Looking for that Country sound

[kyle1167]

Hi all, I'm brand new to this forum so bear with me. I have recently fallen in love with the tele and country music. I have the Tele now I just need some effects to round out the sound. I was told the only real must haves for country is reverb and probably a compressor.
I was looking to get some advice on what would be the best at a reasonable price for these. Also if there is any other effect would be useful.
To give an example of the sound I'd love to get. The guitar tone at the begining of the Dierks Bentley song "Settle for a Slow Down"

[getbent]

Kyle,

Welcome to the board! lots of smart, experienced, fun people here. The opening part of the Dierk Bentley song has tremelo as the major effect. You'll also want to tune your low e down to d (didn't figure it out, just a guess at thinking about the song) your amp may have tremelo on it.... if not.. there are some great tremelo boxes out there.... imo the best is probably the demeter tremulator... really nice and worth the money, the voodoo labs tremelo is also very good (I own one of these and have been very happy) and on the el cheapo side the danelectro tremelo will work (cheap and noisy)... the groovy way to have a nice trem and save some money.. if you can solder, the BYOC trem is great.... I built one and gave it to a friend as a birthday present (he turned 40) they are great quality and sound good.

for reverb, your amp may already have it, if not, it seems like lots of people like the Holy Grail reverb (I like the little guyatone H2 myself) but you can also pick up alesis microverb's used for 50.00 and they are nice, for compression, I've heard raves for the Barber Tone press, I have an old MXR dynacomp... I mostly only play country but I don't use my compressor that much.... most guys do especially for recording... it isn't a have to though... imo....

again, welcome to the tdpri and to country music! we need you!

[dr_twangenstein]

Welcome.

There really isn't a must have effect for country other than a tele through a really clean amp, but obviously there are some tricks to sounding like the studio guys.

Price depends on what you consider reasonable. You can get a Boss CS-3 compressor/sustainer for about $100 bucks. Half that used. They are pretty good, but there are mods for them (basically upgrading components) that supposedly make it sound as good as a $200 Keely compressor. The most standard compressor among country players is probably the MXR Dynacomp. They run $125 or so.

Your amp will make a huge difference. You should look for something with a clean channel. You probably do want reverb. I would recommend an amp with a real spring reverb tank rather than a digital reverb, although a lot of folks like the Electro Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb pedal.

Those are the basics, but a lot of guys use phaser pedals such as the Electro Harmonix Small Stone, or vibrato or tremolo effects (listen to the guitar solo in George Jones' "The Race is On" and more.

I'm not familiar with the song you mentioned, but I would recommend going to a large chain guitar store with YOUR tele and playing as many different pedals and amps as it takes to find what you want to hear. Then when you know what you want, search for it at the best price you can find.

Hope this helps.

[kyle1167]

Thanks guys,
A friend of mine owns a guitar store and I'll go there tomorrow to see if he has any of the effects you've suggested.
I take it the BYOC is a tremelo effect kit? I can solder, so where would I be able to find one?
I'm doing some research on effects while my Tele is out. I built it from parts found online and I sent it to a custom builder friend of mine to get a few thing done.

[getbent]

BYOC I love this stuff... Johnny Crash posted about them and I've built 5 pedals from there now and I just love it... My daughter (the artistically inclined 12 year old) is gonna do the graphics on them and I'm teaching them to solder etc... they are great kits and it is a cool community.... the ross comp clone is supposed to be pretty awesome... I'll probaby build one later in the summer and replace my dynacomp... I really like the DIY concept.

[Acephspades]

IMO for country new and old don't ever rule out an Ibanez Tube Screamer or a Boss SD-1 super overdrive pedal set with the drive set real light. Listen to Johnny Cash "Live from San Quentin" Luther Perkins is obviously driving his little amp because it sounds ratty as heck.

I am not sold on the compressor that much. I tried one but I was looking for a tone with a little edge to it and my comp rolled the edges right off.

There is a lot more technique to country than meets the eye. You don't need expensive equipment. I've got a PV Bandit that does country very well. Yeah reverb is a must, I get my tremolo from a cheap ZOOM 505II pedal and sometimes a little delay from a Danelectro Slap Echo pedal. My only advise for modulation effects like tremolo and reverb and such is they belong in the effects loop, otherwise they don't sound very convincing.

Pick hard and close to the bridge on you low strings and work out a hybrid picking attack, learn a few double stops as well as the Pentatonic Major scale and you'll be on your way.

