Hair metal tone tutorial

Ratt, Dokken, Skid Row, Winger...there were some pretty great recorded guitar tones in the 80s hair metal era (and plenty of terrible ones) but there were a few common ingredients that the Axe more than capably handles. I put this together after getting a lot of requests and being a big 80s metal fan it was super fun to do!

Patch is on Axechange if you'd like to try it, or you can follow the steps in the vid with your favourite amps and dial to taste!



My favorite era, it's what got me hooked on guitar when I was a kid and MTV played music videos. Great job as usual Leon!
 
My favorite music as well, then Grunge came and killed it.

The video is fantastic and damn, you know all the riffs! Thanks a lot.
 
USB. I'll check the preset and the files I recorded to see where the clipping is, I suspect I may have turned something up in post too far.

EDIT: Yep, as I suspected it's a mistake in post on my end when adjusting the level of my voice and the guitars. No clipping in the raw waveforms that I can see.

off topic question....

You use the axe usb to record.. Is your mic hooked into your axe too or do you use aggregate devices on your mac?
 
So much great stuff from that era. A lot of modern metal/djent tones owe a lot to the 80's IMO.

Yeah, and the general cheesiness of tunes from that era has been overwhelming guitar music throughout the early 2000s and to this day.

So it’s back in a way. What we really need is new thrash to chase this all away. :p
 
USB. I'll check the preset and the files I recorded to see where the clipping is, I suspect I may have turned something up in post too far.

EDIT: Yep, as I suspected it's a mistake in post on my end when adjusting the level of my voice and the guitars. No clipping in the raw waveforms that I can see.
what video editor are you using?

i think for many guitar tone styles, people tend to put way too much bass in, so it sounds good with the guitar only. that flubs up the tone, string clarity, and ruins the mix for the Bass guitar and Kick drum. the sound guy probably dumped all that low end in the mix or live PA system. we can do this many different ways in the Axe.
 
Hey Leon, great vid. 80’s tones are some of my favorites.

Just got my III a few months ago and have learned a ton watching your vids. Thanks!
 
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Killer tones and video as always, dude!

+1 to the comment about modern metal and djent owing a lot to the 80s tone-wise, too (and playing-wise for that matter, of course). 80s rock and metal was my original love before I got into modern stuff and it’s absolutely a great resource to pull from when going for certain sounds.
 
+1 to the comment about modern metal and djent owing a lot to the 80s tone-wise, too (and playing-wise for that matter, of course). 80s rock and metal was my original love before I got into modern stuff and it’s absolutely a great resource to pull from when going for certain sounds.

Big time!

what video editor are you using?

Final Cut. Definitely agree about excess low end - sounds great on it's own but ends up going in the bin during a mix.
 
This preset is great! I'm using a Epiphone Les Paul with the Slash set pickups... basically just needed to add a boost and made a few minor tweaks and it sounds great even with a darker sounding guitar!
 
off topic question....

You use the axe usb to record.. Is your mic hooked into your axe too or do you use aggregate devices on your mac?

I run the mic into an Apollo twin and route the Apollo outs through input 2/output 2 on the Axe. The connections are in the top left of the grid where I overlay the video of myself, so I don't get questions like "why is there an in1 out1 block in the grid " all the time ;)
 
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