Gilmour Tone Building
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Instrumental cover of the song Dogs, from Pink Floyd's legendary 1977 album, Animals. Demonstrating the sound of the Alembic F2-B preamp into a Yamaha RA-200 rotary speaker combo amp, Electric Mistress flanger, and Colorsound Power Boost stacked into a Ram's Head Big Muff. Amps and effects gear used are mentioned in the video. Effect settings are also shown in the video. In these examples the PB is the driver and main distortion generator for the solos. It is set for maximum drive and the muff following it is set with a low sustain. The muff tone stage is really just being used as an EQ to color the distortion from the PB.Here are what my PB and Ram's Head settings would be for a similar sound on a modern EHX Ram's Head Big Muff and a Power Boost clone.
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The RA-200 volume and tone pots are all set neutral, at 12:00. The tremolo pot is set for the slowest rotary speed. The F2-B settings are shown in the video.The Telecaster is a 2001 American Series Tele tuned down one whole step to D. String gauges are 0.10, 0.12, 0.16, 0.24, 0.36, 0.44. Mics used are a Cascade Fat Head ribbon mic and an e906 on the RA-200 rotaries and a Sure SM57 and Sennheiser e906 on the Hi-Tone speaker cab.
Here is a clip without the backing track if you are interested in trying to match the guitar tones with your own rig.
www.kitrae.net/music/MP3/Dogs%...
David was a master at coming up with unique and magical guitar tones, and Dogs is one of his master works. It is always a fun challenge trying to match David's tones and to figure out how the gear was used to achieve those tones. There is no definitive information on the exact setups David used in the studio or live for Dogs, but experimenting with the same gear can give you an ideas of what he likely used, and that is all I have done here.
My playing in this cover is a mix of the studio recording and various live versions from the 1977 tour, or my attempt anyway. I used the Alembic+RA-200 for the first fast guitar solo and the first dual-guitar harmony solo. I used a blend of the Dawner Prince PULSE (a rotary speaker sim) and PastFX Elastic Mattress (an excellent green Electric Mistress clone) pedals for the second (dry) solo, the second harmony solo, and the second fast solo at the end, just to show how that combo can achieve something with a similar feel as the RA-200, even though it is a very different sound.
There is not much information about the recording sessions or gear used on Dogs, but David said he used a Fender custom Telecaster tuned down to D. This Tele is the same one he used for the 1977 tour, identified as a 1962 Fender Custom Telecaster in Pink Floyd's Their Mortal Remains exhibition book. The neck pickup was replaced with a Strat pickup.
David has also said a few things about Dogs in various interviews over the years:
“I basically wrote all the chords-the main music part of it, and Roger and I wrote some other bits at the end.”
“I played it on a custom Telecaster. I was coming through some Hiwatt amps and a couple of Yamaha rotating speaker cabinets- Leslie-style cabinets that they used to make.“
Referring to the harmony guitar solos, which Roger accidentally erased in the recording studio - “It’s quite nice. I thought it was very clever. Then Roger went and wiped it and I had to recreate it."
Referring to the RA-200 used for Dogs when playing live - “I use two of those on stage, along with the regular amps. That slight Leslie effect made a big difference in the sound.”
And there is this interesting one from a Guitar Player interview in 2009. David was asked if he played a Tele on the Dogs solo. He said "Yes, that’s right. I think it was done using the neck pickup, which I changed to a Strat pickup, because the Tele neck pickups never seem to be quite up to the job. " I don't hear a neck pickup on any of the solos in Dogs.
For more David Gilmour Gear Info please check out my Gilmour Tone Building site at www.kitrae.net/
Also check out these excellent Gilmour resources
www.gilmourish.com/
www.tonefromheaven.com/