TONES @ The Guitar Rack #1
PRS Tremonti
+
ENGL Steve Morse 100,
HIGH GAIN!
Here we are - the first entry to the new ‘Tones @ The Guitar Rack’ series. I’m very excited to bring this format to you - if you didn’t get a chance to read what this is all about, you can check out the earlier blog linked below:
What is 'TONES @ The Guitar Rack'?
I hope you enjoyed the tone combo in this first video! Apologies in advance for some of the minor technical difficulties - keeping to my core vision of passion and transparency, I decided not to worry too much and go with it - still great tones, and will do better in video #2! If you made it here, it sounds like you’re interested in more of the details on the setup. Let’s get into it!
The Guitar
Very special guitar to me here - my 2012 PRS Tremonti One-Off in Charcoal Cherry Burst. Believe it or not, this is actually the ONLY guitar I’ve ever purchased new. Back in 2012, Charcoal Cherry Burst was a Private Stock only color invented by Emil Wrestler. Pretty cool story on how this guitar came to be, actually. A gentlemen close to PRS was wanting the PTC to refinish one of his guitars this color. Because this was technically Emil’s color, PRS had to get an approval from him, which he allowed. At the same time, PRS did this guitar as a one-off custom color for Production. I’ve always loved this color, and once I saw it, I had to have it. The finish itself is a FANTASTIC version of the color - much deeper and richer (like the original private stock version) then what is done in Production today. Further, the binding itself is actually stained charcoal to match the center - AWESOME touch, and the 2012 ‘Dirt Bird’ inlays match the overall look perfectly. Enough about the cosmetics - let’s get to the sound!
As hopefully comes through in the video, this guitar brings the TONE. It has this magical balance of being big/chewy sounding (oh boy - the tone adjectives are starting) while still retaining fantastic clarity in response. She’s ‘stock’, except for the fact that I swapped the original bridge pickup for the more recent ‘squabbin’ Tremonti treble. This updated version is slightly lower output, and to my ears, pushes in the mids just a bit more than the earlier models. Overall, this is probably one of my favorite set of high gain pickups - you’ll see me jumping between the bridge and neck in the video.
The guitar is in Drop C# (DADGBe, half step down) using D’addario EXL 49-36-26-17-13-10 (10s with the low string swapped to a 49). It sets up effortlessly, and stays in tune better than just about any of my other guitars. Mark Tremonti is my largest guitar influence, and his PRS model holds a very special place for me. This has, and likely always will be, one of my favorite examples of the guitar, and I feel very lucky to have it! This one will come to the gallery in more detail soon!
The Amp
I’ve had brief sit downs with a few ENGL models over the years. While they’re obviously well built and feature packed amps, the tones always struck me as a bit too ‘processed’ for my liking. I recently got this Steve Morse 100 model, and it definitely changed my perspective.
The tone you’re hearing is Channel 3, with ‘Tone’ option, low mid 1, and high mid 2 engaged (high gain option NOT engaged) The feature set of this amp (with two variants of control for both low mids and high mids) REALLY allows you to control the core characteristics of the gain, both in tone and feel. I was able to keep the gain relatively low (in ENGL speak, that is), which got a great combination of clarity, low end punch AND depth (very addictive in the room), while still being easy under the fingers. I feel most tones like this would come off much more processed, but this somehow keeps a very organic feel - ultimately SUPER addictive to play. If you’re looking for a full featured amp with 3 channels going from clean to mean, also including MIDI control, I believe this one is hard to beat. A picture of Channel 3 settings is below for your reference.
Cabinet, Speaker, & Recording
The tone you’re hearing is using my Suhr Reactive Load into my Axe FX 2 as an external IR loader.
Let’s start with the Suhr - this magic little box is my absolute favorite for tube amps. It captures both the tone and feel of the amp (opened up properly), and allows it to be managed without blowing off the walls in the space. I very much prefer this to mic’ing, as there tend to be too many 'pitfalls’ in room acoustics to ensure an amp is properly represented. This method ensures I’m properly representing the amp for you, and allows consistency as we continue in the series!
Now, onto the IR. As mentioned above, I like to use my Axe FX 2 as an IR loader for these sorts of recordings. While some may call this overkill, I simply prefer to do all of the ‘core tone processing’ outside of the computer/DAW (much like you’d get if you were mic’ing a cab into the interface). The IR is Factory #43, '4x12 Recto SM57’, Ultra-Res. I’ve done A LOT of experimenting here, and I find this IR just sounds and feels like the Mesa Recto cabinet that I would typically pair it with. Don’t worry - the Axe FX gets used for tones as well when I’m lazy and don’t want to fire up an amp. :)
While I’m definitely an advocate of both Tube and digital (I use and respect both approaches fully), I do feel the amp + load box setup, when paired with the correct IR, gets that last ‘5-10%’ in overall feel and harmonics that is still missing in digital. Not to mention we get to mess around with all of those cool analog knobs, etc.
Final Thoughts on the Tone
This was a lot of fun for me. GREAT tone that was really addicting to play, and inspired some cool riffing. For high gain, I tend to go for the ‘hairy edge’ of big/organic/responsive while also being tight/punchy for the faster riffing, and this guitar/amp combination really nailed that overall vision. I hope you enjoyed ‘Tones @ The Guitar Rack #1’ - looking forward to your thoughts and feedback on the YouTube channel.
— Eric, The Guitar Rack