[kyle1167]

Originally Posted by Acephspades

IMO for country new and old don't ever rule out an Ibanez Tube Screamer or a Boss SD-1 super overdrive pedal set with the drive set real light. Listen to Johnny Cash "Live from San Quentin" Luther Perkins is obviously driving his little amp because it sounds ratty as heck.

I am not sold on the compressor that much. I tried one but I was looking for a tone with a little edge to it and my comp rolled the edges right off.

There is a lot more technique to country than meets the eye. You don't need expensive equipment. I've got a PV Bandit that does country very well. Yeah reverb is a must, I get my tremolo from a cheap ZOOM 505II pedal and sometimes a little delay from a Danelectro Slap Echo pedal. My only advise for modulation effects like tremolo and reverb and such is they belong in the effects loop, otherwise they don't sound very convincing.

Pick hard and close to the bridge on you low strings and work out a hybrid picking attack, learn a few double stops as well as the Pentatonic Major scale and you'll be on your way.

I don't want to sound stupid, but what exactly did you mean when you said modulation effects belong in the effects loop?

[franchelB]

Originally Posted by kyle1167

I don't want to sound stupid, but what exactly did you mean when you said modulation effects belong in the effects loop?

Modulation effects include chorus, flanger, phaser, and delay. These effects tend to add "noise" whenever it's switched on. And many amps have effects loops. Some people prefer to stick these types of effects in the amp's effects loop so that the extra "noise" will less be noticeable.
On the other hand, there are some amps that do NOT have an effects loop; yet some guitarists don't seem to miss it much. They just put their modulation effects "in line", between their guitar and amp.
The decision is up to YOU!

[kyle1167]

Thanks, I get it now.

[franchelB]

You are welcome to use any kind of effects you want. Today's Country music sounds more like an updated version of the '70s Southern Rock. I believe Jason Aldean's "Hicktown" and/or Rascal Flatt's "Me & my Gang" uses, from my guess, a Heil talk box...made by Peter Frampton on "Frampton Comes Alive"!
Personally, I try to implement an overdrive like Ibanez' Tube Screamer, a compressor like MXR's Dynacomp, and a simple digital delay like Ibanez DE7. I'm sure others will disagree, as they have their own preference. But these 3 effects should get you "in the ballpark".

[sudancat]

Playing country,and thats mostly what I play,if I could only use 1 pedal on my board it would be my delay pedal DD-3 or 5.Probably not as good as some would say an analog delay would be better,but my DD3 gets the job done ..I'm still not completely sold on the compressors but i'm still trying......

[TimTheEnchanter]

I play what's called Texas Country down here...for all intents & purposes, it's just really twangy Southern Rock. There seems to be a call for more than just the clean compressed country sound, anywhere from a little bit of overdrive to full overdrive but it's a clean crisp overdrive (not grungy distortion or the mid-scooped shred sound).

I've have had issues with most tubescreamer type overdrives (used TS-9, TS-7, Maxon OD-820, and TS-808) where they seem to cut out the low end and extreme high end. I also need to play with a lot of dynamics, using the volume know to gradually increase or decrease the overdrive intensity during the course of a song, which most of these pedals did not afford me. I would recommend a boutique OD which allows this. I've had good luck with the Fulltone Fulldrive 2 (recent blue one with the 3 position switch for 'comp cut', 'flat mids', and 'vintage') which works as both a drive and a boost. The Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive might also work.

As far as compressors, I've tried them. I occasionally use my Guyatone ST-2 but only as a clean boost. Compressors tend to rob you of dynamics, so I'd shy away from these.

As far as any other pedals for Country, maybe a delay like the DD3 to get slapback echos or some rhythmic echoes ala the guitar riff from Pat Green's 'Wave on Wave'. I know Waylon Jennings used an old Boss Phaser on a lot of his songs. I've used (and others as well) a morley volume pedal to mimic steel guitar riffs as well.

But less is more as far as effects for country, otherwise you'll end up sounding like some experimental noise guitarist at best and some kid trying out too many effects at the local guitar center at worst.

Most of your sound however as with any guitar based music IMHO will depend on your amp esp. in regards to overdrive pedals. For country, need a good 'clean' tube amp for this (i.e. not a modern marshall or Mesa triple rectifier). Fender tube amps ('cept for the Metalhead) are best for this, although there are others out there.

Just my opinions.

[Grin'n'pick]

A little bit of echo definitely helps get the 'hot' country sound, I go from 120ms to 200ms with one repeat. The level shouldn't really be very high because you just want to thicken the sound a bit and add some spring. You can turn the level up a bit if you want rockabilly slap back. I have a DD-20 so I put it on the analog setting with the tone backed off a bit and it sounds pretty good. Sometimes you need longer delays for country stuff and a bit of chorus can come in handy, especially for the slower more modern songs.

