Mids with Ronnie Le Tekro & Oz Fox/Michael Sweet?

[Gainfreak]

One thing to keep in mind and those that have seen them live recently can vouch for...Michaels tone is very scooped while Oz has a ton more mids...Ive heard their rigs on stage and it was shocking to me how different their tones actually were coming out of the cabinets....FOH has them balanced a little closer for the mains.

Yeah that's definitely the case now. When I saw them years ago on the soldiers tour both of them had similar tones but I did notice that Michaels was wetter sounding then Oz Foxs' for whatever reason. It sounded like Michaels had verb on it and Oz just had the 26ms delay working

 

[Gainfreak]

only person I've heard mimic the "spaz" Le Tekro lick and nail the tone is chubtone


weirdest spazzy fast rock solo:
tnt "wisdom" from intuition
wtf is that?!
must be the 1/4 step guitar..anyone have a pic of that guitar?

Ralphie nailed it great too a few months back. I think he nailed it better than I did. And Gainzilla can play that Ronni Le Tekro machine gun picking thing that for whatever reason I can't do. I can do the jerky, spazzy Ronni type stuff though. I love that style that sounds like he is being electrocuted but still fighting through it to solo.

You know that I'm loving this thread lol

and

YOU ROCK!

The Charvel has become my main guitar and I can't thank you enough

 

[Gainfreak]

Oh and I agree that Both Curt and Kage do a mean LeTekro!!!

 

[Chubtone]

The Charvel has become my main guitar and I can't thank you enough

It can't be! It isn't expensive enough. I'm not kidding you at all here when I say I have to force myself to play my "baby" which is my '84 San Dimas that I've had for 26 years because I like the necks on these Production models better. Dead serious.

 

[Cornfordcrunch]

Ive been really lucky to have the opportunity in the past few years to hang with Oz and Michael a bunch of times in social situatuons (Oz sat in on vocals with my band ...and sang Journey...with no monitors and killed it...its on youtube.)It seems that Mike is the "chaser" and Oz just kind of goes with it. I cant understand why those two get continually overlooked when dual guitar bands are discussed....the note choices in their harmony leads were fricking stellar and the way their vibratos match is just awesome...but then again, good stuff typically does get overlooked.

I asked them about the tour with TNT and Loudness. Mike said Ronni's guitars have the action set so high they were nearly unplayable by mere mortals...

 

[Zachman]

ahhhhhh 3 of my 80's faves mentioned in this thread!!


Just to clear up some things that Ive read....
I spoke to Oz Fox and Michael Sweet via e-mail and in person and here is what the told me and Ganiac at the Stryper expo in 2000 when we met them. When they used the Boogie Mark series amps and not preamps they used Boogie MKII's not the MKIII's or IIC+'s. Oz said that his amp might have been close to the MKIII because he got his amp right about when the MKIII's were just comming out and he said that his amp just sounded mean as hell and it had the Import transformer.
Both Michael an OZ slammed the Front end of their amps with the Furman Pq3 bumping up the midrange at a narrow bandwidth , cutting the lows and the level on the PQ3 was set at 8 to max which increases the gain by +26db. Both mark series amps had graphic Eq's and they were set to the scoop setup. When you have the Boogie graphic scoop combined with the PQ3 in the front of the amp you get that tone. Ive nailed that tone on any of the Marks series amps with an EQ and PQ3. Its really the parametric EQ that is needed for that tone.
The Marks series amps and PQ3 combo was used on Soldiers and THWTD.
In God we trust they swapped out the MKII's for a Quad preamp Strategy 400 Poweramp and PQ3 and on against the Law they went back to straight MKII's without the PQ3 slamming the front end.

OZ told me that they used Boogie Halfback Cabs loaded with 4 EV speakers. He said that some speakers could not handle that sound but the EV's were great for it.

They also used Noise gates because you will find out that slamming the front end and boosting mids will add a shitload of noise lol!!

As far as effects were concerned OZ told me that they used Digitech stuff and the only thing he used was a chorus with 26ms of delay between cabs and he used Delay Live on the THWTD tour. Other then that everytime Ive seen him Live he just used Chorus.

I hope this helps!!


As far Letekro is concerned he did pretty much the same thing that stryper did by hitting teh front end of the amp but its the Flanger that acts like the EQ in order to get that Midrange Hump. How he figured that out is beyond me and it Was Curt(Chubtone) Who hipped me to the Flanger !!

