amiller
New member
I pulled the this section on tone from an interview...'not sure if it's been posted here before...
"Tone Monster
MPc: You have a great tone on Resolution. Tell us about your guitar sounds on this record.
AT: Almost everything in the studio was vintage Marshall. But now with the Mesa/Boogie amps I’m playing, I’m able to recreate everything I did in the studio spot-on with the Stiletto and the Lone Star. The record was mainly a ‘68 Plexi on one side and a ‘79 JMP on the other. I was mainly using them as clean amps with a Tube Driver in front of them.
My Boogie stuff is great because the sound of those Marshalls in the studio, I can absolutely never get those sounds live. I’ve been friends with Steve Mueller at Mesa/Boogie for years. My favorite amp of theirs for years was the Maverick. It was the closest thing that would let me get my sound. I love the Rectifier and those types of amps but they really weren’t what I was going for. They came out with the Lone Star a few years ago and that’s when I really went, “Okay, now that’s something that’s me.”
I had been working with Laney amps for a few years before that, and they make good amps, and we tried a little bit to create a signature amp for me, and we got close a couple of times but it never really got off the ground. So I let my endorsement with them lapse, thinking that I didn’t want an endorsement to get in the way of me being happy with what I’m playing through.
Steve Mueller from Mesa/Boogie came to hear the tracks we were working on for the new record and he was blown away with the tone, wanting to know what we were using, and I sheepishly told him that it was the vintage Marshall stuff. He was like, “Wow, that just really sounds amazing. We’re working on the Stiletto and we’d love to get your ears involved, because we’re trying to capture some of this and then some.” Obviously, they’re going to do their own thing, and when Steve came to me with a later version of the Stiletto I was absolutely blown away because Mesa/Boogie absolutely nailed that sound – especially my 1979 JMP sound.
Now, I can get that recorded sound live, which I’ve never been able to do before, plus with those vintage Marshalls, you really don’t want to take those things on the road. They’re so valuable now. And Boogie was like, “We want you to have an amp where you can get that sound live,” and they really, really nailed it. I’m so thrilled that between those two amps – I have a switching system going – they nailed every tone that I could need. It’s fantastic!
MPc: Any tips on how you set your Mesa/Boogie amps to capture the vintage sound of your record?
AT: Absolutely. The tone I get from the Lone Star really had nothing to do with trying to replicate the tone of the record. I just plugged into the amp and it sounded great to start with. On the lead setting, I have the drive kicked in on the lead channel up about three quarters. With that amp, there’s so much low end, you have to dial back the bass to only about two or three.
MPc: That’s funny. We recently interviewed Dream Theater’s John Petrucci and he commented that in his Mesa/Boogie amps, he has to dial down the bass in his Road Kings!
AT: Also, I love an amp where I can put treble in instead of taking it out. With Marshall amps and Laney amps, the treble’s always just off. It’s so bright you’re just like, “Turn it off.” With the Lone Star, I’ve probably got it dialed in about twelve o’ clock.
I always have the effect loop kicked in, whether there’s anything connected to it or not because it does add an extra stage of gain, and the return knob on the back of the amp needs to be a little past twelve o’clock, maybe around one. It really changes the tone. I’ve never been happier with an amp than I have been with the Lone Star, and two different instances exemplify this:
I’ve never gotten as many compliments about my sound as I get with that amp. There were a few Eric Johnson instances where we opened for him at the last Dallas Guitar Show, maybe about a year ago, and though we’ve met a few times, and he may have heard one of my records, I don’t think he had ever really heard me play. Generally, when we’ve opened for him, there’s usually thirty to forty-five minutes between acts, so he might not even be there [when we’re on]. But this time, I looked over to the side of the stage half-way through the set and there’s Eric over there giving me the “thumbs up” and going “yeah” and… my hands froze! (laughing) He’s really the last guy I wanted to see standing at the side of the stage because he’s “Mr. Ears” over there and I’m thinking, “Oh man, he’s going to hear every little imperfection.” But I got off the stage and the first thing he said to me was, “Man, that was awesome tone.”
The next time he came through Dallas, he played two nights, and the second night, he invited me to come out and sit in, which was a huge honor, because I know he doesn’t really do that very often when he’s doing his own show. So I brought my Lone Star, and from the first note I played – you know it’s coming through Eric’s monitor – it was one of the best tones I got in my life. It sounded amazing, and we had a really musical jam. We played Alien Love Child tunes and “Spanish Castle Magic” together and, afterwards, he was like, “Man, your tone was better than mine,” and I was like, “I don’t think so” (laughing), but I knew that I was on the right track with the amp that I was playing. When you get a thumbs-up like that from one of your heroes, it makes you feel pretty good. "
"Tone Monster
MPc: You have a great tone on Resolution. Tell us about your guitar sounds on this record.
