Hi BLIMmers -
Iāve just finished watching The Soul of a Man by Wim Wenders (2nd movie in Scoreseās Blues series). Right at the end is this recording of Lou Reed playing See That My Grave is Kept Clean https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Bb-VTyXNDQ. His guitar tone is very unusual. It has a mournful, muted uilleann pipe quality to it that I really like. Does anyone know how to approximate this tone??? Thanks
Hi Gayle,
That is quite an unusual guitar tone. Itās cool though. Sounds to me like heās using multiple guitar effects or possibly a guitar synth pedal. It would be difficult to approximate that tone without a multi-effects pedal. What pedals/equipment do you normally use?
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Hey Dave - Iāve send you and Richard a direct message - now I know how to do it!!!
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That is an interesting sound for sure! It is a good challenge to figure out too 
Here is my recording - I know folks donāt like google drive, but it is fast.
What I did is VERY delicate. If you pick too hard or too soon before the swell has worn off, you hear a distracting pick click. I picked a little too hard and you can hear the pick strikes. I later did it intentionally so you can hear what it sounds like.
My thought was that this sounded like a reed instrument so it needed some distortion. It also needed some swell for a slow lead into a note. I noticed he played each note with a hard stop between them.
model names are based on the Helix names See the models here if you need:
dynamics
delay
distortion
I wanted to reduce the pick strike so tried a harsh compression at the front. My model was the LA Studio Compressor. I maxed out peak reduction, put mix at 100%, set type to ālimitā, and made sure emphasis was 0.
Second in the chain is a Vintage Swell. Rise time was set to 75ms, mix 100%, no feedback. This didnāt clip quite enough of the pick hits off. Part of that was likely my playing as I noticed how soft I needed to play as I was experimenting with this.
I decided to add another compressor to try to reduce the remaining pick hits. In this case, I liked the Deluxe Comp. I set the threshhold to minimum, ratio maximum, attack minimum, mix 100%, and release to 70ms. The release was set here so I could pick another note more quickly. 55ms should take out a low E string picked softly, so this should be good an octave up on the D string where I saw him playing.
I added another swell behind the second compressor because it seemed like the right thing to do. This was set pretty close to the first one. The double swell seems kind of slow given the settings, but I was able to get it too fast, so there is room to tune this in.
At this point I have a lot of swell giving me some effective gain that is sustaining the note. Just need to square it off a little. I added the Dhyana Drive and set the gain to 3.2, voice to 5.6, tone to 4.4. this gave it a reasonably close sound to a reed instrument - at least for a guitar string!
No idea if this is what he did, but it was fun trying to get something in the ballpark. I would think heād have spent hours tuning his in and I spent maybe an hour. If you think Iām way off the mark, let me know where I missed something!
The tone is good, but I think thereās too much note attack.
What I think Lou was using is an envelope modifier or (in Boss pedal nomenclature) āSlow Gearā.
This modifies the amplitude envelope of the sound to create a fade in effect to each note.
Edit: something like this:
This was, by the way, adding a Slow Gear and an Octaver on my Katana Go. I only spent a few minutes tweaking the settings, so they may not be completely right.
He could also have been using a volume pedal and manually fading the notes in.
Cheers,
Keith
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Thanks for this. Sounds pretty good to me. Obviously there will be differences but Iām way too inexperienced with pedals and pedal knowledge to have any idea how to achieve this sound myself!!!
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Thanks for this. Sounds pretty good to me. As I said in my above reply to sequences I really have no idea about pedal usage. If there was one simple pedal I could use, Iād try it out.
You can do this on many multifx systems in a single āpedalā.
@sequences used a Helix, and I used a Katana Go, but it could be done on most systems. Originally, I was going to use my Boss GT-1, but the Katana Go was more convenient for a quick recording.
Listening to the track further, I think there may also be a fuzz on it which isnāt kicking in fully at the beginning. It might be set up so that it doesnāt kick in untill he digs in hard, but I would have to study it more to feel confident in that assessment.
