A compilation Eric Johnson Rig preset

I feel like the cabs in the Fractal are the most intimidating part of the whole universe. I’ve owned a few Marshall 1960s and a Legacy and that’s about it. They seem to be the make or break for a lot of tones in these units. While it’s easy to hear differences and some things clearly work better than others depending on their application, it’s hard to know what’s actually BETTER at any given time for me. At least if they’re categorically similar. I remember trying out a 5150 half-stack when they first released. It was great but I actually liked the combo more. Same with the Legacy half-stack I ended up getting in 2001. I preferred the combo. But it was gifted and I needed the volume anyway. I might just be a 2x12” kinda dude… At least when it comes to analog. I’ve yet to dive into cabs in my FM3 because I’d never get to actually play. I tend to go with what I’m familiar with or the consensus. And 4x12’s are what are always used.

For this preset, I picked the Basketweave because it seemed like something that he would’ve used and I think a vid I watched mentioned it as well, which might be how it ended up on my radar to begin with. The Cali mix I’ve used in other presets so I went with that as well.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
What, or who, is the source? There's a factory "4x12 Basketweave Green Mix" but not the other.

Oh, never mind, they're both factory Legacy cabs.
Click to expand...

Now that I think about it, that Basketweave idea originated from an Andy Wood video where he made an analog version, which is also where the Zen drive idea came from. Other EJ versions I experimented and toyed with over the months was using the Tube Driver, both 3 and 4 knob'd. I saw his vid and tried it out and there it was! I remembered the Zen from that vid when I put this preset together, but not where the Basketweave came from. That was definitely from that vid.
 
I'm not an Eric Johnson specialist (although I love him and went to see him live when I want to LA for NAMM), nor did I spent as much time as making a EJ preset, but here's the "in the ballpark" preset I came with :



After seeing him live, I realized that mimicking his lead tone isn't that challenging - as for Gilmour, the player is much more important imho - however, his glassy clean tone is really something else !
 
fremen said:
I'm not an Eric Johnson specialist (although I love him and went to see him live when I want to LA for NAMM), nor did I spent as much time as making a EJ preset, but here's the "in the ballpark" preset I came with :



After seeing him live, I realized that mimicking his lead tone isn't that challenging - as for Gilmour, the player is much more important imho - however, his glassy clean tone is really something else !
Click to expand...

I am pretty much new to the EJ thing, but would like to say that your tones in the video are fantastic.
I know that you are a vendor, but you can't post a video like that and not share your preset! :) If you did share, I would be interested to compare the amps, cabs, etc between your settings and @DC11GTR 's. I wonder if you are using the same amp models and so much more. It would be a learning experience for me.
But sharing or not, you have a great skill in pulling amazing tones from your Fractal device.
 
I downloaded and sent to FM3, and it exceeds CPU. Any of you get it to work on Fm3 with a few tweaked reductions?
 
DC11GTR said:
Ah dang... Sorry about the cabs. I didn't realize those didn't transfer with the export. The first cab is the 4x12 Cali Lead 80s Mix and the other is 4x12 Basketweave Green Mix. Low and high cuts at the usual, 60'ish and 8kish, respectively. Cab 2 is -6db and it's alignment is 3.0mm. I've A/B/C'd them a ton and I can't pick. It's a mood thing for which one/s I go with. As for the flanger block... I had no idea that's what happened when a block was added in that way. It was absolutely not intentional. I just needed the room and it seemed like that is how it was done. Thanks for the tips. I now have to go through a bunch of other presets lol


Is the BoG fuzz in the unit? I love that tone!!
Click to expand...
No, I believe it's the standard Fuzz Face. I have the mini version BoG on my pedalboard.
 
Mine is a turbo and it’s in the 80s. I see the “close to exceeding…” red thingy pop up often. I might dump the flange anyway if I can think of tone that I’d get more use out of, like the SRV or the Manhattan/Trademark. The tone in All About You would be great but I think the CNO can handle it as long as whatever picking technique is nailed. It’s some sort swipe’y thing he does. I remember reading about it in an article when Venus Isle released but that was like 25 years ago lol
 
DC11GTR said:
This was put together after playing through every EJ preset I could get and watching every video I could find. When I'm in THAT kind of mood, I tend to jump from 1 preset to another and since I finally picked up a nice foot-controller, I figured I should combine them all into 1 preset. I pieced them all together, tweaked them to taste, and so far, I really like it. I'm sure there's a ton of improvement in all areas. I'm really bad with delays, and effects in general, so there's really just 1 or 2, with PlexDly (from CC's SonS that had an ACL Clean) and none of them are aiming for anything other than "Sounds cool".

Here's a short and sloppy vid with examples:



Scene 1 is the ACL Cliffs Clean
Scene 2 is the same but with the PlexDly off and works great for regular clean stuff.
Scene 3 is the ACL Lead
Scene 4 is the ACL Lead with the same changes as Scene 2.
Scene 5 is what I could consider a Main Lead, but not really song specific. I think it might be too gainy for what I played in the vid, but it's cold and my hands just could not pull off the first solo in Desert Rose no matter how hard I tried, haha.
Scene 6 is a much lighter lead and would probably be good for a few different EJ leads in that vein. I picked Venus Isle because of course I did.
Scene 7 is Camel's Night Out, which is the same as Main Lead but I swapped the Zen for a Fuzz Face
Scene 8 just adds a Flange to the Main Lead, but I can't remember how to play the outro to Venus Reprise anymore, lol
There's also a WAH block that's accessed via my Mission expression pedal with the engage button.

