How to get that Slash tone on estranged?

[Jas32596]

On estranged I love the tone in his solos. Any ideas on how to even get in the ballpark with that?

 

[cvrle1]

In Before Paruwi

 

[CivoLee]

Uh oh...

 

[robertoa1a]

Keep it simple.

Basic low gain pups. Small tube amp.

 

[Alligatorbling]

Volume swells

 

[SJM]

An LP with SD Alnico II Pro's, use the rhythm P/U with the tone dialed all the way down. A good tube amp, preferably Marshall. Good luck!

 

[robertoa1a]

^what he said!

No active pups, no pedals, vintage tubes!

 

[Vinkuhippula]

I could be totally wrong on this, but I think it has a delay effect on there. Nothing too "in your face" though. Almost like a studio touch-up.. Then gain, my ears have lost some hearing, and the poor quality audio from youtube might tell a lie.

Aaannd.. I think SJM is right. Neck pup, tone rolled down. Might want to try to find a sweet spot by turning both volume and tone down. Depending on your amp and pickups, the settings that get into the ballpark might be different for you.

 

[MrKensei]

The guitar sound is pretty easy to dial in with the right gear.
Avoid the standard Alnico II Pro pickups, they can get you there but its much easier with the Slash signatures, they're hotter, with more mids and they dont get as muddy when used with a lot of distortion. Passive or Active EMGs will do it really nicely too if dialled in right, although actives get a wee bit yoo compressed without a REALLY nice amp.
Tone control dialled back IF you have a decent loom in you LP, if not the 8 or 9 will probably be alright.
Amp wise any good modelling amp will cover it, I found that a Vox Valvetronix AD30VT set to AC30 with a nice drive pedal in front (Vox Ice 9 covered it well for me), gain dimed, but drive pedal gain low, tone high, volume dimed.
Low capacitance cables. Eq the amp with bass about 6, mids 8 or 9, treble to taste.

With a half decent EL34 armed tube amp and no pedals, crank it and crank it some more. However most non metal tube amps dont have enough drive to be able to get that sound without turning the gsin knob up so high that younlose the sweetness, in general you need to either mod the amp or put a pedal in front, a metal amp is too compressed imo.

Lots of amp volume, play with the guitar volume.

I found that the guitar wood plays a big part in the sound. If you've got a solid mahogany LP forget it, if you've got one with a nice thick slab of maple then that will complete the sound.

Slash never used reverb, HOWEVER there is a lot of post production reverb on the recordings, the live tone never bore much resemblance to the album tone. So be prepared to use lashings of reverb.

That covers the basic instrument sound to my ears. However, it will NEVER sound right to you, for 2 reasons.

1: you dont have millions of dollars of record studio and a fleet of sound engineers modelling your guitar tone after youve done playing but before it gets pressed.

2: you aren't Slash. It's a cliche but you can dial the amp in, have the right guitar, tweak, tweak and tweak, but the last bit is you didnt write the the song, you cant copy his touch on the strings and you'll never feel the song the way he did.

Plus, and this is really important, you dont have the hat!

 

[cokekolev]

Neck humbucker (any PAF-type humbucker will do the job), Marshall amp (or modeler) with gain maxed for more sustain, tone knob on 5 or 6, a liitle bit of subtle chorus or delay, Slash's fingers and there you go!

 

[rem22]

Neck pups and tone dialed down is always what we read.
But max gain....I'm sorry but I'm not sure Slash use a lot of gain on the amp.

Kensei raised a good question, you are after the album sound or the live sound ?
I think album sounds might be tricky because of the very important post production.

 

[Batman]

Slashtone in a nutshell. . .

Les Paul style guitar with Alnico II pups; neck pickup, volume up close to or at max depending on the pickups and the tone rolled back to 4 (ish)

Plate reverb in the effects loop; decay and mix to taste (you want echo not wash)

Marshall style valve amp set to medium gain and on the bright side tonally. (If you're playing at household levels, you will have to bring the gain and bass up somewhat to compensate for the lack of volume)

 

[Chadd]

Marshall style valve amp set to medium gain and on the bright side tonally. (If you're playing at household levels, you will have to bring the gain and bass up somewhat to compensate for the lack of volume)

That's a great point. At lower volume, you will need to use more gain than he does to get a similar tone.

 

[ARandall]

For use your illusion, Slash also had another trick for the long sustain into feedback. He had a Mesa Mk III in the room with him as he played - this got feedback quicker and easier than the marshall. As the signal was split, the feedback was also fed into the Marshall in another room which was miced.

 

[rem22]

Slashtone in a nutshell. . .

Les Paul style guitar with Alnico II pups; neck pickup, volume up close to or at max depending on the pickups and the tone rolled back to 4 (ish)

Plate reverb in the effects loop; decay and mix to taste (you want echo not wash)

Marshall style valve amp set to medium gain and on the bright side tonally. (If you're playing at household levels, you will have to bring the gain and bass up somewhat to compensate for the lack of volume)

I have gibson 57/57+ and I find that tone at 4 on the neck pick up is nice for solos. Sometimes even lower, like 0 ! Volume at 10 and tone at 0 on the neck pick up.

 

[GySgtFTL]

Get Tim Caswell to mod your Marshall. Or just buy a Caswell #39.

 

[AHGrayLensman]

Get Tim Caswell to mod your Marshall. Or just buy a Caswell #39.

...except that the UYI amp was SIR #34, which is a Frank Levi modded JCM800.

 

[GySgtFTL]

...except that the UYI amp was SIR #34, which is a Frank Levi modded JCM800.

I stand corrected. When I see "Slash Tone" I immediately think AFD.
So you're in TN also.?

 

[timgman]

I recall an interview where slash used an explorer on that.. yes.. an explorere for real with the tone own on 0 neck pup.

 

[timgman]

I recall an interview where slash used an explorer on that.. yes.. an explorere for real with the tone own on 0 neck pup.

Never mind that was knockin on heavens door... lol