Comfortably Numb amp set up

flying_pie

Gassage said:

flying_pie said:

You don't need his exact tone unless you're in a tribute band.

For general pub/function use a ballpark time will be fine - a fair bit of gain with a wee bit of delay and some reverb. There are lots of ways of achieving it. I used a clean boost on the gain channel of my Blackstar HT 50 with reverb and delay when I played it in a previous band.

The approach is more important than the precise tone. Target all those money shot bends and wring the notes out with loads of vibrato. 

No reverb on it whatsoever.

That'll explain how I don't sound as good as David Gilmour...

My main point was that in your average gig setting there are lots of ways of getting an appropriate tone, and it's the phrasing and feel that matters more than precise replication of DG's tone. I doubt that a bit of reverb would ruin the solo by itself but thanks for clarifying that is not in the recording. 

Lestratcaster

I agree the phrasing and feel need to be right, its just I want more sustain on the notes. I plugged in my Boss SD-1 and whacked the drive up and it does make it sing a bit more. Obviously not the same as Gilmour but its better than what I had!

richardhomer

newi123 said:

So many people see this as a Holy Grail, so personally if I had to cover it I`d bin the original solo and go for more of a Morello or Malmsteen kind of approach. Liven it up a little.......... maybe that`s just me.

A friend of mine has asked me to play some guitar on a song he’s working on - including a very long minor key outro.

The ‘final’ version will be put down in a studio - but I’ve been getting a feel for what I’ll play on the day, by recording many improvised passes on my home set up. My admiration for the Comfortably Numb solo has greatly increased - it’s bloody difficult to play a long, memorable - and emotionally charged - solo. I think it’s considered a masterpiece with some justification....

Gassage

flying_pie said:

Gassage said:

flying_pie said:

You don't need his exact tone unless you're in a tribute band.

For general pub/function use a ballpark time will be fine - a fair bit of gain with a wee bit of delay and some reverb. There are lots of ways of achieving it. I used a clean boost on the gain channel of my Blackstar HT 50 with reverb and delay when I played it in a previous band.

The approach is more important than the precise tone. Target all those money shot bends and wring the notes out with loads of vibrato. 

No reverb on it whatsoever.

That'll explain how I don't sound as good as David Gilmour...

My main point was that in your average gig setting there are lots of ways of getting an appropriate tone, and it's the phrasing and feel that matters more than precise replication of DG's tone. I doubt that a bit of reverb would ruin the solo by itself but thanks for clarifying that is not in the recording. 

Totally agree re phrasing.

If I have one delay, I put a tad of Reverb on myself.

I know the settings inside out, as I have a post it note from Phil Taylor with those and the Echoes settings on them from the 2006 shows.

Also, it depends which era.

Orig: Rams Head, Poweboost, elec miss MXR delay and Leslie
1987: Rams Head Boss CE2 MXR
1994; Sovtek muff, Tube Driver, CE2  TC2290 and Dynacord CLS222
2001: TUbe Driver and Cornish Echo, no muff, 1957 Gretsch!
2005; Cornish G2, Tube Driver, Cornish Echo- no modulation
2006: Cornish P1, Tuber Driver, Cornish Echo
2016; Sovtek muff, elec miss, Source EQ, 2 flight time delays.

Gassage

Yes, re Clean amps too

vasselmeyer

richardhomer said:

newi123 said:

So many people see this as a Holy Grail, so personally if I had to cover it I`d bin the original solo and go for more of a Morello or Malmsteen kind of approach. Liven it up a little.......... maybe that`s just me.

A friend of mine has asked me to play some guitar on a song he’s working on - including a very long minor key outro.

The ‘final’ version will be put down in a studio - but I’ve been getting a feel for what I’ll play on the day, by recording many improvised passes on my home set up. My admiration for the Comfortably Numb solo has greatly increased - it’s bloody difficult to play a long, memorable - and emotionally charged - solo. I think it’s considered a masterpiece with some justification....

I understand he actually played four solos and then marked off bar by bar, which were the best phrases and then assembled the final solo by using the faders to bounce to a single track. It would probably be a lot easier using a modern DAW.

richardhomer

vasselmeyer said:

richardhomer said:

A friend of mine has asked me to play some guitar on a song he’s working on - including a very long minor key outro.

