I'm trying to get the sound that Gary Moore had for "The Prophet". I'm using a Fender Blacktop Strat via a Line6 POD XT Live. I can't get anything close using the POD, so I'm trying to get it eith using the raw guitar and feeding it through TH-U, OR recording MIDI via the POD and using TH-U to emulate the sound that way. So far I haven't got near to it.

Has anyone managed to get something like it with TH-U? If so, whick amp, cabinets etc?

 

you might need a tube screamer, or big muff with plenty of compression for that long sustain

 

I don't believe you can do it with the gear available to you. You'd at least need a humbucker guitar, Moore played the infamous 59 Les Paul previously owned by Peter Green where they had accidentally reversed the neck pickup creating that original tone.

To point you in the right direction; A guitar with humbucker pickups, a Marshall JTM 45 amp, Moore kept his amp reasonably clean, not cranked, and something like Marshall The Guv’nor distortion pedal, which he used to crank the fairly clean amp and maybe a Boss or Ibanez chorus pedal.

Hope that helps.

 

As ointed out by Thornton, the Blacktop has Humbuckers. With the pandemic, I can't afford to buy any new gear. Does anyone know TH-U well enough to determine if there is a Marshal JTM 45 Amp included (or in Amplitube or anything else)? I haven't been able to correlate the names they use with the actual gear. Is there a VST or anything for The Gov'nor distortion pedal or a BOSS / Ibanez chorus pedal?

 

i own a Scuffham S Gear 2, there's a preset called the Loner, i think it is also close to Gary Moore's sound .. here's the demo, TH U also a good amp plugin, i have the Slate version, but i don't use that much .. i prefer Plini or S gear tho. after seeing this post, i might want to try TH u to tweak some sounds

this one too ..

 

btw, my avatar is a clone build of a trainwreck express circuit C that is quite special. the begining of that quest was the gary moore sound, a 1994 LP, and a special amp builder who is no longer with us.
best of wishes on your tone quest my friend

 

Hate to disappoint anyone, but the vast majority of any players sound comes from the player themselves. You can spend an age (or a fortune) buying gear and guitars and fiddling about with settings, and it will never sound 100%. Surely you're much better just sitting down with the gear you have and finding something that sounds good to you? I can't really see how anyone on here could advise you accurately without knowing all the variables that apply uniquely to you.

 

Gary Moore, and I'm fairly sure this is correct, was actually a leftie playing righty. (like myself. worst mistake I ever made in my entire musical career). Lefty's playing righty have many oddities in their playing style which would be difficult to replicate. (look at Steve Morse for example or Mark Knopfler)

 

I'm not really a guitarist, I just pick it up and play when the urge moves me.
I lift various bend styles, vibrato styles, picking styles anywhere from anyone and use them as and if appropriate.
In the end it always sounds mine, which is what I want.

 

Hey Graf, I gather when you said "a special amp builder who is no longer with us."
You were referring to Trainwreck's Ken Fisher. I got to hang out with Ken at his
Colonia, NJ workshop several times. He was a very laidback cat. He was also
very generous with his time and knowledge and shared some really cool amp
lore. He also very graciously offered me a Liverpool Express for a mere $1000.
Unfortunately, I was a starving musician and didn't have the money. I'm sure that
amp would be worth at least ten times that today.

 

Rear pickup humbucker to start. Can be achieved with a Strat (single coil, stacked humbucker, etc..) with correct combination of boost & tube pre-amp.

Sounds very natural with little if anything in the front end. If I remember correctly, Gary is known for using high gain Marshall amps. Almost has a ProCo Rat type of sound which a kinder/milder type of Big Muff sound. The Rat really works well with tube amps of any size. Used with a high gain 12" combo for years when I was an active stage musician.

 

If you want to nail that sound, go to the sister site (or even better, buy, as the version in the sister site is old) and grab Nembrini's Marshall JCM800, the Govn'r pedal and the effects rack. From the effects rack you'll take the delay and "cleaner". Gain staging of screamer and the govn'r is up to taste. In th-u I am sure there are some rig libraries that will get you very close, but none is on sister site yet. Maybe the marshall 1987 or british classics. And of course, use a humbucker and eq if necessary, but leave the eq as the last step.

