arctic monkeys help please!

Benmurray85 · Post by **Benmurray85** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:22 pm

hey guys im a massive arctic monkeys fan and basically im ripping off their sounds and more specifically pedal boards.

but theres one thing thats killing me. on the track "who the f**ks arctic monkeys" theres a lead sound at the end that i just cannot figure out

its at 3.55 when the lead guitar becomes really saturated and sounds almost as if its breaking up, how the frig does he get it

i know the part was played by jamie and at the time the only distortion/fuzz he seemed to be using was a big muff and an mxr distortion unit but i cannot get the sound at all.

any help is greatfully recieved guys

thanks

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:44 pm

if bacchuspaul wanders past, he's the fellow to ask, as he worked at one of their gigs and roadied all their gear.

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:51 pm

just one question... WHY for god's sake?

Just kidding (somewhat). Are you trying to set up some sort of tribute band to them or something? It's one thing to like their music, learn some songs, etc... But why try to copy their tone note for note (of course I am not a big fan anyways). In general isn't it more fun to come up with your own tone than to chase someone else's? No offense meant by the way, just curious why you would go to such lengths to emulate any one particular band (yet alone them

)

Benmurray85 · Post by **Benmurray85** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:04 pm

[quote="mickie08"]just one question... WHY for god's sake?

To be honest the tone in question I just bloody love it!!! I love the way it just sounds like it's too much for the amp to handle. No offence taken pal but I just bloody love the sounds that they are coming out with. And I agree wit you that just copying a band is preety lame BUT I knew nothing about effectsbefore I got into AM and now I'm hooked and creating my own sounds in my own music and surely that's a good thing.

Cheers

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:10 pm

As long as you are using their sound to base it off of and then start tweaking it is all good. ALot of people just try so har dto emulate someone just due to fanboy-ism not realizing that these people are often just like us and change gear, play different guitars, etc. Tone has as much or more to do with the player than any one pedal or affect really. Hence why people can not buy an EVH guitar and amp and sound like EVH (or insert any other guitar legend)

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:11 pm

I think it was December 2009 I worked for them. Eagles of Death Metal were supporting and were far better and far cooler. Lovely fellas.

BacchusPaul ages ago wrote:Taken from a thread about one of their guitars. I worked this gig in December, so it's very likely the same setup they are using now. I think their road crew said they were taking a break in January then starting touring again.

BacchusPaul ages even before that wrote:Yesterday I worked the Arctic Monkeys gig in Belfast. I worked all day (18 hours) and was there to set up their stuff, and was there between the bands to take the support bands gear off the stage.

The rack that this guitar was in had a Jazzmaster and a Jaguar too, as well as this and a few others, including a Coronado or Starcaster or whatever it is that has the kind of oblongey headstock. Just by looking at it, it looked like a shortscale neck. I was actually standing about doing nothing when the guitar tech was setting up the rack, so I got a good five minutes of look looking at the guitars form a bout eight feet away. I contemplated asking him about this guitar, but he seemed pretty fucked off or stressed out as it was. Then I was called away to load in the support's trailer.

The bridge pickup was indeed a Burns Trisonic (or at least something in a big, nickel case), with a humbucker in the neck. Strat bridge.

The neck didn't have a blank headstock but had a small circle (about two cm diameter) with a V on it. It's very possible that this was stuck on as a bit pf decoration to an otherwise blank Warmoth headstock, or it might be a custom guitar. Does anyone recognise this?

The other rack had two Gretsch guitars (an archtop and one one of those gorgeous black guitars with a gigantic pickguard, a very small solidbodied riceknbacker bass, and a smallish looking Ovation electric. I'm sure there were other things there two, but nothing caught my eye.

Amps:

On stage there were

Silverface Fender Bassman 100, with Fender 810 cab
Selmer Thunderbird Twin. Had a golden snakeskin cabinet.
Simms Watts 100 head
HiWatt combo with extension cab
Marshall JCM 800
Roland Jazz Chorus

I suspect that the Roland Jazz Chorus was for the keyboards/synths. There was a fantastic looking Korg Synth, finished in wood, and with a wooden stand. There was also a spiffy looking Nord Synth.

There were a few pedal boards knocking around. I can't remember what was on each one, but I remember seeing an OCD, a EHX Pulsar, something that looked like an A/B box with a Zvex style finish, and uh, lots of other stuff. Can't really remember this, sorry.

EDIT: I've remembered there was something called a Valve Slapper, as well as a Tube Screamer. There was a pedal that looked to be called something like a Great Fuzzilator, or something, but half the name was obscured by tape. Also, there was an EHX Hum Debugger and a Memory Man. And, there was an old Boss Chorus Ensemble. I don't know how old it was, but it looked nothing like any of the one's they've had out since I've been playing guitar.
http://www.shortscale.org/forum/viewtop ... tic+arctic

Post by **Doog** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:17 pm

Sounds like there's a mild-but-fast tremolo or possibly even phaser happening on that part, probably the key to the slightly odd sound.

Bear in mind, studios often have pedals and various plug-ins at their disposal, so the effect not ever have appeared on their own pedalboards.

othomas2 · Post by **othomas2** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:31 pm

Doog wrote:Sounds like there's a mild-but-fast tremolo or possibly even phaser happening on that part, probably the key to the slightly odd sound.

That's what I thought too... along with the amp being overloaded with multiple dirt as well

James · Post by **James** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 11:27 pm

I thought there was some sort of modulation effect on it, but I think it's just double (maybe triple) tracked with a little bit of fairly fast tremolo.

cobascis · Post by **cobascis** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 12:11 am

Definitely a trem in there somewhere

Berto · Post by **Berto** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 12:34 am

i know that alex used a rat 2 up until favorite worst nightmare

Berto · Post by **Berto** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 12:35 am

then he switched to a toobscreama

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 3:21 am

Any tricky to spot modulation could be a CE-1 as Paul mentions a weird old Chorus Ensemble he'd never seen the like of.

[youtube][/youtube]

Haze · Post by **Haze** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 6:25 am

Sounds like a hard Tremolo and a slapback type delay to me. You have to remember that people go into the studio and hardly use their own gear. Studios keep tons of odds and ends stompboxes, amps and plugins.

dezb1 · Post by **dezb1** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:49 pm

Iâ€™d say it was some fast chorus, if you have a chorus pedal put it in line before your distortion / fuzz /overdrive so youâ€™re distorting the chorused sound rather than chorusing the distortion... makes a big difference

Post by **Doog** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 11:46 am

Doog wrote:Bear in mind, studios often have pedals and various plug-ins at their disposal, so the effect not ever have appeared on their own pedalboards.

Haze wrote: You have to remember that people go into the studio and hardly use their own gear. Studios keep tons of odds and ends stompboxes, amps and plugins.

Echo echo echo echo

I'm definitely going with tremolo, there's a tremolo effect on the clean guitar right before the solo; sounds like yer man's just switched on a fuzz box to play the solo.