Help - Trying to recreate this Status Quo sound

MisterE

MisterE

Fractal Fanatic
Listen to 07:12 for the specific sound.
Status quo - Roadhouse Blues Live
It's a Tele into a Marshall.
I've gotten pretty close with a 100W Plexi Jumped and a M75-PR cab.
But somehow I don't get the cutting sound. I've tried thousands of IR's. I have just about every Marshall Cab Ir there is.
Can't seem to get quite the same sound. It's better if I add a little EQ (boost @ 2kHz & 4 kHz)
All IR's seem to have the same "carton box" sound (for lack of a better description) instead of the cutting sound as in the clip.
The clip has a chunck-chunck sound whereas every IR I've tried sounded more like woof-woof ;-)
I would definitely appreciate some pointers as I'm at my wits end.
Tried lots of different pickups as well - SD's, DiMarzio's, Lindy Fralin and Kinmans.
 
Are you sure it's a Marshall you're hearing?

I remember seeing a Rig Rundown and as I recall the guitarists had 3 Marshall stacks each behind them - one stack was for their own stage sound, the other stack was the other player's stage sound and the third stack was a Marshall head gutted out with a Vox AC30 amp set in on top of a dummy cab .... the mic'ed up sound of the Vox being provided from an isolation box backstage and fed to FOH.

Point being ..... what the FOH got was actually a Vox AC30 .... so perhaps it's all Vox ..... or a blend of Marshall and Vox ... can't recall if the Marshall was mic'ed up and blended.

If you do a search on YT for Rick Parfaitt rig rundown it might come up
 
That's their current setup.
I've got the DVD where Rick shows the backline.
But I don't like their current sound.
I much preferred the '70s sound as in the clip which is from the '77 live album.
And at that time they were using Marshalls.
 
I'm also convinced the cab is the key.
I've been experimenting with the Plexi but also with a AC30 into the same cab and they sound almost identical.
I had to tweak the AC30 a bit and add a boost in front to get almost the same result.
But the overall sound was then very similar showing clearly how important the cab is.
 
They also had a rider clause in their contract: “There shall be no limitation to the volume level at which Artist may play” - and at that time they were in the Guinness Book as “the loudest band” on record.

Whatever amp/cab or combo you use, CRANK IT UP!
 
Maybe buy another Tele?

It´s always the same problem (like ACDC) - with less gain the the amps seem to loose cut and pressure in the Axe.

It helps to add a Compressor behind the amp (optical), to increase dynamic presence/depth.

I also tried to achive this sound with AC 30 and Marshallcabs in the Axe, but it doesn´t worked.

There´s also a "roomy" Effect on this rythmguitar - mayby a chorus or light flanger?

A good lowgain amp is to me the Spawn 2 - 1 with gain about 2-3, which gives a good attack through Marshallcabs-IR´s for CabIR - like the AX 25W or the PIN 68 with 20W and the MR CB 71 - I prefer the Speaker B with Single Mic SM 57 B1.

If you got the CB 71, I can load up a Preset with a Vox AC 30TB + MR Cab.
 
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When i heard this tune today i instantly thought of this thread.
Is this another example of the sound you are wondering about?
 
A bit similar but that seems more like humbuckers to me.
I also tried to achive this sound with AC 30 and Marshallcabs in the Axe, but it doesn´t worked.
Click to expand...
I tried a AC30 with Marshall cabs and it sounded quite similar to the Plexi. Just a different feel but not too much
 
Try the 57 Dynamic mic type in the Cab block. Instant cut and bite. Bring up the proximity to add back some fatness. Also, try the Cut switch under the Bass knob in the Amp block to control the woofiness.

Another tip is to turn the Input Gain down to allow the bright cab to bypass more treble and then use Input Trim to push the gain back up to where you need it. The higher the Input Gain knob is set, the less influence the bright cap of the amp will have. The tone will get fuller and less bright as you crank it.
 
