amp and settings for sweet home alabama help

J

jolee1

Member
Im having trouble nailing a good not too distorted rhythm guitar amp tone for LS sweet home alabama and allman bros/dicky betts type lead tones

can u suggest which amp + factory cab is best and some settings to get me there for each with a LP please?
 
jolee1 said:
Im having trouble nailing a good not too distorted rhythm guitar amp tone for LS sweet home alabama and allman bros/dicky betts type lead tones

can u suggest which amp + factory cab is best and some settings to get me there for each with a LP please?
Click to expand...

Those sound like very different tones to me. SHA is strat in between, relatively clean. Betts is Les Paul, probably on the neck, smoother more sustain.
 
I've found conflicting stories about the amps Ed King used. No doubt it was something clean and punchy to get that intro tone. Definitely a strat into either a turned up twin or clean Marshall. You could probably ask Ed himself - he's pretty interactive on FB.

Gonna be hard to get those position 2 and 4 strat tones with a humbucker guitar. I use a clean twin patch for the intro and slightly crunchy plexi tone for the rest of the chords. I find the 70's plexi works great with single coils with the volume down on the guitar. Same tone for Green Grass and High Tides intro.
 
Having never played in a 3 guitarist band ( not many of us do ), I've always struggled to cover the range of tones in any Skynyrd song ..., and Sweet Home ..., is probably one of the most challenging !

First of all ..., ( IMHO ) an H-S-S guitar would be an absolute must. If it has a 'blower' switch that would be even better ! Then going from a Bridge Humbucker to a position 2 or 4 split sound would only take one switch ....

Good Luck on the Amp tones ..., that's a whole other story ... ! Although having the proper guitar will help a ton !
 
http://www.guitar-muse.com/lynyrd-skynyrds-ed-king-sweet-home-alabama-8150

From Ed King himself:

EK: I used a ‘72 Stratocaster and a 50-watt Marshall turned all the way up. The pickups on that guitar were really bad and even when you turned everything up full, it didn’t really have any kind of natural crunch. That’s why the guitar’s so clean. It was really a good guitar for that song. But it was a lousy-playing guitar, and every time I hear my solo, I can hear myself fighting it.
 
I woodshed a lot on that first solo from Sweet Home Alabama.

That is a very cool set of riffs and a great lesson in major chord soloing (as are most of the ABB too. Loves me some Jessica, Blue Sky, Whipping Post, ....)
 
Continueing:

ABB has a completely different tone IMO. To me this is all poweramp distortion. I'd pick the cleanest Plexi, and I haven't researched it, but I heard that they put JBL's in cabs to clean it up more. Keep MV high, preamp low, and pick a clean IR (as with anything, DON'T BE AFRAID TO USE A CAB WHICH MIGHT NOT MAKE *SENSE*). These guys are masters at using volume knob, so dial in rhythm with a LP Vol at 8 or lower. Solo at neck pup dimed (you can cheat and put a clean boost in front of the amp too.)
 
DB used a Goldtop Les Paul Deluxe didn't he? With mini humbuckers.

Back in the day, before the internet and all the tone chasing and gear lore, we got our info from very few sources.

I heard back then the Allmans setup for live was 3 Marshall 50 watt heads each. Dickey had two set for clean and one dirty. Duanne had two dirty and one clean. They had a falling out with Marshall and removed the Marshall logo from all their stuff in protest; so it wouldn't show up in album covers and photographs.

No efx, or pedals except a wah that was used mostly fixed "cocked wah", like in Whipping Post at the end.
 
electronpirate said:
http://www.guitar-muse.com/lynyrd-skynyrds-ed-king-sweet-home-alabama-8150

From Ed King himself:

EK: I used a ‘72 Stratocaster and a 50-watt Marshall turned all the way up. The pickups on that guitar were really bad and even when you turned everything up full, it didn’t really have any kind of natural crunch. That’s why the guitar’s so clean. It was really a good guitar for that song. But it was a lousy-playing guitar, and every time I hear my solo, I can hear myself fighting it.
Click to expand...
Now we know why they say "turn it up!" at the beginning of the song...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom