Slash guitar setup

Slash says in interviews that this is mainly used during solos or sections when he needs a little bit extra. A lot of live guitarists use this pedal to remove noise from their tone and help prevent feedback issues. If you use a high-gain tone and you want to better deal with noise, learn about Noise Suppressors and Noise Gates in my Guitar Effects Course.

The course demonstrates how these two different types of pedals can be used and which one may be right for you. In other words, he only uses this pedal as a tool to deal with a specific issue with his live rig. This pedal is used to give the clean guitar parts in Paradise City the iconic color and shimmer you would expect to hear in the song.

In the past, Slash used an MXR Stereo chorus pedal, which is another very good quality chorus pedal to consider. Check out some great chorus pedals in this Ultimate Guide to Chorus. Remember that this pedal is placed in front of the guitar amp, which produces a pronounced delay sound. Slash also uses other delay pedals in his effects loop, so he can get two very different delay sounds to suit different songs.

The main point I noticed was that the fuzz knob is turned down quite low, so this pedal seems to be more used more for the octave effects. While it is a signature model, he only rarely uses it. You would think one would be enough. In one interview, his guitar tech said that he mainly uses it for slapback effects learn about slapback delay in this lesson. This changes the sound of the effect and the delay has a less pronounced sound compared to his DD-3 in front of his amp.

If your guitar amp has an effects loop, experiment with placing your delay pedal in the effects loop to learn how it changes the effect. You may prefer to have your delay pedal in front of your amp, or in the effects loop. Or you may do what Slash does and have different delay pedals in either position for different types of delay effects. Find out more about effects loops in my Guide to the 4-Cable Method.

When performing live, Slash uses a rack-based Wah with controller pedals placed on the stage. The Cry Baby SC95 above left is the more basic wah pedal tuned to a lower voicing than typical wah pedals. The Cry Baby SW95 above right adds in a distortion circuit to the wah and you can see two knobs on the side to control for volume and gain.

Learn more about wah pedals and other alternatives in my Ultimate Guide to Wah Pedals. If you only have a few pedals, this is overkill and you can get away with daisy chaining your pedals to one power supply as explained here. Find out what your core tone is, then once you find a tone you love, find ways you can enhance or shape your tone when needed. The key to sounding like Slash is to find the right balance between gain and sustain.

Aim for a low-to-medium gain setting with a cranked tube amp. Remember that Slash uses low-to-medium output pickups and the gain on his amps is set to 3. So most of what you hear in his drive tone is the result of cranking the volume in a tube amp.

Regardless of what amp you use, try to avoid the temptation to crank the gain. Too much gain will provide you with the sustain he is known for, but it also destroys the clarity and well-rounded tone Slash achieves.

Listen closely to the recordings and tweak and adjust your rig to try and work your way closer to what you hear in the recording. Those settings may work for Slash, but you may prefer different settings. If you really want to learn in-depth about the guitar effects Slash uses or how to dial in specific guitar tones, check out my Guitar Effects Course. There is a Slash Les Paul Standard which is going to set you back a lot of money, the Slash Les Paul Standard Limited Edition, which is basically the same guitar but in a different colour, and the Slash J, which is an acoustic guitar.

In total, he has collaborated on seventeen different guitars with Gibson. As such, the first guitar we can look at in detail is his signature.

The fact he has put his name to the instrument suggests that he is pretty happy with its sound and feel. It has a C shaped neck profile, Burstbucker Alnico II pickups and, of course, his distinctive appearance. The guitar also comes with a few designs specific to Slash himself, and a signature on the truss rod. In terms of tone, it gives off about the most classic of classic rock sounds one can imagine, that allows you to imitate the likes of Jimmy Page just as well as Slash himself.

It has that amazing bluesy feel on the lead lines, which can sound incredibly with a little added crunch. That crunch can also maintain into the rhythm playing, give you the ability to chop away at jazzy chords just as easily as you can slam through a heavy power chord section. The actual feel of the guitar is about as accurate as you can get if you want the same feeling Slash gets on stage: heavy strings and a low action combine to a seriously high performing guitar. Of course, the major setback is its incredible price.

This guitar is made in the exact same way that the specific guitar Slash uses for studio recordings is made. There are a variety of Epiphone versions of many classic Gibson guitars, and their version of the Les Paul 50S is a really great way to get a Slash-like sound without breaking the bank.

The guitar pairs a mahogany body and a maple cap to tick off two boxes: look and sound. It looks pretty much exactly like a classic Gibson Les Paul, and thanks to these types of wood, the vintage tone is there too. They have fingers in just about every pie of amp-type, and offer a range of equipment that satisfies those who have a large budget, and those who have barely a penny.

You can use Marshall to your advantage in both areas. This amp is the real deal. This is a head, rather than a full amp, but it has been used by just about every famous guitarist you can think of. The more you increase the volume on the amp, the more overdriven your sound. If you need something cleaner, then just bring the volume on your actual guitar back down. Much like with Gibson, Slash has a special and long-lasting partnership with Marshall.

The AFD is his signature amp, and the amp he has most recently taken to using on tour. The fact that the amp bears his name is a clear suggestion of its quality, and proves that it would be a worthy purchase for anyone looking to craft a similar tone.

Obviously, one of the biggest differences is size. One of the essentials is a cry baby wah pedal. When I first started using effects pedals, I thought they existed solely to make explicit and crazy sound effects such as feedback delays, flangers, and wah-wah. However, as I started experimenting with pedals more, I realized that many pedals are to be used sparingly for subtle tone enhancements. For example, Slash uses two gain-based effects in combination with the in-built amp gain to reach his gritty signature tone.

One of these effects is a general overdrive to add additional gritty peaks to the tone. A separate boost effect is used to boost the signal output without clipping it any further. This pedal provides a slider for each frequency band to facilitate fine-tuned equalization. Still, Slash uses it for a completely different purpose. The guitarist uses a wireless tone switching system to allow him to switch amps, cabinets, and pedalboards with a single hit of a switch, but this will often result in tonal inconsistencies.

So, Slash uses the MXR EQ pedal to correct the tone across wireless switches, ensuring that transitions are seamless and unnoticeable. Noise Suppressors are essentially processors that reduce the level of noise being produced by a guitar rig. This could be anything from a cable buzzing to the sounds of the scraping strings near the pickups.

A threshold is set, and the Noise Suppressor will remove anything lower than that particular volume. That just about covers everything you will need to know regarding emulating the optimum Slash amp settings.

Answer: Slash will usually play with a slightly bass-heavy EQ set to around 7. Answer: Slash has a huge guitar collection, but he has stated in many interviews that his favorite guitar choice for an optimal tone is a Gibson Les Paul. Answer: Slash uses a wireless foot pedal system to quickly switch between tone settings across amps and pedalboards. There we have it — considering how successful Slash is, I feel like his amp settings, and guitar rig is pretty modest.

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