[Jim]

It's the 4th of July Holiday here in the US and it's Ben's 1000th post day (Super Ben now!) so I recorded a fun boogie that I call "Slippin' and Slidin' Boogie" - the name hopefully will be self-explanatory after listening (it's probably not the kind of slide you're expecting though!).

I recorded two - one for the 4th and one for Ben!

Enjoy - these are just for fun - and congratuations to Ben!

Jim


"Slippin' and Slidin' Boogie" 1 (for the 4th of July)

"Slippin' and Slidin' Boogie" 2 (for Super Ben)

[nocat]

Hey brother... I didn't know you could slide...!!! Wonderful tone, and a very cool groove...

You should have seen my wife and I dancing around the room...

Wonderful, Bro...!!!

Cheers
Ben

[Jim]

Thanks Bro!

I wish I could *slide* - the real thing - and I bought one, so I hope I'll be learning to do it for real some day soon. Meanwhile, this is a fun way to slide too, and I just started doing it yesterday and was amazed I almost always hit the note I was aiming for!!

I do think I may have finally found a tone I like!!! A combo of the Crossroads and RP80 pedal, and no other effects or post-processing. It really felt good!!

If you and your wife danced to this, that's about the best compliment I could get!

Thanks!!!
Jim

[CanuckTodd]

Nice cool groove there Mr. Jim! I'm sure Mr. and Mrs. NoCat were bopping!

I'm going to have to pick your brain one of these days about how you get all those cool sounds out of your guitar. I just bought an electric (Mexi-Fender Strat) last weekend and I've been playing with it but it's all a mystery to me. The amp I bought, a Line 6, had some cool settings that I could use to mimic about 25 popular tunes, but I'm still a complete newbie when it comes to all of this. I think these settings only apply to this amp, but do guitar players share their secret amp settings info? Is there a In Search of Perfect Tone website out there? Or is this a trade secret?

[seagull]

Very cool Jim, got my toes tapping.

[si16]

Slide is something I've never really attempted either, Jim. I've got too much else I need to work on first before I start with that. That was good playing Jim, as Ben said you had a good theme going on that you kept returning to throughout. I would have danced too but my work colleague would have thought something was seriously wrong with me.

[Hilch]

wow that was amazing

well done

I loved it

[737blues]

Nice job Jim, sounds like you had a lot of fun doing those.

[Misty2u]

Fantastic Jim .......sounds great.......really upbeat..!!

[Jim]

Thanks everyone!!!

This was a blast to play, and I really had a good time.

Todd - I have more to say to your post, but I'm off to work, so I'll add more later!

Jim

[CanuckTodd]

Originally Posted by Jim

Thanks everyone!!!

This was a blast to play, and I really had a good time.

Todd - I have more to say to your post, but I'm off to work, so I'll add more later!

Jim

Ok, thanks Jim.
You can send me a private message or post in another forum if you think this disrupts or hijacks your thread. I don't like to do that. I've been meaning to ask someone like you or NoCat for a while how to pull off those sounds. I was asking Rockerbob about it in the chat room and he said tone is mostly created in the fingers not the amp settings, and I suspect he's right on the money! But I'm sure there are some tips that can help me out.

[Rockerbob]

Nice job, Jim!

[Jim]

Originally Posted by CanuckTodd

Ok, thanks Jim.
You can send me a private message or post in another forum if you think this disrupts or hijacks your thread. I don't like to do that. I've been meaning to ask someone like you or NoCat for a while how to pull off those sounds. I was asking Rockerbob about it in the chat room and he said tone is mostly created in the fingers not the amp settings, and I suspect he's right on the money! But I'm sure there are some tips that can help me out.

That's OK Todd - I think this kind of exchange can be useful to everyone. If it were to get to the point where it deserved it's own thread then I'd suggest moving it to another area, but I can do my best to answer your question rather briefly - since I am only just learning this tone stuff myself, and I am certainly no expert on it by any stretch!

This truly is the first piece I've recorded where I really felt I got the tone I was looking for. I agree with RB that it is mostly in the fingers and how you play. Someone like Clapton can be recognized on any equipment, and that certain signature tone he has comes through no matter what guitar/amp/effects he's using. It's in how he plays! The perfect vibrato, bends that are spot on and held for just the right amount of time, smooth legato and flawless picking - and more - all add into what becomes his tone. Also, playing with the fingertips can often give a warmer tone than using a pick - and there are variations in pick thickness, material and how it's used.

Some of the tone is the guitar itself - what kind of wood the body and neck/fretboard are made from. Thicker strings also usually give a fuller tone, but are harder to play on. SRV is a great example of someone who used very high gauge strings and got great tone, but it really tore his fingers up to the point where his guitar tech kind of forced him to go to lower gauge. Clapton uses thin (.010 set) or even very thin (.009) slinkys and always has to my knowledge, yet he has his own ways of getting great tone.

I love my Les Paul because the mahogany body with maple top gives it beautiful tone with great sustain. It's heavy as all get-out, but worth it. But this piece I recorded on my EC Strat - which has an alder body and maple neck/fretboard. And there's another difference - my LP has humbucker pickups (I have one with mini-humbuckers) which are dual coil and have a darker, heavier tone. Strats usually have single coil pickups, which have that lovely glassy, clean tone. In addition, my EC strat has TBX (Treble/Bass Cutoff) circuitry in it and 0-25db mid-boost overdrive -- both of which are Clapton features that he uses and which add to the tonal variations I can get.

But the main difference on this piece is that I found a tone model on my Crossroads pedal (the "Layla" model) and combined that with a patch I put in myself on my Digitech RP80 that's customized for blues - and it just sounded right for this piece!

But yet, even with all these other factors - most of it is indeed in how you play the guitar!

I hope this was helpful...

Jim

[Jim]

Originally Posted by Rockerbob

Nice job, Jim!

Thanks Keith!

Jim

[nocat]

Hey guys...!!!

Here is a great article on tone and recording it... Just came across it...!!!

http://www.legendarytones.com/recording.htm

Hope it helps...!!!

Cheers
Ben