Secret to Mick Mars/Joe Holmes Heavy massive tones?

veji

veji

Active member
Does anybody know what's the secret to Motley crue's Mick Mars
and ex Ozzy Joe Holmes massive/thick guitar sound? both of them use Fender strats w/maple necks but they obviously don't sound like typical strats. I am interested in how these two guys get their heavy tones from fender strats.
 
Both Mick Mars and Joe Holmes happen to use a bunch of killer sounding Jose Arredondo modded Marshalls.... That probably helps, just a little bit :D :thumbsup:
 
equipment/efx aside. How about their fender guitars? pickups/picks/strings etc? how do they get them to sound so massive/beefy/thick.
 
veji":18v66zcl said:
equipment/efx aside. How about their fender guitars? pickups/picks/strings etc? how do they get them to sound so massive/beefy/thick.
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Their Fender strats don't have single coils in the bridge. It's as simple as that. Throw a humbucker in the bridge and your strat no longer sounds like a strat.
 
do you know which humbuckers they use? and how they set the pickup height?
I heard Joe Holmes used Jackson J-80 humbuckers which is similar to a Duncan JB
and Mick Mars used the Dimarzio Super distortion. I think there is also something else they are doing to make their guitar tones so massive. I have played strats with humbuckers b4 and none of them sound as thick/aggressive/meaty as Joe's/mick's.
 
As far as I know, Mick stilll uses SLO's.

Joe has about 6 Jose Marshalls.

He does use those old Jackson pickups, mounted to the body of a 70's Strat routed for a Floyd.
 
Mick uses the Eventide for pitch shifting to thicken up his tone....Holmes uses the W/D/W with the SDE3000 and H&H power amps....
 
Superunknown":cg3gzuar said:
Mick uses the Eventide for pitch shifting to thicken up his tone....Holmes uses the W/D/W with the SDE3000 and H&H power amps....
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The W/D/W definitely thickens up the tone a hell of a lot, and especially when you use the micro pitch shifting in the Wet cabs.

Joe Holmes is getting a similar effect using the SDE-3000 delays in the Wet cabs, because those Delays have modulation on the repeats. So you get that chorus shimmer, which adds a ton of width to the tone.

The Lexicon PCM-41/42 and Roland SDE-3000 are the best delays for that application IMO. Nothing else comes close to the warmth of the modulation on those Delay units.
 
Are you talking recorded tones you hear on a Crue album?
There are layers and layers of guitars on those records.
 
"The W/D/W definitely thickens up the tone a hell of a lot, and especially when you use the micro pitch shifting in the Wet cabs.Joe Holmes is getting a similar effect using the SDE-3000 delays in the Wet cabs, because those Delays have modulation on the repeats. So you get that chorus shimmer, which adds a ton of width to the tone.The Lexicon PCM-41/42 and Roland SDE-3000 are the best delays for that application IMO. Nothing else comes close to the warmth of the modulation on those Delay units."

are there any efx pedals that can do all this?
 
Mick ran through his live rig for the most recent tour somewhere (I will see if I can find it) and it was huge. He was blending about 5 different amps cranked to all hell to get his live tone. The only two that I can remember at the moment was an SLO and a Rivera Bonehead.
 
Do a search for Joe Holmes here; there was a thread started by "yours truly" that brought out some interesting info on Joe Holmes set up. A good read :thumbsup:
 
Mick Uses a TRI-BLEND OF:

A Modded Marshall

A Soldano SLO

And a Rivera BONEhead... Plus A Alesis Quadraverb, and Tons of Effects.

CHECK IT OUT!!!

ROID RAGE

motleycrue_mick_1995.gif
 
veji":2hf4m27f said:
"The W/D/W definitely thickens up the tone a hell of a lot, and especially when you use the micro pitch shifting in the Wet cabs.Joe Holmes is getting a similar effect using the SDE-3000 delays in the Wet cabs, because those Delays have modulation on the repeats. So you get that chorus shimmer, which adds a ton of width to the tone.The Lexicon PCM-41/42 and Roland SDE-3000 are the best delays for that application IMO. Nothing else comes close to the warmth of the modulation on those Delay units."

are there any efx pedals that can do all this?
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Might want to look into the Eventide floor units. The TimeFactor has modulated delays, and the PitchFactor has pitch shifting and delay. A bit pricey, sure, but they´re awesome units.
 
veji":27fz2yrx said:
"The W/D/W definitely thickens up the tone a hell of a lot, and especially when you use the micro pitch shifting in the Wet cabs.Joe Holmes is getting a similar effect using the SDE-3000 delays in the Wet cabs, because those Delays have modulation on the repeats. So you get that chorus shimmer, which adds a ton of width to the tone.The Lexicon PCM-41/42 and Roland SDE-3000 are the best delays for that application IMO. Nothing else comes close to the warmth of the modulation on those Delay units."

are there any efx pedals that can do all this?
Click to expand...

No, as i was saying the Lexicon PCM 41/42 and Roland SDE-3000 are the only units that have that specific sound to them. Nothing else comes close IMO.

For the micro pitch shifting, you can't beat the Eventide stuff. That is what they are famous for :thumbsup:
 
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