Amp Settings for Dimebag Tone?

[anomaly]

I think the Furman PQ3’s I’ve had help a lot with getting similar lead tones to Dime, but for rhythm maybe not so necessary. I actually feel my vintage 500L’s have a little more Dime like vibe to me than my vintage 500XL’s, but both I think work well for it. I find the 500L’s are more uppermidrangy, tight and articulate, while the 500XL’s seem to have more low mids and thickness

Dime starred off using the L-500L, then he switched to the L-500xl sometime in the early 90's I think?

 

[anomaly]

I had a different experience. I bought sll dimes Gear all something big was missing. Once I got a wizard I was like blown away . The strange beautiful rich Harmonic highs that I’ve only heard Dime have I now got . It’s just a certain prequency of his tone . I sold all the other dime gear except the wizard and the warhead 412 .it’s just razor sharp and beautiful . Wizards with oit el34s don’t do it . The 6l6 wizard don’t have the highs I speak of

That's just a tiny part of his tone though dude. It's obviously mainly a solid state tone when you listen to it. When I had all of his gear including the Furman and 6 band and Randall I was getting dead on Pantera tones, nothing sounded missing to me, especially when I compared it to Cowboys From Hell. I never did own a Century head though, so I couldn't quite get the VDOP and FBD tones, but it was damn close.

 

[RaceU4her]

You have the MXR 6 band and Furman PQ-3? Make sure you set that 6 band in a steep frown, with the 800, 1.6k and 3.2k bands up pretty high. I don't remember exactly how to set the furman up, but I think he pulled out a little bit of midrange with it to kinda get that hollow kinda sound going. It goes L-500xl - Furman pq3 - MXR 6band - Noise Gate - Randall rg100es or Century 200, then preferably into a V30 loaded cab. It's best to run two 8 ohm cabs with those Randall's to get them at 4 ohms.

my GE7 and ashly pq16 will do just fine, i found my pictures of dimes settings i will use as a starting point

 

['63-Strat]

The Wizard thing is interesting, I wasn’t even aware of Wizard amps until way later. I do remember people saying he blended a 900 in with the Randalls ages ago but this is first of hearing about Wizards. Seeing them on the trendkill tour with white zombie opening in ‘96 is up there with best concerts I ever saw though.

 

[JackBootedThug]

I'm a bigger dime and pantera fan now than I was back in the day. I fuckin love his tones and to find out he was actually using wizards and other tube amps with the randalls in the studio blows my fuckin mind.

 

[Techdeth]

Ya, he said he always would blend a LITTLE BIT of tube amp in with his solid state Randall's. Meaning it wasn't a very significant part of his tone, it was just the icing on the cake so to speak. Live, he never used tube amps, except for his clean tone.

If you've ever had a Randall rg100es or a Century 200 (i've owned many rg100es and rg100ht heads) and boosted it with a mxr 6 band and a furman pq3, and used a Dean ML loaded with a bill lawrence l-500xl you'd know where at least 90% of his tone comes from. It sounds just like him, like dead on Cowboys From Hell or Trendkill tone.

The razor sharp was always missing . I bought every dime equipment as a kid . There’s one frequency I loved and wanted and the rgs and firmans and mxr would never get me . When I got the wizard it was like wow there it is . So I dold everything but the wizards and war cabs

 

[JackBootedThug]

The razor sharp was always missing . I bought every dime equipment as a kid . There’s one frequency I loved and wanted and the rgs and firmans and mxr would never get me . When I got the wizard it was like wow there it is . So I dold everything but the wizards and war cabs

speaking of cabs-I am a huge fan of the emi legend 15"s for guitar. not sure how big a part of his tone was with the 15's, but I personally love them.

 

[Techdeth]

That's just a tiny part of his tone though dude. It's obviously mainly a solid state tone when you listen to it. When I had all of his gear including the Furman and 6 band and Randall I was getting dead on Pantera tones, nothing sounded missing to me, especially when I compared it to Cowboys From Hell. I never did own a Century head though, so I couldn't quite get the VDOP and FBD tones, but it was damn close.

I’

speaking of cabs-I am a huge fan of the emi legend 15"s for guitar. not sure how big a part of his tone was with the 15's, but I personally love them.

i love them too. I don’t use them in my pantera tone lol go figure. But man they are huge . My friend has it atm

 

[Banned by IK Multmedia]

That's just a tiny part of his tone though dude. It's obviously mainly a solid state tone when you listen to it. When I had all of his gear including the Furman and 6 band and Randall I was getting dead on Pantera tones, nothing sounded missing to me, especially when I compared it to Cowboys From Hell. I never did own a Century head though, so I couldn't quite get the VDOP and FBD tones, but it was damn close.

The Randall actually misses in the whole spectrum of frequencies. There is what appears to be an evident solid state element in his tone but it is also evident that the tone is harmonically rich, something the Randall can't deliver. There is a tube amp playing a major role too. Everyone who tried it with the Randall+same EQs failed except yourself and will keep failing without throwing a tube amp on it. I have my reasons to be believe it is the ADA in the recordings, but what i have seem live was Wizard and Marshall.

