Frank Zappa late 80s tone ( best band you never heard in your life album )

D

DasZheulWortzMekanik

Member
Hi everyone, I am trying to get that sort of compressed chorussy clean and dirty tone.
I understand Frank was using studio type compressors, so my chain for it is :

Studio compressor-( parralle -chorus. )
-tone of king
I run that into a matchless chieftain type 2 amp block followed by another studio compressor, then cab and a plate reverb.

I seem to be able to get close for the clean tone. When it come to break up, I guess I am not sure if I should use another drive and/or change amp type.

Any suggestions for getting that tone?
 
I have been chasing this tone since years - I think of all the Zappa Tones this one is the most difficult to emulate - and there are a couple of very nice Dynaflanger Presets available for the AxeFX3, but after a lot of experimenting I personally like the sound very much you get when you use a clean sound like the one you described and than ad the quantum time modulator pedal to it with all settings on 12. The trick is that if you have it in an fx loop I would feed only like 50 percent of the effect into the signal chain, otherwise at least for my ears the effect is to extreme.
 
Fiddling around with Dweezil’s factory preset combined with the Zappa IR’s he shared a while ago can get you close as well. Especially regarding the dirty tone. And make sure you try all the pick-up configurations your guitar has to offer. When I play the Dweezil preset with my AZ with the pickup switch in position 4 I’m more than in the ballpark for instance.
 
DasZheulWortzMekanik said:
Hi everyone, I am trying to get that sort of compressed chorussy clean and dirty tone.
I understand Frank was using studio type compressors, so my chain for it is :

Studio compressor-( parralle -chorus. )
-tone of king
I run that into a matchless chieftain type 2 amp block followed by another studio compressor, then cab and a plate reverb.

I seem to be able to get close for the clean tone. When it come to break up, I guess I am not sure if I should use another drive and/or change amp type.

Any suggestions for getting that tone?
Click to expand...
The eternal question of Zappas Clean Sound: In the meantime have you found a Clean Sound that sounds like his late 80s tone? I wonder what Plate Reverb settings you are using? I have read a lot of things during the years about Zappas Gear and Stuff, but I have never found concrete info about his Reverb and/or Delay settings for his Clean Sound.
 
According to the Zappa Gear book that came out a couple of years ago, "As part of his massive multi-amplifier rig on the 1988 tour, FZ fed the clean signal from the Roland GP-8 effects unit into two Carvin X-100B amplifiers, each driving a Marshall 4x12 cabinet." Carvin's Moshe Alvarez said, "the first rig he (FZ) scoped out from us that he really liked was the original X-100B 100-watt amplifier. It had 6L6 tubes at the time, and the thing he really liked about the X-100B was that it had a very loud, clean tone." It goes on to say that he used them in conjunction with Acoustic 165 combo amps.
 
Last edited:
So grateful for the recent replies, I am in the process of moving country at the moment but should have plenty of time over the summer to get back into it and experiment. I am hoping we can exchange a few profiles eventually.
Take all good care.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ESW
Just as a sidenote: Does anybody of you Zappamaniacs understand Franks following statement? I have the Eventide H90, but I have no clue what he really means when he says:
One thing that I've enjoyed using has been the Eventide harmoniser that I have included on the board. I had been using it to do some space effects and stuff like that, but one day I decided to set the pitch control at 99, instead of some lower figure, so that means that the double note is a small per cent flat from your original note, and it comes out about 30 milliseconds late. So I've got that split left and right, because I have switching on the pedalboard that allows me to cut off the Marshall and the Acoustic, so the only thing the audience hears is the direct sound from the PA. When you strum chords through that it makes them sound really full, and then when you punch in the normal guitar amps, you get all the distortion.
 
zappafranco said:
Just as a sidenote: Does anybody of you Zappamaniacs understand Franks following statement? I have the Eventide H90, but I have no clue what he really means when he says:
One thing that I've enjoyed using has been the Eventide harmoniser that I have included on the board. I had been using it to do some space effects and stuff like that, but one day I decided to set the pitch control at 99, instead of some lower figure, so that means that the double note is a small per cent flat from your original note, and it comes out about 30 milliseconds late. So I've got that split left and right, because I have switching on the pedalboard that allows me to cut off the Marshall and the Acoustic, so the only thing the audience hears is the direct sound from the PA. When you strum chords through that it makes them sound really full, and then when you punch in the normal guitar amps, you get all the distortion.
Click to expand...
The first part of the quote (from 1977) is "I use Marshall and Acoustic amps, and also there's a stereo feed from the guitar that goes direct to the PA. The pedalboard I have has 27 different buttons. It's a specially-built thing that looks a little like a small version of the G.P.O. Tower around here. It has all the normal fuzz and phasing switches taken from their little boxes and put on this thing. It was constructed at the beginning of this tour—this is the first tour where I've actually used it."

So with that context, it just sounds like he was just using the Eventide as a doubler in stereo, going direct to the PA. So he could do big clean chords through the PA and then switch in the amps when he wanted distortion. It also explains how he got that amazingly big sound on the '77 tour.
 
ESW said:
The first part of the quote (from 1977) is "I use Marshall and Acoustic amps, and also there's a stereo feed from the guitar that goes direct to the PA. The pedalboard I have has 27 different buttons. It's a specially-built thing that looks a little like a small version of the G.P.O. Tower around here. It has all the normal fuzz and phasing switches taken from their little boxes and put on this thing. It was constructed at the beginning of this tour—this is the first tour where I've actually used it."

So with that context, it just sounds like he was just using the Eventide as a doubler in stereo, going direct to the PA. So he could do big clean chords through the PA and then switch in the amps when he wanted distortion. It also explains how he got that amazingly big sound on the '77 tour.
Click to expand...
Interesting, but what exactly does he mean with "pitch control at 99"? The detune parameters on the pitch algorithms on todays Eventide devices go only from -50 to +50 Cent as far as I know...
 
It was an Eventide Harmonizer H910, which had a "Pitch Ratio" display in the center of the unit. With the readout at 100 it would be in unison, 50 would be an octave down, etc - so 99 would be just a slightly detuned. There are a million ways to do that today, but this was cutting edge in the mid 70s.
 
ESW said:
It was an Eventide Harmonizer H910, which had a "Pitch Ratio" display in the center of the unit. With the readout at 100 it would be in unison, 50 would be an octave down, etc - so 99 would be just a slightly detuned. There are a million ways to do that today, but this was cutting edge in the mid 70s.
Click to expand...
So I guess this would mean with the detune parameter in the micro pitch algorithm something like -2 Cent, right? And only on one channel of two channels of a stereo setup, right? And this -2 Cent signal is then automatically "30 milliseconds late" because of his lower frequency or do you have to ad a delay to the signal chain to achieve this?
 
That's how I read it. I assume the 30ms delay was due to processing time, but you could simulate it with a delay.
 
ESW said:
That's how I read it. I assume the 30ms delay was due to processing time, but you could simulate it with a delay.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much! And my latest finding for anyone interested in Zappas 80s Clean Tone. I would say it is not so far away from the typical Michael Landau "Icepick in the forehead" 80's Clean Tone! So the last real challenge for me is the Yo Mama Tone. Or as Zappa said "There is no way to delay that trouble everyday";)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom