Help in getting STP tone.

[BurnoutBright]

I am trying to get the guitar tone of Stone Temple Pilots when he plays the signature lick from the intro to the song Interstate Love Song. Here is the link to their live version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw5J3yfvos0

Here is my version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmbu5pdsKsc

My guitar tone is so tiny when I kick in the distortion and his tone, sounds like 3 guitars playing all at once. Any suggestions to get that signature lick to fatten up.

Thanks.

[Bryan T]

For one, play the lick correctly. You're leaving out a lot of open strings and doing different voicings of the chords. Secondly, some more gain (not too much, but definitely more) will help. Third, play with a little more authority - that's going to come from the right hand and has a lot to do with the feel of the part.

Bryan

[The Tone Snob]

What are you using for amps/effects?

[Greggy]

Originally Posted by BurnoutBright

I am trying to get the guitar tone of Stone Temple Pilots when he plays the signature lick from the intro to the song Interstate Love Song. Here is the link to their live version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw5J3yfvos0

Here is my version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmbu5pdsKsc

My guitar tone is so tiny when I kick in the distortion and his tone, sounds like 3 guitars playing all at once. Any suggestions to get that signature lick to fatten up.

Thanks.

You may have partially answered your own question when you referred to his tone sounding like 3 guitars playing at once. He may have layered tracks in the studio, or live may be triggering backup tracks or using some signal splitting to multiple amps or some such trickery.

[wakkawakka]

My take on that tone is that it's got some good clean chime in it, so it's more of an overdrive than distortion. Speakers like Celestion V30's can get the crispy distortion aspects of the sound.

The easy to find local overdrives I'd look into are the Sparkle Drive (blends some clean tone), Boss OD3 (cleanish), or Digitech Bad Monkey (versatile eq). You don't want a true tube screamer, too much mids. You want something with lotsa bass.

[Rollo Timbre]

It sounds like he's really pushing those amps. That's a big part of his sound right there. Frankly, your tone before you kicked on the distortion seemed bigger, like you were trying not to over power you bandmates with the distortion pedal. Maybe just to see, try putting your amp in another room and crank both it and the pedal up, and see if it gets you closer.

[ScottB]

For the studio version:

P90's ideally (I like middle here too). (If you recall in the music video he was playing an old LP Special or junior)

Or "PAF" ouput humbuckers in the middle position work for me.

Not real high gain. I hear a lot of people cover this with way too much gain. You still have to have it clean enough where it's articulate. I used to toggle my gain; higher for the verses and lower for the chorus, but now I use the lower of the two for the whole thing. I think the key is having a sound that has "tonal balls" without being overly driven. P90's and middle settings help here to give that combination of jangle and tonal complexity that makes it "fuller".

Can't watch the youtubes here at work, but I'll try to remember to check them later.

[statusfoe27]

+1 on playing the riff correctly, you need those open strings in there and you have to play the riff with conviction. You gotta wail on those strings with your right hand like you mean it. Just follow how powerful he plays it in that live clip. P.S. this is one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands what an amazing player! Keep it up dude, good to see people playin this stuff

[Phil M]

Originally Posted by Bryan T

For one, play the lick correctly. You're leaving out a lot of open strings and doing different voicings of the chords. Secondly, some more gain (not too much, but definitely more) will help. Third, play with a little more authority - that's going to come from the right hand and has a lot to do with the feel of the part.

Bryan

Exactly, changing what you're playing and the way you're playing it will make a big difference. I know what you mean though, this is sometimes easier said than done. I think if you and the drummer throw some attitude at it, you hit those open strings where they belong, the rest of the band will follow--and suddenly it will all sound more "right" to you.

Rather than stomping a pedal I'd have my rhythm sound all set up and roll my guitar volume back to 4 or 5 for the intro--then bring it up and CRUSH that riff.

As for amps, Dean DeLeo likes Marshalls and small EL84 amps cranked way up.

[ScottB]

http://www.musictoyz.com/articles/chopdean.php

A little more than halfway down, reference to TV yellow LP special used on Interstate. In the pic up top it looks like the selector is in the middle position as well...

[Bryan T]

Anyone know what amps were used in the studio for that track? I remember from interviews around that time that he was using a lot of small amps for recording, but don't remember what they were.

Bryan

[Phil M]

The first time I ever heard someone talking about 18 and 20 watt Marshalls, it was him. That might've been a few years later when he did that Talkshow album though. Not sure if that's what he used on this studio recording, but it could've been. Sounds Voxy too.

The closest I've come to this sound was a Les Paul w/humbuckers, a CRANKED Tophat Club Royale and a Time Machine boost (the germanium side. Don't remember if it was "1966" or "1973").

Still, it comes down at least as much to the attack.

[Bryan T]

Originally Posted by Phil M

The first time I ever heard someone talking about 18 and 20 watt Marshalls, it was him. That might've been a few years later when he did that Talkshow album though. Not sure if that's what he used on this studio recording, but it could've been. Sounds Voxy too.

I seem to remember that the amps were smaller than that . . . Champ size, maybe, but funky off-brands. I'll do some googling.

Bryan

[GasMask]

FYI... check out "Guitar Player" magazine- Aug. 2007, page 121.

[BurnoutBright]

Originally Posted by statusfoe27

+1 on playing the riff correctly, you need those open strings in there and you have to play the riff with conviction. You gotta wail on those strings with your right hand like you mean it. Just follow how powerful he plays it in that live clip. P.S. this is one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands what an amazing player! Keep it up dude, good to see people playin this stuff

I listened to it again, and you are right, it sounds like the B and E string are constantly ringing. I will give this a try.

And yeah, I love this song.