Does this VH On fire demo sound like it has less gain than the album recording?

[harddriver]

This is the Ted Templemen released DEMO of "On Fire", It sounds like straight into the plexi to my ears for the demo.... Do you hear how crunchy the guitar is on Ice Cream Man that follows On Fire?

 

[LP Freak]

Sounds the same to me

 

[scriptphase]

Sounds like slightly less gain to me, but that could be EQ. I don’t hear as much sizzle.

 

[harddriver]

Sounds like slightly less gain to me, but that could be EQ. I don’t hear as much sizzle.

I'm also hearing it as slightly less gain................

I'm going to speculate that's the difference from a raw Demo and Ted using the Pultec EQ's and all the mic preamps....The album is alot more crunchy/raw and seems to have that zing/sizzle and slightly more gain that the demo doesn't have......

Really cool to listen to them back to back though............

 

[jape23]

Yeah, I hear a bit less gain/sizzle to the tone. Could be eq, maybe no JBL? It sounds great though... the type of tone I aim for when I dial in my amps. After a couple of listens, I think I actually prefer the tone on the demo.

 

[harddriver]

After re-listening to the DEMO and the ALBUM side by side a few times.......

I am going to postulate for sake of discussion that the DEMO was the 7-8.3K PAF and the ALBUM could very well be a Mighty Mite 1400 (9K) which could easily account for the bump in gain and crunch factor on the album......

To further muddy the waters Ed could also have used the MXR 6 band with the PAF to get more gain from the PAF maybe not so much of that in your face gritty grindy crunch but it is also a possibility, but I can't help but hear mighty mite characteristics on the album tone and the live tone of the Album release party in the fall of 1977 right after wrapping the recording of VH1.....

 

[RaceU4her]

Maybe Ed smoked too many cigs and didn’t open the window and the lingering smoke sucked out some tone

 

[ccn]

You think Ed used a Mighty Mite 1400 for the 1st album ?

I think Ed was using the same pickup on both myself but I don't know if it's a Super 70 , a MM 1400 or something else.

 

[LP Freak]

Only difference is the production

 

[psychodave]

I hear less gain. Could be that he's not using the MXR pedals? They do add a little gain to the signal. They also add a bit of give to the bottom end that seems to be missing as well.

 

[scottosan]

You think Ed used a Mighty Mite 1400 for the 1st album ?

I think Ed was using the same pickup on both myself but I don't know if it's a Super 70 , a MM 1400 or something else.

There’s no evidence of that. The destroyer had the stock Ibanez Super 70 pickups at this point and the pictures of the frankly from this era showed a pickup with 1 slug and 1 screw row, which rules out a MM or SD

 

[chumbucket]

There’s no evidence of that. The destroyer had the stock Ibanez Super 70 pickups at this point and the pictures of the frankly from this era showed a pickup with 1 slug and 1 screw row, which rules out a MM or SD

In these demos that leaked, you can tell the You Really Got Me is a different guitar and it's brighter with more output. The tone sounds like it has more gain.

 

[harddriver]

There’s no evidence of that. The destroyer had the stock Ibanez Super 70 pickups at this point and the pictures of the frankly from this era showed a pickup with 1 slug and 1 screw row, which rules out a MM or SD

I fully agree that there are no photos of a Might Mite 1400(9K) whatsover............but if you use your ears it sure sounds like one. I'm just putting it out there for discussion.

I haven't found any PAF pickup that provides that instant album ratty grindy crunch and gain the way the Mighty Mite 1400 does. My Seymour Duncan 78 model can pull of a decent VH1 but it does VH2 almost perfectly but it falls a little short in the VH1 ratty crunch factor.

 

[Ben Waylin]

There’s no evidence of that. The destroyer had the stock Ibanez Super 70 pickups at this point and the pictures of the frankly from this era showed a pickup with 1 slug and 1 screw row, which rules out a MM or SD

I been sayin' it for years.

 

[scottosan]

I fully agree that there are no photos of a Might Mite 1400(9K) whatsover............but if you use your ears it sure sounds like one. I'm just putting it out there for discussion.

I haven't found any PAF pickup that provides that instant album ratty grindy crunch and gain the way the Mighty Mite 1400 does. My Seymour Duncan 78 model can pull of a decent VH1 but it does VH2 almost perfectly but it falls a little short in the VH1 ratty crunch factor.

To my ears everything sound much higher gain mic’d than in room. We’re even hearing in some of these newly released recording s that some things sound lower gain before the studio magic happens. What I hear is pickups with a high resonant peak. That could be both PAFs or ceramic pickups that check that box. That said, I’m not saying those pickups weren’t used, just that no evidence.

 

[SpiderWars]

I think it sounds less gainy. That should have been the Destroyer since it seems that most of the early no-tremolo parts were Destroyer.

I know that I always have to stand off to the side of my Marshall and just getting away from that ‘forward facing beam’ from the speakers the tone transforms from harsh/in yo face to killer.

 

[Skolphy]

The Official sounds like more mic/pre gain on the raw sound...almost like the original sound was reamped.

 

[harddriver]

Does this sound like the pickup in the Demo? This live show has ZERO studio effects so it would be close to the DEMO which had less studio effects from the sound of it.

Album release party Fall I think the date is 10/15/77, this is the album tone replicated live without the studio effects, ie Pultec EQ and mic preamps etc, etc, etc........


I think the Selland Arena show 9/22/78 sounds more like the Demo but more gain...Here the pickup sounds more like the Demo even warmer, without 12301 even about the same gain level as the album release party but two shows guitar tone seem to have completely different tones IMHO.