Izzy’s guitar tone

[UsedYourIllusion]

Is it me, or does Izzy’s guitar tone change dramatically during the UYI tour from earlier days? Listening to Brownstone on Live Era, or the Alpine clip, along with what you can hear of him on the Indiana show; he sounds lower tuned or as if he has different effects on. Is that just me? He doesn’t sound the same from ‘87/‘88 shows.

im not a guitarist, so maybe someone could enlighten me

[DieselDaisy]

He used to switch guitars a lot, from Les Pauls to big hollow-bodies and back again. I've seen him play a Telecaster also. 

[soon]

I believe he played Crate amps? Ive enjoyed a Crate amp too, but they aren't generally looked to as a high-end professional amp. If he played Crates on both AFD and UYI then I think that Thompson, Barbiero and Clink really worked on the engineering side of thing to elevate the tone on AFD and Lies, but let the Crate tone shine of UYI. And the live sounds emulated the albums.

Plus roadies turning his amp volume down during UYI tour really impacted his tone. Thats in addition to Slash using an EQ pedal in the UYI era that laid claim to most of the available frequencies. 

And his playing style changed over time too, I think.

Edited August 3, 2018 by soon

[guitarpatch]

18 minutes ago, DieselDaisy said:

He used to switch guitars a lot, from Les Pauls to big hollow-bodies and back again. I've seen him play a Telecaster also. 

Yeah pretty much whatever he was into at the time. ES-175’s, LP customs, Teles, Tele Customs, etc... 

not sure what he was using amp wise over the tours. That would affect things even more. Prob was looking to be different so that he could cut through a mix 

[PhillyRose]

Do any guitarists know what kind of amp settings Izzy used?

[bigpoop]

I think he used Mesa/Boogie in the Appetite days and then switched to Fender Bassman later. Not sure exactly when he switched though.

[Tom-Ass]

1 hour ago, PhillyRose said:

Do any guitarists know what kind of amp settings Izzy used?

The best ones...

[Silverburst80]

17 minutes ago, bigpoop said:

I think he used Mesa/Boogie in the Appetite days and then switched to Fender Bassman later. Not sure exactly when he switched though.

Yes i believe he was using Mesa Mark 3 heads ( you can see them clearly in the new Its So Easy clip), Carvin has been mentioned also. Also strictly using Les Pauls and hollow-bodies which was a beefier sound. Seemed to just use Tele's all throughout his time on the Illusion tour, occasionally he'd bring out the Les Paul Special.

Edited August 3, 2018 by Silverburst80

[DieselDaisy]

Such a big difference between a Les Paul and a Tele, the humbuckers and single pick-ups being the first thing that springs to mind. 

[Silverburst80]

5 minutes ago, DieselDaisy said:

Such a big difference between a Les Paul and a Tele, the humbuckers and single pick-ups being the first thing that springs to mind. 

Tele's have a very "twangy" sound if that's the right word.

Edited August 3, 2018 by Silverburst80

[Ant]

I remember reading he bought a Marshall 1974x at some point... not sure when he used it... or if this was post-guns... yep. Haha. 

[SoundOfAGun]

6 hours ago, Silverburst80 said:

Tele's have a very "twangy" sound if that's the right word.

I'd agree with that, also have nice cleans but the single coils aren't the best for dirty tones. 

[bucketOtrouble]

for afd Izzy used a carving xv112ev studio tube amp and a mb mark III head, on both ghe graphic eq was set all the way to max. some report that on some stuff a Marshall plexilike amp was used as well. later on Izzy started using fender bassmans. during his solo career he used a small fender combo a lot.

guitars used can be quite diverse. afd recording was likely done with a semi hollow or led Paul's. during UYI Izzy is said to have used a carvin guitar, Gibson es and eds, but also a stratocaster. the tele was only used live on the UYI tour, as far as I know.

I guess Izzy used only few effects, a MxR chorus for example

[Mendez]

As all others have said: single coil guitars were used on UYI tour (live era) as well as different amps. I also think he used way less gain than he did on the AFD days

[soon]

Ahh, Carvin thats right. I'd written Crate, but meant Carvin. And luckily, to save face, Mike Clink agrees with me about their mid tier tone "I wasnt afraid to use whatever gear was right to make it work. I mean, Carvins were not my favourite amp but they worked for Izzy."

Theres scans of a magazine here, page 86 has Clink talking about Izzy using Carvin. Page 81 has a little box with a brief overview of both Slash and Izzys AFD rigs:

http://www.slashparadise.com/media/interviews-slash/return-to-the-jungle-guitar-one-june-2002.pdf

[raggedyman]

From what ive read and hear he uses the same trick as malcom young : volume rolled back and mid gain 

[Tom-Ass]

I would sure love to hear that tone as the foundation to Slash's leads again...

[RussTCB]

From what I understand, during a lot of the UYI tour, he used a setting called "Off" 

[zombux]

12 minutes ago, RussTCB said:

From what I understand, during a lot of the UYI tour, he used a setting called "Off" 

it seems that Bumblefoot's sound guys at Donington 2006 had a great teacher!

and then they shared this officially, without even checking it 

[UsedYourIllusion]

3 hours ago, RussTCB said:

From what I understand, during a lot of the UYI tour, he used a setting called "Off" 

So the whole, Izzy’s amp was off thing, was that ever confirmed?.. every bootleg I’ve ever heard, he’s definitely there (minus ones with terrible mixes or audio I.e. Indiana/st. Louis, I mean gilby is barely audible on a lot of bootlegs as well). I mean I can definitely hear him on the Stockholm show, philly show, rock in rio, etc. 

[Eric Cantona]

I never hear Gilby but I always hear Izzy. Tokyo 1992 is a good example of inaudible Gilby.

I'd kill to have a rhythm guitarist like Izzy.

[UsedYourIllusion]

1 minute ago, AslatIE said:

I never hear Gilby but I always hear Izzy. Tokyo 1992 is a good example of inaudible Gilby.

I'd kill to have a rhythm guitarist like Izzy.

Definitely can’t hear him on ISE, attitude, civil war when the chorus kicks in etc. he’s very audible on Chicago 92 and the Saskatoon bootleg

[Eric Cantona]

1 minute ago, UsedYourIllusion said:

Definitely can’t hear him on ISE, attitude, civil war when the chorus kicks in etc. he’s very audible on Chicago 92 and the Saskatoon bootleg

I don't really mind being unable to hear Gilby on the ISE chorus, he botched that one consistently  

Could be that Gilby's easily audible on bootlegs, but I haven't really ever watched much of the '92-'93 shows.

[shotsfired cro]

I can hear Izzy and Gilby.  I guess it has to do with gig to gig.

Tokyo '92, Gilby on Estranged or RQ, perfect examples where Gilby is heard well.

Rio '91, Dead Horse...

On the side note, who the hell is that small guy with red winter cap on that Download 2006 vid???

[bucketOtrouble]

I could hear gilby on each recording. to me Izzy's guitar tone was more cutting through the mix, something which might appear 'louder' to some people. for the Tokyo recordings of the live era I also would say that the pan of Slash's guitar is wider, and thus laid a bit more over the left channel than on other recordings, but my memory might be wrong