Trying to dial in Dean Deleo STP times quickly

[niles_lewis]

I figured it might be. It is a BIG world - so my advice would be to not try to get everything perfect right away. I know tribute bands are different because you're trying to nail some very specific sounds, but the audience won't know the difference if it is close and you can get stuck in a pretty aggressive spiral of option paralysis and frustration. The FM3 can do SO much. If you are willing to put the time in, it can replace your current setup, but it really takes time to learn. A couple of things that will help you here:

1. ALWAYS dial your tones in at gig volume. Your tone will sound much different when you are playing at bedroom volumes. This was a major frustration for me early on and I had to learn it the hard way.

2. Try to find one or two IRs that sound good with all of the amps you are playing. Massive shifts in sound can be jarring to the audience and that can happen if you switch to vastly different IRs. It can also piss off sound guys because they sometimes have to remix your sound. It also helps with switching gaps that can occur if you are changing channels on several blocks at the same time (amp, cab, effects, etc).

3. Make good use of the Per-Preset Performance controls for sound check - Leon makes reference to this in his most recent video on Cygnus for the FM3. If you put the right controls on there you will easily be able to make the final tweaks during sound check to compensate for the space you are in. I always include some kind of high and low cut (usually from the cab block) as well as effects mixes and volumes. Basically anything that you currently tweak on your full pedalboard during soundcheck, include it in your Performance page layouts so that you can tweak everything from a single page.

Finally - take advantage of the many extremely knowledgeable people on this forum. There are many who are far more knowledgeable than I and who have been extremely helpful in my Fractal journey - 5+ years at this point. Also, make good use of the search function on the forum to avoid asking common questions. Those aforementioned knowledgeable people can also get tired of hearing the same questions over and over again - so search before you ask and check out the FAQs on the forum. I hope this is helpful, man. Take care.

thank you for this! I screenshotted it so I’ll have it for reference. Yeah this forum has been extremely helpful for me in the small amount of time I’ve been apart of it but everywhere I read online says the fractal forum is great for this kind of stuff.

 

[Bakerman]

that’s awesome man! Right now I’m playing it live the way Rick shows it. I’ll add the pull off and check the book out. I’d be interested in hearing how what you think about the others I’m doing. On Trippin’ I note for note the whole thing except for last fast run and do my own thing kind of in style of album run but Dean never plays that last run Live the way he does on the album.

Those all sound cool. As far as the "exact Dean way" on a couple things:

Trippin' verse 2nd chord is 5x44xx, or add D# on top for usual live voicing. It looked like you might have played a different shape using the open A string.

Dead & Bloated is actually standard tuning on guitar, and the main riff is all fretted notes. He does these moves where the 4th finger lifts (not really a strong pull-off motion) while the 1st finger slides up to 5th position almost immediately from the 3rd or 4th fret. Probably easier to notate than explain:

 

[niles_lewis]

Those all sound cool. As far as the "exact Dean way" on a couple things:

Trippin' verse 2nd chord is 5x44xx, or add D# on top for usual live voicing. It looked like you might have played a different shape using the open A string.

Dead & Bloated is actually standard tuning on guitar, and the main riff is all fretted notes. He does these moves where the 4th finger lifts (not really a strong pull-off motion) while the 1st finger slides up to 5th position almost immediately from the 3rd or 4th fret. Probably easier to notate than explain:

I know I cheat on Dead and Bloated but still play the chords as he does in the recordings (like the G but fret 5th fret E string and play open voicing).

with Trippin’, I play open A, 2nd fret D string and 4th fret G string so not quite right. I’ll check it out tonight when I play through it. I’ll be purchasing the book and listening to them a little more carefully. I did all of these by ear and watching live vids bc I’m trying to do it like they did live but Dean did take more shortcuts that I would have live. Like when we play Seven Caged Tigers I use the slide for the solo.

 

[CaptTennille]

Preset has been uploaded here: https://axechange.fractalaudio.com/detail.php?preset=8978

Let me know what you think!

