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Post subject: That Clapton Tone
Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:25 am
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Does anyone here know Clapton's rig? I just can NOT find this sound. I have a Custom Shop Clapton with Lace (I think thats what hes using in the video) and a Fender Deville. What do I need to buy/modify to get that beautiful sound?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxTWQD91b5c


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Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:33 am
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Well, his amp is a modded one, so it might be difficult to emulate..

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Last edited by EdMardell on Wed Mar 12, 2008 12:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:36 am
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I don't know precisely what Eric is using in that clip, but the sound seems clear to me: Fender tweed, boosted with a clean boost.

In the Fender line, something like the '57 Twin (my best wild guess as to what Eric is playing in this clip: I don't know precisely when the amp was introduced, but I think it was far enough back for him to have been playing one in 2006) or the '57 Deluxe being pushed by a high-quality clean boost like a Bad Bob pedal will produce this sweet, stinging tone with a Strat.

I have to disagree on the Crossroads pedal: all drive pedals (and especially DIgitech's) to a lousy job of emulating what these amps do naturally, and there's nothing you can buy that will give you Eric's tone in an instant.

You also have to know how to play like that.


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Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:54 am
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This mainly features his Cream and Bluesbreaker rigs, but its a start:
http://guitargeek.com/search?qt=a&q=eri ... &x=12&y=10

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Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 11:08 am
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Yeah I agree that no pedal can do what he does, but I am pretty into collecting gear, vintage or not. Man I wish I could just write him a letter and ask, and maybe see if he will sign my EC Custom Shop Strat! :) Do celebrities do that kind of stuff anymore? Anyway, if you guys know his current gear let me know, it just seems like I can't get that bright cleanish boosted mid sounding distortion no matter what I do, even with the SAME GUITAR. Don't get me wrong, I can't now, nor will I (or anyone for that matter) be able to sound like Clapton, no matter what guitar I use. Haha.

I do like the cream sound, but those were his Gibson days. BTW, this is my first strat coming from a Les Paul Custom. Its amazing how different two guitars can play/sound. I find myself listening to so many classic rock songs and saying......Sounds like an SG.....theres a Tele.......thats a strat...lol. Maybe I'm a little obsessed.

Played the Crossroads pedal, not a digitech fan and I don't think I ever will be, but I do appreciate the advice!


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Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 11:58 am
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Anytime you hear Clapton you're hearing his tone through mixing board EQ and compression and dog-knows-whatever extra signal processing gear his recording engineers and FOH mixer are throwing in there. That's why nobody can get the old Beano Tone: it was partly in all the crazy old Brit tube gear and wacky tape-slap processing in the studio control room. You'd need a time machine to get back to that sound.


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Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 12:02 pm
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Want to buy: Time Machine.
Will Trade: Les Paul Custom.


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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 9:01 am
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I've read Clapton's using a Custom Shop '57 twin, and that's also what he's featuring in his Crossroads guitar package. He's got to be using mid-boost since he features that on his guitar as well. From what I understand, he switched to vintage noiseless from lace several years ago. Clapton also gets a lot of very different sounds. Like on several tracks of Riding With The King, he's got an unbelievable transparent glass tone. Cream was great, but cannot approach the clarity and crystal distortion Clapton gets now. Also, there's no way my Highway One can get that because it's just much darker with a little bit of a metallic vibe, but from playing a lot and trying to hear a hint of that tone I'm pretty sure I know what he's doing. He's actually using a substantial amount of gain along with the mid-boost through his tube amps, which is how he's gettin that wickedly distorted tone and the reason it sounds clean is Eric is playing it on the bridge pickup. I've discovered that I can max out the gain on my Blues Junior and sound very clean playing notes in the bridge and bridge-mid, especially if I roll back on the tone knobs to about 3 where it just sounds like music ripping, if you can get what I'm not saying well. Even though it's way more of a Cream tone - which is awesome - than Clapton's current supernatural tone, I think I'm seeing what he's doing. Even with Clapton's exact gear, Strats have so many tones that you've got to dial in the same setup to get close to that vibe.


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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 10:30 am
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All I know about Clapton tone is that Eric likes small amps. Derek and the Domino's he used a late 50s Champ. 461 Ocean Blvd. he used a Pignose. I guess these days he's using a 57 Twin, another low powered amp.

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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 10:54 am
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i think one of the keys like other guys have said is a low watt amp. I do use a blues driver with the tone rolled back to about 9 and the gain up to about 2 is maybe 3 and get a very nice sunshine of you love type tone


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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 3:48 pm
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I found this site to be useful as far as gear goes, and everything Clapton.

http://www.whereseric.com/ecfaq/guitars-amps/


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