AT: Almost everything in the studio was vintage Marshall. But now with the Mesa/Boogie amps I’m playing, I’m able to recreate everything I did in the studio spot-on with the Stiletto and the Lone Star. The record was mainly a ‘68 Plexi on one side and a ‘79 JMP on the other. I was mainly using them as clean amps with a Tube Driver in front of them.
My Boogie stuff is great because the sound of those Marshalls in the studio, I can absolutely never get those sounds live. I’ve been friends with Steve Mueller at Mesa/Boogie for years. My favorite amp of theirs for years was the Maverick. It was the closest thing that would let me get my sound. I love the Rectifier and those types of amps but they really weren’t what I was going for. They came out with the Lone Star a few years ago and that’s when I really went, “Okay, now that’s something that’s me.”
I had been working with Laney amps for a few years before that, and they make good amps, and we tried a little bit to create a signature amp for me, and we got close a couple of times but it never really got off the ground. So I let my endorsement with them lapse, thinking that I didn’t want an endorsement to get in the way of me being happy with what I’m playing through.
Steve Mueller from Mesa/Boogie came to hear the tracks we were working on for the new record and he was blown away with the tone, wanting to know what we were using, and I sheepishly told him that it was the vintage Marshall stuff. He was like, “Wow, that just really sounds amazing. We’re working on the Stiletto and we’d love to get your ears involved, because we’re trying to capture some of this and then some.” Obviously, they’re going to do their own thing, and when Steve came to me with a later version of the Stiletto I was absolutely blown away because Mesa/Boogie absolutely nailed that sound – especially my 1979 JMP sound.
Now, I can get that recorded sound live, which I’ve never been able to do before, plus with those vintage Marshalls, you really don’t want to take those things on the road. They’re so valuable now. And Boogie was like, “We want you to have an amp where you can get that sound live,” and they really, really nailed it. I’m so thrilled that between those two amps – I have a switching system going – they nailed every tone that I could need. It’s fantastic!
MPc: Any tips on how you set your Mesa/Boogie amps to capture the vintage sound of your record?
AT: Absolutely. The tone I get from the Lone Star really had nothing to do with trying to replicate the tone of the record. I just plugged into the amp and it sounded great to start with. On the lead setting, I have the drive kicked in on the lead channel up about three quarters. With that amp, there’s so much low end, you have to dial back the bass to only about two or three.
MPc: That’s funny. We recently interviewed Dream Theater’s John Petrucci and he commented that in his Mesa/Boogie amps, he has to dial down the bass in his Road Kings!
AT: Also, I love an amp where I can put treble in instead of taking it out. With Marshall amps and Laney amps, the treble’s always just off. It’s so bright you’re just like, “Turn it off.” With the Lone Star, I’ve probably got it dialed in about twelve o’ clock.
I always have the effect loop kicked in, whether there’s anything connected to it or not because it does add an extra stage of gain, and the return knob on the back of the amp needs to be a little past twelve o’clock, maybe around one. It really changes the tone. I’ve never been happier with an amp than I have been with the Lone Star, and two different instances exemplify this:
I’ve never gotten as many compliments about my sound as I get with that amp. There were a few Eric Johnson instances where we opened for him at the last Dallas Guitar Show, maybe about a year ago, and though we’ve met a few times, and he may have heard one of my records, I don’t think he had ever really heard me play. Generally, when we’ve opened for him, there’s usually thirty to forty-five minutes between acts, so he might not even be there [when we’re on]. But this time, I looked over to the side of the stage half-way through the set and there’s Eric over there giving me the “thumbs up” and going “yeah” and… my hands froze! (laughing) He’s really the last guy I wanted to see standing at the side of the stage because he’s “Mr. Ears” over there and I’m thinking, “Oh man, he’s going to hear every little imperfection.” But I got off the stage and the first thing he said to me was, “Man, that was awesome tone.”
The next time he came through Dallas, he played two nights, and the second night, he invited me to come out and sit in, which was a huge honor, because I know he doesn’t really do that very often when he’s doing his own show. So I brought my Lone Star, and from the first note I played – you know it’s coming through Eric’s monitor – it was one of the best tones I got in my life. It sounded amazing, and we had a really musical jam. We played Alien Love Child tunes and “Spanish Castle Magic” together and, afterwards, he was like, “Man, your tone was better than mine,” and I was like, “I don’t think so” (laughing), but I knew that I was on the right track with the amp that I was playing. When you get a thumbs-up like that from one of your heroes, it makes you feel pretty good. "
