Does the Axe FX have the tools available to replicate this tone?

biggness said:


Starting at 2:30 onwards. Sounds like a fuzz, and maybe ring mod? Not entirely sure though.
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There is deffo some low note sort-of following the fuzzy note. Not sure if a ring mod, an octave divider, or both. AxeFX has all the pieces to do those, but it may take a bit of poking around to get the right combination....
 
biggness said:


Starting at 2:30 onwards. Sounds like a fuzz, and maybe ring mod? Not entirely sure though.
Click to expand...


Joe Bfstplk said:
There is deffo some low note sort-of following the fuzzy note. Not sure if a ring mod, an octave divider, or both. AxeFX has all the pieces to do those, but it may take a bit of poking around to get the right combination....
Click to expand...
Agree. Sounds like he's separating the low frequencies and applying some fuzz and stuff to it.

In Axe FX, could you split signal into 2 and apply a low pass filter, fuzz, octave, etc to 1 of the signals (this would be your low end fuzzy sound). And then apply whatever to the other unaltered regular signal?

Almost sounds like he's trying to do what Royal Blood does, in reverse (guitar instead of bass).
 
JRod4928 said:
Agree. Sounds like he's separating the low frequencies and applying some fuzz and stuff to it.

In Axe FX, could you split signal into 2 and apply a low pass filter, fuzz, octave, etc to 1 of the signals (this would be your low end fuzzy sound). And then apply whatever to the other unaltered regular signal?
Click to expand...

IIRC, there is a crossover block in there somewhere....

JRod4928 said:
Almost sounds like he's trying to do what Royal Blood does, in reverse (guitar instead of bass).
Click to expand...
 
this pedal is one of the key components of his driven tone. closest we have as of now is the transformer preamp type in the cab block: set drive medium-high (dependent on the level the cab block is seeing) and saturation around 1
 
Description, of this pedal (Broadcaster-AP) is:
"The control layout features both LEVEL and GAIN TRIM potentiometers and a switchable high-pass / low-cut filter – 100Hz @ 6dB/oct. The GAIN TRIM control has 12dB more gain than the low-gain side of standard Broadcast, allowing the Broadcast-AP to cover ground from clean boost through to medium gain overdrive tones. In addition, the gain of the pedal can be increased via an internal trimmer and – when pushed to the max – the sound becomes overloaded, broken and fuzzy. The high-pass / low-cut filter can help keep the low end together, especially when driving amps at higher gain and volume levels."

Kind of a high-quality, broken-speaker, bad/overloaded-board-preamp sound, I would look for broken speaker-like components -- a fuzz that leaned more toward the broken speaker sound instead the overdriven amp sound. I would try keeping a good percentage of the clean sound mixed in -- maybe a shunt around the pedal. You could use the Low Cut control on the chosen fuzz pedal to match the "high-pass / low-cut" filter in the Broadcast-AP pedal. (maybe the "Master Fuzz" Maestro Fuzz-Tone FZ-1A pedal, used in "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"

Then, I would add to it with the Speaker parameters, Speaker Drive, Speaker Compression, Speaker Compliance and Speaker Time Constant. If I still felt something was lacking, I would look at Xformer Matching, Voice Coil Resistance and Xformer Drive. And especially, the Cab Preamp -- as @Joe Bfstplk previously mentioned, I would try Transformer and Tube Types along with the Drive and Saturation parameters. And, paradoxically, I would try out the High-Quality preamp settings, even though we are munging the tone with it.

I am guessing this distortion tone has it's linage in the original 1961 Grady Martin broken-channel-strip sound. All of this is kind of a hack to match the pedal. But, it could actually end up sounding better -- with access to all of FAS's amp/transformer/speaker/cab/mic-preamp parameters. The pedal is a actually a hack to match the clipping and transformer distortion of the bad channel-strip. My guess is that a lot of the sub-harmonic and octave sounding tones will appear on their own.

But First, I would start with "Master Fuzz" Maestro Fuzz-Tone FZ-1A pedal, shunt around it with a clean signal, and cut down the pedal's bandwidth with the Low Cut and the High Cut on the pedal. I would also experiment with the pedal's Graphic EQ and Advance parameters.

With the FM9 or the FX3 you could devote a whole other amp to this sound. Obviously, it will be trickier with one amp in an FM3.
 
