In Search of The Ultimate Country Rig

[GREENMACHINE]

Ok, so I have been playing guitar for 5 nearly 6 years. I've played mainly rock, country and blues and a little bit of metal.
The amazing Brent Mason got me interested in the sound he gets out of his gear on the Alan Jackson songs. Just how does he get that great twangy, but not too trebly, biting tone?

So I have been researching how to obtain the 'ultimate country rig'.
Everywhere I've looked these things keep popping up as requirements:

A single coil guitar (like a Strat or Tele)
A tube amp (Lots of people go with a Fender tube amp of some kind)
A compressor (Boss compressors seem to be used alot).
A delay pedal (This seems to vary from person to person, but generally they are all set up to get one sound. The famous short slap back delay).
A pedal tuner (this is optional I guess, but I think everyone should have a tuner in their rig. It will end up being the most used and most useful pedal on your board).

I looked at what the majority of the country guitarists are using for a guitar, and the Fender Tele seemed to be the number one go to guitar.
So I saved up and bought myself a Fender American Deluxe Ash Tele.

I then saved up again and went out and bought 4 pedals. I wanted them all to be boutique pedals and all have true bypass. I purchased a TC Electronic PolyTune pedal tuner, the MXR Dyna Comp compressor, the Fulltone OCD V4 overdrive and the TC Electronic Flashback delay.

So I managed to tick off everything on the above list except the tube amp. Theres just sooo many options to choose from. I was thinking a Fender amp would be great, then I came across the Peavey Classic 50 (or the Classic 30) and then I heard the Vox AC30 Custom Classic...Which do I choose? Or do I choose neither of them and go with a completely different option?

Also, if your interested in country and Brent's guitar check this out: http://terrydownsmusic.com/Archive/Info_on_Brent_Masons_Tele.PDF its very interesting. From what I can find this guys done some research and study of Brents guitar and hes compiled this PDF of what hes found. Its definitely worth a look.


So what do you guys think would be the ultimate country set up? And which amp and pedals do you think would get that awesome sound?

[Robert]

Fender Deluxe
Telecaster
Blues Driver or similar
Delay optional

Most of you hear in Brent's tone is his amazing technique. That chicken pickin' mastery takes years to develop, but it the style of playing that "makes" the sound.

[Katastrophe]

Robert has it right. Congrats on the Tele by the way! Am Deluxe Teles are one of my dream guitars.

I would look into a Vox AC30 and a Tube Screamer or other equivalent overdrive pedal... You would get real close to a Brad Paisley tone, who is also an amazing player. I would use any other effects sparingly. Some guys in the 80s used a chorus in their pedalboards, and I think that chorus doesn't belong in country type music. I would rather hear a more up front, rough tone if that makes any sense.

But, Robert is also right in that Brent Mason gets a lot of "tone" from his hands... his phrasing and manner of playing. I saw a video a while back of him playing a big ol' Gibson hollowbody, and it sounded unmistakably like him.

[Robert]

A compressor too perhaps, for clean tones with sustain.

[GREENMACHINE]

Thanks Robert, thats good advice. Im working on that chicken pickin. Its pretty hard to master, especially when you have always played with a pick.

Thanks Kat, the Fender Am Deluxe Tele is my number one go to guitar for everything. Definitely worth the money.

I agree, a compressor sure comes in handy for clean tones and for overdriven lead tones.

Does anyone think the Wampler Hot Wired Brent Mason pedal would be a great addition to a country rig?

[tunghaichuan]

A couple of thoughts:

A Tele is a must. Preferably an ash body with a maple neck/fingerboard.

In my experience compressor pedals for guitar come in two varieties: those that are fairly subtle (you don't notice the effect until it is turned off) and those that "squash" a fair bit. The DOD FX80 Compressor Sustainor is an example of the former; the Boss CS-3 the latter.

Compression can come from a pedal when used with a large powerful tube amp (like the Twin Reverb) or naturally when cranking up a Deluxe Reverb. Tubes naturally compress the signal when pushed a bit.

