New Slash Good! Why Slashtone?
Happened to see a clip of Slash’s band on the Guitar Center Sessions or whatever they’re called, aka MTV Unplugged 2. Personally I find that as boring as I found the Unplugged stuff (hey, let’s take the rock ‘n’ roll out of it – brilliant!), but it reminded me to look into the new Slash since John from Jersey told me I might dig it.
Turns out he was right – I do dig it.
I say that even though I’ve never been a huge fan of Slash’s tone. More on that in a sec. First give this a listen:
Outstanding!
Slashtone
Les Paul, Seymour Duncan vintage-style pickups, Marshall – what’s not to like about that? A recipe for wood fo’ sho’.
But to me, and maybe you, Slash’s tone is kinda harsh. It works, especially in a band context because you can’t lose it in the mix, but….
Speaking of harsh, remember that Eddie Van Halen, for many the king of “brown” tone, played an ash guitar with an overwound pickup into a 100w Marshall with all knobs on 10. Ever played a Marshall with just the tone controls on 10?! That’s harsh, man. But the volume (and some other tricks) mellowed it out….
Anyhow, Slash has all the right ingredients and for sure gets a classic woody tone. But I had to ask myself: Why is it so dang harsh? Like this:
That’s the kind of tone I’ve tried to dial OUT of my Les Paul >> Marshall setup. Based on my experiments there, here’s what I’m hearing in Slashtone:
Pickup
> Very middy, thanks to all the ingredients but especially the Alnico 2 magnet in the pickup. A2 pickups always sound that way to me because – I think I’m getting this right – the highs and lows are dialed back a bit with an A2, pushing the mids out front. About the opposite of what an Alnico 5 magnet does. (Pickup sniffers check me on that!)
Guitar
> To my ears, chambered Les Pauls aren’t as warm as solid Les Pauls. Not only that, chambered Les Pauls seem to accentuate the mids of A2 pickups. Not sure what he played on the albu. I know this chambered/non-chambered mess is a Hatfields-McCoys thing, so that’s what side of the property line I’m on….
Amp
> The new Marshall AFD 100 head, which I’m assuming he used on the new album (Slash fans?), has 6550 tubes, which for sure are less warm (but more articulate) than the now-typical EL34 tubes.
> From musicradar.com about the AFD 100: the treble response is still quite fierce… piledriver midrange ..activating the AFD mode switches in even more gain, pushes the mid-range forward…. You get the picture.
> According to this site, Slash’s pre-AFD 100 amp settings were Pres 8, Bass 7, Mids 7, Treb 4.5. That’s a bit on the “harsher” (to my ears) side.
(Click to see it bigger.)
Cab
> Slash likes Celestion Vintage 30s. Not the warmest speaker, but even so it appears he doesn’t use regular 30w V30s. When his first Marshall signature head came out, it said this about the Slash signature cab: These speakers were specially designed by Marshall to replicate the tonal warmth and fatness of the original Marshall 12″ models. Although named Vintage 30 each speaker is capable of handling up to 70w, hence the 280w rating of the cabinet.
> More-efficient speakers = less warmth = more of the A2, 6550, middy harshness (almost a cocked wah-ness) coming through.
At least that’s how I hear it. You?
Have to say: Nothing but props for Slash. Really like the new tunes, guy walks it like he talks it and…wood is good. Check it:
Category: Les Paul, Marshall, Seymour Duncan, Slash
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
People generally gauge magnet EQ’s based on symmetric winds and usually vintage winds like a PAF (7k – 9k). However, when you couple any magnet with a asymmetric wind such as a Tone Zone (A5) or the new Duncan Hybrid (one 4.3k ’59 coil and one 7.2k Custom coil), the EQ is much different, in that the Tone Zone is extremely middy and the Hybrid is extremely balanced, unlike a typical A5 vintage pickup. This is partially due to the differences in induction between the coils and how the coils react with each other wired in series.
You can make some very close assumptions about what a particular magnet will do, but the wind is just as important, as well as other factors such as baseplate material (brass or nickel alloy).
One exception is the Frankenstein pickup, which I think actually sounds a bit different than the Custom Custom. It’s alleged they are the same, packaged more expensively with EVH’s name on it. No so. The actual factors of the wind, including tension, traverse, turns-per-layer and such, can change the induction and the way the signal flows through the coil, causing different resonant frequencies to emerge. The Frankie pup really doesn’t sound like a “typical” A2 pickup at all and the clean sounds are way better than the Custom Custom, in my opinion. Very clear, present and does not have a dominating midrange but is pretty balanced. That is, after all, THE tone of Mr. Van Halen.
I’ve never cared for Slash’s tone, just as I don’t care for Page’s, for different reasons: Slash is harsh and his neck/lead tone is too “Do, do, do” sounding for me and Page’s tone is muddy as hell.
Regardless, they are fantastic players.