Binaural tour sound?

Duartisimo

Hi there guys

I'm thinking of picking up an electric guitar for the first time and i dont know much about music gear, so i'm open for suggestions on the equipment i need to achieve something close to what Eddie sounded like on the 2000 tour. Big fan of that dirty sound from that tour.

The guitar itself will probably be a Fender Mustang. I know Eddie played a Telecaster for that tour, buy i'm just a bit more comfortable with the way the mustang felt. Plus found a nice cheap one on graigslist!
I would probably want a 2 speaker practice combo, and i'm sort of guessing that's where the real trick will be for me to achieve a certain sound.

It is to my understanding that Mr Vedder uses a very simple rig, so i'm hopping that sound is not that hard to achieve

Thanks

mccreadyisgod

The 2000 tour, Eddie's setup was usually the Schecter PT guitar (non-Fender tele guitar with humbuckers) running straight into a Hiwatt halfstack. The basics of Eddie's tone during that era was to run the amp (a British tube amp) at the point where it was just starting to distort; Ed could clean up the tone by backing of the guitar's volume or by playing softer, and could get distorted tones by running the guitar full-volume and really digging into it. I think he might have also had his Gibson SG with P-90's by that time, but it's hard to remember. That's definitely before his current wave of Tele's with P-90's in the neck.

RedMosquito22

mccreadyisgod wrote:

The 2000 tour, Eddie's setup was usually the Schecter PT guitar (non-Fender tele guitar with humbuckers) running straight into a Hiwatt halfstack. The basics of Eddie's tone during that era was to run the amp (a British tube amp) at the point where it was just starting to distort; Ed could clean up the tone by backing of the guitar's volume or by playing softer, and could get distorted tones by running the guitar full-volume and really digging into it. I think he might have also had his Gibson SG with P-90's by that time, but it's hard to remember. That's definitely before his current wave of Tele's with P-90's in the neck.

He may have had an SG at that point. I don't remember either. The 2003 tour I believe he used a few of them. Either way, that Schecter PT tele-style guitar was definitely his go to guitar for that tour.

keeponrockin

Not to be Debbie Downer, am I the only one that doesn't particularly like Ed's tone? I don't hate it, but I don't think it's really all that special.

RedMosquito22

keeponrockin wrote:

Not to be Debbie Downer, am I the only one that doesn't particularly like Ed's tone? I don't hate it, but I don't think it's really all that special.

It's pretty much just him, his guitar and his fender amps. There isn't really anything special about it, it's just a clean sound with gain from the amp. Ed has greatly improved on guitar over the years and his tone has greatly improved as well, at least IMO. I definitely like the fender amp tones more than his Hi-Watt days. I think the fender tones fit his style better.

It's definitely not a tone that everyone will love.

gimmesometruth27

RedMosquito22 wrote:

keeponrockin wrote:

Not to be Debbie Downer, am I the only one that doesn't particularly like Ed's tone? I don't hate it, but I don't think it's really all that special.

It's pretty much just him, his guitar and his fender amps. There isn't really anything special about it, it's just a clean sound with gain from the amp. Ed has greatly improved on guitar over the years and his tone has greatly improved as well, at least IMO. I definitely like the fender amp tones more than his Hi-Watt days. I think the fender tones fit his style better.

It's definitely not a tone that everyone will love.

i love ed's clean a la the immortlity bit in the picture in a frame dvd, that was with a townsend les paul though if i recall... am i the only one who prefers his hiwatt days? i was looking at old videos from 1995 and i thought it sounded more aggressive, probably to fit the music they were playing at the time on vitalogy...

RedMosquito22

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

RedMosquito22 wrote:

keeponrockin wrote:

Not to be Debbie Downer, am I the only one that doesn't particularly like Ed's tone? I don't hate it, but I don't think it's really all that special.

It's pretty much just him, his guitar and his fender amps. There isn't really anything special about it, it's just a clean sound with gain from the amp. Ed has greatly improved on guitar over the years and his tone has greatly improved as well, at least IMO. I definitely like the fender amp tones more than his Hi-Watt days. I think the fender tones fit his style better.

