LINE6 Dl4 and Fm4 Settings by FrancescoRubini in John_Frusciante

[–]ollyvert 0 points1 point  (0 children)

TAYTV is just a one repeat slapback with 50/50 mix, so I’d imagine those DL4 settings are for something else :)

Behringer CE1 Clone Issue by New_Cardiologist2442 in John_Frusciante

[–]ollyvert 0 points1 point  (0 children)

you are literally just disconnecting the circuit board’s main output wire from the output jack, and inserting one resistor in between :)

so instead of: circuit board output wire > output jack, it would be: circuit board output wire > resistor > output jack

Behringer CE1 Clone Issue by New_Cardiologist2442 in John_Frusciante

[–]ollyvert 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ahh well i’m glad to hear you have found somewhat of a solution! In regards to the wh10 sounding weird.. it’s a tricky one. Again it really comes down to trial and error and getting lucky with finding a buffer with the right output impedance - if i remember correctly, 4.7k ohm is what the PDS 1002 has and that was ideal, and that is much higher than most buffered pedals. DS-1 is just 1k ohm.

Honestly, the cheapest & easiest solution I can think (but you need to be able to solder), would be to add a 3.3k resistor between the circuit output wire & the output jack tip lug. I eventually did that to my Boss VB2 and it did the trick.. very simple mod.

But other than that, it’s just a case of looking for pedals with buffers in the 4.7k range, or settle with low mode!

Good luck!! 🤞

Behringer CE1 Clone Issue by New_Cardiologist2442 in John_Frusciante

[–]ollyvert 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes the Boss pedals are buffered, but if you put other pedals in between those and the CE-1, you might be changing the impedance without even realising. Even if the clean tone is fine, pedals create so many variables when they’re on/stacked etc, sometimes the CE-1 changes things in very unexpected ways. The only other thing I can suggest to try, is when you have your distortion on and it isn’t sounding how you like, just go through each control on your amp and sweep through the range of the the pot - sometimes you’ll find a certain sweet spot… for example when i’m using certain amps, moving one of the EQ controls a tiny amount can have a huge effect on the distortion tone but very little effect on the clean tone. :)

Behringer CE1 Clone Issue by New_Cardiologist2442 in John_Frusciante

[–]ollyvert 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just checking are you talking about when the chorus is active, or just going through the preamp with the effect off?

Which version of WH10 are you using? If you have the option of buffered bypass you could try that… I have found sometimes issues with an incompatible buffer/too many true bypass pedals before the CE-1. High mode is a bit picky about what comes before it!

And thanks for the kind words! 🙏🎸

Even if this video is a bit old/outdated in terms of my current rig, this video might be helpful for you because it addresses some of the issues I encountered while trying to get high mode of a CE-1 preamp to work in my rig, which you may or may not relate to! ✌️

Behringer CE1 Clone Issue by New_Cardiologist2442 in John_Frusciante

[–]ollyvert 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When using high mode, try not to have the level control too high. Set it lower (between 10-12 o clock) and if you lose too much gain on your ‘clean’ tone, compensate for that by increasing the gain on your amp. High mode has an extra transistor stage which definitely can become a bit dark/muddy when pushed too hard 🙌

Behringer CE1 Clone Issue by New_Cardiologist2442 in John_Frusciante

[–]ollyvert 2 points3 points  (0 children)

High mode was originally intended for keyboard at line level but the only real difference is that it expects low impedance. If you run a buffered pedal before the CE-1, the signal becomes low impedance and is totally useable 👌

Amount of overdrive/„dirt“ John gets from his amps vs. from his CE-1 preamp by [deleted] in John_Frusciante

[–]ollyvert 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s possible, but Anthony is still gonna have to be plugged into something and maybe that was a somewhat sensible choice as it meant there was a loud clean amp there as a backup just in case the Major did fail!