 

There is no definitive Gary Moore guitar sound
Gary started with a Gibson with P90 pickups when he was in the blues band Skid Raw he later on bought the famous LP Peter Green owned that had the out of phase sound in the middle position on the pickup selector switch as the neck pickup had a reversed magnet
Gary used a modified Gibson LP, Gibson LP Junior and Melody Maker, and the PG LP Standard with Lizzy and Collosseum II
he then started his solo carrier
He used a Synthaxe at some time
He had many guitars like Hamer Special, Hamer Explorer, Hamer Vector, Hamer Phantom
Ibanez Roadstar II the ones that later became RG
Charverl San Dimas, Charvel Customs,
Gibson SG,s Flying V Explorer ES-175 LP,s Firebird,
Fender Tele LOTS of different FGender Strats some fitted with humbuckers.
A Heritage PRS Standard and i guess soome more

Amps
He used was Hiwatt, Vox, Peavey, Marshall Plexi, JTM45 JMP,s JCM2000 and maybe also JCM800 (i guess he had many many marshalls thrue the years) Soldano,Fender,etc etc
B.t.w the famous JCM800 everyone talk about (the 2203 is the one everyone is meaning when they say JCM800 but few actually had) is not a specific amp as there are many different JCM800,s
JCM800 2203, 2204,2205 etc and also a JCM800 solid state amp hmm i have forgot the 22 nr that had.

Parisienne Walkway was done with a Mesa MKI Combo

Effects
He wasn't a pedal junkie he used delay chorus tremolo
I have seen picture where he had a pink Ibanez Chorus Tremolo pedal
He used Boss SD-1 and Ibanez Tube Screamer and later on he used the Marshall Guv'nor MKI
Roland SRE-555 and Roland SD300 rack units in the rack era of the 80,s
I bet there is alot of gear he used thrue the years we dont know about.

 

I started playing guitar in the 1950's. I used to play lead guitar for several (unknown) local Rock 'n Roll groups. I was very much influenced by Hank Marvin of The Shadows. My first guitar was a red Fender Strat, identical to the one that Hank used. In the 70's I was chained to a desk, never made it into the music scene, we lived way out of the "scene". In 1998, I started buying Backing Tracks of The Shadows.

When I retired in 2007, I started making my own Backings using Mixcraft, then with Studio One. I moved from Just Shadows to 50's, 60's and 70's pop. Since I retired music is my main hobby. I only play for my own plesasure (and my friends and family). I decided to branch out even further and did some Backings for Operatic Arias, Then I tried Backings for stuff like The Scorpions. Just replacing the vocal with my Guitar. I did some Metal and now, I want to try some Gary Moore.

I tried selling Backing Tracks, because, naturally, I can take out any Instrument for players to practice with. I can also do Tabs or Notation for any instrument. Unfortunately, no one is interested in music these days, only EDM, Hip Hop and Rap, and I'm sorry, but I'm too old to class that as music at all, so I gave up the idea.

I learn something new about Mixing and Mastering every day. Just a pity that many of the tutorials available comprise of the teacher telling us how good he is, making mistakes, not understanding what hes doing and using pet phrases like "Y'know and err, uum") and straying way off or giving far too much detail. I just fall asleep. I can never understand why these people don't listen to themselves more often.

I'm approaching 80, so I'm not going to spend money. As long as it's close and I enjoy playing it and my friends and family enjoy listening, I'm happy.

I'm trying to play The Loner first, I'll never be like Gary, but as long as I have my 'ear' and my fingers still work, playing something similar is possible. Having the sheet music definitely helps! I'm getting close. If I get anything like, I'll post it here.

I have a Marvin Signature Fender Strat, and a Fender Blacktop Strat (ice blue), and my wife bought me a Peer Dellen, custom Made guitar. The Strat and the Dellen have been customised, Kinsman Pickups, straplocks, different bridges and modified electronics. I also have a couple of acoustics and a 12 String. In addition I have an old G-Amp, 8 Port Mackie Mixer, an Atlantis Echo and some big extension speakers. I had a spell in the early 2000 when I used to play live to my own Backings.

I have two stage monitors I want to get rid of if anyone is interested.

 

Gary Moore was a great guitarist who used many different guitars pedals but always valve amps as far as I know, you can get pretty close with a a solid state but with a 12ax7 or ECC83 valve preamp as a booster, in the 1960's there used to be a very small single or dual tube 12ax7 hifi preamp which was very inexpensive, myself as well as many other guitarists I knew had one to boost our guitar signal and to overdrive any amp from solid state to valve the only thing we did was replace the phono in and out jacks with 1/4" guitar jacks. The other thing is you need humbuckers to get the richness single coils aren't full or rich enough. you don't have to waste money buying a Gibson any reasonable used guitar with good humbuckers will do, I do own a few of the brand names but now only use guitars that I completely modify myself, my classics are too valuable to chance getting damaged. You can probably build a small preamp from plans on the net. Did you try Positive Grid Bias FX2 I am sure you will find the tone and sound you are after. BTW my 80's Strat with Schaller humbuckers sounds like Gary using my Hiwatt Bulldog 50, these pickups are incredible. I saw this inexpensive Preamp on ebay it might be useful for you , Little bear 6J1 Tube Headphone amplifier Amp Audio HiFi Pre-AMP @ $37 it seems very reasonsable

 

Last edited: Sep 14, 2020

<cough> Plectrum! <cough>

Otherwise, full marks!