It's definitely not a tone that everyone will love.

i love ed's clean a la the immortlity bit in the picture in a frame dvd, that was with a townsend les paul though if i recall... am i the only one who prefers his hiwatt days? i was looking at old videos from 1995 and i thought it sounded more aggressive, probably to fit the music they were playing at the time on vitalogy...

I'm sure you aren't alone in preferring the Hi-Watt days. In fact I'm sure most prefer it.

All Those Yesterdays

I've never really been crazy about either of the threes tones. McCready during the Austin City Limits show at one point finally had a tone that I really paid attention to. Other than that they have all sort of been average to me.

I'm sorry!

keeponrockin

All Those Yesterdays wrote:

I've never really been crazy about either of the threes tones. McCready during the Austin City Limits show at one point finally had a tone that I really paid attention to. Other than that they have all sort of been average to me.

I'm sorry!

Yeah, its not that they're BAD, and some of the studio tones are huge, but live it's never knocked my socks off (Like Marc Ford, Warren Haynes etc.. do).

mccreadyisgod

Personally, I've always felt that Ed sounded his best with the SG through the Hiwatt. He gets pretty good tone through the Fenders, too, but I don't dig the new guitars he's using. I'd be interested in hearing him play that SG through the Fenders, that could be a really good tone for him. I just love that classic rock tone, a good guitar plugged into a good amp, and the player controls the dynamics and therefor the overdrive character. Then again, I prefer to run my amp right on the edge of breakup, and use my playing dynamics to walk above or below that line, so for me it's definitely a personal preference. I also have a decent-sized pedalboard, so I'm not the purist that Eddie is. But I do like his tone from that era (2003).

As for the other guys... Jeff has consistently great bass tone, better than just about anyone out there. Mike and Stone sound better with the Marshalls from back in the day, and anytime since then where the Marshalls have reappeared. Mike can coax good tone from a Fender amp for clean tones, but Stone's LP through a Marshall is the definitive PJ tone for me. Think "Evenflow" or "Alive" or "Go" or "Animal," those great early rockers. Lately their tone, like their playing, has gotten a lot more nuanced and complex, which lacks the raw simplicity of their earlier songs and early tones.

exhausted

all other issues aside, a mustang is just not going to give you that sound.

gimmesometruth27

mccreadyisgod wrote:

Personally, I've always felt that Ed sounded his best with the SG through the Hiwatt. He gets pretty good tone through the Fenders, too, but I don't dig the new guitars he's using. I'd be interested in hearing him play that SG through the Fenders, that could be a really good tone for him. I just love that classic rock tone, a good guitar plugged into a good amp, and the player controls the dynamics and therefor the overdrive character. Then again, I prefer to run my amp right on the edge of breakup, and use my playing dynamics to walk above or below that line, so for me it's definitely a personal preference. I also have a decent-sized pedalboard, so I'm not the purist that Eddie is. But I do like his tone from that era (2003).

As for the other guys... Jeff has consistently great bass tone, better than just about anyone out there. Mike and Stone sound better with the Marshalls from back in the day, and anytime since then where the Marshalls have reappeared. Mike can coax good tone from a Fender amp for clean tones, but Stone's LP through a Marshall is the definitive PJ tone for me. Think "Evenflow" or "Alive" or "Go" or "Animal," those great early rockers. Lately their tone, like their playing, has gotten a lot more nuanced and complex, which lacks the raw simplicity of their earlier songs and early tones.

i agree with everything you said here. i think the earlier tone was their best, as well as the most recent with the marshalls. look at the old tour videos on youtube, marshall full stacks and a fender to A/B for clean. the first 3 albums/tours were their best live tones i believe. somewhere along the way they started messing with multiple amp combinations and boutque amps that to me just sounded waaaay too thin and lacked that "oomph" of a good old vintage marshall. i am glad to see them dusting off the old marshalls again. pearl jam are the main reason i have my vintage marshalls and my matchless. to me those amps just screamed "pearl jam" and i think of those amps when i think of their best tone.

mccreadyisgod

exhausted wrote:

all other issues aside, a mustang is just not going to give you that sound.