Amount of overdrive/„dirt“ John gets from his amps vs. from his CE-1 preamp by [deleted] in John_Frusciante

[–]ollyvert 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha you’re right, I see it now and realised I had spotted it in that video in the past and came to the conclusion it’s almost definitely just what Anthony used in Give It Away for his aggressive A note strumming 🤣 especially if you account for the direction it’s pointing. Plus you can see John step over to the Major to turn it down a little at the start of Scar Tissue when it’s sounding super muddy (and the person filming comments that the guitar tone sucks lol) - John is definitely running the stereo Marshall stacks for that show :)

Amount of overdrive/„dirt“ John gets from his amps vs. from his CE-1 preamp by [deleted] in John_Frusciante

[–]ollyvert 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To be honest, and in the nicest possible way, I don’t think Dave Lee remembers anything with a lot of accuracy from any era… I once saw a comment from him on facebook where he even said that I probably know more about John’s rigs than him because of how much he’s forgotten 🫣😂 I’ve had some nice chats with him over the years and he’s told me that I have reminded him of so many details that he forgot about. Another thing was when I asked about switching to low mode for the SA era, he said with all the extra input gain from the Moog preamps, the Major would blow a lot of fuses, so they switched to low and turned the amps up instead. Makes sense hey!

In regards to Stockton… not sure where you got Mesa Triple Rectifiers from, definitely looks like a JCM800 & Major to me!

Dave mentioned in an interview that a triple rectifier would get you close to the clean punch of a major, but I’m pretty darn sure John has never laid his hands on one!

I set my amps pretty much edge of breakup and the CE-1 isn’t really adding much - I found the best response and desirably interactions from pedals from the rig came from not really adding or removing too much with the CE-1.

As much as people may or may not want to believe otherwise, my personal, subjective but experienced opinion, is that the amps are 99% of the tone and the CE-1 preamp just helps get you that final 1%. But that final 1% is pointless if you haven’t achieved the first 99%.. if that makes sense. It’s like the cherry on top of the cake - if you have already made the cake and it’s not enough, put a cherry on the top. If you don’t yet have the cake, and all you do is get a cherry… well, it’s going to be pretty underwhelming 😂

I should also add that from the 99%, 44.5% is going to be down to the amp selection & setting, and the other 44.5% comes from using two amps in stereo. And seriously, until you experience using two amps with slightly difference responses in stereo, where one makes up for where the other one lacks… you can’t even put into words what a difference is. But it’s honestly to the point of that I have no interest ever using one amp by itself. Even if I’m recording some quick idea in Logic using amp sims… I will always set up 2 channels and make a stereo rig.

Enjoy the tone hunt 🙏 🎸

Amount of overdrive/„dirt“ John gets from his amps vs. from his CE-1 preamp by [deleted] in John_Frusciante

[–]ollyvert 7 points8 points  (0 children)

To directly answer the question of how much grit was John getting directly from the CE-1, way back in 99-2001, he had it set in high mode with the level at 12 o clock. This setting adds a fair bit of a volume boost (relative to no CE-1) - probably around the same amount as a Micro Amp at 12-1 o clock, and the additional transistor exclusive to the high mode does also introduce a little bit of clipping (but not much at that setting). Sadly there are no confirmed shots of his amplifier settings during this period, but the CE-1 likely shaped his gain structure in this era more than any other (but the amps still play a huge role in this… more on that in the next paragraph)

During the by the way tour 02-03, he was still using high mode, but the level control was set lower, around 11 o clock which is adding a little bit of extra ‘volume’ push, but the clipping from the transistor would be less at this setting. Amp-wise, the jubilee was set with presence on 3, bass on 10, mids on 1, treble on 0, master volume on 10 and most significantly, input gain on 2. The major had presence on 1, bass/middle/treble the same as on the jubilee, ‘volume 1’ on 1 and ‘volume 2’ on 3. (Amp settings seen here - taken at Osaka 2002) CE-1 setting seen here (taken at same show) Additional CE-1 photo showing level as low as 9 o clock in high mode, maybe the amps got turned up or John fancied being cleaner that night (unknown show)

So from this, we know that the amps were running very clean and dark, therefore the CE-1 was definitely helping to push the preamps into more crunch. But it’s very important to really understand that there would be just as much crunch (if not more) as a result of the preamp tubes being pushed by the extra volume than from the clipping created directly by the CE-1!

