Bands that epitomize a certain amp’s sound

Ah very cool! He is totally amazing. I was into the first Ohm record he recorded too. Damn the Machine actually just released a new an album of unreleased songs that were demos from that period, called Day One. The snippets I heard sounded awesome. Damnthemachine.com is run by David, their singer and other guitarist.

I’ll have to check our your stuff then too! Do you have a link to your discography?
As another fan of Return of Metalopolis and Damn the Machine, I've been meaning to pick this up....

https://sublevelrecords.bigcartel.com/category/chris-poland

A little pricey for a tab book, but Evan's work is spot on and he usually works directly with the artist to ensure accuracy.
 
As another fan of Return of Metalopolis and Damn the Machine, I've been meaning to pick this up....

https://sublevelrecords.bigcartel.com/category/chris-poland

A little pricey for a tab book, but Evan's work is spot on and he usually works directly with the artist to ensure accuracy.

Yeah totally! I'm on that email list. I love the band Prototype, and I think their lead guitarist Kragen Lum, who also tours with Exodus and Heathen, runs that site. I bought all the Prototype tab books as well as the one for Toxik's first album there. All very well done.
 
For me when I think Marshall, even though there are SO many great artists that use them in various settings and with varying tones, I always think of ACDC. Just pure punch, power, and attitude.
 
As another fan of Return of Metalopolis and Damn the Machine, I've been meaning to pick this up....

https://sublevelrecords.bigcartel.com/category/chris-poland

A little pricey for a tab book, but Evan's work is spot on and he usually works directly with the artist to ensure accuracy.
You can find some pretty accurate tabs for that album already on the net for free if you want to get a good feel for his playing on that album. It really is not all that tough to play. The hardest thing is his smooth multi note bends with the legato, just before the bend. That seems to be his signature thing. If you can get that down and hit legato pentatonic runs and wide intervallic stretched licks with slides in there, you can get close enough. Just do tons of finger stretches for the leaps.

If you want to try and learn his legato and mutlibend thing, this is a good start:


These are not bad and things like Club Ded are pretty accurate. It might be a good start, for now.

https://www.songsterr.com/a/wsa/chris-poland-tabs-a13263

James
 
Last edited:
Todd Rundgren <> Old Line6 Amps (Flextone, Vetta ...) - Always seems to sound awesome on modelling stuff we'd call inferior:

 
I always associate the Marshall Valvestate 8100 with Death.

My favorite band; and it's funny, I didn't think of that. I got to speak to Chuck Schuldiner twice, on the Symbolic and Sound of Persaverance tours, and I asked why he didn't go for an all tube amp. He said he couldn't afford it!

I've read that he used a DS-1 on Human, and I always wondered what amps were used for Human and Spiritual Healing, because I love the tones on both, but I thought the Valvestate was Symbolic and later; I could be wrong though.
 
My favorite band; and it's funny, I didn't think of that. I got to speak to Chuck Schuldiner twice, on the Symbolic and Sound of Persaverance tours, and I asked why he didn't go for an all tube amp. He said he couldn't afford it!

I've read that he used a DS-1 on Human, and I always wondered what amps were used for Human and Spiritual Healing, because I love the tones on both, but I thought the Valvestate was Symbolic and later; I could be wrong though.
I think the “coldness” of solid-state amps matched the Death sound very well. I did read that they used the Valvestate on Individual Thought Patterns, too. Not sure it it’s true, though.

Yeah, I did read that they used DS-1 and a 2203 on Human indeed. However, I think the large part of the sound comes from the Scott Burns’ EQ, I guess. My favourite Death album is Human, and as much as I love the tone on that album, I guess I prefer the Valvestate sound.

I also like the Scream Bloody Gore’s tone, it's said he used a Gallien-Krueger 250ML through a 4x12 1960s because he loved the Toxik’s World Circus.

Also, it must’ve been a blast to be able to meet and speak with Chuck, not only once but twice! I envy you, haha.
 
I think the “coldness” of solid-state amps matched the Death sound very well. I did read that they used the Valvestate on Individual Thought Patterns, too. Not sure it it’s true, though.

