Quintessential guitar tones per model

AK99

stickyfiddle said:

Tele
Communication Breakdown
Prove It All Night (preferably live around ‘78)
Paranoid Android
Tumbling Dice
American Girl

Les Paul
Sweet Child o Mine
Whole Lotta Love
All Right Now
Pretty Vacant
New Year’s Day (U2, preferably live around 2001)

The others are harder

Cant get over how many things were recorded on Teles that I had just assumed were Les Paul based.

On the Whole Lotta Love thing - was that recorded on aTele as suggested elsewhere above, or a Les Paul, or a mixture of both ?

springhead

AK99 said:

stickyfiddle said:

Tele
Communication Breakdown
Prove It All Night (preferably live around ‘78)
Paranoid Android
Tumbling Dice
American Girl

Les Paul
Sweet Child o Mine
Whole Lotta Love
All Right Now
Pretty Vacant
New Year’s Day (U2, preferably live around 2001)

The others are harder

Cant get over how many things were recorded on Teles that I had just assumed were Les Paul based.

On the Whole Lotta Love thing - was that recorded on aTele as suggested elsewhere above, or a Les Paul, or a mixture of both ?

I found this quote from Jimmy, on BusinessInsider.com of all places, in an article talking about the recording of Whole Lotta Love:

I was playing a Sunburst 1958 Les Paul Standard guitar I had bought from [James Gang guitarist] Joe Walsh in San Francisco when we were out there on tour. The Standard had this tonal versatility, allowing me to get a blistering high pitch. Robert’s vocal was just as extreme. He kept gaining confidence during the session and gave it everything he had. His vocals, like my solos, were about performance. He was pushing to see what he could get out of himself. We were performing for each other, almost competitively.

https://www.businessinsider.com/led-zeppelin-whole-lotta-love-oral-history-how-it-was-made-2016-12?r=US&IR=T

stickyfiddle

On Whole Lotta Love I must admit my main reference is from It Might Get Loud. I’m not 100% sure if the original was recorded on a Les Paul but if this clip isn’t the absolute quintessential LP Standard tone I don’t know what is

https://youtu.be/G7B767HYUqQ

Cols

Whole Lotta Love was a Les Paul, recorded in Olympic Studios London and overdubs in A&M Studios LA during their ‘69 US tour. By the time it was recorded the Telecaster had been retired from active service.

I love Led Zep, but to my ears Page’s sound isn’t quintessential Les Paul; it’s very spiky.  I always felt that he really preferred the sound of the Tele and was constantly trying to drift back to it.

EricTheWeary

Strat - Rory Gallagher, maybe Bad Penny Blues or something. Dick Dale, something less obvious like Nitro. 

Tele - Jim Campilongo, almost anything but let’s say Monkey in a Movie. 

Les Paul - something from Gary Moore’s blues revival period like Still Got the Blues. 

ES335 - can I have a 345? Freddie King and Going Down. 

Cranky said:

For Strat, it's basically Wind Cries Mary, Lenny by SRV and Cliffs of Dover.  There's also Uli Jon Roth, but that's more just because I know he played a Strat, not because of "the tone".

https://youtu.be/Zs5NOrYYV2s


I don’t know if it’s quintessential strat tone but it’s quintessential Uli. 

I read an interview with Rudolf and he said in the early days the only one who spoke much English was Herman the drummer so he wrote the lyrics but a lot of it was just words he liked the sound of rather than having any meaning. So, some of those early tracks have wonderfully odd lyrics. 

AK99

springhead said:

AK99 said:

stickyfiddle said:

Tele
Communication Breakdown
Prove It All Night (preferably live around ‘78)
Paranoid Android
Tumbling Dice
American Girl

Les Paul
Sweet Child o Mine
Whole Lotta Love
All Right Now
Pretty Vacant
New Year’s Day (U2, preferably live around 2001)

The others are harder

Cant get over how many things were recorded on Teles that I had just assumed were Les Paul based.

On the Whole Lotta Love thing - was that recorded on aTele as suggested elsewhere above, or a Les Paul, or a mixture of both ?

I found this quote from Jimmy, on BusinessInsider.com of all places, in an article talking about the recording of Whole Lotta Love:

I was playing a Sunburst 1958 Les Paul Standard guitar I had bought from [James Gang guitarist] Joe Walsh in San Francisco when we were out there on tour. The Standard had this tonal versatility, allowing me to get a blistering high pitch. Robert’s vocal was just as extreme. He kept gaining confidence during the session and gave it everything he had. His vocals, like my solos, were about performance. He was pushing to see what he could get out of himself. We were performing for each other, almost competitively.

https://www.businessinsider.com/led-zeppelin-whole-lotta-love-oral-history-how-it-was-made-2016-12?r=US&IR=T

Cols said:

Whole Lotta Love was a Les Paul, recorded in Olympic Studios London and overdubs in A&M Studios LA during their ‘69 US tour. By the time it was recorded the Telecaster had been retired from active service.

I love Led Zep, but to my ears Page’s sound isn’t quintessential Les Paul; it’s very spiky.  I always felt that he really preferred the sound of the Tele and was constantly trying to drift back to it.

Thanks guys. I am enlightened