How To Get The Low-End Growl?

[SatelliteOrders]

I thought about adding this to the Brad Paisley licks thread, but thought better of it.

Consider "Alcohol" by Brad. Specifically that low lick at the end of the chorus. There's a grit to that, but by and large, Brad's playing clean and clear as moonshine, so it's not like it's an overdriven thing. I play clean through my Teles and it sounds round and smooth, not gritty like Brad.

Is it a pedal? Is it a pickup? Is it a picking thing? I barely have vocabulary to even describe what I'm looking for, much less any idea how he does it. Any ideas? Or am I just crazy?

[octatonic]

Not sure how they did it but I would create that sound by using a second amp that is distorted with a low pass filter set to around 1k.

[Wally]

low end growl.....grab the bear by the tail and give a twist. That should get a good growl going! hehehehhe....couldn't help myself on this one.
IF his playing is clean up to that note, I would think that he has his amp...vox or some clone...set up just so that when he comes back and hits that low note with just a bit more attack it yields that tone. Just a guess....

[Groovey Records]

post production

[Tonemonkey]

Originally Posted by Groovey Records

post production

Yeh, right, and I bet you're going to PM the OP with the truth about Santa too?

[fezz parka]

It's picking and what Wally said. The Z's he plays through are very touch sensitive.

[SatelliteOrders]

He gets it live, too. He doesn't fix it in post. He might have a Keeley pedal made of pure unobtainium, but he and many other country pickers get it, even folks who don't sell millions and thus have millions to throw at gear.

[Wally]

Oh man, Groovey had given me hope that I too could be a Nashville cat


"Play clean as country water,
Nashville cats,
Play wild as mountain dew,
Nashville cats,
Been playin' since they's babies,
Nashville cats,
Get work before they're two."

Just get me a good engineer to move my mistakes out of the way and I could do it, too!
LOL
Now I gotta keep practicing???? ANd learnin' how to manipulate my guitar and amp controls? IT's so hard...... hehehehe

[Joe-Bob]

I would immagine you're just not playing loud enough. There's no substitute for moving a ton of air.

[telex76]

With stock p/u's in my 52ri thru my silverface deluxe reverb I get that nasty low end growl whenever I want it even when playing clean, just by digging in a little harder. I can't get the same growl with the stock p/u's in my nocaster. I don't know what the difference in them is.

[Wally]

That live cut shows that Paisley can do a great job of giving a feeling for what alcohol can do for guitar playing. He intentionally is going out of bounds, mho, just to give that "I'm too drunk to really be playing very well" feel to the song.
And, yes, I'll stick to my original theory...hot amp setting and good pick control. HE is hitting that low note hard enough to take it sharp from the force of the attack and it then settles into the pitch. Groooowl... You might try hitting it a bit closer to the bridge and see if it twangs a bit more in the mix, too.

[Kingpin]

I think B.P. actually does use quite a bit of overdrive. Typically a Zendrive into a cranked Vox or Z. Brad plays with a light touch so it usually sounds pretty clean but he can get the grit to come out by digging in a bit harder.

I'm with Joe-Bob, you have to move some air to get that low-end grunt.

[MondoGuitar]

Your average guitar amp isn't moving much air below 60-100Hz (or above 5-7 kHz) so that's the base limit. You can get a pretty good rumble going at 60Hz though, EVH used to do a thing called "Elephant Stampede" where he would drone 3 dissonant notes until the cycles clashed, creating an unholy (and unique sounding) rumble.

Some guitars have natural resonance in that range too...

That said, if this is the recording then I don't really hear a ton of low end on that open string note at the end of the chorus -- this is more a case of psychoacoustics, i.e. your brain is filling in the blanks. I think if you put it on a scope you'll not find anything extraordinary going on in the low end:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3zkkLckeyM

You're more likely keying off the timbre. To my ears the live version isn't the same as the studio version -- but that said I think this poster said it best, i.e. it's just his touch within the parameters of his rig:

With stock p/u's in my 52ri thru my silverface deluxe reverb I get that nasty low end growl whenever I want it even when playing clean, just by digging in a little harder.

Or to put it a different way, I don't think hardware can help you achieve the delivery and it seems mostly in the delivery. BP is as good as they get, that's a level of touch most people never get to experience, so you've picked a good role model for tone. Sooner or later you'll find it, probably with only a guitar/amp combo. :)

[Wally]

Imho, that sound is the result of great pick attack control. It can be achieved on an acoustic, to an extent, if a person knows how to get there. There is a pitch thing that is going on with that attack on that note at the end of those phrases.

[MondoGuitar]

BTW one more thing. You can also use your volume pot to adjust your high frequency balance. As you add resistance (turn down the volume) the high frequencies go to ground first. This is why you "lose treble" as you reduce volume. (unless you have a treble-bypass cap wired in)

*this factoid brought to you by Dan Erlewine's Fender Wiring DVD, thanks Dan!

[Roli]

Amps voiced like a VOX sound that way. Maybe a Marshall could get you close too, but most Fender amps have big bottom end so they will fart out flubbily if you push them down there, unless you find a pedal that adds some grit while robbing enough of those bass frequencies at the same time.

My favourite example of that sound is Keith Gattis on his tele into an AC30 on Dwight Yoakam's "Blame The Vain":

[Wally]

Originally Posted by MondoGuitar

BTW one more thing. You can also use your volume pot to adjust your high frequency balance. As you add resistance (turn down the volume) the high frequencies go to ground first. This is why you "lose treble" as you reduce volume. (unless you have a treble-bypass cap wired in)

*this factoid brought to you by Dan Erlewine's Fender Wiring DVD, thanks Dan!

OR if you use a linear taper volume pot, which will maintain those trebles as the volume is reduced due to the change in the taper....and this increases the usable range of the volume pot in a way that is simular to the treble bypass cap.