Without doubt the most difficult learning outcome I’ve set for myself is LO1.

The main reason for this is that both Matt Bellamy and Tom Morello’s guitar tones are extremely unique and difficult to replicate. Bellamy in particular has used a vast array of different effects, guitars and amplifiers, even in just the band’s first three albums. This makes it difficult to pin down tones to replicate. As mentioned in my post entitled ‘Pickups’, I have found that Bellamy uses both single and dual coil pickups, but uses the latter for most of his guitar tones. Getting the basic guitar tone right should be easy. The pedals and amplifiers may prove more of a challenge.

Matt Bellamy has a penchant for using a fuzz tone that seems to be somewhere between a distortion and a high-gain fuzz. This can be heard in particular on ‘Plug-In Baby’, found below. The introduction to this track features the sound of feedback being shaped by the Z-Vex Fuzz Factory, which at the time of Origin Of Symmetry, was Matt’s main distortion pedal. The pedal itself is actually built into several of his guitars and when performing ‘Plug-In Baby’ live, Matt controls the tone of the fuzz feedback at the beginning of the song from a switch on the guitar. This can be seen in the [Live From Wembley Stadium] video at the bottom of this entry. Replicating the tone of this pedal will be difficult and I actually looked into buying it. It’s well over £150 however, and therefore I’m going to try and mix the sounds of a couple of pedals together to see how close I can get. The main fuzz pedal I’ll use to try and replicate Matt’s tone is the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Nano, a highly popular fuzz pedal. This will be mixed with the Electro-Harmonix Crayon, an overdrive pedal which is a copy of the JHS model that Matt Bellamy actually owns. Evidence of this can be found in the ‘Equipboard’ link below. Whether he used it during the recording of their first three albums is unclear. The Z-Vex has a tone highly characterised by having huge prominence in the high frequencies, creating a ‘fizzing’ tone. Other options open to me are to distort the amp and use the Big Muff to try to replicate the tone of the Z-Vex by itself. I will experiment with this during recording. Finding the right distortion will be absolutely essential but I believe with the right tone-shaping, I should be able to get at least a close replication.

Other effects Bellamy is known for include the MXR Phase 90, again, built into some of his guitars. This can prominently heard on the middle section of Citizen Erased from Origin of Symmetry. There is a section in one of my tracks where I will attempt to use this effect. As I don’t own a phaser pedal, I will add the effect before the mixing stage in Logic Pro.

The Digitech Whammy (see my post on this pedal for more) an effect that both Bellamy and Morello use prominently. I will also be using this during the recording stage. The Whammy is a pitch-shifting pedal which allows the guitarist to move notes in a way which would be impossible with a regular fretted guitar.

For the recording stage I have even fitted a similar gauge set of strings (heavier on the bottom, lighter on the top) as Bellamy does in order to get the low-frequency prominence that he finds when playing sections like the palm-muted verses of ‘Time is Running Out’

Matt Bellamy’s amplifier choices in their first three albums were all valve amps made my Marshall, Soldano (both seen on image below), and on Absolution, Diezel. These are all high-gain amps however in an interview, Bellamy mentioned that ‘I tend to stick to one channel 90% of the time, which is volume on full, with the gain really low. You get this really attacking, clean sound which I use quite a lot.’ This can be found in the ‘Equipboard’ link below. Bellamy also uses a Vox AC30, a similar amp to one that the university owns, for several clean tones. I intend to try this amp therefore. It seems through his comments that the majority of Matt Bellamy’s guitar sound comes from his pedals, and through listening I believe this is evident.

Tom Morello has also used a Marshall JCM amplifier throughout his career. Evidence of this can be seen in the image at the bottom. Morello also details that he uses a Peavey cabinet, which is what I will be recording the guitar parts through.

As mentioned, Tom Morello also uses a Digitech Whammy, but he also owns a Dunlop Crybaby Wah pedal, another staple of his sound. As I don’t own this pedal, I will try adding it before the mixing stage in Logic. Morello generally uses the distortion from his amp and so on one of the tracks, Antagonise, I will do the same to try and achieve a similar tone.

All in all, getting the guitar sounds right will be the most difficult aspect of this project, but it is something that I am keen to do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o6Ga3Nad3s

http://www.sonicscoop.com/2016/03/08/get-that-guitar-sound-muse-edition/

http://equipboard.com/pros/matthew-bellamy/#effects-pedals

http://equipboard.com/pros/matthew-bellamy/marshall-jcm-2000-dsl-100-amp