best PU for Satch "The Extremist" tone

[Ced777]

I love Satch tone in the Extremist (Summer Song, Motorcycle driver)
The best bridge PU?
- Norton?
- Breed ?
- Air Zone?

I try
Fred : too harsh (too much treble) , not enough output and mids
Tone Zone: too much bass, too much output
Paf Pro: definitely not
Evo: too trebly, too harsh, too sterile

I like sweet PU, a little dark (to balance bright guitar), with lots of mids, presence and personality. Solid bass but not too much.

I have a Seymour duncan custom custom which is a good PU, my favorite. But i would like to have another guitar with different tone. And i love satch's tone....

[jono]

A pickup isn't going to get you your fave artist's tone. Having said that I actually think the Fred is unsurprisingly the pickup that gets me on the road to Satch's tone the best. It also help to have some great tube amps a Japanese DS-1 and a world reknowned rock producer on the recordings.

Motorcycle driver is imo a great example of "Fred" tone. So I'd advise tweaking your amp/distortion before buying new pickups.

If the Fred is too harsh for you, I'd personally advise the Norton.which has a few more mids, and imho the output focused around that area.

It's all ice-cream and you may find other pickups would work better.

[BrianH]

Originally Posted by jono

Japanese DS-1

What is this DS-1 Ibanez pedal? What makes it so great.. I've heard other talk about it... I'm curious, always on the hunt for a new cool toy.

[Two hands31]

The pedal he's referring to is a Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal. The older ones are made in Japan, while the newer ones are made in (I believe) Taiwan. The Japan made ones sound better.

[EKG]

I agree in the sense it is not all the pup. The FRED is the best (IMO) to try and achieve Satch's tone. I wouldn't rely so much on the pup as much as your whole setup. I went through the same thing early on Actually, what has really helped in my setup is a BBE sonic maximizer. Really brought my whole sound to life.

[rikkbeatty]

I can get a killer Satch tone with my JS guitars and also with my JEM7VWH believe it or not. So I would have to say that it is more than just the guitar and pickup. I would say 75% of it is the setup you use.

I use a Marshall 9200 dual 100 watt mono block amp, Digitech 2101LE, 422A BBE Sonic Maximizer, Rocktron Super C Hush, Ensoniq DP/4, to get the main Satch tone. Then depending on what I want to do wth the tone I will use the JS6 for a "light" touch, or the JS1 or JS1000 for the heavier touch. Then of course add the Bad Horsie wah, WH-1 whammy, Eventide H3000 D/SX, volume pedal and all the other stuff to really tweak it.

I like allot of "thump" in my sound though so the BBE really comes in handy. Of course if you want to "crystalize" your sound the BBE can also do that. It really is "the magic box" to use for enhancing your overall tone.

[BrianH]

I think my 7vwh gave me a better satch tone at times than my js 1000 btb... but I can tell the difference, my btb has that more bassy nasal sound like the intro to house full of bullets. But the vwh did a great job too with that tune...

[Lonely Raven]

Sorry I didn't read through all these posts, but I have it on good
athority that Joe used a lot of Mesa Boogie on that CD.

But if your on the cheap and cant afford that kinda gear, I would suggest
you check out the "Sans Amp" stomp box.

And with a little more budget, you can try the Rocktron Chameleon.

The Sans Amp is a direct box/amp simulator/distortion box. I've squeezed
an amaizing amount of good tone out of my dads over the years when
I just didn't have the sound I was looking for out of my normal rig.

The Chameleon has a lot of Joe's Tone built in it, and with little tweaking
at that. It is kinda limited to that tone though...I've found it's more open,
bluesy, or agressive (but less distorted) tones lacking the life that
something as inexpensive as a Sans Amp can give you.

The mix of a Sans Amp, DS-1 (original), Chameleon, and a good tube
Power Amp and solid cabinets can cut you 90% of Joes, Steves, and many
others sounds.

Heh, the big spenders just need an Eventide and their set!

IMHO

[rikkbeatty]

"Heh, the big spenders just need an Eventide and their set!

IMHO

Hmmm..... I have an Eventide H3000 D/SX and it took more than that for me to get Joe and Steve's tone

[Two hands31]

Originally Posted by rikkbeatty

Hmmm..... I have an Eventide H3000 D/SX and it took more than that for me to get Joe and Steve's tone

You're not out there cutting off any fingers are you?

Can't you just see him in a lab with millions of jars of fingers all over the walls raving and laughing about how he has so many fingers and yet NONE sound quite right?

[rikkbeatty]

.............................. whoa lol

[Drew]

Originally Posted by Lonely Raven

Sorry I didn't read through all these posts, but I have it on good
athority that Joe used a lot of Mesa Boogie on that CD.

Yeah, i was guessing that myself... I don't own a JS guitar, but my RG-7620 through a (comparatively) cheap Mesa Rocket-44 aren't too far off from Satch's tone once you start pushing the thing a bit- i'd say a different guitar with different pickups (i.e- a JS) would get you pretty close, if you added some compression and delay and whatnot. Althogh, even as it is, the Air Norton i thrw in the neck spot and the Tone Zone in the bridge do a pretty good job of it- close enough to that tone (one of my favorite on record) that i enjoy playing it.

-Drew

[rikkbeatty]

Basically any nice solid tube amp with a good pre amp will get you the tone. Whether you go stock Mesa, Bogner, Matchless, some of the Marshalls, or Legacy you should get it ok. Or if you go through a nice tube power amp and then use a killer preamp that will work the same.

[vaijem777]

LOL A Matchless? A Matchless won't get you anywhere NEAR a Satch tone. They're nothing at all like the Mesa/Marshall high-output tube amps. SRV's tone? Maybe. But, as much as I've loved my Matchless Cheiftain for years, you couldn't ask for a worse metal/shred amp (unless you want to process the hell out of it, which pretty much defeats the purpose of having a 35-watt Class A amp!). The DC-30 that I had prior to the Cheiftain was even less shreddy. GREAT clean amps, probably the best around. But..better for blues/jazz than anything else.

[rikkbeatty]

Sorry I should have clarified that. A Matchless with a pre amp added to it or a pedal. The Matchless give a nice big warm tube tone to add a powerful preamp/processor/pedal to.