As far as amp is concerned, tubes are nice and do some things that a solid state amp can't do. Fender amps work well because they are fairly trebly and mostly clean. Brad Paisley uses a Trainwreck and Dr. Z amps which both have their roots in the Vox AC-30. You also might check out the Vox AC-15 as well.

Another suggestion is to find a 70s MusicMan amp. It is a hybrid affair with a solid state front end and and a rather odd tube output section. One of my favorite country guitarists, Albert Lee, uses them. I love his clean, spanky tone.

Finally, philosophically, the equipment is only going to get you so far. Albert Lee and Brent Mason are going to sound like themselves no matter what gear they are using. Concentrate on technique and emulating great country players. The gear is only a means to an end and not the end in itself.

[t_ross33]

and I think that chorus doesn't belong in country type music

Oh man, don't you remember wave upon wave of chorus-y strat quack in the 80's and 90's :).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfjzLZDkAT4

I was glad when twang came back to the forefront (thanks Vince Gill, Dwight Yoakam, Marty Stuart etc.) but this stuff is so retro now it's kinda cool again. :cool:

[cebreez]

Pull out the chorus, phaser, or flanger when you want to jam to some old "Alabama". The chicken picken is great... I'm still struggling to get it right and clean and... recognizable. I foregone the tele for the same reason everybody else loves it. Too much twang. I tone my chicken picking down with a couple of blues roots and some jazzy rhythm for flavor. Still a work in progress but the other guitarist I play with stops everytime I do it and says "Do that again!" Im just trying to be different.

Thumbs up for the "Classic 30" A great country amp without the Fender pricetag and a real workhorse. But yes I would have a Fender Twin Reverb if someone gave me one!... anybody?.... chirp chirp chip

As far as pedals your right on! But if you find your tone a little thin try the "Sonic Stomp" by BBE. For live performances it can really get you through the mix and keep your tone fresh. I never leave home without mine.

[bcdon]

As far as pedals your right on! But if you find your tone a little thin try the "Sonic Stomp" by BBE. For live performances it can really get you through the mix and keep your tone fresh. I never leave home without mine.

I've seen BBE's "Sonic Stomp" discussed before (they put it in the FX loop and were doing metal chugging) but I couldn't figure out just what it did. Would you mind explaining just how it works or what it does? Thanks! :dude

[jpfeifer]

Sounds like you are on the right track with most of the suggestions so for. I would also encourage you to start learning some hybrid picking techniques since this is one of the key things to work on to add some "twangy" licks to your arsenal. With the right guitar/amp and using your pick & fingers together, your licks will start to have more of twang happening. I've learned a ton of great country licks online. There are sites where they specialize in this type of playing, with loads of information about the equipment, various styles of licks from different country players, etc.

One of my favorite sites is this one: http://www.sizzlingguitarlicks.com/ (this guy is an amazing player and teacher)

--Jim

[t_ross33]

One of my favorite sites is this one: http://www.sizzlingguitarlicks.com/ (this guy is an amazing player and teacher)

--Jim

I was just going to suggest that site Jim! I've been on Doug Seven's email list for a while now, but haven't taken time to really get into the lessons until just a couple nights ago. Some really, really good stuff there! Also has a couple videos talking about pedals etc. used to get modern country tele-tones.

[deeaa]

Bcdon: the sonic stomp/bbe maximizer does phasing tricks with multiband processing...simply put, it divides the signal in, lets simplify, high, middle and low frequencies, and then it sort of delays the lower frequencies a little, each band more sort of, which results in the higher frequencies emergencing faster from the material and having time to be heard before the lower components mask them, thus bringing out the sparkle in a dulled signal. Can sound great but it also reduces the limited band impact of the sound, meaning it can easily be overused and sound scooped, missing the meat of the original sound more or less. It tends to work great if your signal is degraded by lots of effects and/or processing or if you simply like an airy or scooped tone. I like it but it has its caveats. Not good for strong rootsy tones in general, but becomes kind of a loudness effect easily.

Sent from my HTC HD2 using Tapatalk

[bcdon]

Thanks for the description, deeaa!