The ‘final’ version will be put down in a studio - but I’ve been getting a feel for what I’ll play on the day, by recording many improvised passes on my home set up. My admiration for the Comfortably Numb solo has greatly increased - it’s bloody difficult to play a long, memorable - and emotionally charged - solo. I think it’s considered a masterpiece with some justification....

I understand he actually played four solos and then marked off bar by bar, which were the best phrases and then assembled the final solo by using the faders to bounce to a single track. It would probably be a lot easier using a modern DAW.

I think that’s the approach we’ll be using - I need all the help I can get....

57Deluxe

Oh I just have to add this in here again!

robinbowes

Oooh, nobody's said it yet: compressor!

I used to cover this a few years ago, and used a combination of three/four pedals to get the sound. I think I went:

compressor
muff
drive
delay

I swapped and changed the actual pedals I used, but I mostly used Boss CS-2, homemade Muff clone, modified Boss BD-2, and Boss DD-2.

The compressor will help you with the sustain, but I recall getting quite a lot from the Muff too.

R.

PhilKing

You need the Juansolo Gilmourizer for it.  

Modellista

At the Northern Jam I played (an approximation of) this solo with a few mini pedals - some sort of distortion with the gain high for the compressed sound and sustain, an Ibanez chorus with the rate low and depth high, and a bit of analog delay with the delay time whatever felt right.  I think that was it, with a Strat into that nice Danplifier head set fairly clean.  It got close enough both for clean and solo tones I thought.

Lestratcaster

His sound here sounds a lot cleaner than I first thought, but still has that sweetness to it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cPxKq-gMDo

Barney

Not comfortably numb but a pink floyd style backer with a Gilmour vibe ..I think .....it's a Roland cube 60 and a strat  

I honestly think it's more down to the feel with Gilmour and how he holds the notes ...even with a fairly clean sound like shine on you crazy diamond the notes just seem to ring out ...

Aidanspaghetti

Who are we kidding lads... we all know "Mother" is a better solo!

robinbowes

Lestratcaster said:

His sound here sounds a lot cleaner than I first thought, but still has that sweetness to it:

He uses quite a bit of fuzz/drive with the top rolled off. That's the secret of making it sound sweet.

R.

Gassage

Lestratcaster said:

His sound here sounds a lot cleaner than I first thought, but still has that sweetness to it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cPxKq-gMDo

That's the Cornish All Tube Board Mk 2 in use, so Comfy would be P1>BKTD>TES>Hiwatts. No modulation.

Gassage

robinbowes said:

Oooh, nobody's said it yet: compressor!

I used to cover this a few years ago, and used a combination of three/four pedals to get the sound. I think I went:

compressor
muff
drive
delay

I swapped and changed the actual pedals I used, but I mostly used Boss CS-2, homemade Muff clone, modified Boss BD-2, and Boss DD-2.

The compressor will help you with the sustain, but I recall getting quite a lot from the Muff too.

R.

Robin,

That's cos he only used compression on it in 94. He stopped after that and before that.

robinbowes

Gassage said:

robinbowes said:

Oooh, nobody's said it yet: compressor!

I used to cover this a few years ago, and used a combination of three/four pedals to get the sound. I think I went:

compressor
muff
drive
delay

I swapped and changed the actual pedals I used, but I mostly used Boss CS-2, homemade Muff clone, modified Boss BD-2, and Boss DD-2.

The compressor will help you with the sustain, but I recall getting quite a lot from the Muff too.

R.

Robin,

That's cos he only used compression on it in 94. He stopped after that and before that.

Yeah, it's mostly from the Muff.

Compressor does help though.

R.

Classic

It depends how close you want the sound to be. In essence the first solo can be emulated using a clean amp with a drive pedal and a boost. The phrasing and bend accuracy is a large amount of what people are actually hearing.

The second solo can be approximated by adding delay and chorus to the same drive pedal and boost. Again most of the solo is in the phrasing.

Moltisanti

I prefer Time as a solo to Comfortably Numb personally.

CN is a very tricky solo to get to sound good, none of the parts are technically difficult but the timing of it and the flow is really hard to nail, it's easy to rush it and overdo the quicker licks. It's extremely difficult to mimic someone else's phrasing, especially in a piece this long, it's like trying to do a really good Christopher Walken impression for 3 minutes straight