A
aicfan9674
New member
I am and have been a die-hard fan of Alice In Chains/Jerry Cantrell since 1990. I've been playing guitar for 26yrs. and consider myself a "gear-head". I own 1 Ivory G&L USA Jerry Cantrell Signature Rampage , 1 Ivory G&L Tribute Series Jerry Cantrell Signature Rampage , 1 Natural Epiphone EJ-200 , 2 Jim Dunlop Jerry Cantrell Signature Wahs , 1 Jim Dunlop Rotovibe , 1 Korg Pitchblack Tuner , 1 MXR Smart Gate , 1 Bogner Alchemist , 1 AKG WMS40PRO Wireless. I use Jim Dunlop 1.14 Tortex picks , Jim Dunlop .010 strings , Celestion Greenback/Vintage 30/70th Anniversary speakers , JJ tubes , Monster Rock & George L's cables.
I've always maintained a "simple" set-up strongly believing that "less is , in fact , MORE " ! My opinion about Jerry Cantrell's AMAZING tone is :
1) Don't use too much distortion. Just until the point of saturation , maybe a hair back.
2) I read alot of people claiming he uses an abundance of mids. While this is in part true , 1 should take into consideration what kind of amps he uses. Bogners tend to have a very strong low-midrange and overall darker tonality. So when dialing in a "Cantrell-esque" type of tone it's best to attempt to dial in the most frequency balanced tone you can with whatever amp your using. Obviously only Jerry Cantrell can truly play and sound like Jerry Cantrell , but his tone while extremely heavy , is a very balanced one. That's how he gets that famous "big , fat , warm , articulate crunch" he's known for. If you've ever heard or played through a Bogner you'll understand what i mean about the low-mid presence. As most of us know , Midrange is maybe the single most important frequency when dialing in an amp. But the differrence between high-mids (think Marshall) and low-mids are huge and can make all the difference in the world when trying to achieve a "Cantrell-esque" type tone.
Anyway , i'm not claiming to know Jerry Cantrell's secret tone recipe , i wish i had it !! But i do hope this is somewhat useful to anyone who's a fan of Jerry Cantrell's AMAZING tone.
I've always maintained a "simple" set-up strongly believing that "less is , in fact , MORE " ! My opinion about Jerry Cantrell's AMAZING tone is :
1) Don't use too much distortion. Just until the point of saturation , maybe a hair back.
2) I read alot of people claiming he uses an abundance of mids. While this is in part true , 1 should take into consideration what kind of amps he uses. Bogners tend to have a very strong low-midrange and overall darker tonality. So when dialing in a "Cantrell-esque" type of tone it's best to attempt to dial in the most frequency balanced tone you can with whatever amp your using. Obviously only Jerry Cantrell can truly play and sound like Jerry Cantrell , but his tone while extremely heavy , is a very balanced one. That's how he gets that famous "big , fat , warm , articulate crunch" he's known for. If you've ever heard or played through a Bogner you'll understand what i mean about the low-mid presence. As most of us know , Midrange is maybe the single most important frequency when dialing in an amp. But the differrence between high-mids (think Marshall) and low-mids are huge and can make all the difference in the world when trying to achieve a "Cantrell-esque" type tone.
Anyway , i'm not claiming to know Jerry Cantrell's secret tone recipe , i wish i had it !! But i do hope this is somewhat useful to anyone who's a fan of Jerry Cantrell's AMAZING tone.
There's a cool Cantrell gear thread here with tons of legit info on his gear in and out of the studio throughout the years. 
