How do you get that “hollow” distorted tone

[drumzealot]

I like to "use" parentheses. So what?
I may not be able to communicate what I’m looking for very well. I’ve been experimenting with various guitar toys, trying to get a specific tone that I would describe as “hollow” but can’t seem to get very close. Some examples of this tone are
Not Too Soon (Throwing Muses) – the initial rhythm guitar
The first 2 Motley Crue albums (especially Shout at the Devil)
Ziggy Stardust
The lead on Let’s Lynch the Landlord (Dead Kennedys)
Big Star’s first two albums had a lot of this tone
Brian May uses this tone quite a bit.

I’ve messed around with various guitars and EQ settings. I figure that my primary concern should be with the EQ pedal but I may be wrong.

[initialsBB]

Use a wah in a fixed position.

[drumzealot]

Originally Posted by initialsBB

Use a wah in a fixed position.

Any recommendations on make/model?

[initialsBB]

I've only ever used a plain ol' crybaby but I know there are a lot of fancier options out there. The main idea is that you want to get a bandpass filter on there somewhere before the amp. So even if you were gasp, using an amp sim in the box you could throw an eq before the sim and give it that bandpassed sound. The tone controls on your amp and the mic placement can obviously help contribute to that hollow sound as well but I don't know shit about mic placement.

I think part of the Brian May sound is doing a ton of overdubs and varying the position of the wah for each pass then heavily eqing the submix of all of the guitars.

[initialsBB]

Also I may not be talking about the same thing you're thinking of. I was responding mostly to the Mick Ronson and Brian May mentions. I don't know about some of those others. For example I don't hear this sound on Big Star albums at all so maybe you're talking about something else.

[e-cue]

Wire 2 pickups out of phase.

[drumzealot]

Originally Posted by initialsBB

Also I may not be talking about the same thing you're thinking of. I was responding mostly to the Mick Ronson and Brian May mentions. I don't know about some of those others. For example I don't hear this sound on Big Star albums at all so maybe you're talking about something else.

I made the list from memory which is as accurate as a drunk and blind person at a shooting range.

[drumzealot]

Originally Posted by e-cue

Wire 2 pickups out of phase.

Wha'choo talking bout Mr. Drummond?

[e-cue]

Originally Posted by drumzealot

Wha'choo talking bout Mr. Drummond?

My statement stemmed from an on going chatroom joke. I tend to post a lot of inside jokes here that make absolutely no sense by themselves when I re-read them.

To reverse the phase of one pickup in relation to another on the same guitar you can either flip the magnet[s] or reverse the winding [or flip electrical polarity]. Any of these will result in an out of phase quacky signal. Reversing both the polarity of the magnets and the winding will result in the output being back in phase.

I hope that makes sense. I'm far from a guitar tech.

More info here:
Alexplorer's Axe Hacks: Phase Switching

[drumzealot]

Originally Posted by e-cue

My statement stemmed from an on going chatroom joke. I tend to post a lot of inside jokes here that make absolutely no sense by themselves when I re-read them.

So we must be in the corral!!!

Seriously dough, this website looks great for info about electronics. I can probably learn a ton about pick-ups in stuff. Do you know of another source of info about the mechanics of a guitar?

[sfoote]

REcord it through the pres in an mbox.

I'm kidding, mostly.

[Jules]

Les Paul with tone knob turned nearly off / or fully off.

[Absolute]

You dont want to mess with the pickups unless you want your guitar to sound like that on everything you play

What your hearing is a huge mid boost and an off axis mic setup. Try a pre-eq with the mids boosted and mic off axis so you get a phasy sound. If you have an openback cab try sticking a mic back there too. If you have Waves metaflanger there is preset in there that kind of emulates this phasy open vowel sound..iI thinks its called Queen something

[hourglass]

I realize this is an ancient post, but the people posting about phase aren't too far off.

I first got that sound almost by accident. An engineer I was working with said he'd read something about using two mics on one guitar cabinet.

We had the standard 57 up on the grill, which I was quite happy with and was doing a great job at capturing "my" sound.

He put a condenser mic a foot or two back, kinda centered between all four speakers. It wasn't quite right at first, and then as soon as he flipped the phase on the condenser there it was - that sound I'd been searching for since I first started playing guitar and learning _Shout at the Devil_ front to back.

Keep in mind - it's not a matter of it being perfectly in or out of phase. You have to catch somthing in between and that's what gives it that hollowness but still lets it have plenty of low-end guts.

I still get the same shit-eating grin on my face when I start getting guitar sounds and then I unmute the condenser...

The sound we got was actually closer to _Too Fast for Love_ but playing with placement and mixing less/more of the condenser gives you different flavors of what you're looking for.

Ryan (better late than early)

[woomanmoomin]

Originally Posted by initialsBB

Use a wah in a fixed position.

Zappa did this all the time. A track like 'My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama' would be a good example.

Nice avatar, initialsBB

Alternatively, you could just get some squeaky-@ss Strat-type monstrosity and play it at the 'too much treble' setting. I've been modding a Strat to give it obscene amounts of even more obscene treble for a while now.

[popvulture]

A few years ago when I was looking for the same sort of sound, I came across the Dunlop Q Zone. It's a pedal that achieves exactly what someone said earlier - setting a wah in a fixed position. It has no rocker pedal though, so you just do it with a knob; this way it's easier to precisely dial in without worrying about bumping it later.

I bought one back then and it's pretty cool. I thought they'd discontinued it, but now they have this:

Buy Dunlop KFKQZ1 Kerry King Limited Edition Q Zone Guitar Effects Pedal online

Yuck... the original was only like 45 bucks and didn't have all the lame ass tribal Kerry King BS. Check out the 'bay.

[bitman]

Dude,

At least in the case of Crue, you are hearing a flanger that does not sweep.
Kinda sounds like the guitar is coming down a piece of pipe.

Most flanger plugs will do that and the old ADA flanger (bow in reverence) could stop sweeping. You then dial the feedback to get the degree of ringing you desire or don't.

Put the flanger after the distortion too.

The gearlutz spell checker flags gearslutz and flanger.
This is a travesty.

:Ron

[theGeek]

Originally Posted by drumzealot

I like to "use" parentheses. So what?

"these" are quotation marks... (these) are parentheses.

[soundawg]

Itz possible you may find something you like in trying a 2nd mic, "slightly" out of phase with your first. Play around with that for 5 min.

Soundawg

[somedude74]

Yes, a barely sweeping chorus pedal does this-- my analogman bi-chorus works great for it. Al slowslowslow sweep into a distorted channel equals a boxy sound. Give it a whirl. - GTR

Originally Posted by bitman

Dude,

At least in the case of Crue, you are hearing a flanger that does not sweep.
Kinda sounds like the guitar is coming down a piece of pipe.

Most flanger plugs will do that and the old ADA flanger (bow in reverence) could stop sweeping. You then dial the feedback to get the degree of ringing you desire or don't.

Put the flanger after the distortion too.

The gearlutz spell checker flags gearslutz and flanger.
This is a travesty.

:Ron