Of Course! Billie Joe Armstrong!
I overlooked Greenday's Billie Joe Armstrong, Green Day's guitar player. Greenday, great songs. -X
Tone
The next in a series of step-by-step guides to home recording
12.08.2008
Green Day are perhaps one of the rawest groups out there these days. Not because of their punk roots, but because that’s the way they’ve always been and success hasn’t changed them.
Far too often groups leave their roots to find themselves, and in the process they stray from what made them successful in the first place. If you listen to Green Day’s Insomniac (1995), and compare it to American Idiot (2004) you get a similar feeling and sound.
Let’s take two greats from Green Day’s stockpile of classic songs. Insomniac’s “Brain Stew” is one of my favorite older songs from the band because it’s simple, it has a great beat and it’s raw to the core. Now look at American Idiot. All of the same reasons for liking the song still apply.
Armstrong has been a busy man. Not only has he driven Green Day to the charts many times, he has also collaborated on several other projects. The most well-known of these being the Foxboro Hot Tubs.
The Hot Tubs made their debut in December 2007. It became immediately clear that either Billie Joe and the boys were masquerading as a different band or there was an incredible group out there that sounded a lot like Green Day.
Turns out it was in fact Green Day recording under a different name.
Whatever name they record under, Billie Joe Armstrong’s will be one of the lasting influences from this era of music.
Billie Joe has quite a collection of Gibson guitars that he uses, including a signature Les Paul Junior . He also uses the ES-135, ES-335, 1959 Les Paul Special, SG and Fender Strats, among others.
Remember what I said earlier about Green Day’s music being raw? Well so is the guitar tone. The tone is basically made up of a Marshall amp and Armstrong’s Gibson guitars, so that’s what I’m going to use when recreating this tone at home. I’ll be using Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig 3 to make the tone. I’ll also be using a high-gain guitar, so you’ll need to adjust the settings accordingly if you’re not.
I started off with a modeled Marshall JCM800 amp with Master 9; Preamp 7; Bass 7; Mid 7; Treble 10; and Presence 8. Leave the boost button off or you’ll have too much gain going into the amp. If you’re using a passive pickup guitar, you might want to turn the boost on as a quick fix, to add more gain.
I’m also using a Marshall modeled 4x12 cabinet with the mic set at 57% towards mic B. The Dry/Air setting is at 3.91 and the cabinet volume is set at -6.4db.
I felt the tone needed a little bit of bite, but not enough to really affect what the amp is doing. I decided on adding a Screamer, but with modest settings. The Screamer is set at Volume 1.6; Tone 4.35; and Drive 2.65.
The last thing I added was a Tape Echo, not so much for the echo, but rather to add some depth to the tone. Settings for both Head A and Head B Time is 83ms; Bass 5; Treble 5; Rev Vol 0; Speed 1.16T; Feedback 3.62; and Exho Vol 0.31.
That’s it for Green Day. Download the tone and enjoy!
Tone
The next in a series of step-by-step guides to home recording
12.08.2008
Green Day are perhaps one of the rawest groups out there these days. Not because of their punk roots, but because that’s the way they’ve always been and success hasn’t changed them.
Far too often groups leave their roots to find themselves, and in the process they stray from what made them successful in the first place. If you listen to Green Day’s Insomniac (1995), and compare it to American Idiot (2004) you get a similar feeling and sound.
Let’s take two greats from Green Day’s stockpile of classic songs. Insomniac’s “Brain Stew” is one of my favorite older songs from the band because it’s simple, it has a great beat and it’s raw to the core. Now look at American Idiot. All of the same reasons for liking the song still apply.
Armstrong has been a busy man. Not only has he driven Green Day to the charts many times, he has also collaborated on several other projects. The most well-known of these being the Foxboro Hot Tubs.
The Hot Tubs made their debut in December 2007. It became immediately clear that either Billie Joe and the boys were masquerading as a different band or there was an incredible group out there that sounded a lot like Green Day.
Turns out it was in fact Green Day recording under a different name.
Whatever name they record under, Billie Joe Armstrong’s will be one of the lasting influences from this era of music.
Billie Joe has quite a collection of Gibson guitars that he uses, including a signature Les Paul Junior . He also uses the ES-135, ES-335, 1959 Les Paul Special, SG and Fender Strats, among others.
Remember what I said earlier about Green Day’s music being raw? Well so is the guitar tone. The tone is basically made up of a Marshall amp and Armstrong’s Gibson guitars, so that’s what I’m going to use when recreating this tone at home. I’ll be using Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig 3 to make the tone. I’ll also be using a high-gain guitar, so you’ll need to adjust the settings accordingly if you’re not.
I started off with a modeled Marshall JCM800 amp with Master 9; Preamp 7; Bass 7; Mid 7; Treble 10; and Presence 8. Leave the boost button off or you’ll have too much gain going into the amp. If you’re using a passive pickup guitar, you might want to turn the boost on as a quick fix, to add more gain.
I’m also using a Marshall modeled 4x12 cabinet with the mic set at 57% towards mic B. The Dry/Air setting is at 3.91 and the cabinet volume is set at -6.4db.
I felt the tone needed a little bit of bite, but not enough to really affect what the amp is doing. I decided on adding a Screamer, but with modest settings. The Screamer is set at Volume 1.6; Tone 4.35; and Drive 2.65.
The last thing I added was a Tape Echo, not so much for the echo, but rather to add some depth to the tone. Settings for both Head A and Head B Time is 83ms; Bass 5; Treble 5; Rev Vol 0; Speed 1.16T; Feedback 3.62; and Exho Vol 0.31.
That’s it for Green Day. Download the tone and enjoy!
posted by X at 9:37 AM
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