Yeah, I did read that they used DS-1 and a 2203 on Human indeed. However, I think the large part of the sound comes from the Scott Burns’ EQ, I guess. My favourite Death album is Human, and as much as I love the tone on that album, I guess I prefer the Valvestate sound.

I also like the Scream Bloody Gore’s tone, it's said he used a Gallien-Krueger 250ML through a 4x12 1960s because he loved the Toxik’s World Circus.

Also, it must’ve been a blast to be able to meet and speak with Chuck, not only once but twice! I envy you, haha.

Man, I've never had anyone ever once mention Toxik to me. I love their second album, Think This. They just came out with a new one too.

I didn't know about the 2203; that's cool to know, something maybe to try in the FX3. But yeah, the EQ is everything with those. I could tonematch the intro to See Through Dreams or something like that.

It was very cool meeting him, but I could tell I was doing nothing but getting on his nerves. I asked why he would write The Philosopher, disparaging philosophers on one album, then quote Nietzche on the liner notes to another! He said he didn't read philosophy, but it was just a cool quote a friend showed him. I had no idea at the time The Philosopher was his indictment of Paul Masvidal. I ended up talking with Shannon Hamm for about half an hour, and he was the absolute nicest guy ever. I was wearing a Dream Theater shirt, and he said that if I want to hear something like Dream Theater with more balls, I should try Symphony X, whom I'd never heard of. If you haven't seen it, the Death by Metal documentary is really interesting, with all sorts of interviews with the people who played with Schuldiner. I also saw a leg of the Death To All tour, where another person stood in for Schuldiner, but it was otherwise the Human lineup. They did an extended version of Cosmic Sea, with an extra long bass solo, and that was incredible, although otherwise the show was so unbearably loud I couldn't make out much of what they were doing.
 
Man, I've never had anyone ever once mention Toxik to me. I love their second album, Think This. They just came out with a new one too.

I didn't know about the 2203; that's cool to know, something maybe to try in the FX3. But yeah, the EQ is everything with those. I could tonematch the intro to See Through Dreams or something like that.

It was very cool meeting him, but I could tell I was doing nothing but getting on his nerves. I asked why he would write The Philosopher, disparaging philosophers on one album, then quote Nietzche on the liner notes to another! He said he didn't read philosophy, but it was just a cool quote a friend showed him. I had no idea at the time The Philosopher was his indictment of Paul Masvidal. I ended up talking with Shannon Hamm for about half an hour, and he was the absolute nicest guy ever. I was wearing a Dream Theater shirt, and he said that if I want to hear something like Dream Theater with more balls, I should try Symphony X, whom I'd never heard of. If you haven't seen it, the Death by Metal documentary is really interesting, with all sorts of interviews with the people who played with Schuldiner. I also saw a leg of the Death To All tour, where another person stood in for Schuldiner, but it was otherwise the Human lineup. They did an extended version of Cosmic Sea, with an extra long bass solo, and that was incredible, although otherwise the show was so unbearably loud I couldn't make out much of what they were doing.
Oh man, Think This is an excellent album too, one of the best thrash metal albums out there. Josh Christian is one of the best guitar player from that thrash metal era IMO, his lead work is phenomenal. Yeah, I saw they released a new track a month ago, I have to give it a listen.

There’s an old thread about the guitar sound on Human and there they talk about how to emulate the Scott Burns’ desk EQ (https://www.harmonycentral.com/forums/topic/1396822-guitar-sound-on-death-quothumanquot-album/). Now that I have the Axe, maybe I will try to copy that settings and see how it sounds. I haven’t thought about that, using the tonematch sounds like a great idea!

What a cool story, thank you for sharing. Whenever I hear about Shannon Hamm (such a great player), his Jackson Soloist immediately comes to my mind. That’s sounds like an accurate description of Symphony X haha. Thanks for the recommendation, actually I haven't watched Death By Metal yet, I will try to watch it this weekend. I would have loved to see that extended solo for Cosmic Sea!
 
Back
Top Bottom