Dweezil Zappa and Frank Gambale

What's the funky effect going with Dweezil's guitar? Sounds like a very short delay with the dry all the way right and the wet panned entirely left?
 
While they are masters of guitars, I felt the recording somehow sounded fuzzy and so digital. Or is that their sound?
 
Which one is which? I really like the first lead guitar tone, I'm hoping that's the II. Either way, what incredible guitar players, dang, I really need to go practice, for another 30 years.
 
Not very good tone on there at all .

I love the Axe Fx units ( owned an Ultra and my Axe2 arrives tomorrow) but i am a home only player that jams along to backing tracks and does some recording. The Axe sounds awesome to me in my house at pretty loud volume and it is without question the best overall modeler out there by far.

I am yet to hear one in a live band volume setting that i can honestly say i get very excited about though.

Some with Pete Thorn in a live setting with clean or just edge of breakup tones have been pretty good though.

I have heard many recordings that have been posted that sound great and some You Tube guys jamming at home that sound pretty good but that is all.

Just an observation , but for my personal uses it's the best overall unit by far.
 
xrist04 said:
They're both Axe-Fx. I believe DZ is the first tone.
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I thought Dweezil Zappa was playing the Axe Ultra and Frank Gambale was playing the Axe II. If that's the case, who is playing the first lead?

And, what are we hearing? The Axe direct to the console or a mic'd Atomic or what?
 
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Ha, that is the Zappa sound for sure. Frank's tone was as eclectic as he was. To me the tone is signature...it is like Holdsworth or Scofield..I may not would have dialed in those tones..but I sure know
who it is when I hear it. I doubt it was what Dweezil would dial in for his signature tone if he was doing his own solo material, but he is trying to be as close to his father's tone as possible and is able to put three racks and several half-stacks in his studio and take the 2 ultra's out and get it all covered. I think what we are hearing in the clip is simply a "board mix", not a multi-tracked mastered studio mix, so the quality of it is not going to be what you would hear on a recording with a budget. I think the II that Gambale is playing on in the first solo responds very well to dynamics...sounds like a live mic'd amp to me. I am assuming it is probably direct with maybe some ambience (i.e. audience) mics mixed in. Dweezil's tone is the effected one that has the wide stereo spread and I believe it is mimicing a MicMix Dynaflanger, which I don't think is available any more. In fact, I think several of the pieces that are required to sound like frank or not available any longer. Since alot of the equipment he had to take on the road was Frank's original equipment I am sure he is somewhat reluctant to take all over the world. He also mentioned that it saved promoter's and himself thousands of dollars in shipping and I am guessing he is able to get more consistent tone from gig to gig.

Here is a tour of the rig he replaced:
http://www.guitarnoize.com/blog/comm...earch-kitchen/

I think understanding what he is going for in his tone is important before listening..I had never listened to Frank and started doing some research and many people were saying his rig was nearly impossible to replicate on anything other than an extensive budget, so to hear that he could do most of it with 2 Ultra's I thought was pretty cool.

On another note...I have owned several Ultra's and Standards and never really could get where I wanted to be and ended up going back to a tube rig...and I even had a little of that experience with the II, selling the first one right after I got it, but I recently got the II again and a couple of fractal wedges that I am turning on end like Dweezil does and updated to 2.0 and wow...I could not be happier.

not sure why this is all in bold........
 
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javajunkie said:
dweezil is playing the II. frank is playing the dual ultra rig.
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hmm...according to M@'s post above:

"I've been helping Dweezil build a rig that's small enough to be a carry on. It consists of an Axe-Fx II and an MFC-101.

Here, Frank Gambale, on tour with Return 2 Forever, gives that rig a whirl while sitting in with Zappa Plays Zappa. Dweezil demos his usual dual Axe-Fx rig."
 
This is what Dweezil posted on his website about the clip:

"9-22-11. Here's a short clip from San Fransisco when Frank Gambale joined us on stage for Willie The Pimp. It's the first time Frank and I have had a chance to play together.
He was playing through my new mini Axe FX II rig."

Willie Gambale DZ - Dweezil Zappa World
 
boleary2 said:
hmm...according to M@'s post above:

"I've been helping Dweezil build a rig that's small enough to be a carry on. It consists of an Axe-Fx II and an MFC-101.

Here, Frank Gambale, on tour with Return 2 Forever, gives that rig a whirl while sitting in with Zappa Plays Zappa. Dweezil demos his usual dual Axe-Fx rig."
Click to expand...

I read it wrong on Dweezil site. some how I read as I was playing through the Axe-fxII mini rig.
 
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