Cheers,
Keith
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Hey guys
I did some research on āslow gearā and found this pedal: TC Electronic Crescendo Auto Swell. Got my local guitar store to set it up with a compressor for me. Tried it out. Seemed to get closer without the compressor. Bought the pedal. I have a Fender GTX 50 modelling amp. Used the default āClassicsā preset which has a compressor followed by '57 Deluxe amp. Turned the treble right down, bass at 1 oāclock. Fender Strat (Cheap Chinese one that plays well which I rewired for a David Gilmour tone with two Fender custom shop 69ās for neck & middle & a Seymour Duncan SSL 5 for the bridge). The 69ās were too bright so I used the SSL5 on the bridge with the tone rolled right back. Firm pick. It sounds fairly close to me but thereās still something vital missing. Lacks the fullness of Lou Reeds somehow. Any ideas are most welcome.
No idea if this will work. Iāve never used google drive like this before.
This is a music community. If we can upload photos in-line, why not audio files??!!??
Hereās the pedal and settings:
That sounded in the ballpark to me, but I agree is missing some depth. Your file link worked fine - with google drive shares, it just gives a black āweb pageā with a play button. Keithās soundcloud is a lot more intuitive.
I was thinking about softer picking physically and omit the compressor as well. One good thing about the compressor is that it will maintain the volume for you.
I did think it needed some distortion and Keith mentioned fuzz. See if that helps the fullness.
Legal issuesā¦
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Also, Iām pretty sure I hear a touch of an octave pedal on the original.
What sounds like a fuzz to me kicks in at around the 3 minute mark.
Cheers,
Keith
@majik @sequences @dave_birnie @Richard_close2u
Hi guys - hope Iāve got the tagging right - this is meant to notify all four of you.
Progress has been made. Both Dave & Keith suggested an octave pedal which I just happened to have. First time out of its box (shame on me). So Iāve had another go at it with the guitar-> sonicake octavier ā TC auso swell ā amp. Iāve got the octave set lowish. Itās definitely closer. Iām sure the player (i.e. Lou) has a lot to do with the sound quality.
I was chasing the sound at the start. About 3 minutes in itās totally different. Next project. 
Let me know what you think. Any further suggestions are most welcome. 
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Gayle.
Youāre close.
And, imho, youāre close enough already without any more chasing.
Can I be a critical friend?
Lou Reedās tone in that performance is probably a one-off capture that he seldom or never found or used again.
There are some famed such tones (Money For Nothing, Sweet Child Of Mine_ that were captured at a certain time and place with certain equipment that even the artists havenāt been able to recapture just so - meaning they play approximate in a live setting.
The fact you are concerned with getting a tone is to be commended. Learning sounds and fx is a valuable part of playing, especially electric.
Given that you are all new to using effects I would suggest you start simple and introduce the basic, common types a little at a time ā¦ reverb, delay, overdrive, compression.
If you pursue one tone only and begin to buy further single purpose pedals in that endeavour, it will cost you more money than buying and learning the craft on a simple multi-fx. There have been a few discussions on multi-fx to cater for a variety of budgets and they could help. Or start your own, new topic and tie in with the fact youāre on BLIM and may want a few stock blues tones, clean, gritty etc.
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Hey Richard,
Thanks for your encouraging reply and wise ācritical friendā advice. I have bit of a thing about tone, I think. Thatās why I completely rewired my cheap Chinese strat with specific pickups to give a David Gilmour like tone. It was nice to play, but horrible to listen to! Sounds great now!
Thanks for your tip re learning about effects on a multi-fx pedal. Iāll check out what the community has to say before starting a new topic. I have a modelling amp that has effects built in but theyāre a nuisance to adjust. I already have reverb and delay pedals Iāve never used so maybe thatās the place to start.
Big thanks
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