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Getting the cream type sound from a LP? Possible?

mrjones200x

By mrjones200x
in Epiphone Electrics

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mrjones200x

mrjones200x

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Hi was looking to get that sound used by clapton on the cream album as im learning some track right now. It sounds quite a thin sound to me so would i be right in saying he used single coils on maybe a strat?

 

Im learning sunshine of your love at the mo and was wondering would i achieve a similar sound by wiring my LP with push/pulls to split the coils?

 

Would you say he uses the neck pick up most also? Any effects you can think of to give that sound. Hasnt gotta be perfect just cant afford a strat and thought about modding my LP to split the coils to help.

 

Thanks and happy xmas all!!!

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charlie brown

charlie brown

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Cream=Cranked Marshall, Gibson ES-335, SG, LP(Standard & Custom), Firebird....for the most part. (No single coils per se.) Just the guitar, and a Wah-Wah pedal into a saturated Marshall amp. "Sunshine of Your Love" was done with the tone control completely off ("Woman Tone"), and volume full up! "Crossroads" was recorded (Live) with the Marshall and SG combination. Cream's Final Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, shows him using his ES-335, for all the songs.

 

Google Cream...you'll get a lot of information.

 

http://twtd.bluemountains.net.au/cream/Guitars.htm

 

Cheers,

CB

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charlie brown

charlie brown

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Would you say neck pick up with tone rolled off?

 

My LP gets quite dark when i do that. I suppose a wah would help bring up the brightness?

 

Well, EC does use the neck pickup a lot (even now, with his strats), but I've always done "Sunshine"

with the bridge pickup tone rolled all the way off, and when it comes to the solo, switching to the

neck pickup, with the tone full on, or rolled back only slightly. Seems to get really close, tone wise,

that way. A lot will have to do with the amp settings, too. With a closed back, twin 4X12 stack,

the tone is a bit "tighter," so you Can get a less muddy "Woman Tone," with the neck pickup,

that way...with the mids up about 1/2 way, treble at about 8, and bass to your taste. (Starting

points, only...as amps will vary a bit) With open back amps, you'll need more bass (generally)

and less mid-range (they tend to be a bit "boxy" being open backed) and treble at about 6-8.

Again...these are ONLY "suggestions/starting points," and not meant to be "absolutes," at all.

And, of course, a LOT of EC's tone...for any period, is in his fingers, phrasing, and HEART!

 

Hope that helps, a little..

 

CB

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charlie brown

charlie brown

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Yeah, and a lot will depend on which Guitar/Amp combination you end up using. Semi's (335's) tend to need a bit more mid, and treble, than bass. SG's will need less mid, less treble, and more bass, on the AMP settings, in my experience. LP's will be somewhere "in-between" those two. It just takes a bit of experimenting...but, you'll find it.

 

CB

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Hidalgo

Hidalgo

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FWIW...I saw Cream twice, and I never saw EC perform Sunshine with anything except the 335....but he obviously used several different guitars when on tour.

 

Here's an older vid with the SG: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IowYHpWSNN8 If you look at the 1:38 mark in the vid, it's obvious that the selector switch is in the down position.

 

And one with the 335: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypcP-vkKU6o

 

I guess you can take your pick. =D>

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charlie brown

charlie brown

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He used a strat on the new live CD. AS was every other song. Stan.

 

Yeah' date=' and not a Marshall in sight (save the head, for the Leslie)! They talk about that a bit,

in the special features/interview section. I was lucky enough to see "Cream" back in the

the '60's, on several occasions, and they [i']never[/i] played a song the same way, twice. Or,

used exactly the same instruments, although Jack did use his EB-3 mostly...EC used the SG,

335, and a Les Paul Custom, on the occasions I saw them.

 

CB

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Hidalgo

Hidalgo

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Vids were good to see - I saw Cream; I almost forgot how Ginger Baker looked deader that any real dead people I had seen.

 

Is he still alive?

