You are going to have difficulty reproducing those tones (all three are very different and they used multiple tones over the years) with a f3nd3r amp and a single floorpedal. Maybe elaborate a bit on the exact tones you were looking for? It sounds like you just want a fattish Marshall style drive that can clean up when you turn the knob on your guitar down? Thats as ballpark as you'll get with that setup.

Now that I think about it, Billy Gibbons may have used something like a Fender Champ on their early stuff, so if you can bear it, crank that amp to 7 (leave the pedal off) and see if thats about right for old ZZ Top. Gary Moore used all kinds of amps in the studio and lately used (I think) JTM45s and JCM2000s mostly. JB uses a Marshall 2555 and a two custom amps (another Marshall style thing and a Fender style thing) in parallel along with fuzz and stuff so yeah, that is hard. Adding some delay and lots of drive will help you closer to his sound. Crank the mids too. Hmmm. Getting close to famous tones is not easy. I've given up.

Thanks

I have been playing with a Line 6 Spider and could get almost all the tones but I got rid of it and bought the FDRR. The FDDR and Strat combination is amazing.

So the DigiTech is just a only a short term solution. Want to use the FDDR purely for Eric Clapton/John Mayer style.

I am busy saving up for a Marshall 1987X or JTM45 but will look into other Marshalls?

The sound that I am looking for is:
JB - The Great Flood (One custom head is Category 5, which is basically a modified SLP. Retail = $4000 ?)
GM - Trouble Aint Far Behind
ZZ - Gimme All Your Loving

I do not want to copy the exact tone. Will like to have my own sound, but it seems I would have to choose one and just work from there?

Easier even would be to take your DRRI and go and try a bunch of pedals with it to see which you think is closest in sound. This is the easiest and cheapest solution. A Marshall JTM45/50/1987/JCM800/SLP etc will not give you what you are looking for because playing them on 8 or 10 is very very very loud (and a requirement for THAT sound) and it makes eina to your ears. Plus you'll need a cabinet for whichever one you may choose. In the case of you really wanting certain exact tones, pedals, modellers or something like the Kemper will bring you closest. I do not advocate any of these options but my preferred solution is MUCH less practical so we'll leave it there. ?

There's a JB fuzz face which sounds pretty good on the ProGuitarShop demo. Me like. For ZZ and Gary, I think a dirty little secret or something like a MI Audio crunchbox marshall in a box style thing will work fine. Your Hardwire pedal even may be just fine (I've got the valve overdrive model) but I'm not familiar with your model. Good luck

One of the "Marshall in a box" type drive pedals instead of the Hardwire will give you most of the tones you are looking for. MI Audio Crunch Box, Wampler Plextortion, Wampler Pinnacle, Radial Hot British, ZVEX Box of Rock, Catalinabread Dirty Little Secret, Xotic BB ...and any one of a dozen other pedals.

Oh, and don't forget the granddaddy of distortions - the Rat...

My experience, and maybe this personal taste, but fender deluxe reverb has to much a nice siund that every time ai connect a pedal to it it will be not an improvement imo

I have a ibanez TS that seems to work, but only with some of my guitars through a FDR

Thanx guys, it really helps a lot and opens up a lot of options

Coming back to the Marshall, if I run an attenuator between the head and the cab, then I can obtain the distortion at a decent level (ears and neighbours = ?)

What's your experience on attenuators?

Blues Brother wrote: Thanx guys, it really helps a lot and opens up a lot of options

Coming back to the Marshall, if I run an attenuator between the head and the cab, then I can obtain the distortion at a decent level (ears and neighbours = ?)

What's your experience on attenuators?

No. You'll have to attenuate anything more than 30 watt way too much and the sound will suffer. Only way around it is a smaller (less watts) amp, less efficient speakers in the cab (difficult), some kind of powerscaling and attenuation. Best to use a combination of 2 or 3 of these. You may get away with just one of the pedals or an equivalent of what Alan mentioned above.

Maybe Marshall JTM 45, with a powerbrake and JB Fuzz Face? Could be interesting?

Maybe I can test this combination @ one of the music shops. I will let you know what the result is?

Now you're talking!! You're making Singemonkey drool! The JTM45 is a great sounding thing. If you like that sort of amp go and have a look at the Marshall 1974x and the various clones. Awesome old school tone and more manageable volume, especially with a single Greenback. It still won't give you the exact sounds you want but that won't matter ?

+1 1974x 18W also for Gary Moore tone ?

The more attenuation, the less tone remaining. Stick with 6 dB. If you want tone you must not mind volume....

If you were wondering, the 18 watts sounds a bit like these:

=

=

Here's a recording of mine.

http://www.box.net/s/4vtj96h5yjbdp64pflp6

Perhaps we should ask if you are gigging with your setup? If you are, lugging two amps to gigs to cover all the tones you want is a bit of a schlep. Then the DRRI and a pedal make more sense. A little bit of a compromise, but not so much that any but the most die-hard tonehounds would notice.

If you want a wider range tones in studio, then having a Marshall make more sense as you'll ultimately get better tones. +1 on the 18W Marshall - already a bit louder than your DRRI.

@ez
Wow, it completely blew me away. :dance: :woohoo:. That is EXACTLY what I'm looking for. +2 for your guitar playing :bopping:

@Alan
As a "bedroom" player only, I do not see the need for anything above 30W, thus a small Marshall for crunch (maybe add a couple of effects) and DRRI for clean

Problem solved!!

Thanks guys

Bare some things in mind though (you'll find this out soon enough)

Alan is right, pedals -> easy, cheap, does the job.

18 watt:

Expensive (The real Marshall one as well as most of the clones) if you buy a complete amp. Your best bet is likely one of the Ceriatone models, but they don't like installing the power scaling on these amps (which makes it loud, louder than your DR).

Unavailable in SA, there's not many reissues floating around I don't think.

You can build it yourself if you have patience and confidence in your technical abilities, not everyone is keen on that sort of thing.

This thread shows how mine went.
http://www.guitarforum.co.za/amps-speakers-and-valves/one-small-step-at-a-time-or-my-18-watt-marshall-build/

?

Blues Brother wrote: Hi Guys

I was wondering if someone can help me.

My setup is the following: ESP LTD EC-400 with Seymor Duncan Humbuckers, Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue, DigiTech Hardwire Valve Distortion SC-2

I want 2 different sounds from this setup: Gary Moore/Joe Bonamassa-ish and ZZ Top-ish.

I have problems getting the right settings on both the amp and the pedal to at least get close to the mentioned tones, not to copy it exactly.

Any help will be much appreciated 8)

I play thru a Deluxe Reverb, and when I want a more "Gibson thru Marshall2 tone I use the dry channel on the DLR (The channel with no reverb) It sounds tighter and more focused than the reverb channel, and gets me closer to the ZZ Top tone.