Getting that Pop Evil Sound

Ive been listening to Pop Evil's new CD Lipstick On the Mirror and I can't get enough of it. To me that is the perfect guitar sound. Just rock guitar, but I can't figure out how to tweak the settings to get that sound on my strat. Any help. Is it the recording gear? Guitar Gear? Studio tricks? Here is a link to the clips so you can hear what I am talking about

MySpace.com - Pop Evil - GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN - Rock / Pop / Alternative - www.myspace.com/popevil

Marty
Fontana

just sounds like drop D tuning with a distortion pedal. Maybe try the neck pickup for the fatter sound, kinda sounds like humbuckers to me. I can get similar sounds through a tube amp with a boss DS1. Maybe if you find the myspace pages for the guitarists, it might have a bit of stuff about the gear they use.

one of the guitarists myspace page has pics of him holding a BC Rich guitar with humbuckers: MySpace.com - Tony Greve of Pop Evil My Photos

I lived in GR for 7 years and worked with the father of Pop Evil's bass player (Matt DiRito). I know Matt very well. I've seen them play locally before they had released their CD and the guitarist definitely uses guitars w/humbuckers. When I saw them he was playing a black Les Paul custom. I'm sure MattyJ is right -- they are probably using drop D tuning and a pedal to overdrive the amp. I'll ask Matt if he's willing to give us a description of the guitar player's rig and setup.

it also sounds like there's not a huge amount of gain/overdrive/distortion in the guitars, just a 'heavy' style of playing.

that would be insane! I would love that if it happened. thanks.

I was in Albany NY the last two days for work, and Pop Evil was there on tour with Puddle of Mudd. I got to the venue too late to see Pop Evil, but I hung out with the band and watched some of the other acts, and spent some time talking to both of their guitarists.

This won't surprise some of you (like Adaptable, for example ) but the guitar players for Pop Evil have very simple rigs. They are using Dean Soltero guitars...

USA Soltero

They are using Mesa Boogie and Marshall amps. One guitarist goes directly into a Mesa Boogie; the other splits his signal to a Boogie and a Marshall. And by directly, I mean no effects and no processing. They just use the amps' gain/volume settings to get their overdriven tones. And one of the guys said something very similar to what I've read in a lot of articles..."we get our tones in part by the way we play. I can pick up other guys' guitars and play through their amps, and it still sounds like me."

Later that night I got to spend some time talking to Puddle's guitar tech. That made for an interesting conversation, hearing about how he negotiates compensation, what it's like to tour with various bands, going guitar shopping in different cities...all in all it was a pretty cool night. Everyone was very interested to talk about guitars and amps, very willing to mingle with fans in the crowd...I saw none of the egos or excesses you might associate with rock bands. Although I will say this -- it wasn't hard for the guys to meet pretty girls. And if you're touring from city to city on a bus, away from home for months at a time, there has to be some reward, right?

Let's face it: no matter what guitar, amp, fx system or whatever you use, the tone will come from your heart and your fingers. What one uses on the gig to reproduce what one did in the studio is so widely variable as to prohibit reasonable discussion.

The dirty secret is that if you want a particular player's sound (rather than your own), you not only need to use what he does, you need to cop his touch as well. I spent years in musical instrument retail setting up rigs for players, both famous and unknown.

You want great tone? Then don't skimp when it comes to instruments and gear. You think I want to spend $3500+ on a guitar amp? Hardly, but cheap amps sound, well, CHEAP!

'bug

Well said, bug. But for Mr. Jack Daniels, who wants to mimic the sound of Pop Evil's guitars, he will be somewhat limited by the use of a Strat when that band is using the classic humbucker guitar/Marshall amp combo. The Strat is a wonderful instrument, but probably will not accurately recreate the saturated overdrive tones of the classic Les-Paul-style single cut/mahogany body/maple top/2-humbucker guitar.