Kravitz Again solo tone

Sydchotti

Sydchotti

Member


I remember when the song came out and it kinda grew on you.
Anyways, the solo tone always intrigued me especially the way the notes bloomed.
Any idea on how to achieve a similar sound?
 
Sydchotti said:
especially the way the notes bloomed.
Click to expand...
Are you sure you're hearing bloom?

Cliff: "As you listen to clips from modelers, what you start to recognize is a certain "stationary" aspect to the tone compared to the every-changing tonality of a tube amp. Another thing is finger response. With a good tube amp you can vary the tone quite a bit just by how you fret the note and attack it. Modelers tend to make every note sound the same."

To me it might as well be an old modeler, hand vibrato and reverb... But IIRC he's a vintage fan? -- so probably not.
Anyway, I don't think this is a great example of bloom?

Some aspects that AFAIK are related to bloom are...
  • Master Volume, Supply Sag, B+, Preamp Bias?
  • Cliff: The Output Transformer is an important part of an amp's tone. As the amp is pushed, the frequency response of the OT is reduced, which contributes to "note bloom".
  • Cliff, 2013: With headphones you lose the reinforcement of the sound coupling into the guitar body and strings. There is less sustain and you don't get any bloom from the harmonics being reinforced. You can kind of compensate for this by increasing the low mids before the amp block but it's not the same thing.
  • Cliff: Note bloom is the change in timbre as the note is held. Sustain is just that, how long the note lasts. A variety of things affect sustain. The guitar itself, how loud you're playing, the amp type and cab, etc. The place to start is with the guitar. Good guitars naturally sustain better. The type of wood, the action, the bridge, the nut, etc. all play a role. If your action is too low you won't get good sustain. Make sure everything is good and tight. My fav guitar will do controlled feedback and just over conversation levels using my studio monitors. It's alder with a maple cap, maple neck and Brazillian Rosewood fingerboard. The action is pretty high, it's got a two-screw tremolo blocked with a piece of oak and a roller nut and locking tuners.
  • ...
... and not digging in too much? (which kind of sounds contra-intuitive in this regard).
I remember first noticing guys like Lukather are usually touching strings pretty lightly, even when slamming a chord, and AFAIK it helps bloom (intuitively, I thought the opposite). Clearly not the expert here -- let's wait for them... :D
 
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Sydchotti said:


I remember when the song came out and it kinda grew on you.
Anyways, the solo tone always intrigued me especially the way the notes bloomed.
Any idea on how to achieve a similar sound?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I hear the bloom you mention. Always loved that solo though. Sounds like a neck pick up into a bright gain sound. Hard to guess the guitar... but when he does the two note trill thing, it almost sounds single-coil/straty. The real key is the slapback delay... sounds like a high mix and slightly panned right.
 
Kravitz looks the part and throws the right shapes but I've never rated his music.
So, having listened to this for the first time, I think the bloom you talk about is because I hear a slight backwards or reverse sound to the notes.
It's most likely not the case but rather just a perception.
 
Sounds like a clean amp with a lot of highs pushed.

There’s of course the delays that are an important part of the song.

But the problem when recreating those kind of tones is that is useless to try to recreate them without being in the mix.

That tone must be really ear piercing and thin on its own.
 
There is a short delay almost Slapback with a high mix , sounds like reverb to
Probably a JCM800 he may have the delay in front of the amp instead of the loop as it is pretty prominent, maybe a boost pedal in there to the amp is pretty clean I think
 
[OT]
For those who want to learn classic rock soloing, building a long solo w/o needing shred, I'd recommend his sideman Craig Ross.
I wasn't specifically into Kravitz but Craig's solos often had licks that caught my ear, and it's all very playable.
Just noticing each of them play several amps on stage, seemingly more Fenders than others.
 
Hmmm… let me try and put a patch together,
But what is creating that almost synth like quality?
Is a weird chorus that I hear?
 
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