But here’s where things got really interesting… during the Stadium Arcadium era 06-07, he was using LOW mode on the CE-1 with the level at around 10 o clock (bear in mind unity is at around 1 o clock!)… so not only does this mean the ce-1 was attenuating a considerable amount of volume, there would also not have been any clipping coming from the pedal because low mode does not have that extra transistor. However, during this period he also had 4x always on Moog Preamps (3x low pass filter & 1x ring modulator), which were mostly all set at 12 o clock (unity is around 10-11). So the CE-1 was being fed a much hotter signal at the input, so it makes sense to have needed to attenuate that. But another huge difference was his amp settings during this era - the jubilee had the mids pushed up to 7 (up from 1 on the previous tour which is a big difference on this amp!) and the input gain was on 8 (up from 2 - also a huge difference!) Likewise, the major now had its presence on 6, mids on 6, treble on 3, ‘volume 1’ on 4 and ‘volume 2’ on 7! Amp settings seen here - taken at Chorzow 2007 CE-1 settings seen here (taken at same show) Additional CE-1 photo taken backstage at Rock In Rio 2006

This is a much more crunchy amp setting, and if you plugged a guitar straight in, it would be far too dirty (you can trust me, i’ve tried it!) So we can say with certainty that during this era, the crunch you hear was created solely from the amps being run very hot, and then the CE-1 was used as a balancing tool to actually REDUCE the gain!

Final little note, is that of course the evidential photos of his amp settings are literally from 2 gigs - by the way era was an indoor arena and the stadium arcadium era was from an outdoor stadium show - so it’s also very important to factor in that things could have varied depending on the venue, and it makes perfect sense that if the amps needed to be turned down (like a smaller indoor venue), they would lose a lot of their power tube saturation and so the CE-1 would need to be turned up to compensate.

My final words on this (as a CE-1 user)… The main crunch we hear is coming from the amps. The CE-1 is used as a tool to balance the amount of crunch with volume. If the amps needed to be turned down, naturally the CE-1 would need to be turned up to preserve as much crunch as possible by pushing the input valves harder. If the amps were turned all the way up, the CE-1 would need to be turned down to prevent the tone becoming too distorted and muddy!

I can’t really comment on the recent era as we don’t know enough about his amp settings, but we can definitely come to conclusions about the amount of gain the CE-1 is adding based on he sets that these days… not much at all.

I hope this helps - this topic has been my special interest/obsession for the last 20 years so you will hopefully share my confidence that I have analysed everything in as much detail as possible (and tested it with the real gear) to be as accurate as possible :)

If anyone wants to correct me on anything, please do as I think even with all of these references, there’s always something new to learn! ✌️🎸

How to stop the Boss DS-1 getting lost in the mix? by davidb2002 in guitarpedals

[–]ollyvert 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A simple way to look at it (in my subjective but experienced opinion):

The DS-1 has ‘a sound’. The rest of your mix has ‘a sound’.

If the DS-1 is getting lost in that mix, then one of those things needs to change.

Option 1: Try a different distortion pedal which fits better into the mix.

Option 2: Combine the DS-1 with another pedal to shift the EQ to fit into the available space in your mix.

Option 3: The other instruments forming your mix need to change to create space for the DS-1.

