Need help with Sludge tone (Mastodon/High on Fire/Baroness)

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deftone82

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Hi all

I play a Gibson SG standard with stock pups through a Mark IV widebody combo (standard celetion speaker, 2 6L6, 2 Sovtek tubes (forgot Sovtek number)).

I want to get a real nice Mastodon-like dirty tone (Blood Mountain). Mostly I don't get enough gritty/dirty with my mark IV, it's like metal, but there's something missing. I know the sound on cd's is altered, recorded and what not. And I also know they play on Marshall JCM 800's with flying V's....

I was wondering if any of you guys could give some advice on how to get this sort of sound.
- Should I replace pups? Some said Seymour Duncan Custom Customs or pealy Gates or Dirty Fingers or Alnico II Pro
- Should I replace tubes? with some EL34's?
- What settings should I use...
- Should I buy pedal (fuzz-like)?

thank a lot for all the help!
 
Turn the gain way down and the volume way up. Add bass... it may feel counter-intuative if you're used to dialling in Metallica type sounds, but you want to loosen the loosen the bottom end up slighly, which is good for bigger/slower riffs.
 
I don't think it's that sort of tone I'm looking for. It's no Sunn O))) type of sound I'm looking for!

I really dig the sound they have in this clip! (especially Bill, on the right).

ps: I hate decribing sounds, maybe someone should make a dictionairy on this:
grittyness, dirtyness, crunch, gain, nasal, warm, full, woody, clean, rich, ...
 
deftone82 said:
I really dig the sound they have in this clip! (especially Bill, on the right).

Gain down, volume up. Turn the bass up to loosen up the bottom end. His tone isn't really that high in terms of gain (relative to a Mark IV)... the guy's using a JCM800 after all.

He uses a Chandler/Ibanez Tube driver for the fuzzier/gained up sound and it sounds like he's using it in the clip.
 
Mat Pike on the other hand has his gain pinned on full... both on his Soldano and JCM800. He runs the presence and treble down, mids neutral and bass up. Again, the idea is to fatten the guitar and loosen the bottom end.

I've honestly never tried to dial in this sort of sound on a Mark, but it should be possible. I normally use either a Dual Rectifier or an Electric 120w MV (think of an Orange OR-120 capable of JCM-800 levels of gain).
 
I play a gibson sg, so it's allready quite full / fat sound. When I start to loosen the bottom end, it will start to sound to boomy and muddy.

Or maybe i completely have the wrong amp, allthough I doubt it :D
 
deftone82 said:
When I start to loosen the bottom end, it will start to sound to boomy and muddy.

There's a reason it's called sludge metal, and it's not because everyone's using tight, thrashy guitar tones.
 
Consider the guitar, too.

Matt Pike uses, among others, a custom 9-string First Act guitar with custom pickups (I think). I just saw him last weekend (kick *** show btw, that guy fuckin' knows how to put on a show!) and he was using a JCM800 and his Soldano with I think Emporer cabs, but they could have been Mesa's too, I was too far away to tell.

For some reason, I suspect that dialing this type of tone on a MarkIV might be kinda tricky. They are just too tight and focused by their very nature... you'd probably have better luck with a rectifier. But you should still be able to get close...
 
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