Calling all EQ masters need some help dialing in

  • Lynyrd Skynrd’s “Second Helping” album is the reason why I picked up a guitar many years ago. I have tried a long time to nail the specific sound of this album and the Kemper hasn't gotten me the closest. Long story short, I profiled my ‘74 super lead and matching cabinet with an SM57 and MD421 with settings that the late great Ed King provided me years ago. The settings are for Gary and Allen’s Marshalls and Ed told me that all the guitars were mic’d with the above mics. The only thing I am missing is the Eq that would have been applied at the board to get that compressed sound with those smooth singing highs.


    Here is the sound specifically the lead parts:

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    Any suggestions on EQ settings?

  • Are you using the same guitar as they did or at least the same pickups? Because that's where you start first.


    The lead part is also dubbed, so a single track won't sound the same. This is were a doubler pedal comes in real handy.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • Are you using the same guitar as they did or at least the same pickups? Because that's where you start first.


    The lead part is also dubbed, so a single track won't sound the same. This is were a doubler pedal comes in real handy.


    Yes, I'm using a R9 with WIZZ PAF clones with a complete original 50’s harness.

  • You should be able to get the tone pretty dang close then.


    I would try and find an iso track from a google search so you can compare your profile too. That's the fastest and easiest way to match tone. Something like this... otherwise it's trial, error, and ears...


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    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • You are correct, and I can get their tone in general pretty easy especially their live tone. It's just something about the tone from “Second Helping”! It's their best album and tone I think. Al Kooper and crew did a helluva job on that one.

  • Try panning the song hard right and match that tone first. Then pan hard left and match the dubbed tone by modding the EQ. You would be essentially creating two profiles; Left profile and Right profile.


    If you think that is a hard tone to match then try 38 Special - they had three guitarist.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • You are correct, and I can get their tone in general pretty easy especially their live tone. It's just something about the tone from “Second Helping”! It's their best album and tone I think. Al Kooper and crew did a helluva job on that one.

    I agree, this is their most sober and nice sounding guitar tracks, but BayouTexas is right, the guitar is double tracked. Even with an split eq you wont get the same feel, if you listen closely, the guitars are playing differently all the parts, thats where the magic comes. The individual tones are laid back middle focused marshall tones, with the trable pulled back.

    The answer is 42

  • Skynyrd had a three-guitar army as well and a lot of time Gary and Allen played dual leads much like the track I posted above. I've listened to them for so long that I can typically pick out who's playing what and when.


    Thanks for the help guys.