Rush - "A Farewell to Kings" tone

M

mikeyg

Experienced
I was giving this CD a listen the other day. Man I just love Alex's crunchy tones on Cinderella Man and Closer to the Heart...

Do I recall he was using a solid state British amp?

I'm actually thinking of venturing into tone matching for the first time... but if I didn't, where would you all start amp wise? The mids on that song are sorta Voxy, and you can get a nice jangly crunch from a Vox... but I'm pretty sure he wasn't using one. The mids on the lower register single note runs are so BOLD! Middy but not honky...

Thoughts?
 
There's tons of info out there on his tone. He's used Hiwatt amps, Marshall 1959's and Marshall Club & Country Combo. Closer to the heart sounds very Marshall to me, but he might have stereo-split his signal to both a Hiwatt and a Marshall. For pedals a script-era MXR Distortion+, Dyna Comp, and Micro Boost, Boss CE-1 Chorus, tape echo. Sometimes he stacked two chorus pedals together, or a flanger and a chorus. Moving Pictures and Signals obviously used a lot more chorus. I'm always amazed how his tone has so much clarity while using so many effects. I had most of the pedals (or close equivalents) on my pedal board for back when I still used amps and found the MXR Distortion+ to be one of the keys to his tone, especially on leads. Rumor has it that his Micro Boost was first in the chain as a buffer, because he ran through so many other effects.
 
Last edited:
I’ve listened to some demos of the mxr d+ and I don’t Like any of them. I guess they were used more like a boost to a cranked amp.
 
I don't own the Axe 2 so I don't know if this is possible but in the 3 the "Brit Silver" amp is my go to for those types of tones.
 
mikeyg said:
I’ve listened to some demos of the mxr d+ and I don’t Like any of them. I guess they were used more like a boost to a cranked amp.
Click to expand...

I think you're right. He probably used it more for live than studio, and only to push an already-overdriven amp. The MXR D+ isn't for everything, but it was a go-to for my leads when I needed a little more attack - really made my solos 'pop'. Try stacking it with the MXR Micro Boost with an amp that's set right at the edge of breakup. On the downside, the pedal was a bit noisier than some of the more modern overdrive pedals that I had. BTW - it was Randy Rhoads go-to pedal as well when playing live.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom