Can anyone get this tone out of the KPA and a DXR10?

    Interesting, seems those guitars were used just for the video:


    Quote

    "Andy Partridge's approach to gear is as irreverent as his philosophy: "Most of my guitars have been phenomenally crap, like a Futurama guitar I had painted leopard skin. I had a Singapore guitar called a Sway Lee Goldentone - one of those really badly made guitars that as you go down the fretboard towards the nut end it gets wider! I had a homemade Flying V that was four times too thick. It was like a couple of railway slivers joined at the hip. I did White Music and Go 2 with a 1975 Ibanez Artist. I've recently brought it back from the dead, and I played it mostly on Nonsuch - plus my usual Squier Telecaster, my main guitar since 1983".


    Source: excerpt from Guitar Player, not available online anymore, but quoted here: http://forums.vintageamps.com/viewtopic.php?p=487780


    Note: "Nonsuch" is the album to which "The ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" belongs to.


    And it continues:


    Quote

    Andy's amp is a Session 70 ("the cheapest thing in the shop"), although in the studio he covets Dave's 40-watt 1963 Fender Super Reverb. "I'm pretty much compression crazy", he admits, "putting the compression before the amp. You can crank it up and get a smoother shape. On this record, I recorded a lot of echoes as part of the rhythm. There's some E-bow on 'The Ugly Underneath' - that high, spooky, dissonant orchestral stuff. My acoustic is a Martin D-35. I don't really have a head for gear. I mean, I've written albums on 5-string guitars because I was too lazy to put another string on! Dave is the real equipment guy. You and him can talk dirty about guitars.


    I'm gonna try that tomorrow :)

    Two paragraphs later, in that same GP article it says:


    "For Nonsuch, Gregory played his trusty old gold-top as well as a '63 Epiphone Coronet Dwight, a '65, a '65 Fender Jaguar, a Vox Phantom and, on "The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead", a Gretsch Country Gentleman."


    For a sound comparison, the TV Jones website has some clips of his Filtertron style pickups (he makes several models) through a Bassman and a Marshall 1974 - give those a listen, and you'll be able to hear how the attack and EQ of those pickups sound like the XTC song. They all have less or more gain than the XTC sound, but you can really hear the pickup tone.


    I think you could likely get a tele pretty close, by playing with compression and EQs in the Stomp slots. If you get it in headphones or studio monitors, it should be as close in DXR10 as any other sound.


    Sound Links are found with each model pickup.


    TV Jones

    GUYS!!
    Deny, man, I love you for the XTC reference!! ;) (And Paul, too.;) )
    My favourite band forever!
    Andy Partridge, as was quoted, is very straightforward with his gear. Mostly Ibanez Artist and Tele.
    I think the guitar intro of Peter Pumpkinhead (which is clearly Partridge playing) is the Super Reverb plus the Tele. Same goes for 'My Bird performs' from the same album (Nonsuch), which is also my favourite XTC album (did I say I love you already? ;)
    I don't have any problem getting that sound with a cleanish amp plus compressor in my KPA plus a Tele.


    If you want to know more about the elaborate guitar stuff go to Dave Gregory's website http://www.guitargonauts.info
    There's also some guitar porn.

    Quote from Deny

    Every time I try to create a tone like this the top end sounds wrong, either too much high end or if I try to EQ it out it sounds too muffled. Is it the DXR10?


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtPM7HeIDrE


    might be me.....but I don't think this guitar sounds is something so not achievable.


    I have a similar sound with a Diezel VH4 by TAF, which is a heavy amp but lowered the gain and added a compressor (in the kemper slots) to even lower some distortion.


    I'm under the releasing of my debut album, but if I get some minutes I try to record some clips with the one I think is close.


    michael

    "...why being satisfied with an amp, as great as it can be, while you can have them all?" michael mellner


    "Rock in Ecclesia" - new album on iTunes or Google music

    Ha, thanks for the replies guys, love that song, now I'm thinking I should listen to more stuff from XTC, I used to think of them as one hit wonders but have been reading so much praise for Andy's songwriting I'll definitely give them another listen :)


    Ingolf, the more I think about that intro tone the more I agree that it sounds like a Tele with bridge pickup selected, tone knob rolled down maybe halfway, compressor, a bit of chorus and a cleanish Fender combo, and I think I have just the Super Reverb profile for the job ;)


    On a related note, I'm seriously considering cracking my DXR10 open and trying to figure out if I can mod it to lower the power on the midrange/treble driver. I'll let you DXR10 owners know how that goes if I don't end up frying the thing :p

    Deny, XTC definitely is the band the Beatles could have transformed into, they are that good.
    The albums 'Drums And Wires', 'Black Sea', 'English Settlement', 'Skylarking', 'Oranges And Lemons', 'Nonsuch' and 'Apple Venus Vol. 1’ are PURE GOLD.
    'Mummer', 'The Big Express', 'Wasp Star' and their first two albums 'White Music' and 'Go2’ still are nearly as good as gold... ;)
    There's a whole world of XTC to explore...

    +10 for XTC! Yes, they may be good at writing hit-singles but when you fill album after album with singles what you get is... a great career :D
    The reference to Beatles is not certainly fortuitous.


    After reading this thread I went back to them through the CLRs... I'm discovering musical details I had never heard before :thumbup:


    I discovered them through English Settlement when I was under the Army... Still remember listening to that album for hours in the Tuscany mountain woods :rolleyes:


    Thank you guys ;(


    :thumbup:


    Gianfranco, I love you, man!
    Next beer will be on me! ;)

    Ha! Good one :thumbup:


    Talking about that album, I believe Senses Working Overtime to be one of those things able to sneak deep into your soul and stay there regardless how much Bach or Mozart you listen to in the rest of your long life 8o


    :D

    Quote from viabcroce

    Ha! Good one :thumbup:


    Talking about that album, I believe Senses Working Overtime to be one of those things able to sneak deep into your soul and stay there regardless how much Bach or Mozart you listen to in the rest of your long life 8o


    :D


    Absolutely! ;)
    Gianfranco, if you want to dig in XTC again I absolutely recommend their 1991 album 'Nonsuch'.
    It's their most brilliant album IMO and there's some 'nearly real' Bach in there (in the outro of ' the ugly underneath' ) and other unbelievable gems.

    Quick update, indeed a Tele with a mid-gain profile did the trick :thumbup:


    BTW some of the gems in Mike Britt's pack fit like a glove for this tone, truly awesome profiles there, highly recommended :)