The Chetboard

Does anyone know how Chet got those great sound(s) on the first Chester and Lester album? I know that he used a phaser on Birth of the Blues and a couple of other tracks. And some reverb too. What about Deed I do on which there seems to be a tremendous sustain?

Thanks,

Mike

On Deed I Do, Chet used a Tele with a B-Bender. You can hear the pitch change lick several times in the song. The solid body gives more sustain, along with the compression and limiting that Chet used when mixing.

You can see Chet using the B-Bender Tele with Jerry Reed on the Jerry Reed Show clip on YouTube.

Craig

I thought I'd re-upload the Chet and Jerry clip from'76....the other one was bad quality because youtube has changed their format for uploads over the years. Hard to believe the old video had almost a million hits on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uixIMX ... e=youtu.be

That's great, Phil. Sounds really nice over headphones, too. I can hear the acoustic rhythm and the percussion now.

Mike,
I asked Paul Yandell on the Chetboard some time ago about what Chet used on the two Chet/Les albums. It was interesting that for a bulk of the tunes he played his Gretsch '59 Country Gentleman through his tape delay unit and then through a Pignose Crossmix amp. I have a '59 Nashville Classic and a Pignose Crossmix and using both of those with a touch of delay you can see how he got those sounds. If not for Paul's help I would never have had a clue about the Pignose amp. It's interesting there have been a few You Tube postings recently with Chet playing the Gibson Country gent through, what looks to me to be a Pignose Crossmix amp. In some of those it looks like Paul is playing through the same type amp also. And on at least one of those Youtube postings Paul plays with a little distortion so it makes sense it's that amp since it does have a built-in distortion effect called The Rat. Thanks Paul for all your help here on the Chetboard while you were with us!

Steve Moran

Thanks Craig.

You may recall that Chet and Les won a Grammy in 1977 for this album. They appeared live on the award show and played Deed I do. Chet used the highly modified Super Chet that have all of the switched. Obviously this was a long time ago but the performance sounded identical to the recorded version.

Mike

craigdobbins wrote:On Deed I Do, Chet used a Tele with a B-Bender. You can hear the pitch change lick several times in the song. The solid body gives more sustain, along with the compression and limiting that Chet used when mixing.

You can see Chet using the B-Bender Tele with Jerry Reed on the Jerry Reed Show clip on YouTube.

Craig

Steve are you saying you got the same tone with your 59 and the pignose crossmix amp that he got on Chester and Lester? That was The Tone as far as I was concerned. Do they still make those amps? thanks, Al

Al,
To answer your question yes it does have that sound Chet got on those recordings. I have a DD-20 Boss Delay pedal so the tape delay Chet used would make it sound better and closer but the Nashville Classic along with the Pignose Crossmix gets that basic tone. It's a solid state amp (remember the ones that pop a little when you turn them on?) and has slightly more hiss than many of the tube amps but you can tell that sound. They don't make that amp any more. You could probably run across one on ebay at some point though don't think they made it in big numbers. At one point on the Chetboard Paul Yandell indicated he and Chet used a Pignose amp designed by Paul Rivera though Paul couldn't remember the model. I emailed the Pignose company and asked about what it could have been and they didn't know but thought it would have been the Pignose 30/60 model. However that didn't jive with what Paul was saying or the description of that amp so I found a Crossmix amp on ebay and got it then posted the picture on the Chetboard and Paul confirmed that is the model. I agree with you Al that Chet's (electric) tone on that album is The Tone as far as electric steel string guitar sounds go! I have a Peavey Delta Blues set up with the 15" JBL speaker per Paul's specs and it has a slightly more piercing tone but the Crossmix has a sweet spot with a slightly more laid-back tone. Hope this is helpful. Thanks.
Steve

Thanks everyone for the insights. To the basement and experiments!!!

Mike