A few days ago after a choir rehearsel,I met a guy named Austin.We started talking and I mentioned that one of my favourite
guitar players-Eric Johnson,was from Austin,TX.He then mentioned that he too played guitar.We then started talking about tone and other guitar stuff and he said that he had an old Marshall(which his dad had handed down) at his apartment.He also said that it was supposed to be a "really good one".
I'm very skeptical about most of the popular amps ou there as I've tried many of the popular ones(DSL401,JCM800,Dual Rectos etc.) and I've had very bad experiences with those(horrible tones!).The only ones that I felt I would really like(from all the tone samples,reviews that I've read etc.) were the
Mesa Boogie Mark IIc+ and the Marshall JTM45s/Plexis and a lot of the boutique amps and Fenders in general.
Well I decided to go and check his amp out all the same and boy....am I glad I did!It was a Marshall JTM45 and it was connected to a custom speaker cab.
Austin had to go somewhere and he told me to go ahead and try out the amp until he got back.I was plain blown away!.I found my tone.It was the best tone that I had ever heard in my entire life.
I first played straight into the amp.The clean clean was simply magnificent.It wasn't a Fender clean but it was very glassy and bright but warm at the same time and very musical.When I upped the volume,it sounded like chiming Church bells!I then cranked up the volume and woooww......stunning blues tone!It was amazing!
He had an old Tubeworks pedal lying aroud.I set it for clean boost and played my guitar through it.OMG!!!It was THE most amazing high-gain tone that I had ever heard.Now,theres no point(and no way!) in trying to described some of the tones that I was able to get using that setup so I'm going to try and post some clips sometime tomorrow.
Austin has an old Shure SM58.We tried recording same samples but the tone on the recorded clips was nothing like what I was hearing.It was very thin and there was almost no bass.Can anyone give me some tips on how to go about capturing that tone perfectly.I tried some common micing technique(center,off-axis,angled,ambient) but I wasn't able to get any good samples
I think its the soundcard on his computer(not too sure what it is) thats creating the problem.Austin has a Sony MiniDisc Player/Recorder and I'm planning to record some stuff tomorrow through that.I hope they come out well!
