Warren Haynes and Soldano

[MGuts]

I saw Gov't Mule last night, and WOW. What a show. They played for 3 and a half hours. I wish all artists let you get your money's worth like that! I'm especially glad Warren did because he is an absolute MONSTER of a player. I never really knew how good he is.

Anyhow, He was playing an SLO and a Diaz obviously, and my question pertains to the SLO. Does anybody know if he's running through the Lead channel or the Clean/Crunch? It seemed he turned down his volume knob for some cleans, so that makes me think he's using the lead channel, but I ain't exactly sure. If I could get a similar vibe to that with an Avenger (just the lead channel of the SLO) I'd be happy because I don't really like channel switchers and the price tags are a bit different, too. Thanks.

[jiml]

I don't the plays with a ton of gain dialed in, so he cleans it up with the volume, I'm guessing lead channel.

[pacomc79]

you might want to look into the changes to the SLO via the Haynes mod to see if you can do the same to the avenger first. I believe the idea is to cut the highs at lower gain settings.

[loudgtr]

He runs the OD channel and uses his guitar volume alot I believe.

A buddy of mine got to see Warren's rig up close at a show recently and said that he used the OD channel and had his OD gain set at 6 , but used his guitars volume alot.

That kind of renders his own "Haynes" mod on the SLO useless as it doesn't cut any brightness off the amp once the gain is past 4 on the knob. A stock SLO is all you need. FWIW, EVH used stock SLO's as well.

[whitewave]

He uses the guitar knob a lot, and I mean A LOT. Unfortunately I have seen him live just one time, with ABB. It's one of my favourite musician ever, above all after enjoying his playing live, that night he was awesome, the center of the stage with no contest at all. Sorry for Dereck.
I've never tried a SLO, but with the crunch channel of the Hot Rod 100+ you get pretty close. I don't think he's using the lead channel, since he doesn't use so much gain, and his best sounds are just the slightly crunchy cleans he can gets with "volume playing".
Anyway, I'd like to know more details on this topic too.

Just these days I' taking my decision on a Soldano, thanks to Warren tones.

[wec]

I was fortunate enough to play a gig with Warren and spend a little time with him back in the early to mid '90's. As an SLO owner myself (since the early '90's) I was very interested in his setup. He has basically played a similar rig (with small changes) for the last 20+ years. He uses the lead channel of the Soldano with the preamp drive set very low (around 2.5) and cranks the master volume. In all the times I have seen him live (which is a lot), I have never known him to use the clean channel of the SLO or use it as a channel switching amp...but that's not to say he doesn't. I do know that his main solo sound is the SLO on the lead channel (which of course has the "Warren Haynes" mod or bright cap mod).

[whitewave]

So, "Rythm-changes", please explain me these sounds:

ABB - Midnight Rider at Beacon
his tone above all at the beginning, the huge crunch he gets. Is the SLO lead channel so dynamic that he can get this sound just by lowering the volume on guitar without getting it thinner? Or is it the Diaz head?

the same here: Gov't Mule - Beautiful Broken

or in a sweet song like Soulshine
the rythm part is really the lead channel?

even in one of the hardest tune Rockin' Horse it seems too dynamic to be the ultra gain channel.

Recently I've tried his signature Les Paul. I got a huge component of his sound just after the first chord, that instrument is amazing. But I got my PRS McCarty (w/ Lollar Imperial High Winds, same used by Warren in some of his guitars) to the store to compare them, and I ended up coming back home with my PRS.
I'd like just to have the 4 pots layout controls. I love the way he's using brdge pickup for all the rythm parts and the neck mostly for that liquid solo tone.

[JCM 800]

Don't forget that Warren runs a Klon in front of the Soldano. He has the Soldano set to low gain on the lead channel, and then kicks it up with the Klon. When he wants it cleaner, he turns off the Klon, and turns down the volume

I'll ask Farmer either tonight or tomorrow when I talk to him.

[cyndicate]

Originally Posted by loudgtr

He runs the OD channel and uses his guitar volume alot I believe.

A buddy of mine got to see Warren's rig up close at a show recently and said that he used the OD channel and had his OD gain set at 6 , but used his guitars volume alot.