Thanks for the tips.
I'm currently using a IR OH Marshall Cab with M55-PR and a 57. It does add some bite, I did add some proximity and used the cut.
But no use. The woofiness remains.
It's most obvious when using headphones, IEMS and my B&W 602's at home., not so much on the CLRs.
After trying a zillion of IRs I feel the technology is not quite there yet to realistically mimic a real speaker/mike setup.
Especially with IEMs and headphones when playing along with cd tracks, it's quite obvious.
But I'm not excluding that I still might be doing something wrong.
 
Post your preset.

Also, which tone are you trying to get from that track, the rhythm or lead guitar?

Live tones like that are tough to capture. Some of that extra bite might be from speaker breakup or cone cry since they are likely playing loud as hell live, especially on the leads. It sounds like it's screaming loud. IR's are typically captured at moderate levels, not ear splitting levels, so the speakers are likely getting driven a bit differently. Might also be slightly clipping the mic and/or analog mixer channels a bit too. Some Hendrix live tones are hard to nail like that too. Blasting loud and feeding back with likely unpotted pickups. Some of those sounds are hard to recreate without the same skull rattling volume.
 
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It's the rhythm tone I'm after - Parfitt.
Especially when he starts playing after the bass at 07:12
 
MisterE said:
I much preferred the '70s sound as in the clip which is from the '77 live album.
And at that time they were using Marshalls.
Click to expand...

There are some great photos of the gig at Bingley Hall in January 1977. It looks like Quo were using a mixture of Marshalls and Sound City amps for that tour - I think Live! is recorded from the same Blue For You tour a few months earlier in October 1976. Have a look a the photo with Rick in front of his stack(s)

There's also a nice bigger picture of Francis with a Sound City L100 (presumably from around the same time??)

Now, we don't have a Sound City amp in the Axe, but I understand the Hiwatt DR103 is from the same 'heritage' (see half way down the page)

There's a good video of Johan Segeborn comparing a Plexi vs DR103 (unfortunately he changes cabs too) but the Hiwatt (+Fane cab) definitely has a more 'biting' character to my ears.

The other thing to consider is there is reference to both Rossi and Parfitt using a Colorsound Power Boost pedal for the Piledriver album. It's a bit before Live! but has a somewhat similar sound, so maybe there is some fuzz/boost going on.

Anyway, good luck with it. I totally understand where you are coming from. I've driven myself crazy over the years trying to replicate Rory Gallagher's Irish Tour '74 tone. The conclusion I came to is that there is so much going on (I've counted a least 4 amps) and a whole bunch of post processing that I should just enjoy the music......:) One thing that got me closer was adding some delay and reverb to capture the live ambience.
 
Thanks simviz. That was certainly very useful info.
I disregarded the HiWatt because in the past they never sounded good when inputs were turned up to 10. It still sounds "woofy" on the bottom strings but the Colorsound tip got me thinking.
So I added a treble boost and voila....
So just a treble boost with drive @ 3.2; tone @ 3.95 and level around 6.15.
HiWatt jumped with both inputs on 10, master around 8, bass @ 7.6; Mis @8.58; treble @6.59 and presence @6.7
Cab is a OH 412 Marshall Pre Rola M55 57 - FRED
The HiWatt does have a sharper edge than the Plexi's who have more of a mid-range hump.
I had a preset with a Friedman BE V2 with the same cab and I tried my Tele just for fun. It sounded almost the same with a different feel.
I guess that's because I used the same cab.
Then I combined the two with cabs panned hard lift & right and a very slight chorus in front of the Friedman.
Wall of sound!!
So now I have different combinations of both amps in scenes.
Last one I tried was with two HiWatts panned hard left é right and the chorus for a doubling effect.
I lowered the input drive on both amps to about 6 on the treble and 4 on the normal drive and I instantly got the sound of Down Down from On The Level :):):):)
 
Don't overlook the JTM 45 (Brit 45) model either. Turn the bright cap value up a bit and it can give a nice glassy biting crunch too. Think early AC/DC.
 
mr_fender said:
Don't overlook the JTM 45 (Brit 45) model either. Turn the bright cap value up a bit and it can give a nice glassy biting crunch too. Think early AC/DC.
Click to expand...
absolut - but you have handle the boomy bass with this amp . I like the chrunch of the JTM 45 very much, it always goes back to clean with softer attack.
 
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