I'm sure in someone else's hands, this could be tweaked to perfection. I'd love to be able to do it, but my ears don't have that THING that elite ear havers possess. It's also very close to maxing out the CPU, which a more experienced Fractal user could probably fix as well. I've only had mine for a few months and I tend to play on the same 2 presets, Joe's Marshall and John's Boogie, until I get into the "THAT" mood and then I bounce between like 9 different EJ presets. Hence this whole thing. If I was able to, I'd love to have had that... SRV'ish kinda thing that EJ uses in... SRV. A Trademark/Manhattan tone would be the perfect last addition, but I don't think there's room in the preset.

The signal chain is: Ibanez JS-2450 with the coils tapped, all bridge pickup and (this is a big key to EJs sound I think) rolling back the tone knob a bit, into the Fractal FM3 and into Pro Tools. I recorded a 10 minute video, bounced it using "Channel Strip for Electric Guitar" on the Master Fader and imported it into iMovie. I monitor through a pair of Kali In-5s directly out of the Fractal.

Hope y'all enjoy it and if someone does some smart fixes and tweaks, I'd love to check them out!
Click to expand...

sounds great!
 
Admin M@ said:
Th typical disconnect is not al all "the cabs in the Fractal" -- those are some of the best you'll find anywhere IMHO. Instead, it's the fact that you're playing through an IR instead of playing through a guitar speaker.
Click to expand...

I meant more in the “this sounds better than that” kind of way. Sometimes it’s obvious but a lot of the time I can’t tell. I can hear a difference but I can rarely say what that difference is.
 
Wait till ya hear the most recent version lol

It’s not quite 8.0 based, but it does use a pedal from the update. The cleans are the same but the leads are all tweaked here and there. Mostly by adding a 2nd drive on anywhere between .1 and .5 that is sort of a glue to hold it all together. It started with trying to get the All About You tone and I started learning a bunch of new things.
 
DC11GTR said:
Wait till ya hear the most recent version lol

It’s not quite 8.0 based, but it does use a pedal from the update. The cleans are the same but the leads are all tweaked here and there. Mostly by adding a 2nd drive on anywhere between .1 and .5 that is sort of a glue to hold it all together. It started with trying to get the All About You tone and I started learning a bunch of new things.
Click to expand...
Just tried your original preset after this thread was bumped. Great work!
 
DC11GTR said:
This was put together after playing through every EJ preset I could get and watching every video I could find. When I'm in THAT kind of mood, I tend to jump from 1 preset to another and since I finally picked up a nice foot-controller, I figured I should combine them all into 1 preset. I pieced them all together, tweaked them to taste, and so far, I really like it. I'm sure there's a ton of improvement in all areas. I'm really bad with delays, and effects in general, so there's really just 1 or 2, with PlexDly (from CC's SonS that had an ACL Clean) and none of them are aiming for anything other than "Sounds cool".

Here's a short and sloppy vid with examples:



Scene 1 is the ACL Cliffs Clean
Scene 2 is the same but with the PlexDly off and works great for regular clean stuff.
Scene 3 is the ACL Lead
Scene 4 is the ACL Lead with the same changes as Scene 2.
Scene 5 is what I could consider a Main Lead, but not really song specific. I think it might be too gainy for what I played in the vid, but it's cold and my hands just could not pull off the first solo in Desert Rose no matter how hard I tried, haha.
Scene 6 is a much lighter lead and would probably be good for a few different EJ leads in that vein. I picked Venus Isle because of course I did.
Scene 7 is Camel's Night Out, which is the same as Main Lead but I swapped the Zen for a Fuzz Face
Scene 8 just adds a Flange to the Main Lead, but I can't remember how to play the outro to Venus Reprise anymore, lol
There's also a WAH block that's accessed via my Mission expression pedal with the engage button.

I'm sure in someone else's hands, this could be tweaked to perfection. I'd love to be able to do it, but my ears don't have that THING that elite ear havers possess. It's also very close to maxing out the CPU, which a more experienced Fractal user could probably fix as well. I've only had mine for a few months and I tend to play on the same 2 presets, Joe's Marshall and John's Boogie, until I get into the "THAT" mood and then I bounce between like 9 different EJ presets. Hence this whole thing. If I was able to, I'd love to have had that... SRV'ish kinda thing that EJ uses in... SRV. A Trademark/Manhattan tone would be the perfect last addition, but I don't think there's room in the preset.

The signal chain is: Ibanez JS-2450 with the coils tapped, all bridge pickup and (this is a big key to EJs sound I think) rolling back the tone knob a bit, into the Fractal FM3 and into Pro Tools. I recorded a 10 minute video, bounced it using "Channel Strip for Electric Guitar" on the Master Fader and imported it into iMovie. I monitor through a pair of Kali In-5s directly out of the Fractal.

Hope y'all enjoy it and if someone does some smart fixes and tweaks, I'd love to check them out!
Click to expand...

This sounds great and so is your playing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom