick on the guitar, how you squeeze the notes with your fretting hand and combining all of them or just bits and pieces in between. Ultimately, the gear should just amplify what your hands are doing...
_________________
Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Guthrie Govan Discussion Forum Index -> Guthrie Tones and Gear All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum



Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group