When I first met Duane he did most of his slide playing in standard tuning (EADGBE) then eventually went to the open E tuning for everything. If you can find one of the earlier recordings of Mountain Jam, that was played in standard tuning. Duane perfected his slide technique by just playing everything in slide, to the point where Gregg said it was driving him insane even though he considered Duane a natural slide player after he mastered it so easily. I miss Duane and Gregg very much. Very informative video, Dylan.
Man, what a privilege it must’ve been to have known both of them. I’ve heard stories of everyone telling Duane to shut up with the slide already because it sounded so bad when he first started, lol. Thanks so much for sharing!
I have a 2017/18 Les Paul Custom Standard. I like playing slide with the bridge pickup and I do the full volume as it give the full pick up sensitivity. I just dial in the tone until it sounds like what I like. The highs, mids, and lows must all have a clarity without muffle and bit of crunch to suit me. I use both glass and chrome plated brass slides which each slide has its own tone quality. I do have a full stack Marshal DSL100H, but practice through a Roland Street EX which suits the neighbors a bit more. Ina about '69 I had the pleasure of playing through a Fender Twin 50 amp which was awwesome. Through the years and different guitars, from my first guitar, a Kay Strat copy to hollow body electric for the softer tone around '69/'71, to Fender Stratocaster with dual humbuckers, string lockdowns, and fine tuning, in about '86, to Les Paul Studio in '91, to my newest Les Paul. I always prefer the bridge pickup unless messing with some jazz and top pickup, cleaner tone. Early influences are Jimi Hendrix when he was still alive, (could have seen him live in Miami in '70 and did not take advantage: Was already trying to play some of his music), Allman Brothers, Johnny Winter/Rick Derringer, Jimmy Page, Rolling Stones in general, Rory Gallager, Steve Miller, Joe Walsh, Alvin Lee, Beatles, Carlos Santana, Cactus, etc... Those were magic days for sure. I also have a 12 string single cut-away acoustic/electric Takamine, single cut-away acoustic/electric Martin, and a made in Spain Victor 6 string Flamenco classical style guitar, (3 gut strings), with very sweet tone. One of the main reasons I prefer Les Pauls is my '69 forward early enjoyment of that Allman Brothers sound.
I thought that the custom tele tone was even better , great tutorial agree with everything though no reference to the slide , which I assume is brass, and string gauge selection, great work .
If Duane had a video about how to make spaghetti sauce or change a tire, I'd watch it because that guy was just a cut above most of the people in the human race. I remember one lady who knew him (she had a photo album with pictures to prove it), and she told me that the man absolutely mastered everything he put his mind to. She also said that he was a daredevil who loved a challenge. Her exact words were "Duane Allman was a red headed triple Scorpio who believed that God was on his side in everything he did, and it showed in the way he drove his car, rode his bike and played his music." I saw him in Piedmont Park in Atalnta when I was a kid, and what you're getting with your rig here is close enough to Brother Skydog that I can feel that day in the park all over again when I hear you. Very nicely done. Hats off CHEERS!
As someone who's played for 52 years...starting in 1971 during the height of the Guitar God Era the ONE thing most players miss on those tones..... is simple : VOLUME.....sure...Duane and Clapton and Page would still sound like themselves...even playing on an acoustic guitar...but these guys played LOUD....just like everyone was. There's a symbiotic relationship between guitar pickups and amp volume that you need to find onstage. If you can't get stupid loud onstage you might do what I do here in Nashville....put your amp on a "tall" amp stand and get it right behind you...that way it'll be loud for you but not shooting by your legs into the house pissing off the FOH guy. So when Dylan is talking about too much gain/overdrive...that's what players feel they have do when they can't achieve volume because of limitations in their home/apartment or a small club. You just can't get those early 70s tones playing at 3 watts through a Katana. Sorry for the reality check...but it is what it is.
What a great breakdown of sound! ... and yes, it is extremely close to the original, if not spot on! It is clear that you care about being authentic! 👏👏👏
Totally agreed on the pickup selection/tone knob. I played in an ABB tribute for years with David Goldflies (ABB 78-94) and Mike Kach (Dickey Betts Band) and spent countless hours focusing on getting that tone. That’s where I landed after a few years of experimenting.