 

[anomaly]

The Randall actually misses in the whole spectrum of frequencies. There is what appears to be an evident solid state element in his tone but it is also evident that the tone is harmonically rich, something the Randall can't deliver. There is a tube amp playing a major role too. Everyone who tried it with the Randall+same EQs failed except yourself and will keep failing without throwing a tube amp on it. I have my reasons to be believe it is the ADA in the recordings, but what i have seem live was Wizard and Marshall.

Dude, tons of people have nailed his tone, just look on youtube, lol. and it's always a Randall RG or Century head, go figure. There's no conspiracy about his tone, so quit it with your nonsense. In the studio there's these things called Equalizers, it's amazing what one can do with a equalizer. There's also speakers, microphones etc... many ways to shape the tone. It's no ADA mp1, go find one picture of Dimebag with a ADA mp1, go ahead... and that Marshall you saw was probably some other bands equipment. Dime kept his rack rig in the back hidden from the audience. I have no doubt Dime used some tube amps to add flavour to his tone, but the core of it is Randall RG100ES and Century 200.

and those old Randall's are actually very tube like sounding. I'm guessing you've never played through one, or you wouldn't be saying all this bullshit. Like they have no low end...LOL or they aren't harmonically rich, you're full of shit buddy.

 

[anomaly]

The Randall actually misses in the whole spectrum of frequencies. There is what appears to be an evident solid state element in his tone but it is also evident that the tone is harmonically rich, something the Randall can't deliver. There is a tube amp playing a major role too. Everyone who tried it with the Randall+same EQs failed except yourself and will keep failing without throwing a tube amp on it. I have my reasons to be believe it is the ADA in the recordings, but what i have seem live was Wizard and Marshall.

here you go, and he's not even using the right kinda cab or microphone:



Ya, there's no low end in that, and it sounds nothing like Dimebag's tone at all, lol.

 

[Banned by IK Multmedia]

Dude, tons of people have nailed his tone, just look on youtube, lol. and it's always a Randall RG or Century head, go figure. There's no conspiracy about his tone, so quit it with your nonsense. In the studio there's these things called Equalizers, it's amazing what one can do with a equalizer. There's also speakers, microphones etc... many ways to shape the tone. It's no ADA mp1, go find one picture of Dimebag with a ADA mp1, go ahead... and that Marshall you saw was probably some other bands equipment. Dime kept his rack rig in the back hidden from the audience. I have no doubt Dime used some tube amps to add flavour to his tone, but the core of it is Randall RG100ES and Century 200.

All those guys on Youtube with randall RG100Es sound nothing like Pantera. The only that sounds really like it on Youtube is that Darrel plug-in.

 

[JackBootedThug]

that fuckin plug-in was dead nutz.....

 

[anomaly]

All those guys on Youtube with randall RG100Es sound nothing like Pantera. The only that sounds really like it on Youtube is that Darrel plug-in.

Bullshit, just watch the vid I just posted, listen when he combines all the mics and plays the Pantera riffs, sounds a LOT like his live tone.

 

[anomaly]

All those guys on Youtube with randall RG100Es sound nothing like Pantera. The only that sounds really like it on Youtube is that Darrel plug-in.

and that plug-in is based on a Randall rg100es being boosted with a furman and a mxr 6 band.

 

[RaceU4her]

The recent made L500XL’s may not have the same voicing as the original ones, but I’d have to revisit that. At least the one in the Dean CFH I used to have seemed to be scooped and different voiced from what I remember of them

did you flip them upside down like dime did?

 

[Banned by IK Multmedia]

Bullshit, just watch the vid I just posted, listen when he combines all the mics and plays the Pantera riffs, sounds a LOT like his live tone.

I agree that Century 200 is very close, but the RG100 on its own sounds like no Pantera album.

 

[MistaGuitah]

If you could put Dimebag's tone in a 6-band EQ, what would it look like as far as frequency ranges?

 

[RaceU4her]

listening back to my last randall century clip id say im already about 90% there to dime'ish tone and the only thing in the chain that would be the same as him is the randall like i said when i get this l500xl ill try boosting with the two eq's and put a 57 on a jaguar, ad some high end sheen i think i hear in post and i think ill be right there



https://app.box.com/embed/s/az503fdqcmcc0fxy0ke88uy3lvfuhbrr

 

[anomaly]

I agree that Century 200 is very close, but the RG100 on its own sounds like no Pantera album.

Sure it does, CFH and Trendkill. I could get those tones easily with one. The 1980's RG100ES that is, not the one they released in the mid 90's called the RG100H. Dimebag had stacks of those amps (rg100es) on stage in the late 80's and early 90's, and in his rack was 3 rg100ht heads, the rackmount version of that amp, it sounds a bit brighter, but you can get that tone with it too.