# Thornley/Big Wreck question



## NB_Terry

What effect in on the beginning of "The Oaf"?

Sounds like some sort of tremolo, but a bit different.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvuUwy8kcSk


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## Guest

Funny I was thinking this same thing the other day.

It's definitely a combination of trem, with hard chop. Possibly a square wave or triangle, not a sine wave (so not amp trem). And that's being fed into a delay that's sync'ed to the trem rate and set to 1/4 repeats.

And then there's a little phaser that comes in there for the swooshing sound. But that's just a little gravy.

I'm going to play around with the trem -> delay and see what I can come up with.


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## hollowbody

I just took a quick listen to it on my crappy work computer speakers, so I don't know for sure, but I think the guitar playing the lead part is not effected (by trem at least - maybe delay and the phaser/flanger Ian mentioned), and there's another guitar with the trem on it.

I know Thornley likes to use lots of guitars overdubbed, so this is definitely an option.

I'll go home and take another listen.


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## Guest

Right so I thought I'd figure this out tonight. And yea, I'm pretty sure it's trem -> delay for that intro. I found I liked the sound a little better if I backed my trem off from hard chop a bit and left a bit of the original signal floating in there under it all.

Signal chain is:

PRS Standard 24 -> Koch Twintone on the red channel. In the serial loop of the Koch it goes: empress tremolo (triangle wave form, about 3:00 on the mix knob, pattern 1, tapped tempo w/1:1 ratio) -> empress superdelay (50:50 mix, feedback around 11:00, low pass filter on)

I used 'auto' mode on the superdelay, set the trem to a hard square wave chop and got the rate just right. Then I had the superdelay "learn" the tempo from the tremolo. Flipped the trem back to triangle and rolled back the mix a bit to put some dry signal out of the tremolo and now I have a delay sync'ed to a tremolo. Sweetness.

Anyways, make with the clip, Ian, right? Pardon the lame-ass playing. This was proof of concept so I didn't even really bother learning the lick, just played something close to it. And it's slower than Thornley plays it. :smile:

http://ian.coastpedalboards.com/sounds/the-oaf-test.mp3


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## Guest

Man I just listened to The Oaf again and the intro guitar is...uh...way cleaner than my test recording there. Hehe. Hiding some sloppy-ass playing behind distortion. ROCK ON!

:rockon2:


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## Guest

Right, so my obsessive compulsive disorder wouldn't let me sleep until I recorded a cleaner version of that intro. Same deal with the setup. Just waaaaay less gain on the amp. And I pushed the tremolo to nearly 100% wet 'cause it didn't need that bed of overdrive under it this way. I also tapped it all in a littler faster. Close, not perfect, but close:

http://ian.coastpedalboards.com/sounds/the-oaf-test2.mp3

When you get it all grooving it's a heckuva lot of fun to play.

Must sleep now.


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## ezcomes

thats not bad...i play it with tremolo and some reverb...i find it fits in pretty well...i LOVE that song...i always get a rush of blood to the head when they play it live!


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## Voxguy76

I saw a picture of Ian's board. I was surprised to see a TC Electronic G-System floorboard with a TS9 and Line 6 DL-4 racked.


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## Ringwraith

I remember reading an interview & he said he used a TC something or other for the Oaf intro. I'm assuming it's the one just mentioned. I've also read of him using Pod's, adding them separately to his amp sounds in the studio. Not surprising, his tones are pretty massive. I really love his music/playing etc. Just really got into him this year after people telling me I should listen to him for the last 10 years or so! LOL

Sean


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## Evilmusician

riffboy76 said:


> I saw a picture of Ian's board. I was surprised to see a TC Electronic G-System floorboard with a TS9 and Line 6 DL-4 racked.


The G-System's a great unit ,no tap dancing needed !:rockon:


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## SkyFire_ca

I'd never really thought about it before for that particular song... knew i didn't have the pedals to duplicate it. a G-system would sure make that easier. actually, the nova pedals would work well too... easy to sync the tempos i would think.

now, i have a new mission. Actually, I need to put some thought into a few more if his/their songs. the unique tones from the start of "that song" get me too... very organ like. any insight on that one out there?


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## KneeDeep89

SkyFire_ca said:


> I'd never really thought about it before for that particular song... knew i didn't have the pedals to duplicate it. a G-system would sure make that easier. actually, the nova pedals would work well too... easy to sync the tempos i would think.
> 
> now, i have a new mission. Actually, I need to put some thought into a few more if his/their songs. the unique tones from the start of "that song" get me too... very organ like. any insight on that one out there?


He recorded ALOT of that album with a modded tele and JCM 800s/Matchless amps. For "That Song" sounds to me like a lot of natural overdrive with a very soup-y phase shifter. And of course, lots of layering. A lot of people say Ian's tone comes from how he layers the guitar tracks because his setup isn't overly complicated.


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## Guest

All this talk of studio layers may be true, but he also pulls it off live here:

[video=youtube;waHJFAvz6No]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waHJFAvz6No[/video]


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## ezcomes

the new album has lots of layers...lots of stuff going on, but in an over-powering way...


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## NB_Terry

ezcomes said:


> the new album has lots of layers...lots of stuff going on, but in an over-powering way...


You don't like it?

I'm loving the new album. I think it's the best work Thornley has done.


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## Evilmusician

New Album rocks!!!!!!! lots deadly tones and creative playing!!!!!!!!


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## ezcomes

sorry...obivously not watching what i was typing...i love the new album...it was meant to say...in a not over-powering way...

i love the Fool in the Rain solo tone on All is Fair!


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## NB_Terry

I hope there's a guitar gear rundown for this album at some point

Lots of cool tones.


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## Latiator

I too am really digging the new album, albatross. His guitar tone is quite unique, I'm grateful it has remained throughout Ian's career.


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## Guest

I think the big part of his tone is the alternate tunings he uses.


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## Guest

With Pete Thorn resurrecting interest in Ian on the Fractal board, I revisited coping The Oaf intro tones on my Axe-Fx II. Thought I'd revive this thread with the results. It's definitely easier with the Axe-Fx II because you can sync everything. Sync'ed trem and delay are pretty essential here IMO. An Player99 I agree! Open tuning made this easier...though it's still way beyond my skills as the clip will show.

Here's my pale facsimile of the tune:

[SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/iaresee/the-oaf[/SOUNDCLOUD]

It's got this cool trem+delay thing happening in the intro and then throughout the song followed by this HUGE wall of guitar sound. The trem+delay part uses AMP 2 which has the same settings as AMP 1 except Gain and Input Trim are rolled way back to clean it up. For the trem+delay part I put it on my neck pickup and roll the volume back to about 7 to take the edge off the attack.

For the verse and chorus I flip to my bridge pickup, full throttle and switch to Scene 2 which uses AMP 1 and absolutely roars. That HBE can sound massive!

To really nail this you have to down tune to open Gb5 (Db, Gb, Db, Gb, Gb, Db, low to high) -- that's how Thornley keeps it sound HUGE when he hits those chords. I did this clip in G5 (D, G, D, G, G, D, low to high) more less -- by the time I started recording I'm sure my tuning had drifted sharp a bit as I never drop my tuning this low and open. But still, you get the idea.

Patch was dialled in with a fairly dark-sounding, all mahogany PRS Standard 24 so if you have a brighter guitar you might find this needs a treble cut.

I prefer running it with the TAF_Mars4x12_Mix UltraRes IR but I saved it with the factory 4x12 Basketweave TV Mix IR in the CAB block because it sounds pretty fantastic even with that. But try that TAF UR IR if you own the pack -- that's what was used when I recorded the clip.

My thanks to Mark Day who's excellent HBE factory patch provided the starting point for this absolutely HUGE Marshall sound!

You can get the patch here: Axe-Change - Download Preset - The Oaf HBE - by iaresee


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## ezcomes

thats pretty cool!


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