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Tool tone/FX sticky thread ver. 1

It's all down to taste and also the reason as to why we need to cop his tone!

Example: my band started as a generic "grunge" cover band, we played nirvana, ratm, pearl jam, stone temple pilots and a couple of tool numbers, so then yeah my double humbucker bass>sansamp would do.

But now we have moved on to a full on Tool tribute, our new drummer nails Danny's style and tone, has the pads too, our guitarist has Adams tone, and gear right down to the heil, so now for our Tool tribute band to work, and work well, then for me close is just not good enough!

I suppose it's the same as playing the song close to the original, or actually playing the song right! For 95% of players/punters close is good enough but for the 5% left close is too far away, hence the need to dissect his gear and to start awesome threads like this one!

I for one are extremely grateful to Brad, toolmybass, Vegas and all the others that have contributed to this thread and others/ you tube etc, as they are inspiring and going out of their way to help!

There's nothing wrong with doing a job right!
 
It's all down to taste and also the reason as to why we need to cop his tone!

Example: my band started as a generic "grunge" cover band, we played nirvana, ratm, pearl jam, stone temple pilots and a couple of tool numbers, so then yeah my double humbucker bass>sansamp would do.

But now we have moved on to a full on Tool tribute, our new drummer nails Danny's style and tone, has the pads too, our guitarist has Adams tone, and gear right down to the heil, so now for our Tool tribute band to work, and work well, then for me close is just not good enough!

I suppose it's the same as playing the song close to the original, or actually playing the song right! For 95% of players/punters close is good enough but for the 5% left close is too far away, hence the need to dissect his gear and to start awesome threads like this one!

I for one are extremely grateful to Brad, toolmybass, Vegas and all the others that have contributed to this thread and others/ you tube etc, as they are inspiring and going out of their way to help!

There's nothing wrong with doing a job right!

Nothing wrong with doing the job right, as long as you understand that you are the only person that actually knows how close you get.

I've seen tribute bands that half #$$ it, as well as nail it, gear wise. Know what? I couldn't tell the difference.
 
There definitely is a certain sense of reward that you get form nailing something down to a T, and I can't take that away from any player who's looking to emulate another guy's sound and get it 100% right.

Still, I just find these threads kinda funny. I was actually messing around with some of my pedals earlier today and I happened to land on a Toolish tone without even trying. Some chorus here, a little flanger there, and a hifi sounding bass will get you darn close.
 
There definitely is a certain sense of reward that you get form nailing something down to a T, and I can't take that away from any player who's looking to emulate another guy's sound and get it 100% right.

Still, I just find these threads kinda funny. I was actually messing around with some of my pedals earlier today and I happened to land on a Toolish tone without even trying. Some chorus here, a little flanger there, and a hifi sounding bass will get you darn close.

I honestly agree with you for the most part. Any dual-bucker bass with a decent pre-amp will get you most of the way there. My G&L L-2500 can get close enough to the Tool tone that most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference. And most of Justin' pedals are pretty cheap and easy to get, or easy to substitute with something else.

The reason I made this thread is because we used to get a bunch of threads every week started in the FX forum asking how to get his tone, or what effects he uses on such and such song. I just got sick of it and figured we should collect everything in one thread.
 
bigchiefbc said:
The reason I made this thread is because we used to get a bunch of threads every week started in the FX forum asking how to get his tone, or what effects he uses on such and such song. I just got sick of it and figured we should collect everything in one thread.

You're on to something. There should be a forum dedicated to asking how to rip off other peoples sound. That would alleviate all of the redundant threads that pop up continuously.
 
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I for one are extremely grateful to Brad, toolmybass, Vegas and all the others that have contributed to this thread and others/ you tube etc, as they are inspiring and going out of their way to help!

There's nothing wrong with doing a job right!
You're welcome! I'm more than glad to provide any info that I may know or help somebody to cut through the very expensive trial and error crap shoot.

I never understood some people who get bent out of shape for questions, but it happens from time to time on the good old 'netz. You can always PM with questions, too. ;)
 
I have had 5 diff types of Rats since 2007 (two of them Turbo's) and with the Dunlop vid pedal settings they sounded like tard!

Always gone back to my modded LM RatII...I can't say I have seen any vid anywhere that has that sounds closer to the studio recording than the Rat I use...so my money is on a mod!

The others where not even CLOSE!

I've noticed the same thing with my original RatII...even at proper mixing levels, the sound is pretty meh.

I'm going to do the LM308 mod. What other changes were made in your circuit?
 
Warrior_Bass said:
I've noticed the same thing with my original RatII...even at proper mixing levels, the sound is pretty meh.

I'm going to do the LM308 mod. What other changes were made in your circuit?

I still have the box with the paper from the company that modded it

Give me a bit and will send it to you...I just moved so im gonna have to dig it out when I am settled

TMB
 
Warrior_Bass said:
I've noticed the same thing with my original RatII...even at proper mixing levels, the sound is pretty meh.

I'm going to do the LM308 mod. What other changes were made in your circuit?

I have a rat 2 with a lm308 and to be honest it is a tad meh. I only like it when it's running parallel with my muff. Maybe something is wrong with my chain though, it has seemed weaker than it used to be.
 
I have a rat 2 with a lm308 and to be honest it is a tad meh. I only like it when it's running parallel with my muff. Maybe something is wrong with my chain though, it has seemed weaker than it used to be.

There's a youtube vid with a guy comparing two turbo rats, one with the lm308 and the other with the regular (most recent) chip, and it wasn't really that night and day. I suspect other mods help in a more noticable way, like the ruetz mod.
 
After duplicating JC's exact signal chain in the past, I can honestly tell you that it is a mixture of the LM308 Turbo and the EQ that creates that sound, and everything added together creates a very exacting spice rack in the overall recipe. If you were to use the GT-2 settings in the youtube video, for example, it's very overly bassy and meh. When combined with that second Rat channel, however, that is totally the missing ingredient to the Tool overdrive tone.
The funny thing is that it took loving and duplicating that sound to bring me to the conclusion that it totally works within the context of Tool (or a Tool tribute band), but is most definitely NOT my sound.

A great sound nonetheless.
 
The funny thing is that it took loving and duplicating that sound to bring me to the conclusion that it totally works within the context of Tool (or a Tool tribute band), but is most definitely NOT my sound.

A great sound nonetheless.

A hard lesson most Chancellor tone enthusiasts will need to learn. It definitely doesn't fit many contexts. All IMO, of course.
 
I for one are extremely grateful to Brad, toolmybass, Vegas and all the others that have contributed to this thread and others/ you tube etc, as they are inspiring and going out of their way to help!

There's nothing wrong with doing a job right!

Hey no probs...Im always willing to help somebody by contributing to any deets that i have "ironed" out over the last 5yrs.

To some of the comments...and not directed at anyone in particular....but when it comes to "Justins tone" there is a huge "spice rack" as Thom puts it

But i thought i WAS close when it came to plugging in a EBMM and a chorus and a little flange.....sure its close if your talking 46&2 or an "easier" cop-able tone such as that one.....

But when i started digging into 10,000 days and really listening to some of the hard grit parts from Lateralus, i realized exactly how FAR away i was from nailing the JC sound spectrum......My end result was numerous set-ups and adjustments of the Wal and realizing you need the whole "spice rack" to get what i did in my MKI Demo vid.

Justin's tech is mediocre close at best when it comes to duplicating his studio tone/overall sound in a live situation.....I mean his basic "tone" is there but the real gritty/chirpy stuff that you hear on the last 2 albums is missing.....

Im going to see them 2 days in a row on Jan 25/26th....lets hope they play some NEW shyte!!:hyper::hyper: