VG-99 - Ronnie Montrose Bad Motor Scooter Slide Sound

Started by stevegerick, August 27, 2012, 08:54:24 PM

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stevegerick

Hi, Wonder if anyone has mastered the sound Montrose gets with the intro to Bad Motor Scooter.

I tried several patches that use Alt-A tuning and gives me some of the gain, but I'm not getting the punch or bottom end that he get's, by I'm only getting close and I want to be right on.

Any advice and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Elantric

#1
In order to get good slide growl and singing sustain, Skip the COSM alt tuning and actually tune your real strings to the desired open Tuning. Engage a compressor and dial up the gain, and you will be much closer to the Montrose sound.


IMHO using DSP derived Alt Tunings for instances that demand sustain is a like using a Banjo for slide (wrong)

When the physical string is not the same frequency as the modeled Alt tuned tone emerging from your speakers - singing sustain as you "bow " the string with a nice ceramic slide is near impossible.

This is true for any DSP Alt tuned guitar( Variax, COSM VG-99, GR-55). They all are rather weak when playing slide.


If you play a lot of slide, either setup a dedicated guitar for it, or wait a couple months for the Tronical Tune motorized Alt tuning tuners. $300 due in October.

stevegerick

Thanks for the insight. I did try what you suggested in the first sentence, but using the DSP alt-tuning instead - and I did experience the limitation you describe. Having said that I may need to think about whether or not I want to incorporate the VG-99 in my live performance rig at all. The main reason i was exploring the VG was for the ability to perform alt tunings with the push of a foot switch. My rationale is that many of the covers my band does require alt tunings; however, unlike the star musicians who perform these songs on stage - with the stage crew/guitar tech and seemingly limitless access to pre-tuned guitars,  I don't don't even have room for that stuff in most of the venues I play. :-)


Your idea of motorized tuners seem worthy of investigation. The only thing I worry about is that tuners do affect overall sound, so that would be a concern. I remember playing a Gibson Robot awhile back and was not impressed. I guess no one was, since it appears they discontinued that model. Anyway. I researched the tuners you talk about. This might actually be a great way to "automate" alt tunings into my main traditional rig.

Thanks!