searching for steve vai tender surrender preset

gianni

Member
hello, is there anybody here who has the steve vai tender surrender preset for the axe fx iii and is happy to share it?
 
I was just thinking about building a preset for this yesterday. Unfortunately, my JEM is out of commission until I receive a new output jack from Madhatter. Steve used a few different amps at once when he tracked this and blended them in the mixing stages. While there’s a lot of volume knob manipulation, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that when he’s cutting back to the clean sound, you’re hearing more Twin than Ecstasy. Regardless, I’m anxious to dig into this one.

Useless trivia, my buddy John owns the actual Ecstasy head that Steve used to record ALS with. I believe it’s a 100B. When he got it, there was a list of songs it was used on written by Steve, I’m assuming as a reference point during mixing. My buddy will never sell it, but he‘s at least willing to let me play through it anytime I go out to California!
 
I was just thinking about building a preset for this yesterday. Unfortunately, my JEM is out of commission until I receive a new output jack from Madhatter. Steve used a few different amps at once when he tracked this and blended them in the mixing stages. While there’s a lot of volume knob manipulation, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that when he’s cutting back to the clean sound, you’re hearing more Twin than Ecstasy. Regardless, I’m anxious to dig into this one.

Useless trivia, my buddy John owns the actual Ecstasy head that Steve used to record ALS with. I believe it’s a 100B. When he got it, there was a list of songs it was used on written by Steve, I’m assuming as a reference point during mixing. My buddy will never sell it, but he‘s at least willing to let me play through it anytime I go out to California!
hello thank you for your post. it would be great if you could share your preset once you have done it. i am looking forward it. Regards.
 
I'm a huge fan of Vai's playing. My appreciation of his actual tone varies a lot by album. For my money, he's never sounded better than he did between Alien Love Secrets and Fire Garden. His tone on the G3 live album is basically as good as it gets for me.

My understanding is that's a Bogner Ecstacy 100b preamp into an Egnator poweramp for the albums. For the live shows, he was reportedly using a Bogner Ecstacy 101B. Obviously, it's Vai, so there's a DS-1 or a SD-1, or even a TS goosing the front end. There's ample delay and reverb, and probably at least two compressors in the post production. But I've been pretty happy with the tone I'm getting working with the Euro Modern Red. Add some EQ and some light compression from the Waves CLA-3A, and I think I'm about 85% of the way there. Now if only I could play like the guy :)
 
He used a LOT of amps in the studio up until the Legacy days. And even after the Legacy was made, he always has a few sitting nearby or in his giant studio rack. Back in the ALS/Fire Garden days (also my favorite Vai tone era and musically, as well) he was using the Egnater TOL-100 head as well. You can see him playing through the TOL on the Ibanez 7th Heaven vid. On that first ‘96 G3 tour he was playing through the Ecstasy and used the TOL as a back up and/or a slave head. He also used a VHT power amp for a long time in that era. There’s some pics on his website of his live rigs on both the ALS/Fire Garden/G3 tours. Those cabs he had in the G3 vid are custom ones Carvin made him.

I spent WAY too much time in high school worshipping Vai, which was right in that 95-99 time frame. Saw him at a G3 show on the 96 G3 tour and just went nuts for him. I was a fanboy for quite some time.

I’m friends with his guitar tech from that era, Roger Bell, on FB. I ask him questions all the time about Vai’s gear. He’s got a truly amazing history and the pics he posts online blow me away. He was good friends with Hunter S. Thompson and was responsible for signing Zakk Wylde to Gibson. Out of no where he’ll post a pic of him hanging out with Paul McCartney like it’s no big deal.....nuts.

I started working on my own preset for the “Tender Surrender” sound....it’s a bitch trying to find something that cleans up that well. I might split it between a couple scenes/channels so I can switch to a cleaner amp when rolling down the volume. I’ve also never played with the TM block, I might give that a shot. “Die To Live” has a nice, guitar-only intro and maybe that mixed with a TM of the intro guitar part in “Tender Surrender” might get me somewhere.
 
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