That's definitely worth considering. The tones Eddie got from that era (2000 tour) come mostly from humbuckers, which are not the stock pickups you would find in a Mustang. You can get certain Mustang models with humbuckers (the new Pawn Shop Mustang Special comes to mind; http://www.fender.com/products/pawnshop ... No=0266400 ) or you can retrofit a Mustang with humbuckers, which may require routing the body. You could also install a set of single-coil-sized humbuckers, like the many models made by Seymour Duncan; at the very least, you would need a much higher-output pickup than the standard Mustang single-coils, which are notoriously low-output.

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

i agree with everything you said here. i think the earlier tone was their best, as well as the most recent with the marshalls. look at the old tour videos on youtube, marshall full stacks and a fender to A/B for clean. the first 3 albums/tours were their best live tones i believe. somewhere along the way they started messing with multiple amp combinations and boutque amps that to me just sounded waaaay too thin and lacked that "oomph" of a good old vintage marshall. i am glad to see them dusting off the old marshalls again. pearl jam are the main reason i have my vintage marshalls and my matchless. to me those amps just screamed "pearl jam" and i think of those amps when i think of their best tone.

They could probably get similar tones with the Trentino amps, or some of the other stuff they've used in the last 12 years. In fact, I'd love to see Mike or Stone play a Bogner, which has a very Marshall-sounding tone. There's definitely the gear-as-fashion concern; you'd never see PJ play Mesa Boogie or PRS, since they don't want to look at all like Nickelback or Creed. But honestly, the PRS-thru-Mesa sound is the natural evolution of the early grunge sound. Another point worth making is that Stone and Mike had to alter their stage tone when Eddie started playing more guitar; their 2-guitar arrangements allowed for a fuller, beefier tone, but when you've got to make room in the mix for a 3rd guitar (and now keyboards, piano and organ), you have a much narrower bandwidth for each individual guitar. I think that's the main reason Stone dropped the LP in favor of Strats for a few tours, just easier to be heard in the mix.

All Those Yesterdays

mccreadyisgod wrote:

Personally, I've always felt that Ed sounded his best with the SG through the Hiwatt. He gets pretty good tone through the Fenders, too, but I don't dig the new guitars he's using. I'd be interested in hearing him play that SG through the Fenders, that could be a really good tone for him. I just love that classic rock tone, a good guitar plugged into a good amp, and the player controls the dynamics and therefor the overdrive character. Then again, I prefer to run my amp right on the edge of breakup, and use my playing dynamics to walk above or below that line, so for me it's definitely a personal preference. I also have a decent-sized pedalboard, so I'm not the purist that Eddie is. But I do like his tone from that era (2003).

As for the other guys... Jeff has consistently great bass tone, better than just about anyone out there. Mike and Stone sound better with the Marshalls from back in the day, and anytime since then where the Marshalls have reappeared. Mike can coax good tone from a Fender amp for clean tones, but Stone's LP through a Marshall is the definitive PJ tone for me. Think "Evenflow" or "Alive" or "Go" or "Animal," those great early rockers. Lately their tone, like their playing, has gotten a lot more nuanced and complex, which lacks the raw simplicity of their earlier songs and early tones.

I do agree with Jeff's bass tone. It's been fantastic.

savman

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

RedMosquito22 wrote:

keeponrockin wrote:

Not to be Debbie Downer, am I the only one that doesn't particularly like Ed's tone? I don't hate it, but I don't think it's really all that special.

It's pretty much just him, his guitar and his fender amps. There isn't really anything special about it, it's just a clean sound with gain from the amp. Ed has greatly improved on guitar over the years and his tone has greatly improved as well, at least IMO. I definitely like the fender amp tones more than his Hi-Watt days. I think the fender tones fit his style better.

It's definitely not a tone that everyone will love.

i love ed's clean a la the immortlity bit in the picture in a frame dvd, that was with a townsend les paul though if i recall... am i the only one who prefers his hiwatt days? i was looking at old videos from 1995 and i thought it sounded more aggressive, probably to fit the music they were playing at the time on vitalogy...

Nah, im right in the there with ya :-) But preferred the SG into Hiwatt over the teles. Ala MSG

ScrapeMySky

Just in case anyone missed this:
http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/SG/Gibson-USA/SG-Classic-Faded.aspx
This should get you fairly close to Ed's 2003 sound.

RedMosquito22

ScrapeMySky wrote:

Just in case anyone missed this:
http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/SG/Gibson-USA/SG-Classic-Faded.aspx
This should get you fairly close to Ed's 2003 sound.

Or this:

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Gibson-SG-Special-60s-Tribute-Electric-Guitar?sku=H71136

exhausted

the classic faded with the neck binding appears to be a better deal.

gimmesometruth27

mccreadyisgod wrote:

exhausted wrote:

all other issues aside, a mustang is just not going to give you that sound.

That's definitely worth considering. The tones Eddie got from that era (2000 tour) come mostly from humbuckers, which are not the stock pickups you would find in a Mustang. You can get certain Mustang models with humbuckers (the new Pawn Shop Mustang Special comes to mind; http://www.fender.com/products/pawnshop ... No=0266400 ) or you can retrofit a Mustang with humbuckers, which may require routing the body. You could also install a set of single-coil-sized humbuckers, like the many models made by Seymour Duncan; at the very least, you would need a much higher-output pickup than the standard Mustang single-coils, which are notoriously low-output.

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

i agree with everything you said here. i think the earlier tone was their best, as well as the most recent with the marshalls. look at the old tour videos on youtube, marshall full stacks and a fender to A/B for clean. the first 3 albums/tours were their best live tones i believe. somewhere along the way they started messing with multiple amp combinations and boutque amps that to me just sounded waaaay too thin and lacked that "oomph" of a good old vintage marshall. i am glad to see them dusting off the old marshalls again. pearl jam are the main reason i have my vintage marshalls and my matchless. to me those amps just screamed "pearl jam" and i think of those amps when i think of their best tone.

They could probably get similar tones with the Trentino amps, or some of the other stuff they've used in the last 12 years. In fact, I'd love to see Mike or Stone play a Bogner, which has a very Marshall-sounding tone. There's definitely the gear-as-fashion concern; you'd never see PJ play Mesa Boogie or PRS, since they don't want to look at all like Nickelback or Creed. But honestly, the PRS-thru-Mesa sound is the natural evolution of the early grunge sound. Another point worth making is that Stone and Mike had to alter their stage tone when Eddie started playing more guitar; their 2-guitar arrangements allowed for a fuller, beefier tone, but when you've got to make room in the mix for a 3rd guitar (and now keyboards, piano and organ), you have a much narrower bandwidth for each individual guitar. I think that's the main reason Stone dropped the LP in favor of Strats for a few tours, just easier to be heard in the mix.

definitely a good point about making room for a 3rd guitar. i think that would explain how ed is fairly clean and why stone dropped the les pauls for a bit. makes perfect sense to me now. if you get 3 heavily overdriven or distorted guitars there is really no dynamic and high potential for the end result to just be muddy...

gimmesometruth27

exhausted wrote:

the classic faded with the neck binding appears to be a better deal.

yeah but those things are pretty hit and miss. i have played a few that i really liked, and i have played a few that would have made better firewood. i guess that is the modern gibson "quality" lol...

RedMosquito22

exhausted wrote:

the classic faded with the neck binding appears to be a better deal.

I love the white 60's SG though. Think Spinal Tap(the movie). hahahahahahah

xtremehardy388

I'm not a fan of Eddie's clean tone. My favorite tone was Mike's dirty tone from 2000 and 2003 (particularly on the end of Yellow Ledbetter and his solos on NAIS).

I use my mustang for Stone's part on NAIS...but my pups are VERY thin.