HEVYDEVY FORUMS

I'm trying to figure out how to get that City guitar sound as I have become somewhat obsessed with it.
The guitar sound has changed on most SYL albums and City is the pinnacle for me. I think it's just got the best crushing sound around.

So I was hoping someone could give me a hand getting that guitar sound.
I've got a peavey 5150 II (the II doesn't make a big difference, just has a dedicated clean + a bit more power).

I've had a play around with the various amp-settings i've found of dev's (one from these forums, one from the great average guitar video) but i'm still not getting that really tearing sound.

Any help would be appreciated.

Step One: Clone Jed Simon and Devin Townsend.
Step Two: Chop off their hands
Step Three: Attach them to your arms.
Step Four: Record
Step Five: Profit?

What guitar are you using? Also what pickups are using?

Getting the tone from your amp to match a mixed & mastered guitar tone on an album is usually very difficult, in some cases impossible.

Often what you hear on the records is not exactly what the amp sounded like during the recording session as it is. Guitar tracks are often at the very least doubled, and in many cases there's multiple tracks with different guitars/amps and then they're blended together in the mix to create one massive guitar tone. Then you factor in any plugins that have been applied to the track, EQing, mixing, mastering, etc and you have a tone that's heavily modified from it's original state.

You might be able to get close, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Even if you did as the poster above said (create a Frankenstein using Dev/Jed parts) it probably still wouldn't sound like the album. Hell, Dev and Jed don't even sound like the album tones live.

Morphine wrote:What guitar are you using? Also what pickups are using?

Getting the tone from your amp to match a mixed & mastered guitar tone on an album is usually very difficult, in some cases impossible.

Often what you hear on the records is not exactly what the amp sounded like during the recording session as it is. Guitar tracks are often at the very least doubled, and in many cases there's multiple tracks with different guitars/amps and then they're blended together in the mix to create one massive guitar tone. Then you factor in any plugins that have been applied to the track, EQing, mixing, mastering, etc and you have a tone that's heavily modified from it's original state.

You might be able to get close, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Even if you did as the poster above said (create a Frankenstein using Dev/Jed parts) it probably still wouldn't sound like the album. Hell, Dev and Jed don't even sound like the album tones live.

Your logic is killing my jokey.

Morphine is right, to a point. The EXACT sound you hear on City is damn near impossible to recreate live. However, if you've heard the live sound that SYL employed during their tour, it was meaty and close. However, I think it helped that Dev and Jed were locked in, from what people who saw them live at that time have said.

More to the point to the OP....why not create a new awesome sound so that people will ask how YOU did it?

djskrimp wrote:Step One: Clone Jed Simon and Devin Townsend.
Step Two: Chop off their hands
Step Three: Attach them to your arms.
Step Four: Record
Step Five: Profit?

You forgot: "Collect underpants".

I don't think a Peavy was used on City. I can't remember the name of the amp, but it was some kind of custom thing I think.

~Josiah

youre not gonna get anywhere by recreating another bands guitar tone

You'd probably need Daniel Bergstrand too.

Josiah Tobin wrote:I don't think a Peavy was used on City. I can't remember the name of the amp, but it was some kind of custom thing I think.

~Josiah

Didn't it start with an M or something...? I honestly can't remember, but I know Dev didn't use the 5150 on City...

5150 came in on Ocean Machine, and lasted up until... Alien? I think that was the time period... I know they switched to Mesa Boogie for Alien, anyway.

I think it was a 5150 modified by an amp tech named Morin.

Not that it really matters...

I think the OP should look into quad tracking guitars when recording.

Ahh well, thanks for the replies everyone.

damnuandurdog wrote:I think it was a 5150 modified by an amp tech named Morin.

Not that it really matters...

I think the OP should look into quad tracking guitars when recording.

That's it. Morin! I knew it started with an M... no idea if it was a mod, or just a boutique amp, or what. I've only ever heard/seen it called a "Morin amp..."