Favourite Vai tone?

[lydian7]

I'm just interested to hear which of Vai's past and present guitar tones people prefer. My favourite era of Vai tone was during his Fire Garden (and to a lesser extent, the Sex & Religion) phase when he was using the Bogner Ecstasy head as his main amp. I feel the tone of the Ecstasy complimented Vai's technique more than any other amp he has used (though I also liked his early Carvin X100B tone during the Flexable era).

[resha]

The era between '93 and '96 is absolutely my fave; I really love the "iper metal" sounds on S&R which I believe Steve got form a Soldano head.

To my ears those sounds were much more complex than the actual Legacy sound, but maybe it's because those songs are so appealing to me and I've totally absorbed them in during this long period!

I'd really love to know more about ALS recording sessions... On which amp were the songs recorded and how, you know a kind of ALS insight as we had for RI:R

Any help will be appreciated!

[RAR!]

Flexable for me.

Clear, loud, simple, bold, with minimal effects. Natural and organic, RAW and beautiful.

[Emi]

I love Fire Garden sound... maybe one of the best sound that Steve have ever made. Also like very much Sex & Religion, steve made wonderfull solos and Rythms...

But it just my opinion...

Emi

[Triumph the Comic Dog]

I thought the sounds on "Eat 'em and Smile" were quite tasty. Probably my favorite of all time.

[5thD]

I love Steve's tone on "Eat 'em and Smile" as well, P & W is of coarse mindblowing. One of my favorie Vai tones is on AIAUW, Live and raw and awesome!

I am looking forward to what Steve does on the new "Guitar" album ala Alien Love Secrets project

[guyver_dio]

+1 on the 'Eat em and smile' era. That whole album was just flawless IMO.

[resha]

I love Eat 'Em And Smile sound too, but remember that Steve's work on DLR records was really different from the stuff He does in His solo records; more "standard rock guitar" compared to complex orchestration and so maybe there was less research on sounds (the songs have so much vocal lines and guitars are not the most important thing like in solo albums)

[RAR!]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the Eat Em and Smile tone. . .it sounds like its just barely crunchy. . but sustains like its dimed out, Its very very cool. Very Clear and Clean. Especially the tone on Tobacco Road. If I could choose any tone to have as my rig, I would choose this. I dont know what exactly he had for his tone. Marshall plexi for preamps and mesa boogie power I think . . .very complicated, hard to reproduce. They'res probably alot of studio magic to clean up the guitar tone too, It may not sound that good in real life.


I think my least favorite is actually Passion and Warfare. Its just a nasty jumble of nasty delay and reverb, IMO.

Erotic Nightmares has cool tone though.

[lydian7]

Erotic Nightmares has cool tone though.

I think The Animal has the best tone on P&W. The solo has an almost quasi-jazz fusion tone.

[lydian7]

I'd really love to know more about ALS recording sessions... On which amp were the songs recorded and how, you know a kind of ALS insight as we had for RI:R

Any help will be appreciated!

Since ALS was recorded during what was to become a vast undertaking of recording the wealth of material on Fire Garden as a fill-in before the albums release, I'm pretty sure he would have used the Bogner for most of the tones on ALS (since that was his main amp during this period).

I forgot to mention ALS up there. I especially love his tone on Tender Surrender.

[resha]

I'd really love to know more about ALS recording sessions... On which amp were the songs recorded and how, you know a kind of ALS insight as we had for RI:R

Any help will be appreciated!

Since ALS was recorded during what was to become a vast undertaking of recording the wealth of material on Fire Garden as a fill-in before the albums release, I'm pretty sure he would have used the Bogner for most of the tones on ALS (since that was his main amp during this period).

I forgot to mention ALS up there. I especially love his tone on Tender Surrender.

Thanx a lot lydian7!

It would be really cool for me to read anything about the whole recording-production process, do you have any specific link or something?!

[Phlame]

I thought he used a bogner on Ultra Zone, am I wrong?

[lydian7]

I thought he used a bogner on Ultra Zone, am I wrong?

If I recall correctly (and maybe admin can help me out a bit here) he used the Bogner on a few tracks, but for the most part he used a Legacy prototype model.

[Samuele]

Shortly after the release of The Ultra Zone I read an interview with Steve (I think it was GuitarOne, but I'm not sure) where he mentions that he used the Legacy for The Ultra Zone, Jibboom and Windows to the Soul.
I have to check, but I guess he didn't use the Legacy for the vast majority of the album.

Having said this, the sounds he gets from his Legacy are my all-time favorite.