Postretro said:
Description, of this pedal (Broadcaster-AP) is:
"The control layout features both LEVEL and GAIN TRIM potentiometers and a switchable high-pass / low-cut filter – 100Hz @ 6dB/oct. The GAIN TRIM control has 12dB more gain than the low-gain side of standard Broadcast, allowing the Broadcast-AP to cover ground from clean boost through to medium gain overdrive tones. In addition, the gain of the pedal can be increased via an internal trimmer and – when pushed to the max – the sound becomes overloaded, broken and fuzzy. The high-pass / low-cut filter can help keep the low end together, especially when driving amps at higher gain and volume levels."

Kind of a high-quality, broken-speaker, bad/overloaded-board-preamp sound, I would look for broken speaker-like components -- a fuzz that leaned more toward the broken speaker sound instead the overdriven amp sound. I would try keeping a good percentage of the clean sound mixed in -- maybe a shunt around the pedal. You could use the Low Cut control on the chosen fuzz pedal to match the "high-pass / low-cut" filter in the Broadcast-AP pedal. (maybe the "Master Fuzz" Maestro Fuzz-Tone FZ-1A pedal, used in "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"

Then, I would add to it with the Speaker parameters, Speaker Drive, Speaker Compression, Speaker Compliance and Speaker Time Constant. If I still felt something was lacking, I would look at Xformer Matching, Voice Coil Resistance and Xformer Drive. And especially, the Cab Preamp -- as @Joe Bfstplk previously mentioned, I would try Transformer and Tube Types along with the Drive and Saturation parameters. And, paradoxically, I would try out the High-Quality preamp settings, even though we are munging the tone with it.

I am guessing this distortion tone has it's linage in the original 1961 Grady Martin broken-channel-strip sound. All of this is kind of a hack to match the pedal. But, it could actually end up sounding better -- with access to all of FAS's amp/transformer/speaker/cab/mic-preamp parameters. The pedal is a actually a hack to match the clipping and transformer distortion of the bad channel-strip. My guess is that a lot of the sub-harmonic and octave sounding tones will appear on their own.

But First, I would start with "Master Fuzz" Maestro Fuzz-Tone FZ-1A pedal, shunt around it with a clean signal, and cut down the pedal's bandwidth with the Low Cut and the High Cut on the pedal. I would also experiment with the pedal's Graphic EQ and Advance parameters.

With the FM9 or the FX3 you could devote a whole other amp to this sound. Obviously, it will be trickier with one amp in an FM3.
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Wow, mucho appreciado! I'll give it a whirl, and report back.
 
More info:

https://www.guitarplayer.com/players/ariel-posen-headway

"I had about five fuzz pedals with me, so I could try different colors. I might want something more spitty or more pillowy. I had two King Tone mini fuzz pedals, a germanium and a silicon version; a couple of the DanDrive fuzz pedals; and the Isle of Tone Haze 67. On some songs I experimented with putting the fuzz at the end of the chain and a modulation effect before it."

https://equipboard.com/pros/ariel_posen?gear=amplifiers

At 3:06 - "Here's my clean tone right out the gate. I'm going through a Two-Rock Traditional Clean. I'm actually - for this tour - I'm running 2 Two-Rocks; one wet, one dry, and then a V40 Deluxe which only gets engaged when I kick on my tremolo."

So, He is using a Two Rock amp and very probably two amplifiers. Also, there is a small mixing board by his Two Rock amp head.

When he plays early on, at very low volume, you can hear the pedal alone, it's very gated -- but not especially crackly or fizzy.

When he plays lead, the thick compressed Dumble sound is more prominent. But, it is mixed with the fuzz. He has 5 fuzzes so, it may be a different fuzz. He gets very different levels of Fuzz that don't correlate to his volume changes.

Clearly, if he is mixing wet and dry with two amps, he can be mixing some extreme fuzz along with some high-quality Dumble edge-of-breakup tone. Not to mention that he willing to run a Fuzz after some reverb or delay.

If you only have one amp/cab available (FM3), you might try shunting a fuzz and then running into a mixer before the amp.

You could also try the same thing between the amp and speaker. Pan each mixer row to opposite sides and set the cab input to stereo. Send the fuzz into one speaker and the Dumbly lead sound into the other speaker.