I'm old enough to have seen Duane play three times before he passed.... he's the reason I play guitar today.....you have to be able to swing.... he was special
His virtuosity was second to none. Whether it was bending strings, playing the slide, playing the folk guitar. Dobro In every genre, blues, R&B,folk,Jazz.Country& Western I had the honour of seeing his second to last live performance. I'm still in a hypnotic trance.
I think you did a good job, but I am very puzzled you did not address the coriciden bottle he used and chose brass. Whats up with that and behind the slide damping???
To my ears, (everyone knows that is subjective) this is the best representation of Duane’s tone without plugging into a cranked Marshall, which the majority of people viewing this video can’t do……or shouldn’t do. 😂 It’s obvious you’ve put in the hours of not only playing along to, but diligently listening to these recordings to hammer out this tone. And for that I’m thankful! Never stop playing Dylan, awesome stuff man! 🍑 ✌️
@@bloozedaddy What I meant by that section is, a loud amp moving that much air is the most honest representation of your ability. If there are holes in your playing, they will show, quite embarrassingly I might add (speaking from personal experience 😂). For every professional guitar player, there are hundreds if not thousands of beginner to advanced players that when plugged into an amp of that magnitude don’t have the ability or the playing time under their belt to effectively use it. I thought I was ready a couple years ago, plugged into my friends JCM800, and was instantly humbled..
Curious if you’ve ever experimented with Missing Link Audios Duane Allman “peacock” pickups and overdrive pedals? They also mention that Duane used a 1meg pot in the bridge volume position. Curious if you’ve ever experimented with that as well. Cheers!
Great stuff! Love how you always point out the work you put in is the most important part of the sound, and it clearly shows on your end how much you love the stuff and the hours of work you have put in.
Another great slide video! A few comments: I looked through my folder of Duane images and videos. He is about 50-50 bridge or neck pickup. When I saw him live in 1971, he lived on the neck pickup. Primarily played the Les Paul. switched to the SG a few times. No pedals. I play a very old Les Paul through a late 60's 50 watt Marshall head, now throw an early 70's 4x12 slant marshall bottom. The 50 watt head came with an 8 x 10 Marshall bottom. Great sound, rough to gig with.. Back then the sound you got was hands, guitar settings, and amp. NO PEDALS. I still do not use pedals. Going from 10's to 12's made a significant difference. Love the 12's. My Duane sound is on the neck pickup. A little more tone than the woman tone Clapton got. I have never been able to get the streak highs out of the bridge pickup. I do use the middle setting, but not for Duane. Minor point, I use the Dunlop Crricidin bottle, glass slide. Back in the 70's, I used a real Corricidin bottle on my ring finger like Duane. Tried many other slides. Steel or brass just does not sound Duane enough to me. We all sound like, ourselves. Wether I am playing a Les Paul, my Strat, Santana I, Little Sister, my ears, brain and hands lead me to "My" sound.
Man, I’m so envious that you got to see him live!! Interesting that he stayed on the neck pickup for most of the show you saw. In the few videos there are of him, he did seem to switch between bridge and neck pretty consistently when he played in standard tuning on the non-slide tunes (or when he threw on the slide for Dreams or Mountain Jam) and you can hear that on a lot of live recordings as well. I still stand by my theory that he stuck to the bridge pickup the vast majority of the time specifically on the open E blues tunes like Statesboro, Done Somebody Wrong, Don’t Keep Me Wonderin, etc. You hardly ever hear him change tones on those tunes, the videos that exist of him playing those tunes show that he stayed on the bridge pickup, and that honk/growl he gets on the lower strings is unmistakably bridge pickup. The tone knob really is the key to smoothing out the ice pick on the high strings, and I’ve found on some guitars with some pots you have to turn the tone knob way down to around 3 before it even starts making a real difference. I don’t mean any disrespect to a veteran player like yourself, but maybe give it a go with your rig and see what happens. I 100% agree with your final statement, at the end of the day each of us will always sound like “us,” which is how it should be!
@@dylanadamsguitar Thank you for the reply. I will play with the bridge pickup settings. Great tips on this video. We all are constantly looking for tone and open to new ways to make things happen. Every player has their settings... Cheers!
Dylan, Just watched Yngwie Malsteen on Rick Beato. Great interview. Not my type of music but he is incredible. He uses Marshals and talked about how every room made a big difference in their sound. I found that to be true in my giving days. Sure Duane and others had to work at their sound during sound check. Remember, no tuners, no pedals, modern effects. It was really a challenge. Also, I am very lucky to see so many great artist. Saw Joe Pass in a small lounge, Stan Getz in a corner bar. Count Bassie, Miles, Zeppelin, Savoy Brown, Floyd before Dark Side and after. Just very very lucky. And the tickets were cheap. $6.50 for front row at Tull, $7.25 for 6th row at Dark Side.@@dylanadamsguitar
Someone close to the ABB camp told me Brother Duane used really light strings, something like 9’s? If that is true it makes what he did even more amazing!
Good point, you can't buy technique, obviously. Nice tone. 👍 I guess you know the horseback story when he blamed Gregg for breaking his arm. Thus leading to the slide playing
A few things. He always had his Marshall dimed completely out, so volume had a LOT to do with his sound. He had Y-clipped the channels together - which gave him more gain. He was actually somewhat obsessed about getting the most gain he could out of them without having to use a pedal (which he did do in his early days). Using 50 watt heads allowed him to get away with that a little more. Dickey used 100 watt Marshalls, so he had to turn down a little bit, and that's why he was a bit cleaner than Duane as well. A good bit of his sound which nobody ever seems to talk about was in microphonics. He would play loud and distorted enough to where he was always RIGHT on the edge of feeding back. You can listen to a ton of live recordings of him where you will hear it feeding back - or almost feeding back. That may be one of the bigger components of his sound. Whenever he couldn't turn the amp all the way up, his sound definitely tended to suffer somewhat. Listen to the solos on like One Way Out on Fillmore East and/or Don't Keep Me Wonderin' there as well. Listen also to the power chords he's hitting at the end of Mountain Jam. That was SERIOUS amp distortion - especially for back then! He definitely manipulated the tone knobs more than probably any player ever, and you definitely got that part right. Finally - the speakers. I've heard anything from JBL's (which I think he was mostly using), Altecs & CV's. His cabinets were also open back on his top 2 speakers as well. Even though he supposedly was using the same pups from his gold top in his cherry '59 & in Hot 'Lanta at the end, I'm still convinced that the cherryburst was the best sounding guitar he had. Hot 'Lanta had just a little bit more of an upper mid/low high sound (certainly on the bridge pup) to it - just like the gold top. The cherryburst was the smoothest sounding sound he ever got, IMO. That's the one he used at FE. When you've got as little as he did in the signal chain, even slight wood differences can make a difference! Great video, though - and great playing as well!
So I found Duanes tone. Took a while. Marshall amp of course. Used fillmore pickups from wcr in my les paul. But the real tone cam e from the cerwin vega er123. The speaker brought it all together. And weber don't come close. Good luck finding a original er123 recones don't have the same woody tone.
Tone is not 100% in the hands, unless you are talking about a really unique player like EVH. Tone is like a stew. Good gear will get you there, but so will your touch, gain, phrasing, pick placement/attack, how the amp hits your ear, dust particles in the air, how many people are in the room, etc... You do cover a good bit of that, so hats off to you sir, and good playing!
Love your work Dylan ‘ I’ve been playing around with guitars for fifty years and always wanted to play better slide guitar and some of the other videos before Dickie passed’. We used or use bass heads and base cabinets l Marshall . Great pedal . Keep up the great job and much continued success with your growing channel. ❤🎸👍😎❤️
Two things that I can think of that you might want to review in another video. First of all, I absolutely agree with finger picking as an essential part of playing. However, in addition to just picking with the fingers you have to use your thumb and non-string playing fingers to dampen the strings not being picked. Too many players I have seen and heard have bleed from other strings into their sound and it makes everything sound muddy. Second, pressure of the slide onto the strings. From what I have heard from many people is that Duane used a very light touch. IMHO too many players press down too hard which makes their tone sound harsh. Duane was brilliant at getting that light and smooth sound.