This sounds great!! I was messing around with dropping Class A inspired 2x12 IRs in the second cab slot and found that the
"2x12 Matchbox 57 B" actually compliments the Basketweave cab nicely! Seems to impart even more of the"sparkle" of Dean's blended amps. I just had to turn the individual cab volume down until it didn't overpower the first cab.

 

[Jarick]

This sounds great!! I was messing around with dropping Class A inspired 2x12 IRs in the second cab slot and found that the
"2x12 Matchbox 57 B" actually compliments the Basketweave cab nicely! Seems to impart even more of the"sparkle" of Dean's blended amps. I just had to turn the individual cab volume down until it didn't overpower the first cab.

Good idea! I didn't tinker with that for this patch but I'll give that a shot. I was just thinking while making this patch that I need to find a good brighter cab to mix in when the Basketweave is a little dark.

@Bakerman - do you get a cut of the sales on that book? I may have to pick that up, really cool that you did the transcriptions. Do you do it all by ear?

 

[marshall2553]

That Thank You book just came out a couple months ago BTW. I did all of the transcriptions for it.

Wow, that's cool! I'm going to have to buy a copy of that. I'm usually pretty good at picking stuff out on my own, but Dean trips me up sometimes.

 

[Bakerman]

@Bakerman - do you get a cut of the sales on that book? I may have to pick that up, really cool that you did the transcriptions. Do you do it all by ear?

Glad to see some interest in the book. This was a normal invoice-once job, no cut of the sales. Done by ear while also checking plenty of videos for positions etc. Isolated guitar tracks being out there for nine of the songs also helped.

For anyone who picks this up, here's a correction for a guitar-numbering mistake in Vasoline: The chord diagrams & open G tuning at the top are for Gtrs. 2/5/8, not 2/4/7. (If you're not retuning to play the acoustic verse part, this mistake becomes somewhat irrelevant.)

 

[niles_lewis]

Glad to see some interest in the book. This was a normal invoice-once job, no cut of the sales. Done by ear while also checking plenty of videos for positions etc. Isolated guitar tracks being out there for nine of the songs also helped.

For anyone who picks this up, here's a correction for a guitar-numbering mistake in Vasoline: The chord diagrams & open G tuning at the top are for Gtrs. 2/5/8, not 2/4/7. (If you're not retuning to play the acoustic verse part, this mistake becomes somewhat irrelevant.)

the isos help a lot but some of the chords are hard to get exactly right. You’re totally right about that second chord in Trippin’ the way I play it sounds like 95% right but yours is perfect. Thanks for the heads up! I’ll def support and buy the book. I love collecting transcription books anyways.

 

[niles_lewis]

So I got my FM3 and it sounds great. Love the Dean preset @Jarick I really appreciate it! I have a really dumb question and not sure if I can do it but pretty sure it's possible:

I want to just stick to this preset and use the footswitches to switch between scenes. Is that possible and if so how? I've been watching some @2112 vids but I am still missing something here.

 

[niles_lewis]

And please act like I didn't type that last comment because I figured it out lol

 

[Den]

I have nothing to add other than to say that I LOVE this thread as an example of how much talent, how much knowledge, and how many generous musicians there are on this forum helping each other. This alone makes me proud to be a member of the Fractal Family! I only wish this forum existed when I was a young buck pursuing my dreams as a guitarist and singer. Carry on brothers!

 

[Jarick]

This sounds great!! I was messing around with dropping Class A inspired 2x12 IRs in the second cab slot and found that the
"2x12 Matchbox 57 B" actually compliments the Basketweave cab nicely! Seems to impart even more of the"sparkle" of Dean's blended amps. I just had to turn the individual cab volume down until it didn't overpower the first cab.

Tried this and I like it! That cab does complement the Basketweave very well. I like it with the level down about 6 dB and then change the overall low cut from 100 to 50 Hz (or to taste). Adds back in some of the sparkle and cut just like you said. Thanks!

