Looking for Nile Rodgers tone

Q: I gather in the days of Chic you did a lot of DI guitar.

NR: Yeah, and I still do to this day. Nowadays, technology has come so far, and the quality of outboard gear is so great, that I find myself using something like [Line 6] Amp Farm. Man, that's ridiculous! We can do so much now that we used to have to toil over in the old days, and now I can't really tell the difference, especially spiritually.


From Interview @ http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CCcQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhomerecording.com%2Fbbs%2Fequipment-forums%2Fguitars-basses%2Fniles-rogers-recing-guitars-68684%2F&rct=j&q=niles%20rogers%20recording%20strat&ei=MyE9Tri0GJHHsgbf05DFBw&usg=AFQjCNE5mO4vsRB3I734pBt608Mvylky1g&sig2=NRN5yD0R2_JM9RkV8I_xYA

Might be helpful :D
 
Found a 4 year old post somewhere with the following quote:

'As someone who has been copied by countless guitarists, Nile's playing is as specific to technique as to sound. Listen to his playing with Chic, David Bowie or Diana Ross and his clean, cutting tone is a product of particular equipment. 'My main sound is a Strat plugged into a direct box mixed with an amp like a Fender Twin Reverb or a Super Reverb or Roland JC120.

'The amp adds some roundness to the direct sound. I also use very thin strings and picks. I like thin strings so I can bend them and don't need to concentrate on my technique. All this enables me to be heard without being too loud, especially when the bass was the dominant instrument.' '


Suppose a 2 amp set up using a Tube Pre and a Fender one and subtle chorus (sort of Dimension-D type?) might get you near ..... and a Strat of course (which is where I fail on this)
 
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But I recall Ian (Iaresee) putting together a Get Lucky preset, which is the same tone.
 
John Suhr: Nice guy. I connected with him thru Eddie Martinez who also did a lot of work with Nile I used to put my midrange filter in all their guitars for that really quack scooped tone. Seemed like everyone doing that funk thing wanted it in their guitars. John McCurry, Eddie Martinez and Paul Pesco also got those midrange scoops installed. / Yes, I can either do it on a Push Push or you can Have Treble/Mid. All these guys used it and it was on most the Madonna, Cindy Lauper stuff, The Fixx It is some funky shit!
> Is it something like this? Rothstein Guitars • Serious Tone for the Serious Player
> Well, maybe in an off the shelf brutus sort of way. With mine I wound the pot core with a ferrite shell. The premise is easy, a passive midrange filter, simply a capacitor and an inductor. The key is to select the correct Q and freq. It really does something that I was never able to achieve with a graphic. Even if I told you the values I use, you won't find them anyway. We still offer them on our guitars though. Eddie Martinez did a lot of work with Nile, Awesome person and player

HRI
 
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We do Le Freak

Fender Bassman with a little compression
neck pickup on strat and you are done.

Pretty basic -- what is interesting is how to get the sound -- basically you got to play fragmented chords (like three strings at a time). you never play a full chord -- I never really analyzed what I do when I play it -- I just learned the tune by ear
 
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I see this is an old thread. Wonder who nailed the Niles tone in the mean time? Love his tone and playing! I guess you can come close with a strat with neck pickup but somehow that is not completely it. Sounds like a very basic and simple tone but yet it isn't.
I keep checking this thread and hopefully a good Niles preset comes up.
 
Exactst, the trademark Rodgers is a filtered one, not 'just' Fender-neck.
 
sounds a bit "hard" and it doesn't seem to have that sweet top end, imo

i think running two lines with a fender in one and a fet boost in the other and then mixing them together would be the best way. no compression or other effects apart from a slight cut in the midrange right at the beginning of the chain
 
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