Opeth guitarrists gear

Nostalgiaplatz

Nostalgiaplatz

So why not moving?
Dec 20, 2003
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Dublin, Ireland
I'm wondering what gear Mikael and Peter uses live. What guitars, pickups, effect boxes, amps, etc. I know they use PRS guitars, but.. which model!? What pickups?!

About amps, I've read they used Mesa Boogie, Engl, Peavey and Laney in the recording of both BWP and Deliverance. However, I'm wondering on which tracks and where exactly they used each of these amps.

This information is much appreciated, thanks!
 
Well champ, dont be such a smartass. 95% of their equipment they use is on the website as above stated. They dont use many affects anyway, but here is what they use to my knowledge:

PRS custom 24s
Gibson les Pauls (Mikaels is a standard i beleive, Peter's is a custom)

Laney Amps...cant remember which models, go to laney's website, it has the specifics there.

E-bow for certain sounds, as well as various studio effects.

as far as anything else, im really not sure...but to my knowledge they use a fairly straight forward rig, but mikael has a pedal board he uses for solos, delay, chorus, and that sort of thing i imagine.

next time, rather than being a cock, do the footwork yourself?




Champ. :Smug:
 
mikael runs his prs guitar with a duncan jb in the bridge, (not sure about the neck) into a boss gt-6 processor (unsure of the settings)...this runs into his laney GH100L which is on the clean channel with his mids set to about 8 or 9, and everything else on zero. The laney is just a "guitar p.a."....he gets his sound from the boss.
 
He doesnt get his sound just from the boss... whatever. More like he gets his distorion and effects from it. The amp makes the tone, not the noise. Lately ive seen they have been using their laneys, peter uses his VH100r, but on the bootlegs of 2004 i think he was using mikes GH100L... maybe his crapped out or something. I noticed mike was using a TT100 head now. In 2003 they used marshall jcm800s, and before that mike was still using his gh100l and peter was using a mesa triple rect(the one they used to record d1 with). They both use GT6 pedals, and thats about it.
 
Land Of Grey And Pink said:
Well champ, dont be such a smartass. 95% of their equipment they use is on the website as above stated. They dont use many affects anyway, but here is what they use to my knowledge:

PRS custom 24s
Gibson les Pauls (Mikaels is a standard i beleive, Peter's is a custom)

Laney Amps...cant remember which models, go to laney's website, it has the specifics there.

E-bow for certain sounds, as well as various studio effects.

as far as anything else, im really not sure...but to my knowledge they use a fairly straight forward rig, but mikael has a pedal board he uses for solos, delay, chorus, and that sort of thing i imagine.

next time, rather than being a cock, do the footwork yourself?




Champ. :Smug:
Click to expand...

Sorry, but I felt like being a cock, it's more easy to ask on a board rather than look directly at the source, you know ? Right now I feel like an ironic cock, if you ask me. Gee, if all the info I asked could be found there, I wouldn't bother myself and neither you asking this stuff.

Thanks suislide, joevice.

And btw, thanks champ :Smug:
 
some people say stuff on this board without checking the site so i thought you were one of them. besides the fact that i didnt know you needed super detailed information like that suislide had to offer. mikael better watch his back, i think suislide knows a little too much about opeth gear. thats hardcore knowledge you have there man.
 
BurningSky said:
some people say stuff on this board without checking the site so i thought you were one of them. besides the fact that i didnt know you needed super detailed information like that suislide had to offer. mikael better watch his back, i think suislide knows a little too much about opeth gear. thats hardcore knowledge you have there man.
Click to expand...

Actually, what suislide posted didn't help much, but at least he tried answering my question. I'm really trying to get the closest sound to Opeth. I'm also planning to buy a PRS, but, since these are expensive guitars, I was wondering if opeth were using the original PRS pickups. JoeVice helped on that. I did read the 'equipment' sections of all albums. But, the only ones which do interest me are BWP and D1, and there you can't find stuff like this:

Were Engl amplifiers only used for solos ? (I heard this rumour)
What pickups were being used by the PRS, Gibson or Jackson guitars ?

