5 best Holy grail tones

[bigangryguitar]

Great list! That Candlebox record has killer tone on it, I almost forgot how sweet it was.

Yeah agree...not in my top five, but killer for sure. Anyone know what he used on that album?

I saw them live on that tour and he was using recto's and prs guitars. I thought that is what they had on the record too but it sure sounds sweet for that.

 

[bigangryguitar]

EVH - Van Halen II
EVH - Fair Warning
EVH - Van Halen I
Lynch - Under Lock and Key
Joe Holmes - Live with Ozzy at Ozzfest

Steve

I saw Joe Holmes live with Ozzy once...he had great tone !

I saw him on that Ozzfest as well (96 I think) at the Metrodome in Minneapolis and yeah his tone killed. I actually thought he tore it up regardless, very good lead guitarist.

 

[vultures]

In Flames - Colony
Dark Tranquility - Fiction
Rhapsody - Anything
Unearth - The Oncoming Storm
Receiving End of Sirens - both albums, but their last is a masterpiece

OHHHHHHHHH I forgot about The Oncoming Storm. That's definitely up there for me. If I remember correctly pure 5150 bliss.

That first chord on that first song "The Great Dividers" did it for me, so fucking heavy. I think they used Framus Cobras and 5150s, whatever they used though sounds so good.

 

[Anonymous]

EVH - Van Halen II
EVH - Fair Warning
EVH - Van Halen I
Lynch - Under Lock and Key
Joe Holmes - Live with Ozzy at Ozzfest

Steve

I saw Joe Holmes live with Ozzy once...he had great tone !

I saw him on that Ozzfest as well (96 I think) at the Metrodome in Minneapolis and yeah his tone killed. I actually thought he tore it up regardless, very good lead guitarist.

Literally, the best live guitar tone I've ever heard...

Steve

 

[billm408]

Schenker- SITN
Gary Moore- Blues Alive
Queensryche- Operation Mindcrime
Blackmore- Made In Japan
Meneketti- Black Tiger
Mark Knopfler- Anything

 

[River City Studios]

Lynch - Under Lock and Key
VH - VH1
Steve Stevens - Rebel Yell (I know, I know. Can't help it. I dig the guitar work on that album)
Sykes - Whitesnake
Demartini - Invasion Of Your Privacy
Keith Scott - Cuts Like A Knife

Just off the top of my head. I'm probably forgetting a million others, though.

 

[Chubtone]

Jeff Scott Soto Guitarist? - I want it all cover - Below

That's Howie Simon into his Pod 2.0 into the power section of a backline provided tube head. Crazy. I dig his live tones too and he says the Pod 2.0 and his guitar is all he brings.

 

[base341]

Tool - Undertow
Tool - Aenima
Tool - Salival
Tool - Lateralus
Tool - 10,000 Days

Adam Jones, guitarist for Tool, has a very unique tone. Despite that fact that his gear is relatively simple and well documented on the net...his tone is illusive. Must be in the fingers mostly.

J

+1.. Love Adams tone live and on records..

The tone he has on Sober is what first got me into these guys..
The songs are so layered, even after listening to them for years I still hear parts I hadn't heard before all the time.

 

[rupe]

There are many but these ones (as well as a few others) have stood the test of time for me:
VH-II
VH-Fair Warning
Lynch-ULAK (especially The Hunter)
Dimartini-Invasion (especially Lay it Down...in memory of DB)
Tabor-GGTN (especially Summerland)

 

[rupe]

EVH - Van Halen II
EVH - Fair Warning
EVH - Van Halen I
Lynch - Under Lock and Key
Joe Holmes - Live with Ozzy at Ozzfest

Steve

I saw Joe Holmes live with Ozzy once...he had great tone !

I saw him on that Ozzfest as well (96 I think) at the Metrodome in Minneapolis and yeah his tone killed. I actually thought he tore it up regardless, very good lead guitarist.

Literally, the best live guitar tone I've ever heard...

Steve

That's odd...I saw that tour in '96 in State College, PA and he had perhaps the worst live tone that I've ever heard...and I was sitting near the soundboard. Must have had equipment issues or something...too many people with similar tastes to mine have stated how great he sounded in other stops on that tour.