 

I have a recent vid of Cream, and Ginger actually looks BETTER than he used to. Like you said though....he's always looked a little "rough around the edges" to me. =D>

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charlie brown

charlie brown

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Every time I see Ginger' date=' I'm reminded why such a great drummer never hooked on with someone else. At the same time, and after watching the vid of the Cream Reunion, the reason Ginger was so good was because Jack Bruce's bass work drove him into it.

[/quote']

 

I think, it was a collaborative effort...they ALL spured on, and fed off, each other.

 

CB

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snookelputz

snookelputz

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Just a quick question that may be a little more on-topic -- isn't the correct way to check out an amp is to crank everything to 11 and work backward, one number per dial, one riff per adjustment, starting with bass, working through treble, THEN AND ONLY THEN trying out downward adjustments to volume and gain??? If so, I don't see how you could miss this one on almost any of the modern SS amps. Almost all of them try to get that Marshall sound anyway. And, if its not the correct way to check out an amp - well, try it sometime. Its a blast!

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snookelputz

snookelputz

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Watch them, I swear Bruce will play some hard driving, very intricate, completely melodic riff that is totally on time in the odd looking single middle-finger thing he does, and as soon as he passes it back to Clapton, he looks over at Baker and grins from ear to ear, like "Yo! Top that, cat!" and Baker scowls a little deeper and when his turn comes you can see him dig down deeper, and put a little more into it - then he frowns (which is somehow different than the scowl, but I can't tell you how) at Bruce with a "Oh, yeah? Take that, tough guy!" sneer. The only harder looks I've ever seen without bloodshed were between Sophia Loren and Jane Mansfield. Come on, if you're old enough to have heard Cream live, you're old enough to remember the magazine fuss that kept your mother occupied.

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bkrejcik

bkrejcik

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Back on-topic, the OP didn't say which Cream album he was listening to. Sunshine is on record a few times. My understanding is in Cream's original days, the woman tone resulted when EC rolled back the tone on one pickup and left the other one up. The original studio recording sounds like a fuzz-tone to me. Eric's tone was not like that, live. I saw them three times back when, and Eric used the painted SG twice and an LP once. Of course, snookelputz is right, Cream was always about the astonishing power of the interaction of those three huge egos and talents. Never saw anything like it.

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Hidalgo

Hidalgo

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....... Never saw anything like it.

 

Not taking away from Cream' date=' because they were definitely a driving force with huge talent and molded many musicians to adopt their style (myself included)

 

But did you happen to see the [b']Grand Funk RR[/b] reunion tour or any vids of their performances?

 

IMO, they did a WAY better "comeback" than Cream.

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charlie brown

charlie brown

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Not taking away from Cream' date=' because they were definitely a driving force with huge talent and molded many musicians to adopt their style (myself included)

 

But did you happen to see the [b']Grand Funk RR[/b] reunion tour or any vids of their performances?

 

IMO, they did a WAY better "comeback" than Cream.

 

Hmmmmm, well did that "comeback" have Mark Farner? I saw Grand Funk RR in OKC about 2 years ago,

sans Mark Farner, and they were OK...but, had none of the original "energy" really. More a "well rehearsed,"

and a kind of "going through the motions," feeling. I did see GFRR in it's "heyday," which was much better

(IMHO)...BUT, Humble Pie opened for them, and musically, (sorry to say)...they (HP) blew them off the stage!

 

CB

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Hidalgo

Hidalgo

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Hmmmmm' date=' well did that "comeback" have Mark Farner?

CB[/quote']

 

Yes...the 1st comeback was in 1996 with the original Mark / Don / Mel band. They were wonderful.

 

Here's an interesting link to a series of 5 clips (the other 4 0f 5 are also in youtube) that is a good insight to the stuff they went through during their careers. . . . .Stuff that I had no idea had happened.

 

 

I haven't seen/heard of a GFRR band without Farner......I thought he held the rights to the name, but obviously from what you experienced that is not the case. Farner is still touring but I'm not sure under what name. It may be simply "Mark Farner" ??

 

....and if you saw the RR in it's heyday......you're an Old Fart like me!#-o

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