The answers to these questions may help me reflect about what pickups and gear to buy. Currently I'm looking forward for:

PRS Custom 24 (Or an entirely custom, with 7 string, depends on price they'll ask for it)
Engl PowerBall or Mesa Dual Rectifier
Emg 81 / 85 (kh set) but.. I'm now also willing to try the SD JB before I buy this set.

That's about it.

Cheers
 
And after all that is said and done, and youve spent $15,000 on equipment trying to sound as much like Opeth as you can...youll end up kicking yourself until you pass out from the pain. :erk:


Just play what you want man...and what feels good to you. and do NOT stick an EMG pickup system in a PRS...thats silly.

as for a PRS total custom guitar...with a 7 string build...youre probably looking at a $6000 quote from them...no joke. but good luck
 
Quick note, mike said in an interview on Guitar.com that Opeth does not use an EBow during live performances. Instead, Mike says that he has a little 'cheat' on his GT3 pedal that he uses in place of the EBow.
 
its not really a cheat.. it just gives him a little feedback, which doesnt work. I would suggest using the duncan jb/jazz, which is what i have in my guitar. Using EMGs wont give you their sound like the duncans will. Im positive they use duncans, but whether or not its the jb/jazz isnt proven yet. 7 strings suck btw, dont kill yourself trying to get one. Unless you write your own songs and like to play lower then go ahead. If you want the opeth sound, the mesa will not do it if you are shooting for the laney sound. I suggest a 5150, the engl (ive never listened to one of these amps before, no clue what they sound like), or a laney. Then get a boss gt6. Thats it.
 
Joe, the inferno bootleg of them in 03 is when they used their marshalls. Also that audio bootleg of the funerportait some people have is where they use it also. You can get either of those off the hub. Their sound is much different, and it actually sucks in my opinion. Peters setup sounds TERRIBLE. Mike sounds ok, but damn those marshalls do not suite their style.
 
Which Engl do they use? The site only says Engl 100 watt... could be a powerball... or it could be my Ritchie Blackmore :D

Putting EMGs on a PRS would be murder... I have EMGs but I have a cheap Ibanez so it doesn't count lol
 
suislidE said:
Joe, the inferno bootleg of them in 03 is when they used their marshalls. Also that audio bootleg of the funerportait some people have is where they use it also. You can get either of those off the hub. Their sound is much different, and it actually sucks in my opinion. Peters setup sounds TERRIBLE. Mike sounds ok, but damn those marshalls do not suite their style.
Click to expand...


word...i would think that they would just suck. Marshalls are known for their screaming presence and not so smooth sounds. i would think that it would be piercing and dirty. i wonder why they would have ever switched to those. i know they started out with jcm800s back in the day (which would explain the extremely edgy tone on orchid and morningrise), but why would they have gone back to them for a while? the laneys sound so damn good.
 
A quick word to the author of this thread. If you are trying to get the tone they got on the actual albums, and not their live tone, then you are not going to get it from all the greatest gear in the world. Any guitarist that has recorded anything knows that to make such a full, crunchy, yet clear sound from their guitars they have to track many guitars, play the riff over many times, and that's what you hear on the records. Trust me, people compliment my tone in recordings all the time, but they dont hear it when it's only one track of the riff, and Ive got many hours of recording the same thing again and again ahead of me.

But ifyou are talking about their live tone, then you're best off getting a decent guitar (like Ibanez or Jackson) and then getting something like the GT-6 or Digitech GNX series multifx pedal. If you take the time to read the manual on these, and you have a decent guitar, you can pull out almost any tone you want out of these things, and then simply use some kind of a tube amp for your power amp, to propel the sound you set. Its what I have now, without the good tube amp, actually a Marshall AVT 150, and Im VERY pleased with the sound, I really couldn't live without my two layers of tone coming from my pedal (GNX) and then levels on my amp. There's my 2c.

I used to want a PRS just like you, because honestly, my opinion will never change, they are the greatest guitars in terms of playability and sound, but after working your ass off for like 3 months, and then blowing all that on just a guitar, you could get so much more, like a guitar almost as good, great amp, and pedal, etc.
 
I have a feeling the all mids and nothing else just doesnt work on marshall amps like the jcm800. If you listen to either of those bootlegs, you can tell the tone is all fucked up on peters amp.
 
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