Shawn Lane tone fw 18.08

Cobrango

Cobrango

Power User
Good day everyone! Here's a quick clip of my Shawn Lane project.

so I tone matched a clip on youtube of the Holmes + westbury w-20 and this is what it sounds like at the moment (yeah I need to learn the whole solo :p ) this is using an Ibanez rga8 with Ionizers in it. first bridge as humbucker, then bridge humbucker + split neck single coil



Edit: new version using rg2228 with freshly installed DiMarzio PAF 8s, first bridge as humbucker, then bridge humbucker + split neck single coil
read below:



I just got back my rg2228 from a guitar tech who installed PAF 8s, so here you have the same riff, same preset, nothing changed except the guitar (with fresh strings though) and it sounds really great! I love the PAF 8s, finally my I can start using my main guitar again. I've been using the rga8 because it's got DiMarzio Ionizers in it, and even though the rg2228 is a prestige - it sounds really muddy and undefined in the low end equipped with the EMG 808s. Now I've got the DiMarzio PAF 8s in it with push/pull pots and it's way more Shawn Laneish (at least to me, compared to the EMG 808s, lol)

Check it out (and compare the clips if you want to)

and here you have the pictures of the guitars, Ibanez rga8 with ionizer-8s and Ibanez rg2228 with PAF-8s, to me they look- and sound fantastic :D

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.828913470496011.1073741827.446840908703271&type=1

I've been searching for clips or eq or just information in general about the
Holmes Mississippi Bluesmaster aka the Shawn Lane amp (among others) and I found this great clip for tone matching:



here's how the eq of the above clip looks like, the Holmes+westbury, the clip I tone matched - how it looks like recorded trough the camera filming the video though. I used the matching function in Ozone 4 and this is what it looks like over time. This could be usefull to get closer to the sound :)

Holmes%20eq.jpg


could it be that there's some heavy multiband compression going on beneath 80hz and above 10k hz with a dampening around 8-10 db from 10k and above? this is very interesting!

here's the tone matched version from the axe-fx. it's close but it could use a bit less damping in the highs from 10k and above, also the lows beneath 80z needs to be compressed.

Shawn%20Lane%20one%20more%20night%20eq.jpg


and here's the eq from a Shawn Lane preset I made from scratch using my ears and no matching.

It's in the ballpark but not as close as the match. I love this tone hunt! :D so much fun! it's about having fun right? :)

Shawn%20Lane%20one%20more%20night%20eq%202.jpg


the youtube clip the best clip I've come across (soundqualitywise) even though this clip is clipping, lol.

So much of the Shawn Lane stuff is VHS quality and with lots of noise or full band etc. but this clip sounds like Shawn Lane (Holmes amp + Westbury w-20)

anyhow, this is the tone I'm going for, the solo at 3:30 in the song "one more night" (by the way, it's one of the best solos I know of IMHO :) )

 
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I recognize that pedal I sold it to the guy possibly the Holmes head as well..
I bought the red chicken head knobs at an old radio shop here in town.
I still have a few of those pedals..

Clips sound great !
 
thanks everyone :) I Think I'm going to do a review on the PAF 8s, but I'm having a hard time with the sun. too much sun beaming in my window. I can't see! aaargh. damn summer :p what's wrong with winter? I'm from Norway, geez give me a break.
 
Shawn Lane gets a lot of respect on guitarist forums all over the internet. He really seems to be one of the most influental guitar players for some people. :)

Cobrango said:
I found this great clip for tone matching:

Click to expand...


This is actually a really interesting phenomena I've been meaning to discuss so I thought why not do it here since it's border line on topic. :) People post a lot of clips on "what they want to sound like" that are shot with $1 Chinese mobile phone microphones. I find this really interesting and I think it's probably going to change guitar tone evolution at some point. Personally I think that these tones are not going to work in a band mix since that mic is limiting/compressing the guitar sound and capturing the whole room and essentially sounding too dark for a modern mix. (not talking about cab in the room sound) People even make purchase decisions based on clips like this. That's huge IMO.

A friend of mine said that his favorite amp is the Diezel Herbert and I asked him based on what (since I know he has never played it for real) and he said that there are so many good clips on it on YouTube. I wanted to hear the clips and they were essentially just like this video Cobrango posted. A $1 chinese mobile phone mic put on a table. Obviously it sounds good and there's no problem with liking that sound. The only problem I have with this is that based on that knowledge he had on the Herbert he said that the Axe-Fx model was very inaccurate and doesn't sound anything like the real Herbert. :lol

So I guess where I'm trying to get here is... what do you guys think is the standard for "a clip that's good for tone matching"? Obviously there are no rules and what ever sounds good to you is what I suggest you use. :)
 
