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I love the riff in that song but no matter how much I fiddle with my amp head and pedals, I just can't seem to duplicate that warm, fuzzy feel. Here's a link if you are unfamiliar with the song.

I found this list of equipment that Ross Childress supposedly uses. Can anyone identify something in there that would yield that sound -- maybe the Tube King or Tube Screamer?

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  • Besides everything here (for NOT the solo riffs, but the main bass/treble riffs through the song), try cutting off the high frequency on your guitars, try it after amp, and also try it pre-amp, to see which is better. If that doesn't work, try playing it outdoors for better results ( ;) )
    – bobobobo
    Feb 5, 2012 at 5:12

5 Answers 5

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Around eighty to ninety percent of the sound you hear on that song can be attributed to the "low-fidelity" of how it was recorded. I too, am a huge, huge fan of the liquidy goodness of this song--I have covered it countless times--and you can get very close with a Les Paul or PRS, a germanium or very warm silicon fuzz, a boost, and a nice warm amplifier. The main way I emulate that tone is dialing in my amplifier, fuzz, and overdrive boost at all the right levels. I play through a heavily cusomized Orange AD-30R, so I have the warm amp point down. Next, consider that fuzz at high distortion levels will sound very blatty, so it needs to be just right. It took me a couple of days or so to get the fuzz + overdrive mix down so that it sounds acceptable. For the quiet portions of the song I play with the amp just at breakup, fuzz engaged, but the volume knob rolled back so the fuzz isn't too heavy. For the interlude sections, dial the volume up a bit to get some more cream. Then, and this is the fun part, during the lead section I dime my volume, engage my boost, and send my amplifier into a warm, fuzzy, yet creamy pissed off rage as I completely massacre (and not in a good way) the solo.

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  • LOL at (and not in a good way)
    – Doktor Mayhem
    Apr 2, 2011 at 7:50
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I think he used a SansAmp for that song but can't remember for sure if it was. Also, that song is in a strange tuning (C#, G#, C#, G#, A#, D# low to high) which gives it a hard to pin down sound.

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  • It's drop C# tuning. What's a SansAmp? -- I googled it -- yet another pedal to buy!! :) Apr 2, 2011 at 0:13
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    Yea, I remember at GFTPM article with him years ago where he said that was a SansAmp direct into their little setup they used to cut that album (it was about as indie a release as you got in the early 90's). Live, he definitely went for more gain on that track. And Joel Kosche uses some very hot Vox amps behind him these days. Awesome band for sure.
    – Ian C.
    Apr 2, 2011 at 0:32
  • Thanks for this, I have always played it in Drop-D for convenience. I never really took the time to play along with the track and find out that "Ur doin it wrong" all these years. :D
    – Jduv
    Apr 2, 2011 at 1:10
  • I just realized that drop C# would really suck. Hehe. That's just the way I've thought of that tuning in my head but it's really not accurate. Apr 2, 2011 at 1:57
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My band performed this song many times, in standard 440 tuning.

I played it on an Ibanez Artcore (semi-hollow) jazz guitar with Humbuckers. Middle pickup switch position (both pickups working), tone knobs set to 2 on the bridge and 5 on the neck pickup.

Guitar strings were Ernie Ball Regular Slinky's, 10's to 46.

Amplifier or effects simply didn't matter. The rolled-back tone knobs were the key to the 'woman tone' that that song features. We just played it loud and clean, with a small amount of amplifier gain, and it always sounded like the original record.

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I know he used a Fender Twin amp or whatever it was called

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I caught it! Ross used a multi floor processor! With a line selector from Boss. But no settings showed. He did use a regular Wah pedal. I am shocked to see Ross use 2 amps and not 1

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