Amp Settings for Dimebag Tone?

MistaGuitah

Well-known member
They say Dimebag used some kind of EQ device but what basic amp settings do you start with? I've heard a lot of stuff, downloaded rigs and patches, but you can't play non Pantera riffs and be like, "That's Dimebag tone." I see people tend to scoop out mids, and maybe it's just my ears, but I hear a lot of mids in his tone. For whatever reason, I just can't get that close to the proverbial Dimebag sound. The guitar I'm using is a D-Sonic and amps are Bogner Ecstasy and D-Moll. I don't have an EQ pedal.
 
You dude’s remember that Dime Double Shot
Distortion?
Dime DooDoo Distortion.
Like WHAT in TF?
 
How about them monster “Krankensteins”?
Anybody ever get anything useful outta those amps besides Diamond Darrell??

Kerry King was supposed to get a sig krank which i have a prototype of but marshall scooped him up

cYoQEo0.jpg
 
Mids and treble on 3, presence up, gain maxed and you need to boost. The Lawrence 500 has a lot to do with it too
I'm starting to think that's the ingredient I've been missing. The Duncan Dimebucker is over $100 so I think I'll give the real Bill Lawrence 500 a shot.
 
They say Dimebag used some kind of EQ device but what basic amp settings do you start with? I've heard a lot of stuff, downloaded rigs and patches, but you can't play non Pantera riffs and be like, "That's Dimebag tone." I see people tend to scoop out mids, and maybe it's just my ears, but I hear a lot of mids in his tone. For whatever reason, I just can't get that close to the proverbial Dimebag sound. The guitar I'm using is a D-Sonic and amps are Bogner Ecstasy and D-Moll. I don't have an EQ pedal.

Each album has a different tone, which one you would like
 
Kerry King was supposed to get a sig krank which i have a prototype of but marshall scooped him up

cYoQEo0.jpg
Wow, I didn't know a Krank Kerry was in the works at one point, looks pretty wild with the front facing FX loop. I am very curious to know how it sounds, do you know if it is similar to the Marshall KK?
 
How about them monster “Krankensteins”?
Anybody ever get anything useful outta those amps besides Diamond Darrell??
Plenty of people were using Krankensteins in the studio and live.

I've only had a Rev Jr. Sounded horrible turned quiet or loud (like band practice loud), but it recorded amazing at loud, but not band-loud volumes.

I've always dreamed of owning a Rev. I think there is one in AILD - Shadows are Security, and a Krankenstein in COF - Thornography. Chimaira - Resurrection was also some sort of Krank.

Great amps, IMO. Just definitely neither 80's-sounding nor good for djent or shit like that.

But yeah, I wouldn't expect a Diezel to sound like Dimebag at all. I have no idea what the Ectasys are voiced like, but Diezels are dark. You would need some kind of EQ in the loop bringing those presency upper highs up.
 
I don't want to clone Dimebag's tone. I just want to make my own metal tone with the same EQ. I've tried various EQ pedals, Fractal patches, and Kemper profiles and gotten pretty close to the rhythm tone but not the lead tone.

For his lead tone, he uses something that sounds like a cross between a cooked wah and a chorus or something. It sounds kind of trashy but in a great way. I don't know how to get that sound for leads.

There's something about his rhythm tone that eludes me. To me, I think of Dimebag tone somewhere in the middle of Cowboys From Hell and Damageplan. That's my perception but I know his albums all have different sounds.

What eludes me about his rhythm tone is something in the EQ. There are times when I think I've nailed it after going back and forth between the song and amp to dial it in. Then the next day or a couple of weeks later, I listen to it and something always seems off. For whatever reason, I just can't pinpoint what it is.

Now this is my perception but I don't think he has a scooped mids tone. I hear a lot of mids and very healthy high frequencies. Yet, at the same time, the low end still thumps and has depth. It's not like the And Justice for All sort of thing.

There's a guy on YouTube I saw a few years back named Wes Hauch who did a Seymour Duncan demo of the Dimebucker and he really nailed Dimebag tone. Even if he wasn't playing Pantera riffs, you'd be able to identify the tone. I just think there's something in the EQ that's unique.

Well, I said I don't hear a scooped sound, but what I should say is there seem to be a lot of mids but somewhere in that something is combed out so that the mid cut is there but nothing fat or honky.
 
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Wow, I didn't know a Krank Kerry was in the works at one point, looks pretty wild with the front facing FX loop. I am very curious to know how it sounds, do you know if it is similar to the Marshall KK?


as far as i know its just an 800 with kt88s, this has the GE10 built into the front and the marshall has the button that is fixed on whatever his setting was, with emg 81s it sounds just like divine intervention, im gonna try and get some proper clips today
 
Those early Randalls were endorsements and sound very thin, no bass, i do not belive he recorded with it. No one knows what he used in studio, i think the early albums sound like ADA MP-1 with negative mids, you can put mids in negative territory with it. But Cowboys From Hell sounds like there is a distortion stomp box too.
 
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