AboutAndy Expertise I am very familar with all sorts of questions pertaining sublime and the groups members.Whether it be about brad's songs,tattoos,guitars,amp,recordings,there isn't much i can't answer,and if i am not able i am willing to research until i can find one.
Experience Saw sublime play at the 1st warped tour on august 17th 1995 at the tweeter center(was the blockbuster pavillion then),saw Long Beach Dub Allstarts perform in 2002 at the electric factory in philly.I have been playing guitar for 8 years and have both published versions of sublime guitar tab,plus can play almost 90% of sublimes music to a tee.I also have connections in the tattooing industry,and knowlege about the bands tattoo's from various interviews,pics,live show tapes,and a segment from tattoo magazine featuring opie ortiz,who inked alot of the band.Have Also been following the LBC music scene since 1995
Organizations OSU wrestling and athlectic alumni
NJVMA(vet med assoc
Publications " "
Education/Credentials OSU University,BS Animal Science,wrestling
Question yo im looking into buying a new guitar, i currently have a marshall 50 watt, a distortin, reverb, delay, and wah pedal. i was thinking into maybe and s470 or maybe a fender strat, i was also lookinh into an sg or a les paul standard. could you tell me what would not only be the best bang for my buck but also give me a sound similar to brads, and what pickupswould also be similar to his. also how should i be setting up my pedals and amp to get a sound like brads?
thanks peace
Answer Ryan-
What's the haps man?? Ok//your set-up is decent.Early on brad played thru an roland jazz chorus(120 watt solid state amp w/real chprus and reverb,possibly the best sounding clean amp of all time)-he ran a whirlwind a/b box(switches between amps/cabs) to a 50 watt marshall JCM 800 for distortion.So to get his early sound you could use your marshall on the clean mode an add alittle reverb or delay on/off or on at slow repeats to get the chrous sound.I'd start w/ the treble at 9-10-bass-6-8-mids-2-5..now they are variables in there..start at a spot an run thru songs you know...if it's not it..then dial either one up or back until 90% of the sound you want is there.
After 1994 he went an got himself the mesa boogie triple rectifier..a bad ass 150 watt tube monster.Live wise to get his sound is really not to hard. Your going to want to keep your marshall on clean..or if you have 2 channels you can do two things:1st your going to need 3 channel variations to hit his sound or at least come close to it.So either use the marshall's dist on low gain to get a slightly overdriven sound..used for ska like chord progressions..think of superstar punnani..it's clean but with a real gritty sound.Or use your marshall for dist and set the actuall dist box on low gain with high tone...i would think the marshall would have better dist..but i'm not sure what your workin with.Even the metal zone sucks a moderatlry high volumes...it's fake sounding..just whines...so if you play lound use the amps dist ann the pedal for slight dirt.
Guitar wise the one that will sound the best would probally be a strat..just because of it's pickups an ability to nail all that is clean..plus they have models with a humbucker and hot single coils if you play heavy.I'd recommend the fender delux strat since due to it's pickup splittin ability is the most far ranging tonally out of fenders line up.Expensive but worth the money.
That being said i own an ibanex s-470 custom..i thru in a semour duncan jb(jeff beck) in the bridge(that's the pickup brad had in his dan macdonald custom guitar-brown one)-and i thru in a duncan jazz..the man himself likes this combo the best and i was happy with the results.I went through a line 6 spydervalve bogner,then a peavy valve king...the bogner was a fake sounding POS(not real bogners,just line6),and the peavy had nice clean,but for shit dist.
So i put 2,199 down an ordered an mesa boogie dual rectifier roadster..4 channel 212 combo.Sounded great and was able to get a sublime sound with a little tweaking.Even with that amp,my guitar,,i probally wont be able to nail his sound..especially the studio..cause know your dealing with rack equipement and the works...so it just goes to show..even a model of his rig might not make us sound like him!!
The guitars you were talking about are all great models..dude every last one of them...les paul gets you jazz to metal..the sg is very comfortable to play..the ibanez for sure will get you to be able to play metal,rock,blues,reggae,,you name it...but it won't give you a better clean sound than any of the other ones by any means.If you did go with the s-470 you'd proablly have to upgrade the pick ups..i am even going to upgrade my stock single coil just cause i got 2 and might as well make the whole pick up configuration custom.
My advice on this one is number one ask yourself regardless of the guitar is your amp able to do what you want it to do.2nd have any of your friends with models of guitars your interested in let you borrow one of thiers,,have em play yours for a week..an really spend the time tweaking the amp to match the guitar..cause you try puttin the treble up high on a strat like you would need to on a les and it may be to twangy or sharp for you.Even if a friend has a guitar you might not think of as a ideal model..try it out..maybe it will do something for you.
I've always found you need a little of everything to get the sound you need.I am still waiting on my mesa to be built in cali..and once it's here will spend the time trying to tweak the ibanez/amp...an may even by that strat i mentioned just to broaden the field.A point of reference is the band badfish(sublime tribute band)-the lead guitarist/singer plays a strat..and it sounds damn good..not brad..but real close.
In closing practice alot of reagge/ska chord progressions,,then work in palm muting,single note lines...learn to skank or mute the up/down beats on the guitar.Play with the clean and turn the reverb on/off during the song to mix things up..epspecially on solos...same with the delay...just F around until boredom and i can assure you you will advance your knowledge and skills at his style of playing.
Actually,,the biggest thing you have to remeber is that he had eric doubling his chord progrssion on bass,,and then bud on drums..those two will really change the way your guitar sounds.If you can a bass player friend..have him play a song on bass and you hit the same chords on guitar...you'll have to tweak the treble,mids,an especially bass to mix in well...but soon you'll hit it.and all of the sudden the bass an guitar start sounding heavier..cause tonally your at the same wavelength...if you got to much treble it will sound choppy,,to less bass it will sound weak,,not enough mids and you don't cut through and the bass swallows the sound.
Ok i've wrote a book...hope this helps man,,,any more questions just fire me back and i'll do my best,.,.best of luck bro,.,.,,,,andy=}
