Holy grail: David Grissom - anyone get close?

I’ve lived in Austin since the early 80s and have seen David Grissom play countless times with Joe Ely, Storyville, and with his own band... and often from just a few feet away. I’ve also attended a few clinics he’s done.

He might be the ultimate “tone is in the hands” guy. Though he says he loves gear, he uses a lot of unique chord voicings, double stops with bends, and has a very identifiable vibrato (both finger and bar). Even with an identical rig, I would sound nothing like him.

Thanks for linking the video; it gives you better advice than I could. I can’t remember what amps he used with Storyville but David Holt often used a Strat and a Marshall half-stack and the two of them blended incredibly well.

Good luck in your quest! If you work out something close, pleaae share.
 
P.S. Here are a couple of pics just for fun. If any of you ever visit Austin (once live music comes back) you should try to catch David Grissom's free shows at the Saxon Pub. (Usually Tuesdays at 6pm.) It's a great chance to see him do his thing close up, in a super supportive and friendly environment.
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My wife and I saw him at the Saxon about two hours after our wedding... between the ceremony and the flight to our honeymoon! Super nice guy.
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a few minutes mucking about with a little look on the web for settings got me this preset. it's on the right track, but if you've got time to tweak it,you might get close, i think.

edit: turning up a bit, i think it might be a little dark. nudge the treble up to about 6, maybe
 

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Great stuff in that video. Funny to hear him mention the Telos pedal...used to have that one. You don't hear many people use Psionic Audio stuff.

I wish they would have had the cab mic direct to the recording - we are still dealing with hearing the guitar acoustically in the room as well as the cab thru monitors in the room :)
 
simeon said:
a few minutes mucking about with a little look on the web for settings got me this preset. it's on the right track, but if you've got time to tweak it,you might get close, i think.

edit: turning up a bit, i think it might be a little dark. nudge the treble up to about 6, maybe
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Wow - I like this very much! Well done!
 
yeah, it's got the right flavour to it. the only tweak i did was to switch the power tunes to EL84's to maybe get closer to the 30w version of his amp. try the 6L6's as well for the 50w version. also maybe try different cabs. i just grabbed the zilla ones because they're 2x12 V30's and i know he has V30's in his PRS cab. i know nothing about his amp (or the Archon), so i have no idea how to make one sound closer to the other, i'm afraid.
 
I'd recommend looking at the Texas Star amp block. It's in the TX Star factory preset (#75?). Add a 2x12 cabinet with the V30s. The Texas Star is based on a 100 watt Lone Star, which can get the sort of sound Grissom gets live. Mesa has some special circuitry in them that emphasizes the punch when you hit the string, which live will give that sort of sound he talks about. I'm using that model in one of my presets and really like its sound, but I was going for the Lone Star sound, but I think it'd be close to his DG model amp with some deep tweaking.

I got to talk to him about his amps two summers ago when he was experimenting with a 150 watt Two-Rock Silver Sterling into his PRS cabinet. He said he wants to get rock-solid lows while maintaining the edge of break-up sound he's known for. That amp had the ability to kick us in the chest when he'd hit low notes. Maybe adding a second 1x15 cabinet in parallel would help on the low end.
 
Great video David really appreciate the time you took to make it Thanks


Simeon thanks for sharing the preset can’t wait to try it. :)
 
In a lot of his interviews he mentions Hiwatt and Plexi amps as having been his tools in the past. I think those are good to look at as starting points too. I swapped the amp block to a Hiwatt to see what that'd do and it was a lot closer than the Archeon, which, though it's by PRS, is made for metal.

This has some good information also.

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/prs-dg-custom-30-anybody-have-one.1656921/

Look at the "Hipower" amp models, especially the "Brilliant" and "Jumped" models.
 
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Love Grissom. Huge 2nd for Saxon pub gig. Fantastic setting. I got to hear him in a tiny place in Houston maybe 3 years ago where he used amp, no mic in a little room. His amp in the room tone was just as good as it gets and his trio is killer. He had Glenn Fukunaga on bass that night and they were totally on fire. He always brings it though. Just a fabulous player. I remember hearing him with Storyville where he was using a Marshall stack and was so loud they pulled him from the PA. In front of him, it was magnificent and the other guitarist inaudible and away from him, he was hard to hear. He has solved that problem with his current rig and gets maximum tone without being blisteringly loud.

PS if Cliff wants to model his amp, I have both 30 and 50 watt versions. Great amps. As noted before, it’s his hands and concept that makes it happen. His guitar really helps, too. The DGT is very unlike most PRS guitars and has killer vintage sound.
 
DG plays with his volume and tone backed of almost all the time, and even when soloing, sometimes his tone is rolled back. That’s a lot of his dark sound. He used the HX/DA for a while before getting his DG Custom model from PRS. Although his tone doesn’t immediately scream “EL84” that’s what drives it.

I guess what I’m saying is that it isn’t just the amp… he gets the tone from everything, fingers to speakers.
 
MikeyB59 said:
Love Grissom. Huge 2nd for Saxon pub gig. Fantastic setting. I got to hear him in a tiny place in Houston maybe 3 years ago where he used amp, no mic in a little room. His amp in the room tone was just as good as it gets and his trio is killer. He had Glenn Fukunaga on bass that night and they were totally on fire. He always brings it though. Just a fabulous player. I remember hearing him with Storyville where he was using a Marshall stack and was so loud they pulled him from the PA. In front of him, it was magnificent and the other guitarist inaudible and away from him, he was hard to hear. He has solved that problem with his current rig and gets maximum tone without being blisteringly loud.

PS if Cliff wants to model his amp, I have both 30 and 50 watt versions. Great amps. As noted before, it’s his hands and concept that makes it happen. His guitar really helps, too. The DGT is very unlike most PRS guitars and has killer vintage sound.
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He’s still the artist in residence at The Saxon Pub on Tuesday nights it appears and they definitely have the sound dialed in there.

We were in Austin to see friends for a week on vacation and we went to catch Grissom, enjoyed the show so much we extended the trip another week, went to the gulf coast then returned to see him again the following week.

And, yes, the DGT is a great guitar. I have an ‘08 Goldtop with the moon inlays that’s got some street-cred going for it, and it sounds like an old Les Paul. It’ll do the Grissom sound to a T.
 
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