Chet's sound with a PRS guitar

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Chet's sound with a PRS guitar

Postby alfonso3 » Fri Jul 01, 2011 1:19 am

Has anyone had success in approximating Chet's tone with a PRS guitar? I've got a '91 bolt on CE & an SE custom
(Korean, bought last month). Been playing PRS for 20 years and they're comfortable and easy on my left hand.
Is there any pup and electronic re-wiring that would get me closer to Chet's tone? I've tried EQ adjustments with
no success. I've learned a lot of his tunes, but that magical tone is missing.
Any responses will be welcomed.

Jerry G
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Re: Chet's sound with a PRS guitar

Postby thenorm » Fri Jul 01, 2011 10:22 am

As far as "magical tone" of course it was mainly in Chet's hands.

As far as hardware I think most would agree that the 6122-59 is closest to the most recorded guitar Chet used.

The PRS (I beleive) is a solid body instrument and the 6122-59 is not.

If I were to make a 'tone project' of it I would get the same pickups the 6122-59 uses from TV Jones but while your guitar might sound more 'Gretschy" it would be a gamble.

I don't know how much reworking you would have to do to get it all to work. TV Jones may have some suggestions.

You'll never nail Chet's tone. Some have come close but everyone sounds like themselves guitar to guitar. Even Paul Yandell, who many say "sounds just like Chet" never made such a claim.

This bit from my Yandell Archive says it all. Here Paul is describing how he set up Chet's equipment before a show...

I would set Chet's amp and delay and get his guitar and tune it and play it though the house system then I would do the same to mine.
Then Chet would arrive and pick up his guitar and it always amazed me. Nothing and been changed except it was Chet playing his guitar! It was completely different sound than when I had played it. It was because Chet had the touch and soul that made him what he was. Once Chet broke a string and he took my guitar and played it. And again it was the same sound as his.
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Re: Chet's sound with a PRS guitar

Postby RandeDager » Fri Jul 01, 2011 11:56 am

Having Chet sound "the same" using Paul's guitar is almost more amazing to me than for Paul NOT to sound the same using Chet's guitar! You might have to think about that for awhile but that's exactly what I meant.........lol.
Rande
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Re: Chet's sound with a PRS guitar

Postby Ray Bohlken » Fri Jul 01, 2011 4:12 pm

Here are a couple of examples of how great a solid body can sound with Filtertron pickups. It's a great tone I think. Of course, he is a great player. I enjoy these videos.

Ray

http://www.youtube.com/user/chet1952#p/ ... oy6_UQcntc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwVKrvIm ... re=related
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Re: Chet's sound with a PRS guitar

Postby Richard Hudson » Fri Jul 01, 2011 4:33 pm

I understand exactly what you are saying, Rande. And also what Norm reprinted from his archive of Paul's sayings makes perfect sense too. There is something to be said for equipment, of course. You would be a fool to say otherwise, but in Paul and Chet's case, I would venture to guess that their settings were very similar and their equipment was very similar, so it makes perfect sense that each set of hands would have their own sound regardless of which instrument. Now, I probably have everything even more confused than you did. :)

Hope everyone has a marvelous 4th of July weekend.

Richard
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Re: Chet's sound with a PRS guitar

Postby alfonso3 » Fri Jul 01, 2011 10:46 pm

Thanks for your replies all. Let me narrow the focus of my original post. The most important word in it was
"approximate". Richard Hudson YOU approximated the sound on your submission "Irene" using a NC
(Nashville Classic-right?) and a 251L amp, whatever that is. There's a lot of YouTube covers of chet's
tunes with similar approximation of tone. Clarity, balance between treble & bass, enormous sense of depth & space.
The recording chain is: player, gtr, effects, amp, mic, software. I listened to the 2 filtertron examples (thanks)
and can hear how the solid body sound approaches the basic chet tone. But to my ears, that depth and space is
missing. I'm wondering if a really good recording engineer could use some mojo and complete the sound. OR: is it
as simple as "the sound you want can only be gotten with a hollow body guitar"?

I'd buy a gretsch in a minute if it wasn't such a battle to play one. I'm a small guy and they feel huge to me; the
action is stiff and stifles any creative playing which I enjoy with my PRS. Same thing with a Gibson ES-175; great
sound, bear to play. I'm stuck.
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Re: Chet's sound with a PRS guitar

Postby thenorm » Sat Jul 02, 2011 12:15 am

Well, the guy who plays the excellent Chet arrangements using a solid body guitar and TV Jones (I assume) pickups comes pretty close so my reccomendation would be to get a pair of pickups as used on the 6119-59 and put them in your PRS. This may requires some major channelling on your guitar and as I said, it's a gamble but "chet1952" sounds awfully good.

The rest of it is practice
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Re: Chet's sound with a PRS guitar

Postby BillB » Sat Jul 02, 2011 12:37 am

Another thing about that Tele that "chet1952" plays is that it's a Warmoth body based on a Thinline model. It's actually chambered, and Warmoth says that it has 3 chambers. So, it's basically a semi-hollow of sorts, and that may contribute somewhat to the tone in addition to the TV Jones pickups. Here's what Warmoth says about their Thinline which is not built quite the same as an actual Fender Thinline model:

"This Thinline Body has the same perimeter shape as our standard Tele® body, however, it is made with 3 large tone chambers. The resulting tone is fatter and woody with good brightness and pop. The weight is about 1/3rd less than the solid body.

We construct our Thinline a bit differently from the Fender originals. The originals had the cavities routed from the back and therefore it had to be covered from the back. We rout from the front where we may incorporate either a plain or fancy bookmatched top! The Lam-Top thickness is 1/4".


http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Bodies/Tele/ThinTele.aspx

This might be something to consider in comparison to a PRS with the same pickups. Kind of makes me want to build one like that.

Bill B.
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