Clark Kent said:
Shawn Lane gets a lot of respect on guitarist forums all over the internet. He really seems to be one of the most influental guitar players for some people. :)
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I've written a bachelor task about Shawn Lane (it's in norwegian though, google translate? :p ) and in it I also shed some light on virtuosity, and the problem with playing fast as a contrast to "feeling" (=less notes? slower?) by problem I mean for most listeners the sher speed of Shawn Lane would put their ears off to the music. it's just a flavour, but to many it's "show off" etc. I find this contrast some people have very interesting. I'm not sure what my point was about this but yeah he's very influental, as a whole, his music, his thoughts on music, his playing, phrasing, the whole person :)

Clark Kent said:
This is actually a really interesting phenomena I've been meaning to discuss so I thought why not do it here since it's border line on topic. :) People post a lot of clips on "what they want to sound like" that are shot with $1 Chinese mobile phone microphones. I find this really interesting and I think it's probably going to change guitar tone evolution at some point.
Click to expand...

spot on! thank you for bringing this up. I guess it's like you and Petrucci, not that I know your feelings about him or if you want to sound like him or anything but I get a feeling that you like his guitar tone? hehe. I don't want to sound like Shawn, I mean first of all I never will, but I kind of write that I want to sound like him because it's an easy way to describe what tone I'm going for, not his tone, but a tone like him - defined, chunky mids, "lots of guitar in it" (like character, maybe from low output pickups idk), round highs, low mids but still defined in the low end, big low end but still not too bassy - all these things, really hard to describe so it's just easier to write "want to sound like Shawn Lane" if there was a tone by someone else that I liked just as much I would want that tone. but I would not want to sound like them, the tone is kind of superficial to the music but to me my ears want to hear that kind of guitar sound and I get a lot of inspiration from it. Just the whole thing about solid state amps being "faster" than tube amps you know? (no sag?) what's that all about? stuff like that get me really going, I want to find out about this. I kind of like fast music, so I guess Shawn Lane is a natural starting point as to how a tone could be, very suited for fast playing, round, easy on the ear (round), and all the qualities from his tone basicly.

I'm very aware of the fact that the tone "I'm going for" is not really the tone at all, but the recorded version (by random devices) of a tone I don't even know how sound like. I never got to hear Shawn Lane in the room. I just have his recorded sounds trough albums and such. so what I'm really going for is my subjective conclusion of every note (or recorded notes if you will) I've ever heard by Shawn Lane. what does it come down to? I really like his Holmes+Westbury tone so I'm trying to figure what's so special about it, because even in the low quality clip on youtube above, I still get a feeling of "yes, that's the kind of quality I'm looking for" - but having that said, I also have the knowledge from all my years of recording guitar to back up my thoughts on how a guitar tone "might sound" in the room (the Shawn Lane tone I'm going for) because I've played on amps in the room and have some thoughts on how a guitar in the room can sound recorded. so It's kind of like reverse engineering, I've only got the recordings - how can I ever get close to a tone in the room if I've never heard it in the room? simply, I can't. But, I can get a grasp of some qualities in a guitar tone that all these recordings (trough different devices) has in common. the Shawn Lane in it all. Just the phrasing alone could make someone go "oh, that's Shawn Lane!" - maybe as if hearing a clip of him never heard before on a random amp and not "his" (well it's him) tone at all.

I think maybe the phenomena you're talking about is a modernization of guitar tone. guitar tonewise - years ago, at concerts, it was very common to hear FOH+the guitar cabs on stage, which would be the recorded sound from the mic on the cab + the cab itself. by modernization I mean more and more concerts being played direct to FOH like for example the axe-fx so the audience would only hear the direct signal to FOH and maybe some volume from the stage monitors but no longer a "raw" cab sound, the one hitting you directly from the cab on stage. so new mobile phone recordings from concerts etc will sound way different because of this, but now it will be much easier to just get hold of the recorded version of the direct signal going to the FOH. then you can tone match and boom - you're in the ballpark.

If Shawn Lane had the axe-fx II then I could just get his presets, that would be much simpler.

Clark Kent said:
Personally I think that these tones are not going to work in a band mix since that mic is limiting/compressing the guitar sound and capturing the whole room and essentially sounding too dark for a modern mix. (not talking about cab in the room sound) People even make purchase decisions based on clips like this. That's huge IMO.
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I think they worked great on his recordings, and I also have ears for darker guitar tones, a lot of the tones I hear on this forum is way too bright for me - that does not mean they're bad or wrong or anything, and yes they will sound different in a mix, but I like dark guitar tones even in mixes too. what is a band mix right? I love the mix on the album "fission" and albums Shawn Lane is on, great tones, fits nice in the mix even though his tone is darker than most guitar tones, but it's not just dark - it's got this magical definition to it that makes it stand out even though it's dark. I don't know if it can be called "character" or what but I really like it.

listen to his first tones in his solo in this clip from 5:24-5:30 :



it's a lot darker than the other guitars but I just love character in the tone. It's defined and it's not that typical lead rock guitar kind of gain as in the end of the solo played right before Shawn Lane. When it comes to Shawn Lane, these recordings are all I've got. It's not ideal, that's why I had to tone match this random guy playing a Holmes through a westbury, because the tone sounds like Shawn to me. it's the best guitar only recording I know of, I'm sure there's more of them I just have to look more, but I totally agree with you on this.


