Allan Holdsworth Leads sound so liquid, right?

flying_walrus said:
a quick googling turns up several articles about Alan’s gear. this one in particular has lots of details about what he used throughout his career, along with settings for the amps:
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When I saw him in CA on 16 August 2014, the rig in the second-to-last image on this page was pretty much what he had going onstage - The H&K stuff and a bunch of Yamaha MagicStomps arranged on a table next to the amp.
 
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USMC_Trev said:
When I saw him in CA on 16 August 2014, the rig in the second-to-last image on this page was pretty much what he had going onstage - The H&K stuff and a bunch of Yamaha MagicStomps arranged on a table next to the amp.
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At the Baked Potato?
 
Dave Merrill said:
I'm a big fan of Burgs, he always sounds great, super musical.

But him on that pedal sounds nothing like Holdsworth, which I thought was the point of the post with him then Holdsworth himself on the same pedal. Allan sounds great, and unmistakably like Allan. Burgs does not.
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Yeah I don't think that pedal will give you a Holdsworth tone. Great pedal I think but to me it's just a versatile overdrive pedal with some more elaborate EQ options.
 
This is just even more evidence as to why chasing other peoples tone by copying their gear or buying presets is pointless.
If you set a EVH head up with the same settings as EVH will you get his tone? No .
There are too many variables and they all add up to a big difference and that's before you get to the player.
Even comparing pedals with the knobs at 12 O'clock is stupid because tolerances in electronic components is anything between 5% and 20% typically.
The ONLY way to copy a tone is listen to it and learn what makes it sound the way it does then select gear that gets YOU close often nothing like the gear used. The Andy Wood video on Axe tone is great because it gets you to judge the sounds and alter according to the tone not the settings. It also is helpful in its use of IRs to shape the tone instead of the tone knobs. Any of you with a great tube amp and a few different cabs will know how fantastically different the same amp sounds with a variety of cabs.
 
Andy Eagle said:
This is just even more evidence as to why chasing other peoples tone by copying their gear or buying presets is pointless.
If you set a EVH head up with the same settings as EVH will you get his tone? No .
There are too many variables and they all add up to a big difference and that's before you get to the player.
Even comparing pedals with the knobs at 12 O'clock is stupid because tolerances in electronic components is anything between 5% and 20% typically.
The ONLY way to copy a tone is listen to it and learn what makes it sound the way it does then select gear that gets YOU close often nothing like the gear used. The Andy Wood video on Axe tone is great because it gets you to judge the sounds and alter according to the tone not the settings. It also is helpful in its use of IRs to shape the tone instead of the tone knobs. Any of you with a great tube amp and a few different cabs will know how fantastically different the same amp sounds with a variety of cabs.
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The way the cab is miked, the mics used, and the rooms both used to make the IR and to monitor your playing also have a huge influence.
 
Well not quite, because there's lots of youtube videos where people nail hendrix and SRV tones etc.

If you put the time in, you can sound like someone else. Just most of us don't have the discipline and/or don't find that useful.
 
I never said you couldn't do. In fact I'm saying that you can but you need to understand what's making the tone not just buying a pedal or a preset because that's not on it's own going to work.
 
Andy Eagle said:
This is just even more evidence as to why chasing other peoples tone by copying their gear or buying presets is pointless.
If you set a EVH head up with the same settings as EVH will you get his tone? No .
There are too many variables and they all add up to a big difference and that's before you get to the player.
Even comparing pedals with the knobs at 12 O'clock is stupid because tolerances in electronic components is anything between 5% and 20% typically.
The ONLY way to copy a tone is listen to it and learn what makes it sound the way it does then select gear that gets YOU close often nothing like the gear used. The Andy Wood video on Axe tone is great because it gets you to judge the sounds and alter according to the tone not the settings. It also is helpful in its use of IRs to shape the tone instead of the tone knobs. Any of you with a great tube amp and a few different cabs will know how fantastically different the same amp sounds with a variety of cabs.
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Wise words!
 
We played on the same bill as Allan Holdsworth in 1983 or 1984 in Las Vegas at the Troubador. The band was Allan Holdsworth, Jeff Berlin, and Chad Wackerman. I sat in his dressing room right in front of him only a few feet away while he was warming up through a small practice amp. He sounded like himself even through his small practice amp. I didn't recognize a single chord shape that he used or any of the scales he was using at the time. Totally unique player. He took me up on stage and showed me his whole set up after they did their sound check. Unfortunately I don't remember what he was using. His setup was very elaborate at that time. Not at all what you'd think. I remember being surprised. I'll have to go through my old photos when I get a chance and see if I have any photos of the set up he was using then. He was a really nice guy and great player.
 
unix-guy said:
Allan... What a gift he was to music and specifically guitar.

That was a really cool video. :)
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I had that Rockett pedal and I couldn't really get it to work for me. I have been using the reissue TC Electronic Classic Booster + distortion. Set it to the 'booster' side and it will give a really nice smooth boost. This is one of the pedals I have been using for years and will never get rid off. I showed it to Allan when we played in Sicily in 2011 and he said he also had the reissue. Of course Allan also has the original from the 70's that's close to impossible to find... According to Allan, the reissue did not sound anything like the original, but he liked the new one a lot and said it was very, very good.
 

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warlockII said:
This is a patently false idea. While not every preset will translate to YOUR setup, there are presets out there that are worth every penny!
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No there are not. Even if it sound ok or even good you have learned nothing by using it . You need to understand how different parameters effect the tone and how the way you play affects the tone. All presets for sale are counter productive.
 
Andy Eagle said:
No there are not. Even if it sound ok or even good you have learned nothing by using it . You need to understand how different parameters effect the tone and how the way you play affects the tone. All presets for sale are counter productive.
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Maybe you just are unable to learn from others ... while people like me need to see how to use the multiplexer, MBC or crossover blocks in context of the AXE III. I know what their counterparts in IRL do; but what is an optimal pathway in the AXEIII to use them for guitar?

Presets can give you the method - perhaps not the exact settings granted - but a starting point to learn from. Again, not all people are capable of this "learning" stuff process. Many get stuck early on in life and think they got it all by premature point, ignoring the biggest gift of all in life.
 
I'm perfectly able to learn from others, but a preset is not someone demonstrating their intention and how they used the available parameters to achieve the tones as they demonstrated them. Go to one of Leons five min tone tutorials or the Andy Wood vid I linked and you can get more from those than any random preset ever. You can't even be sure that the preset sounds anything like the intention when you load it on your own rig. Looking at presets for routing is different however, you may learn about that with a signal path diagram. Tone is sound and you need to use YOUR ears and playing not some numbers you bought from somebody else. The whole presets for sale spin off is a huge rip off and actively counter productive for the buyer. It's a bit like nobody hardly transcribes for themselves anymore which was the best way to train your ear and learn how to play music instead of learning shapes and patterns. Music is sound after all and a "sound" product that doesn't necessarily sound like it was supposed too due to huge variables is BS before you even start. EVHltd don't ever say that buying the Wolfgang guitar is going to make you sound anything like EVH. Not even the amp. The potential is there but that is down to you.
 
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Andy Eagle said:
No there are not. Even if it sound ok or even good you have learned nothing by using it . You need to understand how different parameters effect the tone and how the way you play affects the tone. All presets for sale are counter productive.
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Some people actually want to just play guitar though. Not everyone wants to be a programming wiz.

Me I enjoy tinkering with tones, always have, but I strongly disagree that looking at how presets made by someone else are built teaches you nothing. Examples of other people's thinking are always cool -- presets, actual tones, musical ideas, house designs, whatever.
 
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