In this video
This live stream looked at how to recreate iconic guitar tones with whatever gear you have, showing that getting classic sounds is more about understanding signal chains, EQ settings, and how you play than having expensive equipment.
The session started with chat about creating jam tracks for the beginner electric course, which meant copying tones from artists like Beastie Boys, Cream, Noel Gallagher, and Ritchie Blackmore for the Electric Beginner Course.
Three ways to find tones were discussed:
looking up signal chains and pedal boards online,
Listening to isolated guitar tracks on YouTube or of course listenin to Original song
Using amps with built-in presets like Boss Katana or Spark.
The main demos included:
Jimi Hendrix's tone using wah before fuzz with a Behringer Super Fuzz, Boss Blues Driver and Dunlop Wah.
Eddie Van Halen's "brown sound" was recreated with high gain on the Blues Driver plus a cheap vintage phase pedal, focusing on palm muting and hammer-ons.
Neil Young's mid-gain sound with open chords
Jimmy Page's method of boosting bass and treble while cutting mids
Slash's tone using straightforward Blues Driver settings with more gain
Chuck Berry's and Joe Bonamassa blues tone -> bright, clean sound with hardly any gain.
Some technical bits included using effects loops to keep delays clean when adding distortion, putting loopers in the effects loop to layer clean and distorted sounds separately, and how your guitar choice matters - solid body versus semi-hollow and different pickup types. The Boss Blues Driver was used throughout, showing how versatile it is from clean boost to heavy gain.
The main takeaway was that you can get most classic rock tones with a clean amp and a Blues Driver in this case! and how you play often matters more than having the exact same gear.