Stevie Nicks - Edge of Seventeen sound

CodePoet

CodePoet

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Anyone ever work this one up? Was wondering what Axe settings would get closest to the sound on this one.
 
Get Waddy Wachtel? That would work, but I was looking to mimic the Wad-inator. I think the tone is all in the hair.
 
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Looks like he used a Music Man 130 Amp & a volume pedal. All "effects" were added later.

From 1999 Interview:

"Waddy Wachtel"
by David Simons
1999 Interview from Musician

David: When did you become aware that you'd developed a sound that a lot of people, particularly in L.A., were quite fond of?

Waddy: I never did. I wasn't trying for a "sound"; it just caught on. I never used any effects; it was always strictly a Music Man amp, my Strat or Paul, and a volume pedal.

One of your more famous guitar statements is that staccato opening riff to Stevie Nicks' "Edge of Seventeen." Were you aware of the similarities between that song and the Police's "Bring On the Night"?

I had never heard "Bring On the Night," and at that session they told me they were going to do this song based on this feel. I had heard something about the Police, but I didn't know what they were talking about. Then about two years ago, I had the radio on, and on comes what sounds like "Edge of Seventeen"-and all of a sudden, there's Sting's voice! I thought, "We ripped them off completely!" I called Stevie that night and said, "Listen to me, don't ever do that again!"

That's actually not an easy guitar figure to play.

Onstage, the beginning of that song is like a break for Stevie. I'd be standing there, playing that riff for around three minutes, before she'd even start singing! By the end of the tour I was able to break walnuts with my right hand.

From Web:

Throughout the song a distinctive 16th note guitar riff is played, progressing through C, D, and E-Minor chords. During the bridge, the chords alternate twice between E-Minor and C.
 
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The 2 intro's DONT sound similar....Andy has a Tele thin guitar flanger sweep, and Waddy is wide open w/ a thick bone-tone.


The Tone: dont be fooled thinking its mostly reverb....it's a combo of Flanger & Rotary (surprised?)
Flanger for the hollowness...and Rotary for the Airy-ness.
 
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CodePoet said:
Anyone ever work this one up? Was wondering what Axe settings would get closest to the sound on this one.
Click to expand...
I enjoy puzzles like this.. I was playing around with the Axe-FX II and listening to the 1983 live performance on YouTube. This is the approach that I came up with.

The Music Man HD 130 is one of those amps that were between a Marshall and a Fender that popped up in the late 70's like the Marshall 4140 Club and Country. It has a quad of 6ca7's in its power section which are the American manufactured version of the EL-34. To my ears, it sounds like a very loud non Fender clean amp of that era. So, first I tried a Hiwatt(HiPower) Brilliant channel with the master all the way up going into the stock Redwirez HiWatt cab into an 80's chorus. That was actually pretty close, but that was a little harsh. So, I switched to a JTM45 model for the KT66's sound and substituted in a Blackface tone stack to push it back toward the Fender side and brighten it up. Then, I ran that through the 59 Bass Guy 4x10 P10 cab and miked that with an SM57 into an 80's chorus. That seemed to work best. So, try it and see what you think.

I am running it with the boost on, the master volume all the way up, and the drive around 5 or 6 with the EQ adjusted for the guitar.
 
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potential2themax said:
The Tone: dont be fooled thinking its mostly reverb....it's a combo of Flanger & Rotary (surprised?)
Flanger for the hollowness...and Rotary for the Airy-ness.
Click to expand...

I was wondering about the reverb -- very interesting analysis. Did you hear that's what was used or is that what your ears tell you? I'm eager to try it out. Thanks for the input!
 
potential2themax said:
The 2 intro's DONT sound similar....Andy has a Tele thin guitar flanger sweep, and Waddy is wide open w/ a thick bone-tone.


The Tone: dont be fooled thinking its mostly reverb....it's a combo of Flanger & Rotary (surprised?)
Flanger for the hollowness...and Rotary for the Airy-ness.
Click to expand...
On the Ultra, that's probably the way I'd go aiming for an Electric Mistress tone which was a combo of Chorus and Flanger which was a very popular pedal at the time. They were all aiming for the Leslie sound and having varying of degrees of success.

I remember using a Boss BF-2 at the time "Edge of Seventeen" came out to do that kind of stuff. If my memory still holds, I can remember modulation mixes that varied from really subtle to over the top on this song from some of the live radio broadcasts.
 
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CodePoet said:
I was wondering about the reverb -- very interesting analysis. Did you hear that's what was used or is that what your ears tell you?
Click to expand...

My ears....I'd learned that reverb has a limited place in tone creation, especially if used for live/non-recording guitar tones.

You'll know you have the tone close, when you place the chords as he does 3/4 of the way in the tune...you can hear the effects on it. Thus, going between the palm muted intro & the chords will get you there.
 
I Wanna Be Waddy

Dancing Frog said:
I enjoy puzzles like this.. I was playing around with the Axe-FX II and listening to the 1983 live performance on YouTube. This is the approach that I came up with.

The Music Man HD 130 is one of those amps that were between a Marshall and a Fender that popped up in the late 70's like the Marshall 4140 Club and Country. It has a quad of 6ca7's in its power section which are the American manufactured version of the EL-34. To my ears, it sounds like a very loud non Fender clean amp of that era. So, first I tried a Hiwatt(HiPower) Brilliant channel with the master all the way up going into the stock Redwirez HiWatt cab into an 80's chorus. That was actually pretty close, but that was a little harsh. So, I switched to a JTM45 model for the KT66's sound and substituted in a Blackface tone stack to push it back toward the Fender side and brighten it up. Then, I ran that through the 59 Bass Guy 4x10 P10 cab and miked that with an SM57 into an 80's chorus. That seemed to work best. So, try it and see what you think.

I am running it with the boost on, the master volume all the way up, and the drive around 5 or 6 with the EQ adjusted for the guitar.
Click to expand...

I guess the problem is that I'm new to the Axe-FX II. But when I look for JTM45 in the list of amps, I just don't see it. There's a Brit JM45. Is that it? You haven't by any chance uploaded this to the user presets list have you. That would be lovely.
 
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