Preset Request: Criss Oliva (Savatage)

J

Jim223

New Member
Been having tons of fun with my AX8, but can seem to nail Criss Oliva's (Savatage) tone. Figured I'd post this request here on the AXFX2 forum as well.

The tone I'm looking for is the one he used starting with the Gutter Ballet album. It was much cleaner than previous albums, but still had lots of drive without being overly fuzzy/distorted. A good example is the intro to She's In Love (it's just guitar) or the verses in Thorazine Shuffle. Can anyone help?

Thanks!!
 
Criss Oliva used Marshall JCM800s (heads and combos) and Laney Pro Tube amps. Also Marshall and Laney cabs but I don't know which speakers. There was also a mention of a Rockman X100 as preamp going into the clean channel of a Yamaha SS bass amp.
The amps were set to a clean sound and then he put two Boss Super Overdrive SD-1 in front of it (running into each other, with contrary tone settings) and a GEQ (settings are unknown). He used stainless steel picks which may be a big part of the equation.

From the beginning until Hall of the Mountain King he used heavy strings with D or dropped C tuning. With Gutter Ballet he used light string in standard or dropped D tuning. This could be the reason why Gutter Ballet sounds "cleaner" than the previous records.
 
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Thanks Painkiller! That's good info.

Actually, I knew Criss and used to talk to him and his brother Jon frequently as I met them right after they did the Streets album. At that time Criss had a rack that had two Laney amps mounted at the bottom, they were practicing where my band was also. A place called Coast to Coast here in Clearwater Florida. It was a big rolling rack double wide and about 5 feet tall. Not that much stuff in the rack either. I have some of his steel picks as well.

Unfortunately, I was always talking to him about how he played certain things rather than his rig and how he got his unique tone. He was always more than happy to show me how he did things on the guitar when I asked. I wish he was still around.

Now, years later, I want to explore that sound. Hoping someone can do a tone-match, since my AX8 won't do that.
 
Jim223 said:
Actually, I knew Criss and used to talk to him and his brother Jon frequently as I met them right after they did the Streets album. At that time Criss had a rack that had two Laney amps mounted at the bottom, they were practicing where my band was also. A place called Coast to Coast here in Clearwater Florida. It was a big rolling rack double wide and about 5 feet tall. Not that much stuff in the rack either. I have some of his steel picks as well.
Click to expand...

Actually I've been to their rehearsal room, but that was a few years after Criss died. It was some kind of storage area or a huge garage in the Clearwarer area, close to a nice looking neighborhood. But it must have been somewhere else, because Jon said that they moved in not long ago. For a rehearsal room they had a very huge stage in there and a lot of stuff which could have been props from the Gutter Ballet tour (ghost-candleholders and statues and such stuff). For some reason Steve Wacholz was also there, even though he wasn't a member of the band anymore. I think they rehearsed for some kind of Criss Oliva memorial show.
 
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