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Gibson Based Reference Songs


BoSoxBiker

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Hi All,

 

I'm looking for a few songs to use as reference songs for my home project studio efforts. I'm hoping you would offer some songs that you refer to when thinking of great guitar tone. Maybe a song in the back of your mind that you think is the best sounding acoustic tone that heavily features Gibson. Maybe your holy grail song.

 

Emphasis on SJ's and HB's, but any Gibson is fine. On that note, other brands are fine, too.

 

Thanks - PB

 

(fwiw - Reference songs are ones that are loaded into a DAW (eg Pro Tools, Garage Band) that allows you to compare your efforts to professional releases. Not to copy, but rather to compare to as far as things like sitting in the mix, volume and other tonal concerns. A sanity check of sorts. It also helps to hear what that tone sounds like coming out of your monitors as opposed to normal listening environments.)

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Thanks for the responses so far.

 

I guess I'm looking for at least half a decade past that Dylan era when the world went from mono to higher fidelity recordings.

 

Over the course of several sittings, I went through hundreds of songs that I thought were very heavy acoustic songs only to find out that they were just part of an overall sound. Two recent searches led me to some 70's Country music to discover a lot less acoustic than I ever imagined. Lots of strings based pads along with great use of pedal steel and lots of fiddle. That much I knew going in, but was surprised to not hear more acoustic work.

 

Zombywoof, OT, I didn't know much at all about Zevon. Certainly not enough to know he used Gibson acoustics. Not one of my favorites, but there were times when he shined. That one big song he "toured" is still hard to watch. "My ****'s ****ed Up". The why he wrote it, what he was dealing with, etc, etc. What a great piece of work. Anyhow, I'll search through his studio acoustic recordings.

 

PB

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I think the CD you put together of the Banner Guitars is excellent sample of Gibson acoustics.

 

Oh yeah. To the OP , the Kalamazoo girls accompanying cd is a great port of call for amazing gibson acoustic recordings

 

It would kind of have to be wouldnt it !

But it really is

 

I’ll still stick by my Jeffrey Foucault recommendation though , no offence it

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The Fab Four got their J-160e's in the early 60's and as far as I know used them exclusively for a number of years. One was stolen but soon replaced. I have always liked the Rubber Soul acoustic guitar work. My favorite album of all time, hands down.

 

Phil and Don Everly too, SJ-200's and their J-180's, both models equipped with double pick guards.

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any Hillbilly Stones...

 

Thanks, Sal. I've used this very song as a reference track before. Not so much for a modern take on things, but for interesting tonal layers Glynn Johns lets through. (IIRC his name correctly)

 

edit: Plus I use the Helios emulation from UAD sometimes. Fits well.

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Thanks everyone for the replies so far. Looks like I have some great material to use. I've got some strummy stuff to find still, but should be able to go through some of the examples suggested here to find. Rubber soul album, Everly Brothers, etc.

 

I'm pretty sure I've used some Tom Petty in the past, so will look into his body of work as well. I bet his albums should produce a track or two to add to my list.

 

It's amazing how many songs I think of as acoustic songs had very low, back of the mix presence after the other band instruments kicked in. (eg - Bob Seger "Night Moves")

 

PB

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Thanks, gents.

 

Leonard McCoy - I remember importing "Wild World" one time out of memory. Sure enough, that main pick-click was not what I was after. Glad no-one was watching that memory fail moment. [biggrin]

 

Hogeye - I will explore this one some more. I found some bad quality sound postings, but guitar levels were wonderful.

 

Paul14 - of course! Brain spasm time. I will do some youtubing later.

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Interesting CD with great liner notes by your engineer. I saw the picture and got excited about the use of an API console. The closest I'll ever get (to any console) is the newest UAD emulation that I finally got last month. I fell in love with it instantly. I know it's reputation is for some harder Rock stuff, but it really exploits the whole acoustic signal very well. LP and HP filters help to the point where I used almost no EQ downstream. So many variables, though, as is also listed in high level in the liner notes. Mic placement, the player, the room, etc, etc.

 

It was a great listen. Very nicely done.

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Interesting CD with great liner notes by your engineer. I saw the picture and got excited about the use of an API console. The closest I'll ever get (to any console) is the newest UAD emulation that I finally got last month. I fell in love with it instantly. I know it's reputation is for some harder Rock stuff, but it really exploits the whole acoustic signal very well. LP and HP filters help to the point where I used almost no EQ downstream. So many variables, though, as is also listed in high level in the liner notes. Mic placement, the player, the room, etc, etc.

 

It was a great listen. Very nicely done.

Thanks! It was a pleasure to produce, and using that console was way cool.

 

At one point, the CD went to #2 on the US folk radio charts. It was a privilege to play a role, however small, in spreading Gibson and Kalamazoo Gal goodness to the world.

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