how do you get vai's sweet sound??

[tonluvara]

hi ppl..

im just wondering here.. how can i get vai's sound? i know some of the effects he used but not all and not the settings.. and i know he uses carvin legacy.. but you can call me newbie about his stuff.. lol..

so any of you know his specific settings?

[Gearjunky]

Start by knowing that 95% of Vai's sound comes from his hands.
The other 5% comes from a modded Bogner, and about $2,000,000 in recording gear, effects and amps.

[tonluvara]

ahhaha.. i know about that.. what i meant was, how do i get the sound close to his.. other than the sound from his hand.. which means, from his equipments.. (excluding his guitars too :P)

[phienix]

get a superstrat get a laney/bogner geht a bad horsie and tweak you will come close to his sound if you want exavly the live sound e.g. the one from the g3 dvd buy all the equip from the dvd

[davester1234]

It really does come from the hands.
Notice that Vai can sound like Vai doesn't matter what he plays thru? That's because people ain't kidding when the say its all in the wrist. It's the way he attacks the strings.


Other than that, go buy a legacy, a bad horsie, a tc electronic g force, a boss ds-1 pedal, a roland sde 3000 delay, a little alligator volume pedal, and hook them up via a bob bradshaw switching system.

You can also keep a marshall 800/900, bogner, soldano and vht amp head around for specialized purposes.

But I guarantee you this, if you learn how to PLAY like Vai, to attack the strings in the way he does, you'll sound like him through a fender princeton amp. I GUARANTEE you.

[bammbamm]

Q: how do you get vai's sweet sound??

A: Practice man, practice.

Bamm

[Artist]

I don't mean to get a whole thing going, but I think people get confused when talking about tone.
They say that tone comes from the hands, but I think what they mean is acute articulation, the way in which they play the notes.
The actual TONE is equipment based, for example if I was to hook up a VWH into a Legacy full stack, say to Vai "play your open low E" which he does
He then passes the guitar to me, and I play the open low E, the two notes would sound the same.
It's the natural articulation that makes players sound like themselves when using equipment that they normally wouldn't. It's the instinct, their way of playing.
But TONE is the equipment (pups, wood, strings, amps, pedals, settings, temperature, down to the age of the equipment).
It's much simpler with standalone instruments to explain this, for example with trumpets: Two trumpets will have different tones, but when the same player plays through each of them the WAY in which he plays will seperate him from other players.
It seems easy to confuse tone and natural articulation.

Well this is just my opinion.

[The_Grindfiend]

Alright, guys, let's stop this ridiculous prattle about tone being in the hands. Of course that's part of it, but 95%?! Vai will sound like Vai through a Fender amp?! Come on, think before you post some of this stuff. You're completely disregarding all the different circuits and stages his tone goes through, which is what shapes the sound. Vai will sound like Vai through any amp, because he will still play like himself, but his tone will be far different. To suggest otherwise is simply being foolish/delusional.

[The_Grindfiend]

tonluvara, if you really want to sound like Vai, get a Carvin Legacy, a Keeley DS-1 pedal, and a JEM with EVOs. Run the Legacy pretty clean, using the DS-1 for distortion. That's a lot of his tone.

[AARRGGHHH]

does vai use the ds1 with a little gain and a lot of volume to push the legacy for distortion or does he use a lot of gain and a little volume to mainly use the distortion from the pedal, or is it somewere in between?

[The_Grindfiend]

I think they're both around halfway up, with the tone slightly to the left.

[davester1234]

Originally Posted by The_Grindfiend

Alright, guys, let's stop this ridiculous prattle about tone being in the hands. Of course that's part of it, but 95%?! Vai will sound like Vai through a Fender amp?! Come on, think before you post some of this stuff. You're completely disregarding all the different circuits and stages his tone goes through, which is what shapes the sound. Vai will sound like Vai through any amp, because he will still play like himself, but his tone will be far different. To suggest otherwise is simply being foolish/delusional.

Not to argue with you, but you're wrong on this. I know it goes against common logic, and I'm not saying that epuiptment doesn't help. But the way Vai'isms come to life is in the way you pick the strings, the artificial harmonics you hit, and the way your picking thumb hits the strings after you've picked them.

Those are the magic that lie behind Vai's illustruous sound. That's also why irrespective of his amplifier, he sounds great. Listen back to the roth days. Completely different than today, but its still eerily similar. If malmsteen plugged into a legacy and a tc g force, he would sound NOTHING like Vai. So how is it so absurd when someone says tone is in the attack?

If what you're saying is true, then everyone plugged through the same gear would sound exactly the same.


well, I'll let you hear an example. I recorded Vai's touching tounges a while ago and put it on mp3.com. I used a marshall jmp1 distortion processor, and a 25 watt peavey backstage plus amp, 1 speaker.
I'm obviously no Vai, not even trying to go there. There's leaps and bounds between us, that goes without saying.

But i dunno, the tone is close to being there. Not as good as Vai's of course, but it's there. I knew that to be successful, I need to worry about approaching it like Vai more than running out to rent the same gear.

http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/425/dave_s.html


And I'm not trying to hijack this thread by the way

I'm just trying to help.

By the way, if you REALLY were trying to find gear to help you sound like Vai, buying the same stuff as vai uses (see my earlier post)is not neccessarily going to get you sounding like him. That's because your attack and hands touch the guitar differently. You'd probably want to find gear that will help compensate for the differences.

Again, if I'm wrong, malmsteen would sound exactly the same as vai plugged through the legacy. But he never will, because he physically handles the guitar differently.

Dunno, maybe I am foolish, who knows. I think that I'm being perfectly logical

[Two hands31]

Ah yes, your "Touching Tongues" cover, I still have that on my computer here I listened to Vai's version (for the first time) afterwards, and I almost like yours better Something about the whammy/delay section just sounds warmer and smoother in yours

[davester1234]

thanx 2hands

[Gearjunky]

FYI
Steve Vai himself said the same thing about Eddie Van Halen.
EVH picked up a POS guitar and plugged it into a POS amp, and Vai said.
"It's in his hands"