Riff Raff + Stormy Monday -- Metal Clip

[TwilightOdyssey]

It's been a very long time since I've posted any clips. This is a new one, using a Riff Raff bridge, Stormy Monday neck (in parallel). The clean guitars at the end is the Riff Raff in parallel.

[Eric]

Very cool playing and tone.  It seems a bit some subdued than your usual tone. Probably due to the mahogany and rosewood and the PAF type pickups. It's a great tone though, very impressive.

[gwEm]

hell yeah :) this is exactly the kind of tone i love the most, very gritty. less saturation, but of a more dirty sounding 70s kind. the only bkp set i have is the riff raff, brought for exactly this type of thing. i feel somewhat embarrased to post clips here though, especially with high quality like this around.

as eric says, cool playing. i also liked the song, something like a thrash inspired killers period iron maiden... is it your own composition?

i would be interested to have some details on the amp and speaker setup you used for this recording.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Very cool playing and tone.  It seems a bit some subdued than your usual tone. Probably due to the mahogany and rosewood and the PAF type pickups. It's a great tone though, very impressive.

Thanx, Eric!

Yes, the settings I use for my ash and maple guitars did not work at all for the Agile and these pups. It sounded way too bright and thin. I had to reshape the tone considerably.

Glad you like the tune!

[TwilightOdyssey]

hell yeah :) this is exactly the kind of tone i love the most, very gritty. less saturation, but of a more dirty sounding 70s kind. the only bkp set i have is the riff raff, brought for exactly this type of thing. i feel somewhat embarrased to post clips here though, especially with high quality like this around.

Yes, the Riff Raff is just plain RAW! It's the perfect compliment for a LP. Having the option of going with parallel or series wiring for both pickups gives me a level of versatility I don't normally have.

When we did the NYC BKP jam a month ago, Twisted Louie handed me his Epi 335 clone loaded with Stormy Mondays and said 'See if you can get some metal sounds out of THIS'! lol Needless to say, I had no problem doing so ... it's all in the fingers!! The Riff Raff is great if you have a high gain amp and want balls to the wall distortion, but still be able to hear every note.

as eric says, cool playing. i also liked the song, something like a thrash inspired killers period iron maiden... is it your own composition?

Thanx; yes, it's an original. I don't know if this song will make it into my band's catalog. I've been working on the arrangement for about 3 months!
It's probably the most 'power metal' thing that I have written for the band to date. It's a mixture of my own style with some inspiration taken from Helloween, Rush, and old Judas Priest.

i would be interested to have some details on the amp and speaker setup you used for this recording.

This one was done very simply:
Drums are Drumkit From Hell, programmed using Sonar 5.
The guitars are all played through a Roland VG-88 going straight into a Yamaha AW-16G.

Thanx for the replies!

[gingataff]

Good stuff again Ben, is this going to be a new song for the band? I'd be interested to see how it goes.
Do you think the Black Dog would work in a (super)strat type guitar? and how does it compare to the VHII, both beng of the vintage hot type?

[TwilightOdyssey]

Good stuff again Ben, is this going to be a new song for the band? I'd be interested to see how it goes.

Thanx! Not sure where this one will end up, it's still in the early development stage.

Do you think the Black Dog would work in a (super)strat type guitar? and how does it compare to the VHII, both beng of the vintage hot type?

I think that the Black Dog is voiced for the heavier mass of a Les Paul, just like the Cold Sweat is. In a super Strat, I would always recommend the VHII first. It has more growl and presence. I don't know how that big midrange push of the Black Dog would work in a strat ...

[dave_mc]

very nice clip, ben. I eventually got to listen to it, as for some reason my computer decided to crash once i clicked on the clip after I'd downloaded it... about 3 times. I blame the new IE7 (or whatever it is) that I downloaded recently. It seems to be a total piece of cr@p- works twice as slow, crashes much more frequently, and has no discernable benefits over IE6, as far as I can tell... ah well, there's microsoft for you.

Anyway, the riff-raff/SM combo actually sounds quite nice- the slightly hotter than paf bridge coupled with the very vintage neck pickup seems to work very nicely together. And nice recording as well- shifting the guitars left and right makes it sound really professional! First time it did it, it caught me by surprise, that's for sure!

:drink:

[Peter Antal]

I really enjoyed the clip, it was good to hear that you still sound like yourself even when you're not playing the guitars you usually do. 8)

[WITH FULL DISTORTION]

Ahhhhhhhhh i noticed something not 100% porqerful. thats teh reason.l parallel wiring.
Q:)
thats the reason i couldnīt hear the stormy monday SMOOTHNESS 100%
Q:p
$%&#ing haisl and unholy Old school Epic Heavy metal !!!
JP

[Davey]

let's hear this one



i dont understand, how peej wouldnt like it.. maybe couple of parts.



you could always make in an instrumental :D


and that is RAW, did you use the twilight drive?

[TwilightOdyssey]

you could always make in an instrumental :D

Not that again!

and that is RAW, did you use the twilight drive?

No, that's guitar > VG-88 > HDD recorder


ADDITIONAL THOUGHT:
I forgot to mention this in the introductory comments, but the kernals for the verse riff (Em) as well as the bridge (F# Locrian/C Lydian) were written at the BK booth during LGS last year!

[38thBeatle]

Always a good sign for me is when I get a nice bass riff banging away in my head when I listen to a clip and this was one of those occasions.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Thanx, 38th!!

[Philly Q]

Lots of great old-school guitar tones in that piece!

Having the option of going with parallel or series wiring for both pickups gives me a level of versatility I don't normally have.

I wasn't expecting the Riff Raff to be very versatile in my one-pickup SG, but I really like the way it sounds in both series and parallel.  It's interesting how it interacts with the guitar's tone control too (I know you replaced them on your Agile Ben), in series the tone rolls off most of the highs as normal, but in parallel the sound stays quite bright even with the tone control on zero - especially on distorted sounds.  Very unexpected, maybe I c--ked up the wiring somehow, but I like it!

It's probably the most 'power metal' thing that I have written for the band to date. It's a mixture of my own style with some inspiration taken from Helloween, Rush, and old Judas Priest.

Great stuff!  I love those Rush bits.  I was getting a bit of a NWOBHM vibe too (along with some Dokken!) right at the start of the track, but maybe that's because I've been listening to NWOBHM compilations this week.  :twisted: