AFIII An attempt at Shawn Lane's tone

MattBowman

MattBowman

FAS Social Media Advocate
I've always wanted to be able to play like Shawn Lane, but I know that'll never happen, so I'd at least like to try and get in the ballpark of his tone. There's not much info out there on what he used for amp settings, I know he used Gjika amp, a Holmes Bluesmaster and I believe a tube driver, obviously lots of delay, and his otherworldly hands. So I attempted to at least get in the same ballpark using Firmware 7.01, I used a the Plexi 50W 6550, an Ownhammer 412 FMAN V30M 57-00 and 121-00 cab, and some delay, and my Charvel DK24. Has anyone else here tried to copy his tone?
 

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Shawn Lane - what a player, and what a loss when he died way too young. But your tone is excellent and very close. Downloaded and will try it with my Axe Fx 3 and two Line 6 Powercab Pluses. Thanks for doing this :)
 
Doc Rock said:
Shawn Lane - what a player, and what a loss when he died way too young. But your tone is excellent and very close. Downloaded and will try it with my Axe Fx 3 and two Line 6 Powercab Pluses. Thanks for doing this :)
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Thank you! When I was in school back in the late 90s at the Atlanta institute of music, he was supposed to come down and do private lessons, but he never came down, wish I had an opportunity to have seen him in person.
Let me know what you think of the preset!
 
For all his amazing capability to play faster than almost anyone else on the planet, for sheer emotive playing and tone, this track is my favourite - it's his "Epilogue for Lisa". Lisa was his sister who died young, long before Shawn himself died of diabetic complications. The audio on this old clip isn't the best, but enjoy it anyway - it has emotion plus plus, and it comes through in the tone as well as the playing...

 
Doc Rock said:
For all his amazing capability to play faster than almost anyone else on the planet, for sheer emotive playing and tone, this track is my favourite - it's his "Epilogue for Lisa". Lisa was his sister who died young, long before Shawn himself died of diabetic complications. The audio on this old clip isn't the best, but enjoy it anyway - it has emotion plus plus, and it comes through in the tone as well as the playing...

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Love that song, I used to watch this video all the time!
 
nhgtrman said:
Love that song, I used to watch this video all the time!
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I tried your preset, but I couldn't get any sound out of it. Bearing in mind that I'm a newbie to the Axe Fx3 (much less of a newbie with the Helix), I fiddled around and found that if I put the Cab block into bypass, I got screaming feedback. So I turned the level way down, and got sound. It sounds like it would be close to Shawn's sound, but I obviously don't know what I'm doing with regards to getting the sound straight from your preset file. I just imported it into an empty preset spot, but that didn't give me any sound. Am I missing something, like an IR, for example, that you might have on your system but I don't?
 
Doc Rock said:
I tried your preset, but I couldn't get any sound out of it. Bearing in mind that I'm a newbie to the Axe Fx3 (much less of a newbie with the Helix), I fiddled around and found that if I put the Cab block into bypass, I got screaming feedback. So I turned the level way down, and got sound. It sounds like it would be close to Shawn's sound, but I obviously don't know what I'm doing with regards to getting the sound straight from your preset file. I just imported it into an empty preset spot, but that didn't give me any sound. Am I missing something, like an IR, for example, that you might have on your system but I don't?
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The reason you didn't get any sound is because I'm using User Presets in the IR slots. Change them to anything you'd like, there's a bunch that'll sound great with the Plexi Amp. I happen to be using 2 Friedman IR's
 
nhgtrman said:
The reason you didn't get any sound is because I'm using User Presets in the IR slots. Change them to anything you'd like, there's a bunch that'll sound great with the Plexi Amp. I happen to be using 2 Friedman IR's
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Thanks - will try that when I get home. I'm away for a day or two.
 
Powers of Ten said:
Sounds good!
Powers of ten is one of the best instrumental albums of all time.
Still a mystery so many guitar players have never heard of him!
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Thank you! Incredible album and one of the most talented players who ever lived! In that time though it was a hard album to come by, I was lucky enough to discover Shawn when I was a teenager(long time ago) through his instructional videos and consequently the Powers of Ten album!
 
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nhgtrman said:
Thank you! Incredible album and one of the most talented players who ever lived! In that time though it was a hard album to come by, I was lucky enough to discover Shawn when I was a teenager(long time ago) through his instructional videos and consequently the Powers of Ten album!
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Oh yeah! I remember, had to order it from a jazz special store in Oslo, Norway and waited a long time for it.
Even though he was on a big label then, I think they did not really care about him and they did not press that many copies of it.
 
I think you got pretty close, great playing, but guess his tone had a lot to do with the way he played. I've been behind one of those 750XL Charvels, not really successfully.
 
Mohi said:
I think you got pretty close, great playing, but guess his tone had a lot to do with the way he played. I've been behind one of those 750XL Charvels, not really successfully.
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Thank you! Yeah he just had the touch, didn't matter what guitar he was playing, still sounded like him.
 
Shawn was one of the nicest and humble dudes I ever met. It was around 1992 and a friend introduced me to him and his wife at the time. He was playing top 20's just to pay the bills at some small bar in Memphis. So my buddy wanted him to do solos on every instrument there for me. I had just witnessed some the most amazing solos on obviously guitar/bass, piano, and drums that I have ever seen and even to this date I still feel that way. Also, he rarely practiced on his guitar almost all of his practicing was on the piano. That's just sick! Anything in his amazing musical brain he could translate physically on any instrument.
 
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