You need to decide whether you want to be able to have the really really clean sound (Jimmy Olander sort of sound) or a bit of hair (i.e. Brad Paisley) or both. If you get an amp with a lot of clean headroom obviously you can add hair to taste with a tube screamer or something but you'll always be able to do the snappy clean thing and have the best of both worlds. I love that sound but have a Deluxe Reverb so unless I'm miked up I usually have to accept that I'm going to have a bit of breakup (but if it works for Brad Paisley... ). Just something to bear in mind if you're amp shopping.

I think compressors really help nail the sound and the feel for chicken pickin' country guitar but there seems to be a 50/50 split as to whether or not you should use one. All the info above tallies absolutely with my experience of comps. If it helps I find tele (with lowish output pups) into compressor into delay into amp gets me there. For me that is the instant nashville chicken pickin' recipe. I have the reverb barely on if at all and plenty of treble. After that, as stated above, I think it really is all down to technique and in particular how you pick and snap those strings.

Final point, for me half the fun is experimenting and finding the sounds. You can always resell gear, especially pedals, and the used market is part of the fun. I've had quite a turn over of gear recently to find the sound I was after and I have enjoyed every second of the process. If you search out used gear and read up on sites like this you can usually sell on what doesn't work for you with little (if any) financial loss.

[CountryShawn]

I've often said that the beauty of country tones is that you don't need much gear to get it!

Most of it is in the picking technique, specifically hybrid picking.

Having said that, a decent amp, delay (preferably analog), and a compressor is all that's needed.

Some folks don't use compressors - but that's largely due to how the specific guitar, pickups and amp interact together. Some combos don't need compressors I've found, and some indeed do.

My own rig for example, I always run my Boss CS-3 compressor and a single slap delay into my Dr. Z. That's it. It's how I always run it, day in, day out and it works for me.

There is no prescription since amps, guitars and picking styles vary so much, but you certainly don't need some $500 multi-effects box to do it. It's practically the antithesis of that actually.

You don't need a mega-buck boutique amp either - I've got a couple amps, and while I certainly prefer my Z, I can still get a very very good country tone from my Fender or other amps for that matter.

Good luck,

Shawn

[drjordan]

I wouldn't say that a compressor was necessary, but I do use one. I like the Marshall comp. I can turn the "compression" knob all the way down and the "volume" knob up and it's more of a clean boost than a compressor. But the first tone I can remember saying "now I'd like to sound like that" was either Brent Mason or Vince Gill. They both use compressors. I don't care for the Boss comp, but I have heard good stuff using the MXR (although they are not $125, closer to $70).

I agree that you'll probably want an overdrive pedal (or 2 ). I recently bought a Boss Blues Driver and I really like it. I have it set where I can hit a note lightly and can't tell the difference between when the pedal is on or off. But I can turn it on and, for example, hit a double stop a little harder and get a really nice break up. There are also a couple of companies that offer mods that supposedly make them even better. I'm keeping a lookout for an OD-3, too. I've heard great things about those.

And...+1 on the DD-3.

I have also had good results from my Danelectro tremolo. I don't find it noisy, but I really don't use it that often. Boss also makes a good stock trem.

But I think that a compressor or some sort of clean boost and a decent OD pedal into a Fender tube amp is the equipment you'll need. Then all you'll have to do is learn the techniques.

[Johnir]

I play clean twanging country guitar. I'd like the amp to break up just a little to make the sound a bit fatter.

My main effects are a compressor (MXR Supercomp) and a delay (T-Rex Replica) for fattening the sound or for slapback. I keep them on for most of the songs.

I had a BOSS CS-3 compressor, but I like the MXR pedal better. I also had a Danelectro Danecho that broke down (sounded good while it lasted though)

The next effects I use is a tremolo (Fulltone supa-trem) for a couple of songs and an overdrive pedal (T-Rex Moeller) for a few chrunch rythms and for a few distorted leads. The overdrive pedal has also a separate boost so I've begun using it for leads. I've only used the volume knob on the guitar for many years. I was actually thinking about getting a seperat boost pedal before I got the Moeller.

I also have a volume pedal were I do some fake steel sounds with sometimes.

There's a lot of great effects out there (not necessary too expencive), so try out what suits your style, amp and guitar the most. What I've learned is that if you want to keep the effects for a while and use them on the road they have to be sturdy built. There's a lot of good sounding cheap effects, but they have usually too much plastic...