Clark Kent said:
A friend of mine said that his favorite amp is the Diezel Herbert and I asked him based on what (since I know he has never played it for real) and he said that there are so many good clips on it on YouTube. I wanted to hear the clips and they were essentially just like this video Cobrango posted. A $1 chinese mobile phone mic put on a table. Obviously it sounds good and there's no problem with liking that sound. The only problem I have with this is that based on that knowledge he had on the Herbert he said that the Axe-Fx model was very inaccurate and doesn't sound anything like the real Herbert. :lol
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yeah that's funny. and it's also the same thing happening with me when it comes to Shawn Lane. I will never know how he sounded in the room. but I love the recordings (even some of them are shit (recording qualitywise) :D - they're still sounding awesome! I feel hypocritical saying it, but it's Shawn Lane, and the tone is GREAT (for a shitty recording, and I bet it sounds even better if I could be there, but I can't)

Clark Kent said:
So I guess where I'm trying to get here is... what do you guys think is the standard for "a clip that's good for tone matching"? Obviously there are no rules and what ever sounds good to you is what I suggest you use. :)
Click to expand...

yeah that's what I mean. this is all I've got man! :p this clip is a "great standard" concidering the clips I know of. even his instructional VHS "dvd"s (ripped from vhs?) got the VHS background noise in it. maybe I can try to filter out the noise, but there goes the tone with it I guess, haha. I would not recommend this to anyone, it's not a good tone matching clip, but it's what I've got for now and I like the tone I got from it. but could it be better? yeah, in spades too! but even though it's shit (tone matching qualitywise) I get comments like "yeah dude, nailed it!" which is funny, seen from the Diezel Herbert phenomena point of view! hehe :D

I guess I'm going for the recorded Shawn Lane kind of sound..
 
Clark Kent said:
Shawn Lane gets a lot of respect on guitarist forums all over the internet. He really seems to be one of the most influental guitar players for some people. :)



This is actually a really interesting phenomena I've been meaning to discuss so I thought why not do it here since it's border line on topic. :) People post a lot of clips on "what they want to sound like" that are shot with $1 Chinese mobile phone microphones. I find this really interesting and I think it's probably going to change guitar tone evolution at some point. Personally I think that these tones are not going to work in a band mix since that mic is limiting/compressing the guitar sound and capturing the whole room and essentially sounding too dark for a modern mix. (not talking about cab in the room sound) People even make purchase decisions based on clips like this. That's huge IMO.

A friend of mine said that his favorite amp is the Diezel Herbert and I asked him based on what (since I know he has never played it for real) and he said that there are so many good clips on it on YouTube. I wanted to hear the clips and they were essentially just like this video Cobrango posted. A $1 chinese mobile phone mic put on a table. Obviously it sounds good and there's no problem with liking that sound. The only problem I have with this is that based on that knowledge he had on the Herbert he said that the Axe-Fx model was very inaccurate and doesn't sound anything like the real Herbert. :lol

So I guess where I'm trying to get here is... what do you guys think is the standard for "a clip that's good for tone matching"? Obviously there are no rules and what ever sounds good to you is what I suggest you use. :)
Click to expand...

That's actually really interesting. As I've been learning more about different amps and guitar tone I have found myself aiming for the in the room tones people get opposed to a mic'd up tone.
 
I've updated the main post with eq matches using Ozone 4. I eq matched the youtube clip using the matching option in Ozone, then I set the time to "infinite" in options. then I matched my "Shawn Lane" presets that I've made myself. the pictures could reveal a lot! :)
 
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krash73 said:
I got to meet Shawn Lane several times in that very same room, that was my guitar teacher's (Barry Bays) room at Delta State University in Cleveland, MS.
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tell me everything about it! *shawn lane nerd* ( I think I might write a master degree thesis on Shawn Lane in about two years)
 
Thank you so much, can't wait to check them out! Can you tell a little bit about the difference in the presets, they all have the same description. You rock and thank you again!
 
nhgtrman said:
Thank you so much, can't wait to check them out! Can you tell a little bit about the difference in the presets, they all have the same description. You rock and thank you again!
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they're pretty similar in the grid some of them, but they sound pretty different due to eq and reverb and drive blocks etc. I'm tweaking the hell out of presets at the moment and I've just done a new discovery - I can say I've got a pretty good Shawn Lane preset going now, I'll record a video when I'm done with my exam.
 
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