 

[Anonymous]

EVH - Van Halen II
EVH - Fair Warning
EVH - Van Halen I
Lynch - Under Lock and Key
Joe Holmes - Live with Ozzy at Ozzfest

Steve

I saw Joe Holmes live with Ozzy once...he had great tone !

I saw him on that Ozzfest as well (96 I think) at the Metrodome in Minneapolis and yeah his tone killed. I actually thought he tore it up regardless, very good lead guitarist.

Literally, the best live guitar tone I've ever heard...

Steve

That's odd...I saw that tour in '96 in State College, PA and he had perhaps the worst live tone that I've ever heard...and I was sitting near the soundboard. Must have had equipment issues or something...too many people with similar tastes to mine have stated how great he sounded in other stops on that tour.

Yeah, I think you've mentioned this before... Musta been something wrong IMO... Me and Chubtone talk about Joe's live tone all the time. I was bummed when I saw that it wasn't Zakk walking out and then I realized it was Joe and when I heard the tone, I was like...

We've certainly got a lot in common in terms of taste in guitar tones...

Steve

 

[Chubtone]

EVH - Van Halen II
EVH - Fair Warning
EVH - Van Halen I
Lynch - Under Lock and Key
Joe Holmes - Live with Ozzy at Ozzfest

Steve

I saw Joe Holmes live with Ozzy once...he had great tone !

I saw him on that Ozzfest as well (96 I think) at the Metrodome in Minneapolis and yeah his tone killed. I actually thought he tore it up regardless, very good lead guitarist.

Literally, the best live guitar tone I've ever heard...

Steve

That's odd...I saw that tour in '96 in State College, PA and he had perhaps the worst live tone that I've ever heard...and I was sitting near the soundboard. Must have had equipment issues or something...too many people with similar tastes to mine have stated how great he sounded in other stops on that tour.

We've had this discussion on here before. Joe Holmes also had the best live tone I have ever heard.

 

[skoora]

Brian May - Dragon Attack and The Hero (Mack era basically)
Entombed - Wolverine Blues / To Ride
AC/DC - Fly On The Wall (Bon era is favorite music though)
Sabbath - early stuff
Uli - 70's Scorpions

Honorable mention Gary Moore - early 80's.

 

[Bronco]

Ed Van Halen - Fair Warning
Jason Bieler - Water
Warren DeMartini - Ratt (1999 untitled album)
Malcom & Angus - Highway to Hell
James Hetfield - Master of Puppets

 

[stephen sawall]

Great list! That Candlebox record has killer tone on it, I almost forgot how sweet it was.

Yeah agree...not in my top five, but killer for sure. Anyone know what he used on that album?

I saw them live on that tour and he was using recto's and prs guitars. I thought that is what they had on the record too but it sure sounds sweet for that.

My little brother was hanging around them all the time from before anything happened. That is the rig I remember. The singer is a @$$hole if you ask me ...

 

[FourT6and2]

Tool - Undertow
Tool - Aenima
Tool - Salival
Tool - Lateralus
Tool - 10,000 Days

Adam Jones, guitarist for Tool, has a very unique tone. Despite that fact that his gear is relatively simple and well documented on the net...his tone is illusive. Must be in the fingers mostly.

J

How he mics the amps have a LOT to do with it. There's all sorts of phasing going on with his sound that most guitarists would "fix." But it's an important part of his setup...

 

[IndyWS6]

Skid Row - I Remember You (Solo) & Monkey Business rhythms

This right here (among others). The tone for the lead in "I Remember You" is at the top of the charts for me. It has that "wheezy, on the edge of breakup at any moment, speaker cone push/pull, if you even think about it I'm going to go into a harmonic meltdown" feel that I wish I could consistently replicate.

 

[Greazygeo]

I'm going to talk about live tones only as I'm not sure how many of my favorite album tones have had Mark Day approved post processing applied.

- Overkill - Live in Toronto 1988
- Metallica - Live in Hamilton ON 1989
- Wizard Metal/Modern Classic - standing onstage at an Econoline Crush sound check live in 1999 in a great sounding club
- Larry Dino - various basements
- Larry preamp into ??? (still working on my rig but its close)

love it....various basements!

 

[marshallmel]

I really can't believe I'm the only guy to mention Badlands era Jake E. Lee.

 

[Greazygeo]

Loudness Thunder in the East
Accept Metal Heart
TNT Seven Seas
Scorp's Virgin Killers
Mine