I'm in my mid-thirties now and I used to play a bit of guitar in my late teens and early twenties. I wasn't particularly good, IMO, but I enjoyed it for the fun of it anyway. Other stuff in life came up and I gave it up, but lately I've been thinking of picking it up again. I always loved slide guitar but never picked slide up myself - it seemed like a big hurdle to overcome for me, who is kind of a slow learner anyway and I never quite "mastered" guitar the traditional way. But videos of slide players of different skill levels have inspired me, and I'm looking into buying a basic Tele (usually the most ergonomic neck for my left hand) + amp and a slide and give it a go. Your channel has played a part in this - I hope the water in the slide pool isn't too cold :D p.s. I looked up a couple of Smokestack gig videos, I particularly enjoyed your rendition of Blue Sky by the Allman Brothers Band. Are you familiar with Skydog? They're an ABB tribute band from Virginia. Good stuff.
Dammit.... & you HAD to tell EVERYONE... But That guitar, & his ANP, Had nothing to di with it.. "Playing" a dimed Non Master volume Marshall, & only using your guitars volume, Is better than having a Fender, ( For clean) & 30 of your favorite distortion boxes. It's now a lost art.
Dylan, thank you for this tips…I use a Blues Driver too, and now with tone on 9 o clock and Bridgepickup tone on 5…great tone all this in standard tuning, also good…- I don't know if I like the SG or the LP better. I'm going to play again and test out my new taste.😎🎸🎼
Whenever I see questions like "what pickup/gear will give me a good blues tone or country tone?" I say "these are styles of music and not tones." The blues is not a tone. And so forth.
Ery time I watch you play I think damn, that’s probably the best slide playing I’ve ever seen in standard tuning. I never knew that was possible. Spot on w the Duane tone. Cheers
Dylan Senseï, your playing is as usual, so clean, controlled, musical. You really nailed that sound with your gear, but the most important thing is how well you master these techniques and soul it's so impressive!
Sounds pretty close to me one thing I would say is don't play like Derek Trucks the older he gets the more harsh he plays. I hear his influence in some of the newer slide players I say forget that and go back to Duane.
Wow, You are an excellent player-- both with and without the slide, but your slide chops are fantastic. You totally have the Duane feel, and as you said at the top of the video, that has about 1000x more to do with you as a player than the settings on your gear. I'm more interested in your tips on slide technique than anything to do with knobs or switches... can we get a video on that?? 😉
How about a lesson on how to play a few lines.? How can you not mention the tuning on the song but i guess you weren't talking about technique. I got nothing out of this. Maybe learn the riffs first and then you can concentrate on tone.
Great tips Dylan, I've been playing over 40 plus years raised also on Allmans tunes being in a hot bed of music during the 70's. They were the most played band here
Dylan, thanks again for this video. The way you've absorbed so much of the essence of Duane's phrasing yet still maintain your individuality is outstanding! Much success to you.
Thanks! I’m mostly self taught, aside from when I went to music school for college. All of the slide stuff and gear/tone knowledge is years and years of self teaching and self research!
So close - change "Duane" to "Derek Trucks" and you have it! Also, GLASS, not metal slide, and Duane used a Rangemaster or Fuzzface pedal with weak batteries.
Disagree, slide material makes very little difference in tone on electric guitar if you ask me, especially when you have overdrive going. And Duane only used the fuzz face in his pre-ABB years, his live ABB tone was always just plugging straight into a Marshall
Just a comment from a bassplayer’s point of view: most guitarplayers use way too much gain (and bass). They get their sound in their bedrooms, where it might sound great. They shouldn’t. Get your sound in a band situation!! Learn to ride your volume (and tone controls, they’re there for a reason), that’s where the power is. Don’t mind FOH bullshit on volume. Learn about it! I love guitar! 🖖
I absolutely agree! When I hear other guitarists talk about “oooh this amp has that low end” I immediately think “they’re probably stomping all over the bassist’s frequencies” haha.
Yes, but it mainly affects the sound when you roll your volume knob back. My Goldtop is wired ‘50s and the Tele/Esquire I play at the end of the video is wired “modern”/normal, and rolling back the tone knob still achieves the same effect when the guitar volume is on 10
@@dylanadamsguitar I think the tone on a 59s wired guitar does not get muddy when you roll off the tone .by the way I really enjoy your playing and videos.
