Bruce's amp settings?

[Bojan]

Does anyone know what amp settings Bruce uses when playing rhythm on the Strat at concerts?

Bojan

[Iain Purdon]

I don't know! I guess he would roll out the bottom end and boost top to add crispness and avoid conflict with the bass. For concerts it would have a lot to do with the PA engineer too. Anyone know?

[Bojan]

It's interesting that everyone knows just about every aspect of Hank's tone, including pickups, strings, guitar settings, amp settings, playing style, and so on, yet very few people seem to know what Bruce used/uses to get his sound when playing live with the Strat. With all the Shadowmanias that have been held over the years, presumably someone has spoken to Bruce about this. I know that nowadays he uses top-heavy strings, but what about his guitar and amp settings in the early period when he used heavy strings on his guitar? Come on experts

[abstamaria]

Perhaps the reason there hasn't been much investigation here is because we in general strive for the Shadows' recorded, rather than stage, sound. If correct, that would be true especially of Bruce's sound, as of course he principally used that mic'ed Gibson in the studio.

BTW, I thought for a long while that Bruce didn't use full barre chords because he didn't want to venture into and muddle up the bass guitarist's territory. It seems from interviews that he just didn't want to use that shape!

Best,

Andy

[cockroach]

Didn't Bruce refuse to say anything about how he got his sound when interviewed for the Shads Final Tour DVD?

I recall him smiling and saying "trade secrets!"

I think the key to getting close to Bruce's super clean electric rhythm sound on most Fenders (Strat, Tele etc)is to get the volume level right on the amp, using a clean treble tone, then back off on the guitar volume control.

Nice new heavier gauge strings usually help too, for tuning stability and crisp tone.

I've played Bruce's electric guitar parts with a Shads tribute band on stage in a concert situation a few times, and the above works well. I have also used an acoustic'electric through the PA on another occasion, and that gives something close to Bruce's recorded acoustic sound on the early stuff.

[bazmusicman]

I remember seeing a picture taken from behind the Shadows when they were rehearsing for the 2009/2010
tour and you could see that Bruce's guitar was plugged into the Normal Channel of the JMI AC30.

Best regards,
Baz.

[Bojan]

I've been doing some listening and some experimenting and I have come to the conclusion that Bruce's rhythm sound on the Strat is not at all the same for each song and that he must have used a lot of different settings, both on the amp and on his guitar. Why shouldn't he if Hank did? For example, the rhythm for Midnight is played on a Strat even on the original recording and has a sound with very pronounced mids. The same is true for Cosy. Many other songs were also recorded with Bruce using a Strat, like FBI. So, when playing live Bruce would have had many different settings for different songs, at least if he wanted to sound anything like he did on the recordings. Since he played on an AC15 and later an AC30, he would have had to eliminate the bass and perhaps even the treble to a large extent, very much in the way that Hank did, so as not to get in the way of the bass, but he also had to cut down the treble to eliminate any shrillness, because he basically needed a mellow acoustic tone, and then he would roll down the volume, and with the middle pickup he would sound a lot like an acoustic. Changing the pickup to the bridge/middle position and just slightly rolling down the tone pot, he would get a very authentic Savage rhythm sound. For FBI he would have to boost the mids again and get a sound much like Hank's . . . and so on. Chances are that later Bruce also used some discreet acoustic pedal . . .

Since my main "position" has always been rhythm guitar, I always wondered why Bruce, who is such a perfectionist, would just put his pickup selector in the middle position and play away. Now after trying out many different combinations, I'm pretty sure that he too went to some lengths to get the right rhythm sound for every Shadows song when playing live . . . hence the "trade secrets."

[JimN]

...the rhythm for Midnight is played on a Strat even on the original recording and has a sound with very pronounced mids.

Far more likely to be the sunburst Jazzmaster.

The same is true for Cosy.

Yes, that one is likely to be a Stratocaster.

Many other songs were also recorded with Bruce using a Strat, like FBI.

Umm... Jazzmaster.

So, when playing live Bruce would have had many different settings for different songs, at least if he wanted to sound anything like he did on the recordings.

Nevertheless, I've seen Bruce live quite a few times from 1964 onward (he wasn't playing on the night I first saw The Shadows in 1962), and I don't recall seeing him fiddling with an amp, ever.

The Roland echo (for the chorus effect), yes. But not the amp.

JN

[abstamaria]

"Raggy Tramline" I gather had Bruce on his sunburst Jazzmaster. Sounds like it, too (probably on flatwounds). All else of the early ones seem to be on the J200.

Hank's sound varies from concert to concert, as illustrated by TVS's Paul's recorded commentary on "Apache." It is something we normally don't try to emulate, because of that variance but principally because the Holy Grail is the recorded sound. I would imagine the same to be true of Bruce's sound.

Using an electric guitar has its benefits, of course, in terms of ease of use in a public setting and the visual treat of identical guitars. I thought though that, if the goal is to try to cover an original recording, there would be more acoustics used on stage by cover bands. That doesn't seem true. I assume that an acoustic with pickups played through the PA system would be closer than a Stratocaster through a Vox or similar, even with an acoustic pedal. I wonder why rhythm guitarists use a Stratocaster then. Why don't you use an acoustic, Bojan (I am assuming you don't, probably incorrectly!)?

Andy

[Iain Purdon]

Acoustic feedback (howlround) is the devil if you try to amplify acoustic guitars on stage.

I once did a hilarious gig which, at one stage, involved my two 6-string mates on acoustics and me on electric bass for Nivram. Every time I hit certain bass notes it set off loud howlround in the acoustic amps. The PA operator concluded that my bass was the cause and turned me down. The audience were duly treated to a bass solo they couldn't hear at all. Shame really, it was my best ever and nobody can prove otherwise!