"Dirty Diana" guitar effect

That's pretty much the ray gun effect that Stevens is famous for. You can also find this in his work with Billy Idol, Steve Stevens' Atomic Playboys, and Vince Neil. Steve maintains that he does this effect with a toy ray gun, but I believe there's been a couple people on the forum who have done a decent approximation of this effect with their Axe-Fx. Having said all that, I am not one of those people, nor can I recall off the top of my head who those people were. Sorry. :(

After a little looking around, I found this. You can actually see him grab the toy gun at 4:01. vince neil steve stevens Look in Her Eyes Exposed minneapolis mn 1993 Part 01 - YouTube
 
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Larry Mitchell has an awesome sounding ray gun effect. He is the reason I ponied up the cash for the Axe-FX II...truly awesome guy as well as amazing player!
 
I'm hoping V.7 has a Steve Stevens "Hair Voluminizor Ray Gun" patch for when your 80's riffage just isn't selling it all the way.

Or if like me, you no longer have the folliclage for the job. :p
 
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It's achievable with delay, but getting the original sound isn't. It just takes getting a 250ms sound, holding it, give it some sine wave, then start stretching the time.



3:30, my singer laughs into a delay, holds it, twists it.
 
Steve use to do it with a PCM 41, I have pictures of his to set it. I have a raygun patch I can post tommorow. He has used the toy live for about 12 years.
 
luke said:
Steve use to do it with a PCM 41, I have pictures of his to set it. I have a raygun patch I can post tommorow. He has used the toy live for about 12 years.
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Like,
You would be my hero man if you posted the ray gun patch. I gotta do Rebel Yell in e next couple of weeks and If I don't have to use a real one it would be ideal.

On an unrelated note, any idea what amp he used on that song so I can work on getting a close approximation?

Thanks man!
 
prometh said:
It's not. It's actually pitch modulation, but it may involve a slight delay for added effect.
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With delay if you change delay time while feedback it going on it changes pitch (pitch modulation), so you can also get the effect with delay and infinite repeats by changing delay time.
I think that is what Radley is getting at. Steve Stevens uses that trick as well as the ray gun.
 
Cool. All the delay feedback effects I've heard weren't extreme enough to sound like it does in this song. In this song, the effect also slows down and the pitch modulation continues. Would a delay do that too?
 
prometh said:
Cool. All the delay feedback effects I've heard weren't extreme enough to sound like it does in this song. In this song, the effect also slows down and the pitch modulation continues. Would a delay do that too?
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You would have to be controlling the delay time with external controller. Synth is easier and more predictable.

you can get plenty extreme with delay though (quad chorus - still delay based):
 
Sounds cool. But, I like mine better :)

Good to have both mentioned in the same thread, though. I'm sure everyone will be thankful
 
Here are the PCM 41 settings

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I received these from Lexicon and confirmed with Steve a long time ago.

The delay is set for 400ms.
 
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