Zakk Wylde on Amps & FX:
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OP
No need for designer amps and gear....
Clockworkmike
Ambassador of STACKS in WV SHACKS
Hes always kept it super simple. Very minimal on FX, minus what you see there in the video and really the main 2 things he uses is the Chorus and Overdrive. The wah, rotovibe and phaser get splashed in periodically. He now has his own line of guitars, pedals and amps and even speakers, but primarily he's always just kept it to a LP Custom with a maple neck and EMG 81/85s and a Marshall JCM800 2203 with 6550s ( alongside his own model of them) with Electrovoice EVM12L 200w speakers (800w cabs). He now has his own EV 300w speakers ( 1200w cabs)
OP
I love getting down to playing and not getting hung up on goodies....Your observations are spot-on!!!
His solo from "No More Tears" is still something that amazes me....Tone & technique is phenomenal....
OP
I learned a few things over the years. I once spoke to Max Norman about tone and FX and he was the first to tell me George Lynch plays with the chorus on ALL the time. I later found out that Ritchie Faulkner does too...never turns it off. That tidbit of information helped me to find something I always found missing in my sound. I may turn it off for some parts, but live, it's always on 100% of the time...
Metal89
Ambassador of Orchestral Brewtality
Chorus I never really used on heavy distorted rythym. I’ll use it on cleans to drive home a certain emotion from time to time, reverb is what I can’t seem to live without, I always have to have a pinch in there. Usually that’s the only other thing I have running. Guitar>Wah>amp using the onboard reverb was pretty much my setup for the longest time
Now I’m really liking guitar>wah>overdrive>amp>Noise gate>reverb>eq.
Clockworkmike
Ambassador of STACKS in WV SHACKS
Growing up, he was the guitarist i first got to see with Ozzy ( i was born the year after Randy died and Jake e. Lee was gone by the time i was old enough to remember watching MTV lol). I believe it was Miracle Man and Breaking All The Rules when i first saw this long hair dude with a bullseye guitar just ripping it up. Became an instant fan ( definitely a fan of his predecessors as well as i got exposed to earlier stuff i missed)
Two of my all time favorite photos ever were taken from the Hard Rock Vault in London in September 2005. Believe it or not, they actually let folks hold pieces that were donated for photo ops, before their insurance raised 10 types of holy hell and stopped that entirely. I have a photo of me sitting on Jimi Hendrix's couch recovered from his apartment, holding his original 69 Gibson Flying V Custom ( used during the Isle of Wright concert) and then a picture with one of Zakk Wylde's signature series LP customs he donated and signed ( serial # ZW 125). I got my ass CHEWED OUT for trying to play a few notes on it actually lol ( they let you hold them but that was it, no playing).
Ill dig those pics up, theyre down at my parents house
Ramo
AmTHRASHador of Chugz
I keep my bare minimum my rig is, guitar > Digitech drop >od> amp and delay chorus in FX . Chorus is off most time , I use it on clean parts.
Ramo
AmTHRASHador of Chugz
You get guitar tech do switching for you Keith
Clockworkmike
Ambassador of STACKS in WV SHACKS
The only pedals i know of Keith EVER using was a Maestro Fuzz Tone for that crazy sound on Satisfaction. He wanted to replicate a "horn sound" with the chorus riff and did it with that because his amps were very clean. He used an XR delay on Some Girls, an MXR phase 100 for Shattered and that was it. Most studio usage. Only one he uses live is an Ibanez TS9 tube screamer to drive his Fender amps off stage and its set fixed.
He really never was a big FX guy
gball
Ambassador of Boogie
I’m a big, big fan of Zakk. Love all the BLS albums and his solo work. I like those much more than what he did with Ozzy but I love that too, the guy is just a legend.
I also love pedals. They give you unlimited sonic possibilities. It’s one of the best things about electric guitars - you’re not locked into any one thing.
I also love pedals. They give you unlimited sonic possibilities. It’s one of the best things about electric guitars - you’re not locked into any one thing.
Clockworkmike
Ambassador of STACKS in WV SHACKS
Precisely! Theres a lot of flak about " suppressing or ruining" an amplifiers sound by using fx pedals or boards but i really disagree with that. Sure, lots of amps sound killer just straight up and cranked but fx, like you said, give you endless options for sound. In reality, most amps today implore some form of fx internally anyways, such as Gain and Reverb at a minimum
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OP
I agree to an extent. I found - after chasing tone for many years - I was still missing something. For me, that 'missing link' was chorus. I spent a few months changing pedal orders around and testing the rig in a rented rehearsal studio at stage volume levels. My Compressor, TS-9, Primary (right) EQ and Chorus are in 100% of the time. It's very subtle, but it adds just a little extra edge to the tone that I feel naked without...
Ramo
AmTHRASHador of Chugz
i want bare minimum and i still have 9 pedals on board lol
gball
Ambassador of Boogie
Yeah, I don't buy into that at all. It's just signal processing, even if it's just a simple OD or something, and really there is no "purity" with an electric guitar as the amp is coloring the inherent tone anyways. The pedals give you more options and those options are used to make creative decisions about the sound you want to put out for others to hear. I guess if that choice is to keep it stripped down, like Keef above, then that's a sonic decision as well, but I can also tell you that despite being a great songwriter I have never once, not ever, listened to KR and been blown away by his guitar playing (the same can't be said for Mick Taylor). And I'd argue all those crazy tunings and 5-string setups are the same as using effects anyway - they are techniques designed to change the standard voice of the guitar.
gball
Ambassador of Boogie
"Bare Minimum" means the smallest number that gives you the sounds that you need. If you are missing something that you need then you have too few.
OP
Agree 100%!!!!
I only wish I knew more about how to properly use pedals...like, for example, I can never quite get the delay I want from my DD-3...but I have heard others pull it off...