What is this tonal characteristic caused by? (Guitar)

[Mattayus]

There's a tonal characteristic, or 'trait', I've noticed in certain guitar tones, and I can't for the life of me figure out what is used to achieve it.

I'll give 3 examples, to help me explain...







Can you hear the common theme? They don't have that open/grainy top end and growl associated with your usual rock and metal tone. Instead they are very smooth, very even, but with a really bright and tight 'spank'.

Any insight? Is it more of a 'Brit' amp thing?

 

[B36arin]

Sounds like it could be some sort of overdrive pedal and an amp with lots of headroom. I haven't yet had the chance to mic up the Marshall JMP 2203 combo which I got last week, but I can definitely get that sort of tone from it in the room with a combination of the amp's gain and a boost which is driven into overdrive territory.

 

[lanky noob]

Probably just the amps used, I know one of the main amps for dorje was a blackstar (or at least i'm pretty sure it is), and my blackstar is smooth as fuck to the point I battle to get more bite from it without having to crank the volume.

On a slightly related note. I fucking love my blackstar.

 

[FIXXXER]

ouh man, that ronnie tone, i love it so much. i think james used a tele these days, this could be one part of it. the other part must be the amp.

 

[JeffTD]

Single coils, man! Single coils or low output humbuckers into a good Marshall/Vox/Orange style amp.

 

[blue_fAng]

Single coils, man! Single coils or low output humbuckers into a good Marshall/Vox/Orange style amp.

This.

 

[cfh11]

+1 these all sound like strats/teles to me

 

[FrancescoFiligoi]

Les Pauls with low to low-mid output humbuckers into brit thingy

 

[StoneLord]

Maybe out of phase pickups as well?

 

[Sethis]

I'm thinking EL34 in a vintage/brit voiced amp or at least something similar.

 

[mickrich]

I love Hundred Reasons.
Tele for sure or P90 LP.
Here is American DLX Tele with middle position left and neck right into Mesa MK4 with lots of gain.
Similar sound. Smooth and fat and not fizzy.

Check out El Hefe's sound in NOFX too. Tele into MK3.

 

[Mattayus]

That sounds badass man!

Cool thanks for the info dudes, I wasn't quite sure if it was something so simple as just the amp, or the pickup type, or both. I thought there may have been other factors at play.

The thing is though - I chose 'Ronnie' from Load/Reload, because it has the highest exaggeration of that tonal feature. But honestly you could pick any track off of those albums and the rhythm tone still has that "squeak" to it, despite them using EMG-loaded guitars. I know they used Tele's here and there but... actually the tone on those albums was just fucking weird. Weird in a good way, but still weird. It has this huge bottom end, with a lot of cab ambience in there, and then that squeak/chime/spank in the top. Multiple amps and multiple mics/distances I'm guessing?

 

[LBTM]

Check out El Hefe's sound in NOFX too. Tele into MK3.

Live only, not in the studio.



He's on the left channel.

 

[mickrich]

Ronnie sounds like a tele to me.

 

[Mattayus]

It is, but like I said, the rest of the album has some of that characteristic too, even when they're clearly not using Teles.

 

[EffigyForgotten]

The Metallica song to me just sounds like they aren't using much gain and are boosting the treble/presence. Maybe i'm missing something.

 

[mickrich]

For Metallica it's probably really tight playing, hitting the strings really hard into tight amp with lowish gain.
Mesa MK4 in harmonics mode on lead channel does this sound really well.
Have you recorded a Mesa Mark amp?
Send me a di and I will re-amp through the MK4 for you if you want to hear it.

 

[mickrich]

Here is a re-amp i did today.
Mesa MK4 lead channel in harmonics mode straight into the amp to recto cab to 906 and m201 to API.
There is a bite and tightness that no other amp can match.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2133088/B-VERA_MICKRICH.mp3

 

[Mattayus]

That sounds incredible dude, I can hear that characteristic in it even though it's full-blown downtuned metal.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Was gonna say "Mesa Mark IV"..... mickrich beat me to it and is apparently as much as a Mark series fanatic as I am. They rule.