ry cooder tone

[mellocaster]

hello there, i really like the sound of ry cooder. i'm sure alot of it comes from him. is there a pedal/stomp box that would get me in the ball park. i have a handmade electric semi hollow with kent armstrong humbucking pickups. also have tele with danelectro p/u. my amp is a 65 princeton reverb. somebody told me a blue tube would be good, but i know so little about this stuff i thought i would ask here.....thanks.......mellocaster

[woodman]

dunno if a box is enough to get you into that ballpark -- he has such a unique touch/style, you'd hafta research his axes, amps etc. to get all the way there.

[mojoming]

Originally Posted by woodman

dunno if a box is enough to get you into that ballpark -- he has such a unique touch/style, you'd hafta research his axes, amps etc. to get all the way there.

+1 And from what period are you looking to get his tone?

[furrfurrfurr]

He's known to frequent TrueTone Music in Santa Monica. Perhaps they would have some suggestions.

[winny pooh]

He often uses strats, many of which have been modified with tiesco neck pups.
Uses a demeter tremulator and perhaps a compressor. Amps who knows as it depends what period you are talkin about but I have seen some videos of the Buena vista social club with black face twins. Though there has been mention of Standels

google found this:
http://www.rycooder.nl/pages/ry_cood...ps_effects.htm

[JimiBryant]

Ry has used lots of different gear over the years, he was a 16 y.o. hot-shot
when he joined Captain Beeheart & His Magic Band in time to record their
first album! I've seen him use Strats into Dumbles but that was years ago.
great player.. many of his albums from the 1970s are highly underrated
and most anything he does is worth a listen, IMO.

[mellocaster]

i have looked up cooders gear on the web, impressive but out of my range. some of the distortion/overdrive pedals i have tried seem to get you there but have so much distortion as to be useless to me. i just want to put a little edge on the sound at lower volumes. i doesn't have to be just like ry but i picked him cause his tone is so great......thanks.....mellocaster

[charlie chitlin]

Originally Posted by winny pooh

He often uses strats, many of which have been modified with tiesco neck pups.
]

The ones with the gold "foil"?

[winny pooh]

Originally Posted by charlie frey

The ones with the gold "foil"?

From what I know yes. Pretty cheapo pups and are similar to many that came on crappy 60's japanese imports. Guess he like the tone for slide.

[woodman]

some of those old cheapo pickups had great tone (if you like crude, raw and microphonic) and are sought-after by some ... maybe there's a niche market you could browse for 'em.

[woodman]

[EDIT: double post -- sorry about that!]

[Durtdog]

I think a lot of Ry's tone/sound comes from finger picking, rather than using a flat pick. I read an interview with him many moons ago and in it he professed a big love for old 4x10 Fender amps.

[mojoming]

Originally Posted by woodman

some of those old cheapo pickups had great tone (if you like crude, raw and microphonic) and are sought-after by some ... maybe there's a niche market you could brows for 'em.

I've got an old Japanese acoustic from the early 70's that has a pickup in the forward (toward neck) of the sound hole.
It sound like crap for everything else but for slide work it's a dream.

[fakeocaster]

From what Ive read he uses some oddball gear like oilcan reverbs.


To be honest I think hes one player where the gear doesnt matter.He'd probably sound just as good with an Ovation

[winny pooh]

Originally Posted by fakeocaster

To be honest I think hes one player where the gear doesnt matter.He'd probably sound just as good with an Ovation

But would sound much less happy

[mellocaster]

i called truetone music today and asked if they had a ry cooder pedal. they thought that was pretty funny. they are very nice people and when i asked what kind of pedal that i could get a bit of overdrive (they explained the difference between that and distortion) they didn't have a recomendation as they said there were so many pedals on the market. so i guess my question is: whats a good overdrive pedal? do i need a tube in it? as the guy at truetone said: it sounds like you just want to put a little hair on the sound. what do you guys use thanks........juan

[klasaine]

I couldn't tell you how to sound like Ry Cooder - he's kind of the only one that sounds like him but ...
If you want a little "hair" on your tone I would recommend a Barber "LTD" overdrive www.barberelectronics.com not too expensive either.
You basically want 'overdrive' and not 'distortion' - at least as far as the pedal description.
Any of the "tubescreamer" (Ibanez) variants will get you there.
Ibanez TS-9 or 808
Digtech 'bad monkey' (I personally don't dig these but they're really inexpensive)
Fulltone FD-2
There's literally dozens of "low gain" OD's out there. Happy hunting.

[kludge]

Ry Cooder's tone is in his FINGERS, not his gear. He plays a lot of different guitars, and amps, and pedals, but it ALWAYS sounds like him.

The best way to cop his sound is to learn to fingerpick. My ears say he uses a thumbpick and bare fingers, but I could be wrong. I've seen photos of him playing completely bare-fingered (no thumbpick). A bit of compression can help if you play electric that way - I'm sure he uses one. The most important thing, though, is to learn to keep a steady bass-and-chords thing going while bringing out the melody clearly with a picking finger. This takes HARD PRACTICE, to get the dynamics of just one finger different from the others.

[eddiewagner]

i am a bold guy so i say this:
the closest i ever get to the 70ies ry cooder slidesound is with my visualsound route 66 pedal. you can laugh now, but i really feel that way. so my vote for the genuine "ry cooder 70ies slidepedal" goes straight to the good folks at visualsound.

[GoldieLocks]

One of the secret ingredients to Cooder's tone is VOLUME.

Thats the only way I know of to get that sustain & grit. Especially if you use your fingers. I think I'll go watch CROSSROADS again..."they call me Willie..."

[Paul in Colorado]

The last time I saw a write up on Ry's gear there was a chain that included a '50's Gibson amp's preamp, a Neve (recording console) EQ section, a HiWatt power amp and a "Duane Eddy" speaker cab with an EV 15" if I remember it all right.

[byrdbrain]

Here is an interesting link, if a bit dated.

[jholcomb]

The closest I have come to achieving the elusive Cooder tone is not with Teisco pickups and some of the offbeat stuff he uses, but rather with a Clapton Strat with the 25 db boost rolled up somewhat, through a Fulldrive 2 with some of the highs rolled off (on the guitar). I agree, the fingerpicking part is probably the most important.

[John Thigpen]

Big strings seem like they would be required as well...I'm sure he uses 12's or 13's. Maybe even flatwounds.

John

[Durtdog]

Originally Posted by John Thigpen

Big strings seem like they would be required as well...I'm sure he uses 12's or 13's. Maybe even flatwounds.

John

Doesn't sound like that to me. On what do you base this assumption? Is it just a guess?

[John Thigpen]

Most players who play a lot of slide play heavier gauge strings. I've got the Guitar Player magazine with Cooder on the cover in 1980 or 1981, and will try to dig it out and see what strings he says he uses. They just sound big to me. Hendrix always sounds light gauge to me. I could be wrong, though.

John