Lord Fickle
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Post by Lord Fickle on Apr 12, 2020 13:38:24 GMT
I know this has probably been done to death on the old forum, but I think a serious discussion with technical contributions from those that know, as to how Brian's guitar tone has changed over the years, would be interesting.
From my own perspective, I can only really comment on how his guitar sounds to me, and I've always found that the earlier albums had a much fuller, fatter sound than the guitar on almost anything post The Works, One Vision perhaps being an exception.
So, what changed? How did his guitar sound become 'thinner' in the later years? Was it his technical setup? The production? I've never really been keen on the sound on the David Richards (RIP) produced albums, as not only did the guitar sound weak, the drums were iffy as well on many tracks. I've read that drum machines were used quite a bit because Roger couldn't be arsed to attend some of the recording sessions, but I'm not sure how true that is.
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BrƎИsꓘi
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Post by BrƎИsꓘi on Apr 12, 2020 15:07:01 GMT
generally - from HS onward, i felt the guitar sounded thin, but also less clean.
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baronlutenvank
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Post by baronlutenvank on Apr 12, 2020 17:36:22 GMT
generally - from HS onward, i felt the guitar sounded thin, but also less clean. Don't quote me on this, but my guess is that their use of keyboards and synths probably reduced the need to pull in more work on the guitar |
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Mooghead
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Post by Mooghead on Apr 12, 2020 18:31:08 GMT
What about those vocal harmonies though!
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vh
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Post by vh on Apr 12, 2020 18:40:28 GMT
Mic positioning, type of mics used, the actual recording room, the console it's self, ( Neave, SSL, Focusrite etc) recording media, engineer, producer all have an effect on what instruments sound like
However the other thing to remember about Brian May's guitar sound is that the core sound has always been Guitar, Treble Booster, Vox AC30 or Deacy amp. However through the years he has changed the treble booster type several times and on occasion used different AC30 some with the old green back speakers some with blue back speakers (each of these adds a different shade of colour to the sound). Through the 70's he recorded with an old fawn coloured rare AC30 Bass amp. He also toured with it, it usually sat in the central of his back line.
Also in the early 80's he started using a custom built Pete Cornish pedal board which some people have said sucked the tone out of the guitar somewhat.
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Post by The Real Wizard on Apr 12, 2020 22:10:30 GMT
Also in the early 80's he started using a custom built Pete Cornish pedal board which some people have said sucked the tone out of the guitar somewhat. Yeah. And replacing the Foxx phaser with chorus in the 80s didn't help either.
Pretty well everyone just went with the times, not realizing how much the technology would date in a short time.
Last year Pink Floyd put out a complete redo of Momentary Lapse Of Reason, to "restore the creative balance between the three Pink Floyd members," as Gilmour put it. All the session players and drum machines of the day didn't age well, and the album sounds like Pink Floyd now.
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vh
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Post by vh on Apr 14, 2020 14:13:27 GMT
Yes that 80's period in Floyd didn't age too well.
I think if you jump on what is fashionable over what you do naturally as an artist it rarely works for the best.
Saying that a band like Rush somehow managed to stay sonically intact despite moving with some of the directions of the time. I feel I'm slipping somewhat from the original discussion, but I feel Brian's guitar sound fell into that trap.
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Steve
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Post by Steve on Apr 14, 2020 14:30:46 GMT
Yes that 80's period in Floyd didn't age too well. I think if you jump on what is fashionable over what you do naturally as an artist it rarely works for the best. Saying that a band like Rush somehow managed to stay sonically intact despite moving with some of the directions of the time. I feel I'm slipping somewhat from the original discussion, but I feel Brian's guitar sound fell into that trap. This ^^ |
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