That kind of renders his own "Haynes" mod on the SLO useless as it doesn't cut any brightness off the amp once the gain is past 4 on the knob. A stock SLO is all you need. FWIW, EVH used stock SLO's as well.

I have a SLO100 and Gain at 6 is pretty significant amount of gain, but the amp cleans up REALLY well so it is a possibility and gives more tonal range with the volume knob. However he doesn't play with much gain at all, so I'm assuming his volume knob is never up that high if hes running it at 6 or hes in Crunch mode. When I mess around with Gov't mule tunes I usually just use the crunch mode and it nails it really well.

[wec]

Originally Posted by whitewave

So, "Rythm-changes", please explain me these sounds:

ABB - Midnight Rider at Beacon
his tone above all at the beginning, the huge crunch he gets. Is the SLO lead channel so dynamic that he can get this sound just by lowering the volume on guitar without getting it thinner? Or is it the Diaz head?

the same here: Gov't Mule - Beautiful Broken

or in a sweet song like Soulshine
the rythm part is really the lead channel?

even in one of the hardest tune Rockin' Horse it seems too dynamic to be the ultra gain channel.

Recently I've tried his signature Les Paul. I got a huge component of his sound just after the first chord, that instrument is amazing. But I got my PRS McCarty (w/ Lollar Imperial High Winds, same used by Warren in some of his guitars) to the store to compare them, and I ended up coming back home with my PRS.
I'd like just to have the 4 pots layout controls. I love the way he's using brdge pickup for all the rythm parts and the neck mostly for that liquid solo tone.

ABB - Midnight Rider at Beacon - This sounds exactly like the Soldano to me (on the drive channel).

Gov't Mule - Beautiful Broken - This sounds like the Diaz to me.

Soulshine - Soldano

Rockin' Horse - Soldano

Again, I could be wrong (I am definitely not an expert on all of Warren's sounds) but I know the Soldano sound like the back of my hand. I have played hundreds of gigs with an SLO-100 for going on almost 20 years. Mine has had the "Warren Haynes" mod since 1992 when it wasn't even known as the "Warren Haynes mod."

The Soldano is very touch sensitive. Even if you have it on the drive channel and you play softly, it will give you a nice crunch without being too overdriven. Remember, he plays with the preamp gain super low. The Soldano has a huge thick lead tone even with a low gain setting and does not sound thin. Also, as JCM 800 said, he uses a Klon for more drive if he needs it. Though back in the early days of the ABB and Warren's solo record, I don't think the Klon existed.

[MGuts]

Sounds good everybody. His clean tones with the volume knob rolled down sounded pretty damn good to me. I almost wonder if I would be able to get by with the Avenger since I wouldn't be using the clean channel much anyway.

[loudgtr]

Originally Posted by cyndicate

I have a SLO100 and Gain at 6 is pretty significant amount of gain, but the amp cleans up REALLY well so it is a possibility and gives more tonal range with the volume knob. However he doesn't play with much gain at all, so I'm assuming his volume knob is never up that high if hes running it at 6 or hes in Crunch mode. When I mess around with Gov't mule tunes I usually just use the crunch mode and it nails it really well.

I have an SLO 100 as well... oh so happy!!

The SLO does clean up very well with the volume knob. Keep in mind that Warren plays at master volumes I rarely touch. My buddy who looked at Warrens SLO that time plays one himself and was really into what the settings were so I'm pretty sure he saw what he said. Keep in mind that Warren just could of liked the way it sounded that night with the gain up and went with it.

[Edmundo]

Look at the second pot from the right. See that little blue capacitor across the lugs? Snip it off for the "Haynes" mod. No big deal.

[JCM 800]

Talked with Brian Farmer (Warren's longtime tech) last night, and saw the amp for myself. Warren uses the SLO on Overdrive channel only. The gain is set at 3 although Warren does mess with that a little. It's never set very high though. All the tone controls are set at noon.

Warren is using a Category 5 4x12 with the SLO right now. Not sure if it's going to stay. Farmer says it sounds really nice with the plexi Marshall in the ABB, but they are not sure about it with the SLO yet.

[whitewave]

Thanks a lot for these informations.