Guitarsettings when playing Opeth?

[Emil Landin]

I was sitting, trying to play some opeth tunes but i never get my tone right. During the heavy parts they often plays big chords which sound very blurry and bad with much dist, but they do it... I don't know how to set up my amp... Much gain, bass, treble etc? Or a small amount of it?

All of you who have recorded parts and sent in to this place which settings do you use for those parts?

 

[Fionn]

the model and size of your amp will have the biggest effect on your sound. you wont be able to sound like Opeth unless you use their amps. i just use my Johnson J-Station with the Rectifier setting and i use a tight delay to make the guitar sound doubled, and it sounds great and clear.

 

[JoeVice]

actually, i think that opeth's chords come through really fucking awesome...they don't really use much distortion at all though. they seem to use just enough to give them a nice crunch. they have a really smooth sound...a lot of that comes from the prs with the jb in the bridge. turn down the distortion and maybe compress it a bit...that will replace the sustain lost when the distortion is turned down. thats what i do anyway....it works for me.

 

[KTR83]

I remember Peter Tätgren saying in interview that Hyporcriys great guitar sound is achieved by not having too much distortion. That may be the key to the Opeth sound....or not..i dunno.

 

[fadingessence]

i'll give two examples, one being my way with their amps the other being their way.

my way:
Laney Gh50l-
Presence 4.5
Resonance off
Bass 7.5
Mids 6-7
Treb 6
Gain 6
Drive 7

Boss GE-7 in the fx loop with the settings in a shallow V with the center mid freq bumped just above neutral. Throw in a light delay and it gives a nice addition to the sound.

personally...I think this sounds better then their distortion live, but you lose a lot of versatility plus good clean soo..

their way-
Laney GH100l (same thing, more watts)
Presence...not sure on this looks like about 4-5
Bass 0
Mids 9-10
Treb 0
gain 4
drive off

GT-6 in the fx loop with god knows what settings, but I think something like the 5150 amp model with eq settings similar to what I used above and probably reverb/delay. I was never quite able to nail it with a GT-3, hence using the other method. But the clean settings are easier to get and work very well like this.

biggest thing is a good guitar with good pickups, the SD JBs that they use work great, let a lot more ring out on those chords. If you have cheap pu's it will be muddy, and if you have too much gain (EMGS) you get the same thing (but heavier at least). After that it's keeping the gain down, and if you're using just an amp the EQ in the fx loop is the secret weapon...for any type of sound. The rest is playing style, which really does make a difference but i'm sure anyone who has worked on opeth songs enough starts to notice the little nuances thrown in to the guitar work that makes it sound that much better.

 

[KevyCanavan]

Gain - 100%
Tre - 50-60%
Mids - 100%
Bass - 50-60%

Gt3 or GT6 using metal distortion. Compression isn't really essential I find.

 

[Brooks]

Turn your gain WAY down, and your mids up. The more distortion you have, the less clear its gonna be. Live, Opeth turns up the gain, but in the studio, they turn it way down, going for crunch, not grind. They play some pretty complex chords some times that get completely lost if the gain isn't down.

 

[Lakestream]

I've got my Tech 21 trademark 10 in US-amp, Hot circuit, US Speaker (Mesa-Boogie-sim) and gain at half, bass and treble a bit over half and mid pretty low

 

[TwilightSymphony]

Don't forget another factor to the sound being the actual chords they're playing. There's quite an abundance of tritones in their music which adds it's own natural "distortion" because of the frequency oscillation that normally occurs with the chords using a flat fifth.

 

[Leper_/-\ffinity]

Don't forget another factor to the sound being the actual chords they're playing. There's quite an abundance of tritones in their music which adds it's own natural "distortion" because of the frequency oscillation that normally occurs with the chords using a flat fifth.

Ok, what the hell did you just say........ DO you mean that their stuff sounds real tense because of flat fifths, and you believe this adds distortion?? Explain please....

 

[Emil Landin]

Well thanks for all the answers! Even though I don't have so expensive gear, I'll try some different settings now when i have something to go for...

Thanks!

 

[suislidE]

But remember, their laneys are class-a amps. that means less cross distortion.

 

[Brooks]

Laney's aren't Class A.

 

[Rejvk]

Your both right, and your both wrong. The laneys they use for clean tones are class A, the laneys they use for distortion are not.

 

[mysweetdeath]

i'll give two examples, one being my way with their amps the other being their way.

my way:
Laney Gh50l-
Presence 4.5
Resonance off
Bass 7.5
Mids 6-7
Treb 6
Gain 6
Drive 7



.

I have a Korg AX30G effects processor, and I was fooling around with this one and came pretty close to the Opeth sound, if not better/clearer. I'm working with a Mesa-Boogie Studio Caliber amp (forgot the wattage) (EL84 tube) and it sounds great. Thanks!

 

[fadingessence]

Your both right, and your both wrong. The laneys they use for clean tones are class A, the laneys they use for distortion are not.

you are probably right as to the difference in the laneys, but most of the time they don't use two laneys. If you mean what they used for the Damnation set as opposed to their standard VH/GH series then that is correct, but their "typical" tour setup uses the laney stacks just as power amps really. Use the settings I said above so the amp is nice and clean, then do everything through the GT-6's...clean, distortion, effects, all of it.