Icon use the same thing as Stryper but they used Valley Arts Parametric EQ. Wexler set his midrange Bump to 800hz and the other guitarist had his at 400. They recorder them together and that's what gave them the sound. They also used Musicman solid state amps which would not have the bottom end Stryper had and it would be a bit tighter.
If you Listen to Reason for the season by Stryper that was more in the 800hz Freeqency ala ICON!

Hope this helps!

~R~

Holy crap Ralph--- THAT is a LOT of very detailed info. No wonder you're the man. You RAWK!!!!

 

[MrDan666]

Hey Ralph, have you tried slamming the Cali Mod with the PQ-3 yet?

 

[Gainfreak]

The Charvel has become my main guitar and I can't thank you enough

It can't be! It isn't expensive enough. I'm not kidding you at all here when I say I have to force myself to play my "baby" which is my '84 San Dimas that I've had for 26 years because I like the necks on these Production models better. Dead serious.

tell Me about it LOL!! I have a friend of mine who has already compared the re-issues to a Jackson neck and the new ones or so spot on it's just crazy.

What's even crazier is that I yanked the tone zone out of the guitar and put it back in because I actually like the pickup better then the replacement. The TZ pickup kicks ass at loud volumes and cuts like glass. I was Seriously Shocked by my findings.

 

[Gainfreak]

Ive been really lucky to have the opportunity in the past few years to hang with Oz and Michael a bunch of times in social situatuons (Oz sat in on vocals with my band ...and sang Journey...with no monitors and killed it...its on youtube.)It seems that Mike is the "chaser" and Oz just kind of goes with it. I cant understand why those two get continually overlooked when dual guitar bands are discussed....the note choices in their harmony leads were fricking stellar and the way their vibratos match is just awesome...but then again, good stuff typically does get overlooked.

I asked them about the tour with TNT and Loudness. Mike said Ronni's guitars have the action set so high they were nearly unplayable by mere mortals...

AWESOME!! Stryper is one of my favorite 80's bands and I don't have any qualms saying that lol It seems to me the more melodic a band is the more they get panned. Id love to see the video!!!

I also got the impression that Mike was the Gear Chaser. His information was more detailed then Oz's but it was great getting the information from both of them!!

As far as Ronnies guitar action, Curt has said the same thing and you can actually see it in videos!! It looks like you could shoot an arrow off of his guitar neck LMAO

 

[Gainfreak]

ahhhhhh 3 of my 80's faves mentioned in this thread!!


Just to clear up some things that Ive read....
I spoke to Oz Fox and Michael Sweet via e-mail and in person and here is what the told me and Ganiac at the Stryper expo in 2000 when we met them. When they used the Boogie Mark series amps and not preamps they used Boogie MKII's not the MKIII's or IIC+'s. Oz said that his amp might have been close to the MKIII because he got his amp right about when the MKIII's were just comming out and he said that his amp just sounded mean as hell and it had the Import transformer.
Both Michael an OZ slammed the Front end of their amps with the Furman Pq3 bumping up the midrange at a narrow bandwidth , cutting the lows and the level on the PQ3 was set at 8 to max which increases the gain by +26db. Both mark series amps had graphic Eq's and they were set to the scoop setup. When you have the Boogie graphic scoop combined with the PQ3 in the front of the amp you get that tone. Ive nailed that tone on any of the Marks series amps with an EQ and PQ3. Its really the parametric EQ that is needed for that tone.
The Marks series amps and PQ3 combo was used on Soldiers and THWTD.
In God we trust they swapped out the MKII's for a Quad preamp Strategy 400 Poweramp and PQ3 and on against the Law they went back to straight MKII's without the PQ3 slamming the front end.

OZ told me that they used Boogie Halfback Cabs loaded with 4 EV speakers. He said that some speakers could not handle that sound but the EV's were great for it.

They also used Noise gates because you will find out that slamming the front end and boosting mids will add a shitload of noise lol!!

As far as effects were concerned OZ told me that they used Digitech stuff and the only thing he used was a chorus with 26ms of delay between cabs and he used Delay Live on the THWTD tour. Other then that everytime Ive seen him Live he just used Chorus.

I hope this helps!!