As far as Fuzz goes, experiment with different Drive pedals. I would limit myself to actual Fuzz pedals to start. But, if that doesn't work, try some of the Overdrives. Experiment, a lot, with the Clip Type, Clip Shape, Bias and Slew Rate. I would start with the Slew Rate at 0, and maybe raise it -- a little. Clip Type? Try them all, but definitely work with Germanium and Silicon. I think Clip Shape and Bias will help most to tune in closer to his Fuzz sound. Also, experiment with the Low Cut, High Cut and GEQ in the Fuzz.

The Fuzz sound is usually mixed and seldom stands by itself in this song (my belief, I could wrong.) And, there is no guarantee that he uses the same Fuzz pedal for the whole song. You will probably create several Fuzz pedals to do this right.

It is a great sound -- worth spending some time to try to recreate it. Very very tasteful Fuzz tones. I do think the Dumble sound is mixed in. But, maybe that is what fuzz can do in a Dumble?
 
Scrap the Dumble comments, kind of,

I just realized. At times Posey's tones remind me of David Lindley. Lindley used a very, very early Dumble (#8) with 6V6's and an MXR Dynacomp, Armstrong Purple Peaker and Sho-bud Volume pedal. Sounds family-type similar.-- with a fuzz instead of the Purple Peaker.

But, the Two-Rock Classic Clean Tone is more of a Blackface Fender Twin that can also run 4x6V6's -- with an added Overdrive and Master Volume. In the video, it sounds more 6V6 to me -- with some edge-of-breakup overdrive happening. There is also a mid boost and a
deep switch.

I think the amp tone is going to be as important as the Fuzz pedal tone.

https://www.two-rock.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Traditional-Clean-Manual.pdf
 
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Sound a bit like an old Octaland or Octalander (something like that) by Kingtone. Not saying I know how, but I’m pretty sure the Axe FX has got the right stuff under the hood to make this sound happen.
 
These two gear videos should clear up a lot of things.

Older Mar 6, 2018 -




Newer Nov 9, 2019 -



In the OP's video Posen is playing a Mule Resophonic Guitars StratoMule
It is a Baritone with a standard strat neck scale.
He uses an open-C on his Collings 360 LTM.
But, even with the shorter scale, it is an open-B.


I found his older gear video sounded more like the OP's video.
It also explained more about his fundamental tone with examples.
The Octave tones and the Fuzz tones were also much clearer
and better demonstrated for those who want to copy his pedal sounds.

The newer gear video is very informative.
And, he is more sophisticated about his sound.
But, it is less helpful in understanding his fundamental tones.

-- The Big Part Of His Basic Amp Tone --
is this: a Hudson Broadcast-AP into a Cornerstone Antique (Mayer style Tube screamer)
He has since replaced the Cornerstone Antique
with a Duelist (also a Tube screamer on one side)

He uses the Broadcast-AP into the Tube Screamer for his amp OD tone.
It reminds me of Dumbles, 6V6's and overdriven amps.

This OD pedal combo (Broadcast->TS) and his guitar volume control
is a big part of why his octaver sounds so good.

A person with an FM9, or a FXIII,
could use a Cab Block Preamp, with a Null Speaker,
as an effect before a tube screamer and then into the amp.

His pickup, drive, fuzz, octaver, and amp tones all mix together very naturally.

From the Early Video:

3:10 clean and breakup amp tones
3:40 Beetronics Octohive
5:12 Kingtone "Jesse Davie" Silicon Fuzz

His Fuzz and Octave pedals are very volume sensitive
and they clean up much better than most Fuzzes and Octavers.
They even sound similar to each other as they start to clean up --
which makes them harder to identify.

That wide variety of Fuzz and Octave tones over volume changes
might be difficult to duplicate by tweaking a drive model.

6:50 Hudson Broadcast-AP - "my leave on the whole time, pedal"
8:32 Cornerstone Antique - "kind of always on," (Tube Screamer)

"while it definitely belongs to the Screamer-like family of overdrives,
It has a well-defined tone specifically tweaked
to achieve the bluesy sounds of John Mayer." -- Cornerstone


PEDAL CHANGES 2018 -> 2019
Beetronics Octohive -> Kingtone Octoland,
Kingtone "Jesse Davie" Silicon Fuzz -> Origin Effects Revival Drive,
Cornerstone Antique -> Kingtone Duelist

Notable Others:
Origen Effects Cali 76 Compressor
Walrus Audio Monument Harmonic Tap Tremolo

In the OP's video:
At 0:59 He looks down and steps on something. It sounds like his Fuzz
At 2:30 He looks down and steps again, it sounds like a very gated octave fuzz.
 
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