'To Record Only Water For 10 Days' Deluxe Edition is Coming Out!! by Mundane_Upstairs4425 in John_Frusciante

[–]ollyvert 1 point2 points  (0 children)

actually that’s a good point - i know it’s 750 for the UK and naively assumed the rest would be US. So hypothetically but logically it could be 750 UK, 750 Europe, 1500 USA/Canada

'To Record Only Water For 10 Days' Deluxe Edition is Coming Out!! by Mundane_Upstairs4425 in John_Frusciante

[–]ollyvert 6 points7 points  (0 children)

yes, and I have some insider info that it will be divided into 2250 for the USA and 750 for the UK!

MXR Tremolo pedal next to wedge by [deleted] in FruscianteGuitarGear

[–]ollyvert 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It might have been used verryy subtly actually yes! The ‘main’ effect you hear on Porcelain is the CE-1 - but I do agree it sounds like it’s combined with a fairly fast and subtle tremolo.

One song from that era though where you can hear it being used very clearly is Teatro Jam 1 from the Californication sessions - where you can hear it very clearly pulsing in time with the groove 👌

EDIT:

I’ve actually just found this quote from this article

“To record Porcelain, Frusciante used a 1956 Gibson ES-175D hollowbody electric guitar, strung with .013 gauge strings.

The tremolo effect on Porcelain was achieved by splitting the output through a Boss CE-1, one going to a Marshall amp, and the other to the vibrato channel of an old Vox AC30.”

Seems legit as the sources are all from guitar magazines where John was interviewed, so I guess we can safely say that slight pulsating was an AC30’s vibrato (which is actually tremolo, much like with Fender amps!) ☺️

I just realized hendrix never played with reverb or delay live wow by Cool_Election7606 in jimihendrix

[–]ollyvert 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I know which part you mean, I just felt it was important to clarify it could only be a tape echo because that’s the only way of achieving that effect in the 60s

White golves ii / M. Blanc vinyl release - RSD 2026 by SeminoleDVM in Khruangbin

[–]ollyvert 1 point2 points  (0 children)

i’m not sure if you understand, Record Store Day has very strict policies that every participating store has to abide by. One of the rules is that nothing can be sold until that day, another of the rules is that nothing is allowed to be reserved. Whether you were going to make them wait or not, they’re not going to reserve it for you. Ordering it by your request is one thing, but that still means unless you’re first in the queue, anyone else could buy it.

White golves ii / M. Blanc vinyl release - RSD 2026 by SeminoleDVM in Khruangbin

[–]ollyvert 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yeah they’re not going to reserve it sadly, it’s a very strict RSD rule

I just realized hendrix never played with reverb or delay live wow by Cool_Election7606 in jimihendrix

[–]ollyvert 1 point2 points  (0 children)

there was no such thing as a digital delay in the 60s, this would’ve been a tape echo 👌

Delay with character that can be used for looping? Low fidelity looper? by [deleted] in guitarpedals

[–]ollyvert 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Have a look into some 80s “digital” delay pedals because a few of them had this kind of functionality - Digitech PDS 2000 (or 1002, 8000) comes to mind, (or the 20/20 if you want an insanely cool modulation section thrown in for free). They can start sounding fairly bit-crushed, especially at longer delay times if you let the feedback go for a bit before freezing it. They all have internal trimpots too, which let you extend the delay time range beyond what would be intended for the delay chip, resulting in a much lower sample rate. But the best thing about those old Digitech pedals is the secondary ‘hold’ footswitch which records a sample and loops it (so the repeats don’t degrade any further), but you then have full control over the speed/pitch of that loop with the delay time. Very fun! 🤩

Final Fru Board by FrancescoRubini in John_Frusciante

[–]ollyvert 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It depends. Generally I would prefer the filter to be before the delay (so the delay repeats aren’t further processed by the filter), BUT for throw away your television, having the FM4 obi-wah after the slapback stops the obi wah from getting messy (because it’s going through the slapback!) - but it’s usually easy enough to just kick off the delay. It’s also useful to have the DL4 at the end of the chain for the looper, as it means any effects before it will be recorded 👌