One other thing I found is that the guitar/pickup/strings also makes a noticeable difference. I find with my Les Paul that if I use hotter pickups and/or thicker strings it can get muddy sounding quick. Dean uses Les Pauls with T Tops which are lower output brighter pickups. I've tried a bunch and these Wolfetone Dr V's almost sound like a cross between Les Paul and Tele which is perfect for this style. But I needed to crank the gain up even higher, and I found going to 9 on the BE channel helped get closer to Core. I even swapped out the pickups for a couple days with a set of Friedman Classic which are a little hotter PAF style but that got too muddy. I've got a PRS and Charvel that can do the medium output pickup thing for me.

 

[niles_lewis]

Tried this and I like it! That cab does complement the Basketweave very well. I like it with the level down about 6 dB and then change the overall low cut from 100 to 50 Hz (or to taste). Adds back in some of the sparkle and cut just like you said. Thanks!

One other thing I found is that the guitar/pickup/strings also makes a noticeable difference. I find with my Les Paul that if I use hotter pickups and/or thicker strings it can get muddy sounding quick. Dean uses Les Pauls with T Tops which are lower output brighter pickups. I've tried a bunch and these Wolfetone Dr V's almost sound like a cross between Les Paul and Tele which is perfect for this style. But I needed to crank the gain up even higher, and I found going to 9 on the BE channel helped get closer to Core. I even swapped out the pickups for a couple days with a set of Friedman Classic which are a little hotter PAF style but that got too muddy. I've got a PRS and Charvel that can do the medium output pickup thing for me.

my LP has Wagener Godwoods which are low medium output and I cranked gain a hair and loved it

 

[chrisjnyc]

Preset has been uploaded here: https://axechange.fractalaudio.com/detail.php?preset=8978

Let me know what you think!

I just found this preset, and its awesome!

 

[niles_lewis]

I just found this preset, and its awesome!

It is and I still use it regularly! I changed a couple things on it but I’ve been using it live a ton and it sounds killer

 

[Jipps0525]

Rick had the right position but missed the pulloffs to G.

That Thank You book just came out a couple months ago BTW. I did all of the transcriptions for it.

Bakerman, been huge into STP lately and learning songs for fun. In the verse for Sex Type Thing, is Dean Deleo doing anything more than just playing 4ths or the power chords for the E to F# riff? I swear everytime I hear the song now, I hear something going on in the higher register of those chords.

 

[Bakerman]

Bakerman, been huge into STP lately and learning songs for fun. In the verse for Sex Type Thing, is Dean Deleo doing anything more than just playing 4ths or the power chords for the E to F# riff? I swear everytime I hear the song now, I hear something going on in the higher register of those chords.

The only moving notes are E-F♯ on the low string with C♯-F♯ held on 5th/4th strings. He may have been fretting A♯ on the 3rd string too because one guitar adds it at the end of the first verse, but I don't think he really played it throughout.

The extra guitar from the intro holds f♯-a♯-b-e (xx4300) in the second and third verses but I don't know if that's what you're referring to.

 

[niles_lewis]

The only moving notes are E-F♯ on the low string with C♯-F♯ held on 5th/4th strings. He may have been fretting A♯ on the 3rd string too because one guitar adds it at the end of the first verse, but I don't think he really played it throughout.

The extra guitar from the intro holds f♯-a♯-b-e (xx4300) in the second and third verses but I don't know if that's what you're referring to.

I’ve always thought the A# is overtone. It’s hard to say for the recording but if you watch and listen to Dean play it live I don’t believe here is a A# in there.

I have tons of new vids I can post links to! Some using the FM3 and others with my Suhr PT-100 and Marshall 4x12. I still use my FM3 but I’ve recently went back to my AxeFx II rig for travel with my STP tribute. I just like the MFC-101 and rack setup better plus I don’t run into any CPU issues with the AxeFx II. It’s making me want to sell something to get a AxeFx III.

Here’s a link to a pro shot video of Trippin on a Hole! I’m using my Suhr Pt-100, 70s Marshall cab with G12H30s and the 8 voice chorus setting on my FM3: