Question What are your all-time favorite guitar tones?

[Sweat]

LOL Beej, yea thats my issue as well, way too many but love the Luke tone on the Rosanna solo and love Zakk Wyldes tone on No More Tears and whoever plays Dio's Last In Line, so many more

 

[banjoplayer]

Steve Morse with DP, especially "Purpendicular" and "Total Abandon" (THAT Solo!)
Ritchie Blackmore on "Come Hell Or High Water" as I was at that particular show
Ritchie Blackmore on "Rainbow Rising"
Mark Knopfler "Golden Heart"
Brian May "We are the champions"
Chris Rea "Auberge"
Slash "Sweet Child O´Mine"

 

[beej]

Tell ya what, give us the first three that came to mind, just so we have something. I ain't letting you away with nothing man!

Lol. Ok. Three that knocked me off my feet the first time I heard them and still do:

Alex Lifeson - Tom Sawyer
Brian May - We Will Rock You
EVH - Eruption

Two more from current MM artists, to adhere to the rules:

Steve Morse - Vista Grande
Luke - Rosanna (that outro solo ...!)

 

[Vito Porkleone]

Luke - Rosanna (that outro solo ...!)

All hail Al Schmidt and EMT plates!! Not to mention the hot-rodded Marshall.

As great as that album sounds, think about the fact that 95% of the EQ on that record is strictly mic placement. Ladanyi probably added a little air to a few things, and some glue compression then declared it done. Joking about that a little, but I would imagine mixing anything Al ever recorded was easier than most.

 

[kimonostereo]

Dann Huff - playing on Peter Cetera's Solitude Solitaire album on the track "Big Mistake" . Actually, that whole album has classic 80's guitar tones and sounds that I still love so much.
Steve Lukather - Toto - Kingdom of Desire (entire album), Los Lobotomy ~ Candyman on the tracks "Hero With A 1,000 Eyes" and "Extinction Blues", All's Well That Ends Well on the track "Brody's"
EVH - All of 1984 and 5150. I remember when these albums came out, and later wondering why they sounded so different. I also loved his work on "The Wild Life" soundtrack. Only one track actually appeared on the OST, but he had so many tasty riffs (many became actual VH tunes later) playing in the background of various scenes. It was mostly Ed with his guitar, synth and drum machine, but it was all groove. They've never officially released a DVD or BluRay of this movie.
Nuno Bettencourt - "Decadence Dance". I remember reading an interview back in 1991 or so where he and some other guitarist were raving about how they used the AD/A MP-1 to record their guitars and how it was amazing. Yep it sure was/is amazing! Hearing that ADA Flanger on the intro to "Li'l Jack Horny" made me buy a reissue back in the day.
Haruhata Michiya - "Jaguar '08" and "Jaguar '13"

 

[DrKev]

I'm just listening to the isolated guitar tracks from Rosanna. The first solo sounds almost dry was doubled (!) which almost gives a faux-slap back/chorus effect. The outro solo was of course not doubled and in the linked video below, right after the very last note, you can hear the short plate reverb which is usually buried behind the guitar sound.

Also, my Keeley Phat Mod (basically a Blues Driver) gets me closer to that tone that my MIAB pedals. Are we sure he didn't use his modified Deluxe Reverb for that track?

 

[Grugenhagen]

EVH - All of 1984 and 5150. I remember when these albums came out, and later wondering why they sounded so different. I also loved his work on "The Wild Life" soundtrack. Only one track actually appeared on the OST, but he had so many tasty riffs (many became actual VH tunes later) playing in the background of various scenes. It was mostly Ed with his guitar, synth and drum machine, but it was all groove. They've never officially released a DVD or BluRay of this movie.

Actually, "The Wild Life" WAS officially released on Blu-ray back in 2021 and is still available. You can buy it on Amazon as well as directly from the studio that released it: Kino Lorber

 

[kimonostereo]

Actually, "The Wild Life" WAS officially released on Blu-ray back in 2021 and is still available. You can buy it on Amazon as well as directly from the studio that released it: Kino Lorber

I saw that on Amazon, but was concerned about some of the comments about the quality and missing soundtrack. Did you pick it up?

 

[Grugenhagen]

I saw that on Amazon, but was concerned about some of the comments about the quality and missing soundtrack. Did you pick it up?

I do have it. I believe they did switch out some of the songs due to licensing issues (Madonna, etc.), which is lame but not unheard of. As far as I can tell, all the EVH stuff is still in there.

 

[kimonostereo]

I do have it. I believe they did switch out some of the songs due to licensing issues (Madonna, etc.), which is lame but not unheard of. As far as I can tell, all the EVH stuff is still in there.

Ordering it now! Thanks so much!

 

[Vadauco]

and love Zakk Wyldes tone on No More Tears

Not that hard to achieve... a Les Paul with EMG active pickups, and a shit ton of chorus over distortion. Zakk even has his own signature chorus pedal now:

and whoever plays Dio's Last In Line, so many more

That's Vivian Campbell. He used to play a heavily modified Strat in his Dio days:

 

[MusicMan_Luke]

So many guitar tones, but here are some :

Steve Lukather (way too much...) :
- AWTEW : Flash in the pan / Tumescent
- Luke : Love the things you hate / Tears on my own shame
- No substitutions
- Kingdom of Desire : Gypsy train / Never enough / She knows the devil / Jake to the bone
- Tambu : Gift of faith / Drag him to the roof / Dave's gone skiing
John Petrucci :
- Terminal Velocity : The way things fall
- Dream theater : The enemy inside
- Distance over time : Viper king
Mark Knopfler :
- On every street : On every street (that end with Jeff Porcaro on drums)
Steve Morse :
- Purpendicular : Somebody stole my guitar
- Flying Colors : Infinite fire
Brian May :
- Innuendo : Headlong
- The works : Hammer to fall / Tear it up
Stevie Ray Vaughan :
- In Step : The house is rockin' / Love me darlin'
- Texas Flood : Rude mood

and so many others....

 

[phillybri]

Every moment of Eric Johnson's 1988 Austin City Limits performance...

Live from Austin, TX : Eric John

14 December 1988, Austin City Limits.

youtube.com

 

[kimonostereo]

Every moment of Eric Johnson's 1988 Austin City Limits performance...

Live from Austin, TX : Eric John

14 December 1988, Austin City Limits.

youtube.com

Gosh, I remember seeing Austin City Limits by chance on TV at a friends house in 1984 (I was 14!). This guy was playing an acoustic set and I didn't think much about it. Then suddenly he puts on a strat, and the sounds that I saw and heard were like nothing I had seen before! And then… the show was over and I was left to wonder who was that guy?!? This was right before Guitar Player featured him on the cover with the statement "Who is Eric Johnson and why is he on our cover?" The world soon knew who he was…
I believe that the ACL performance of Cliffs of Dover was also included as a little pull out record. I put that track at the end of my "Tones" cassette tape.

So glad YouTube allows me to relive these memories.

 

[mikeller]

Gosh, I remember seeing Austin City Limits by chance on TV at a friends house in 1984 (I was 14!). This guy was playing an acoustic set and I didn't think much about it. Then suddenly he puts on a strat, and the sounds that I saw and heard were like nothing I had seen before! And then… the show was over and I was left to wonder who was that guy?!? This was right before Guitar Player featured him on the cover with the statement "Who is Eric Johnson and why is he on our cover?" The world soon knew who he was…
I believe that the ACL performance of Cliffs of Dover was also included as a little pull out record. I put that track at the end of my "Tones" cassette tape.

So glad YouTube allows me to relive these memories.

I still that Guitar Player issue!!