Billie Gibbons Tone LSS ?????

[gplex]

Anybody got any tips on getting a good Billy Gibbons EQ setting on a lone star special with a Les Paul. Without using a soldering iron and swapping tubes/speaker. Any help is apprecieated. That drive channel seems tricky to me.


Thanks Guys

 

[Hamstein]

Hi, I'm a great fan of the reverend billy, and play quite a bit of his stuff to amuse myself!
I've only had my LSS for a few months, but you can get gorgeous sounds from it
The settings I use on ch 2 (at bedroom levels) for pretty much everything are :
In 30w mode, drive switch on "thicker", speakers ( I have the 2by12 ) in the 35 watt output

drive : 2 o'clock
gain : 1.30
treble : 1
mid : 11
bass :11.30
prescence : 11
master : 10
I have the effects loop engaged, feeding a delay pedal for if I fancy a bit of echo!
As I turn the output knob up to gigging levels of volume I reduce the drive and gain and let the power tube distortion take over from the pre.
Clean it up for different tunes by playing with your guitar volume knob, the LSS responds really well to this.

 

[Hamstein]

Hmmm, I seem to have tried to write too much!
.... to continue...
Which LP are you using? I'm currently using one of the newfangled raw power studio jobs in plain maple, it's a bit brighter than my standard, which is in the luthiers for a refret, maybe if your using a standard you'll want to up the treble a bit.

Probly want a boost pedal for solos of course, I've got a ts9 and bb preamp plugged in, both have their uses!
Try it and see, hope this was of some help, theres such a big difference between the early billy, and post eliminator billy sounds that you have to find a happy medium which you can play a reasonable facsimile of all with - thats what I try to do anyway!
Let us know how you get on.

 

[Mister John]

This is a store demo I did with an LP into my LSS at a fairly low volume.(No spam....since the guitar sold a while ago.)
I'm going through the drive channel.These are the settings except the output knob is maybe at 9:00.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ivkeUu2x1w

 

[toneguy86]

Anybody got any tips on getting a good Billy Gibbons EQ setting on a lone star special with a Les Paul. Without using a soldering iron and swapping tubes/speaker. Any help is apprecieated. That drive channel seems tricky to me.


Thanks Guys

The drive channel is tricky. I love the Rev. as well. Ya gotta have a Paul man or something with a lot of thick Mahogany. The key to getting a good, thick (but not to thick) classic tone like Gibbons on this amp channel is to lower your gain and crank the drive. Dial the mids no higher then 10:00, goose the lows ever so slightly I use JJ tubes to tighten the low end and end up with it usually around 11:00 for the tone you are searchin for) and crank up the treble (at least 2:00). I run presense between 11:00 and noon). I also do roll back the bridge pickup tone to between 7 and 8.

It seems odd to be going for a thick, smokey tone like ol' Billy and to be turnin down mids, but on this amp...you can.
Good tubes...lower the mids and presense, crank the treble a bit and boost up the lows. It smokes...Mark

 

[Heritage Softail]

So many different ZZ Top tones, what era are you talking about?

The early Tres Hombres stuff is way different than the shag carpet guitar era, and now they tour with anything a sponsor will provide with $. I have seen them 3 times, the live show in 79 seemed to be more about the music and sound, after the 80's it seemed to be about MTV and impressing teenage girls. I saw them on TV last month and the tone seemed like a sack of sh!t. But man that Jesus Just Left Chicago tone is a classic, and Bad/Nationwide..... that is the swagger.

 

[toneguy86]

So many different ZZ Top tones, what era are you talking about?

The early Tres Hombres stuff is way different than the shag carpet guitar era, and now they tour with anything a sponsor will provide with $. I have seen them 3 times, the live show in 79 seemed to be more about the music and sound, after the 80's it seemed to be about MTV and impressing teenage girls. I saw them on TV last month and the tone seemed like a sack of sh!t. But man that Jesus Just Left Chicago tone is a classic, and Bad/Nationwide..... that is the swagger.

I agree. Billy's tone was unbelievable in the early days and those early shows were smokin. When I think Billy, I think Tres Hombres actually too--Pearly Gates into an old Plexi OR maybe one of his older strats (the tone on Blue Jean Blues was the reason I originally tried playing a Strat and might try one again someday). The question: can a Lonestar cop these tones? Absolutely. I think the deeper question is how to get the most mojo and vibe out of this amp (honestly the proverbial question with any piece of hardware really--all have their strong and weak points). One key, especially on ch2 is to moderate the mids and crank lows until chunk time happens. This amp has so much of both...just gotta find the right measure of grease...Mark

 

[Hamstein]

Interesting that I seem to set my LSS up with a fair bit more mid and bass than most people on here recommend - But thats the way I like it!
I've experimented with the settings suggested on the forum, and they sound good, but I always end up rolling those knobs back up again!
In fact, is it possible to get a bad sound from the Lss? - it seems to sound good whatever you do! Any suggestions for settings that sound dreadful would be fun! ( please don't say 'the way you've got yours set up' though!) Hehehe.

I saw Billy play again in the U.K last year, and he sounded Gooood! - Had to sit through two days of awful nu metal first though, but it was worth it. I hadn't realised quite how much I wanted to see zz top play again until I found my eyes full of tears when they walked on! - Must be going soft in my old age!