Back on the train solo

raisingfreen · January 14, 2009, 06:10:41 PM

Anybody happy he posted this? I new there was a leslie in there.

Thanks for this, I cant get that sound as I don't have a leslie but at least I know for sure I cant do it now. I will sleep good tonight. Thanks again.

Nice work.

strangedesign · January 14, 2009, 07:12:20 PM

wow! That's an awesome article. I can't believe I have never seen it.

thanks!

raisingfreen · January 14, 2009, 08:02:45 PM

Looks like chasing that tone is going to cost some big bucks. What do you suggest on a budget?
Fake leslie pedal, maybe the TC electronics chorus/flange/modulator combo pedal? I read on analog man that some people use that to get a generic leslie sound. I found one of those for $200 the other day used. Outside of a real leslie what are decent options?

I like how they mentioned the leslie only captures the really low notes, that makes so much sense because when Trey kicks on the leslie it never sounds like the vintage artists of way back (SRV etc...). Is very slight but adds a lot.
The only times when you can absolutely tell is like when they cover the Smashing Pumpkins "Rhinoceros". In that you can really hear it (very vibratone-ish). It's like it adds a layer of glass to his sound as well. Very cool, it makes me think he uses chorus just a little bit too.

Poster · January 15, 2009, 01:51:28 PM

nice work cactus man.

cactuskeeb · January 15, 2009, 05:28:50 PM

I hope everyone's noticed that the article is split into two posts.Â Sorry I had to do it that way but all together it exceeded the "character limit" for a single posting.

AIM2bFunky · January 17, 2009, 11:32:19 PM

He also uses this tone or a similar tone in some of the live jams... Names escape me, perhaps Prague's Story of the ghost? And various spacey jams...

Anyway. My best replication resulted from usin two wahs. One cocked forward, one back. Also chorus, and of course a couple analog mans. Personally my analog man preference is the Sd 1 super distortion with a push pull pot on the level knob that switches from Boss style clipping to Tube Screamer style clipping. Also the Silver mod, it makes it sound less like the clipping is caused by a pedal... I guess what I mean is if you turned it on while screamin out a loud bend you'd notice it, but it would be smoother. No stop in sound or anything.

And perhaps most noticeable, an octave pedal. Split it and also have that double wah cocked and it sounds almost like two separate signals

This may be cheesy or stupid but I've always referred to it as the Banshee tone. Just cause its so haunting it's always reminded me of a combo of the mythical siren songs, but if a banshee were the one singing so it had this emty, hollow, or split sound

Walker done done · January 18, 2009, 12:10:40 PM

Beautiful! Thanks for this cactai !

Poster · January 18, 2009, 12:13:57 PM

^this might be the most absurd attempt at the tone Ive encountered. Two wahs? Thats just silly. They act as EQ's you know? So by using 2 you realize the second wah is not really going to do anything? Try using two EQ racks on a microphone, set one all the way at 0 and the other at 12... Youll notice that its sounds like shit, but more importantly, its basically going to sound like the EQ that setup first in the effects chain. Youve shaped the signal with that first eq and you can put 40 after it, but its only going to add noise.

AIM2bFunky · March 16, 2009, 10:47:25 PM

Quote from: posternutbag on January 18, 2009, 12:13:57 PM
^this might be the most absurd attempt at the tone Ive encountered. Two wahs? Thats just silly. They act as EQ's you know? So by using 2 you realize the second wah is not really going to do anything? Try using two EQ racks on a microphone, set one all the way at 0 and the other at 12... Youll notice that its sounds like shit, but more importantly, its basically going to sound like the EQ that setup first in the effects chain. Youve shaped the signal with that first eq and you can put 40 after it, but its only going to add noise.

Well, If you go to keeley's page, you'll see he has a pedal called the double stop or something that is actually two tone pots from wahs but controlled with knobs instead of expression pedals. He knows his shit. I don't think he would have designed this if it was absurd or would "only add noise."

That is where I got the idea. They don't cancel each other out. I mean in theory i guess I see how you would think that but the reality is that they don't at least to the ear. Say for instance if the first wah were cocked down, not all the way but muted slightly, and the second were oushed forward it would result in a hollow slightly nasally sound.

I don't really care if your gonna use this approach or not, but I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't demean me or any of my approaches to interpreting some of my favorite music. People who listen to my bands tend to say they like my tone. And they are the one's paying to see and hear so I'll just take it from them.

Anyway Hampton was nuts huh everyone? (like that hasnt already been established) I'm still walking funny from that fluffhead opener ha ha

mcgrupperton · March 30, 2009, 08:15:49 AM

nassua 03 BOTT turned me int a believer of that jam.

ColForbin · April 13, 2009, 02:36:00 PM

Listening to this song on the Hampton recordings, it appears Trey didn't use his whammy on this solo. It sounds to my ears that he had the tube screamer on the go and kicked the wah on around 50%. The result as you can hear is one slutty, raunchy in your face guitar tone, that I though was awesome. We had our cd launch last weekend and we covered back on the train to open our second set, and come solo time this is what I did, and it sounded great as far as I'm concerned. So there you have it, the simple way to do a live back on the train.