As far Letekro is concerned he did pretty much the same thing that stryper did by hitting teh front end of the amp but its the Flanger that acts like the EQ in order to get that Midrange Hump. How he figured that out is beyond me and it Was Curt(Chubtone) Who hipped me to the Flanger !!

Icon use the same thing as Stryper but they used Valley Arts Parametric EQ. Wexler set his midrange Bump to 800hz and the other guitarist had his at 400. They recorder them together and that's what gave them the sound. They also used Musicman solid state amps which would not have the bottom end Stryper had and it would be a bit tighter.
If you Listen to Reason for the season by Stryper that was more in the 800hz Freeqency ala ICON!

Hope this helps!

~R~

Holy crap Ralph--- THAT is a LOT of very detailed info. No wonder you're the man. You RAWK!!!!

Love ya Brother Zach,,,,,,But ya da man!!

~R~

 

[Gainfreak]

Hey Ralph, have you tried slamming the Cali Mod with the PQ-3 yet?

Nope!! I never got a chance to do it!! I only slammed the front end with the treble booster after we had spoken about it lol

Im going to have to try it when I get my cali mod back from Mike!

 

[MrDan666]

Nope!! I never got a chance to do it!! I only slammed the front end with the treble booster after we had spoken about it lol

Im going to have to try it when I get my cali mod back from Mike!

I think you're going to have a nice surprise when you try it ... Oh yes!

 

[Chubtone]

Slamming the front of a Fortin mod with a PQ-3? You guys are lunatics. The Fortin has at least double the gain of the amps we used to slam the front of with Furmans. If you found a guy that could mod the Fortins to have twice as much gain as they have you guys would probably slam the front of that too. And so on, and so on, and so on.

 

[Gainfreak]

Nope!! I never got a chance to do it!! I only slammed the front end with the treble booster after we had spoken about it lol

Im going to have to try it when I get my cali mod back from Mike!

I think you're going to have a nice surprise when you try it ... Oh yes!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAW YEah!!!

 

[Gainfreak]

Slamming the front of a Fortin mod with a PQ-3? You guys are lunatics. The Fortin has at least double the gain of the amps we used to slam the front of with Furmans. If you found a guy that could mod the Fortins to have twice as much gain as they have you guys would probably slam the front of that too. And so on, and so on, and so on.

With that said......You do realize that Stryper slammed the Front end of the 4 gain stage boogie with the level maxed and the mids maxed right? Im just following thier lead

 

[Digital Jams]

Hey Ralph, have you tried slamming the Cali Mod with the PQ-3 yet?

Holy shit, I am all for gaining the fuck out of marshalls just to get Curt's Cinderella panties all in a bunch but that may cause a tear in the current time zone I live in

I boost the line level when I am playing the yingyang clone as that has pups made of a penny nail and some copper wire, humbuckers I may have to go upstairs wireless

 

[mixohoytian]

Slamming the front of a Fortin mod with a PQ-3? You guys are lunatics. The Fortin has at least double the gain of the amps we used to slam the front of with Furmans. If you found a guy that could mod the Fortins to have twice as much gain as they have you guys would probably slam the front of that too. And so on, and so on, and so on.

With that said......You do realize that Stryper slammed the Front end of the 4 gain stage boogie with the level maxed and the mids maxed right? Im just following thier lead

If you got the stryper tone, then re amped through the fortin...that would sound killer....
or you could just buy a metal zone pedal

 

[Gainfreak]

Slamming the front of a Fortin mod with a PQ-3? You guys are lunatics. The Fortin has at least double the gain of the amps we used to slam the front of with Furmans. If you found a guy that could mod the Fortins to have twice as much gain as they have you guys would probably slam the front of that too. And so on, and so on, and so on.

With that said......You do realize that Stryper slammed the Front end of the 4 gain stage boogie with the level maxed and the mids maxed right? Im just following thier lead

If you got the stryper tone, then re amped through the fortin...that would sound killer....
or you could just buy a metal zone pedal

Im one of the few that Like processed tones as well as a good cranked Plexi. I know the Stryper tone isn't for everyone but I dig it

 

[loudgtr]

Great thread

 

[MrDan666]

Im one of the few that Like processed tones as well as a good cranked Plexi. I know the Stryper tone isn't for everyone but I dig it

Count me in with that few aswell!

Oh.. and Stryper rules