Anyone got this Bowie sound nailed? Les Paul through some fender amp was used. If you have any rigs or profiles that come close please let's know. It has a twangy smooth distortion easily heard at the beginning of the song. ..... thanks
Rebel rebel
- Kieroc
- Closed
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I tried it, but I've torn my dress, and my face is a mess.
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Is your mother in a whirl?
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Shes not sure if you're a boy or a girl
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Hey babe, your hairs alright
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Shes not sure if you're a boy or a girl
To give him at least one serious answer:
I'm not sure if that really is a Les Paul and a Fender amp. Sounds much more like a Tele and a Vox to me. But they did use some fuzz or a booster in one way or another, that's pretty obvious and that can change the character of the distortion a lot. So maybe it really was a Fender amp, but I'm still not sure about the Les Paul
Other than that, I've got no idea what it really was. And without knowing which amp and which guitar it was, it's really difficult to recreate.
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Bowie played guitar on the Diamond Dogs album and recorded "Rebel Rebel" with a Strat, not sure of the amplifier but if you go period-accurate it could have easily been a number of Fender amps, Marshall, Ampeg or he could have gone straight through the board. Start with a single coil and experiment with a quasi-clean/mid gain tone. Throw some reverb behind it and mess with pulling some lows from your EQ until you get close. He may have some compression going on there as well. Bowie was more prone to listening for a sound he wanted than matching up this guitar and that amp to get THE sound. Make sure you are nailing the riff as well, this will contribute to to the tone sounding accurate. Earl Slick did a great job with the song on numerous occasions but Bowie's original recording is the one that will keep you up at night. Let us know what you come up with!
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This is what I've come up with.
"Alan Parker played the riff on the record, using a Les Paul standard and a Fender reverb amp with a single Wharfedale speaker. He later said Bowie had about three-fourths of the riff down when he played it for Parker on an acoustic guitar: he told Parker to make it a bit more Rolling Stones. Parker replayed the riff on his electric, adding some clang and bends (Bowie credited Parker with the three final notes of the riff: Ab, D and E). Its godfather was Keith Richards, who’d made a lifetime habit of compelling two-chord riffs; its target was Mick Ronson, who Bowie seemed to be trying to outdo."
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Why you don't just make your cover of that song? With your sound? Unless you're playing in a Bowie tribute band, obviously, ....or if you're going to substitute Earl Slick...
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I LOVE the guitar sound on rebel Rebel and also interested to note that Alan Parker played it through a fender.
I do know that Ronno used a fender princeton for some of the clean parts on Ziggy Stardust
Im also lucky enough to posses a Marshall 200 Pig- same type Marshall amp Mick Ronson used in the early Ziggy days.
Its has some very strange circuitry and the Kemper hasn't managed to capture it like it should-Ill get there eventually im sure
