Bolan Tone

Hootsmon

How is the wee Bolan getting this grand guitar tone.........I think he is a wee bit overlooked as a guitarist.....he has his sig tone for starters....

Hootsmon

Wonder if it's a treble booster?

proggy

I didn't know Jaco Pastorius was in T.Rex.

PhilW1

Not seen that before….loved it . 
my first guitar hero

Vintage65

https://images.equipboard.com/uploads/source/image/9716/big_bolan2.jpg

Hootsmon

BINGO!

Hootsmon

copycat.....TBooster.........wah and wot's that middle job?

Supportact

I know he used to use a Shatterbox regularly, I think that might be it but I'm not an expert. I've got a copy of one, a fuzz with an added boost. 

ICBM

Great tone, great grooves, and a handful of great songs.

Apart from that, he probably wins the 'got the furthest with the least talent as a guitarist' contest.

And despite that is still one of the all-time greats. He captured a mood and a time perfectly for a few years.

Offset

ICBM said:

Great tone, great grooves, and a handful of great songs.

Apart from that, he probably wins the 'got the furthest with the least talent as a guitarist' contest.

And despite that is still one of the all-time greats. He captured a mood and a time perfectly for a few years.

Wiz'd.  He was one of those guys who had a burning desire to succeed and be famous - and that's what he achieved.  A few great songs and a particular groove which most definitely caught the zeitgeist of the era.

CaseOfAce

Offset said:

ICBM said:

Great tone, great grooves, and a handful of great songs.

Apart from that, he probably wins the 'got the furthest with the least talent as a guitarist' contest.

And despite that is still one of the all-time greats. He captured a mood and a time perfectly for a few years.

Wiz'd.  He was one of those guys who had a burning desire to succeed and be famous - and that's what he achieved.  A few great songs and a particular groove which most definitely caught the zeitgeist of the era.

Not to mention great production - those Visconti strings on Get It On and others... your basic 12 bar boogie (usually A E and D chords) with a fresh twist.

That's a solid state amp head in the youtube vid above?

suitablyswell

CaseOfAce said:

That's a solid state amp head in the youtube vid above?

H&H! 

Offset

suitablyswell said:

CaseOfAce said:

That's a solid state amp head in the youtube vid above?

H&H! 

Nowt wrong with H||H!

distressed

HH IC100-S. Killer tone.

Whistler

I had one. From memory there were 60 and 100 watt versions. Goodness me, that was a long time ago!

Offset

Whistler said:

I had one. From memory there were 60 and 100 watt versions. Goodness me, that was a long time ago!

I had an IC-100 head and then the 2x12 combo.  For their time, they were great.  They needed a decent o/d pedal though 'coz the built-in sustain was fecking diabolical.

PhilKing

I had the VS-100 combo.  It was great at home, but the first gig we had with it, there was a ton of feedback when I pushed the volume up (the other guitarist had a Sound City 120 and the bass player a Marshall 100).  I was lucky that I was running JSG at the time, so I was able to swap it back for the Marshall 50 that I was using before that.

Kittyfrisk

I feel the general opinion of 'Bolan tone' as revolving around his 'pop hits' period, a bit limiting.
Have a listen to the earlier transition from folk to electric guitar tunes of Tyrannosaurus Rex in "A Beard of Stars" & then on to the eponymous "T.Rex" album.
Lots of very good guitar tonez there 

Kurtis

Not sure I'd say he lacked talent!

He did like a simple pop song though. 

Hootsmon

Talent or lack of ICBM he undoubtable has what most of us NEVER achieve ....a signature tone

ICBM

Hootsmon said:

Talent or lack of ICBM he undoubtable has what most of us NEVER achieve ....a signature tone

Very much - I meant that as a fan, even though it may not read like that. He had ‘something’, even if it wasn’t technical skill as a player. His tone and timing were superb, and made very simplistic parts sound great. A lot of much better players never get that - it’s actually hard to duplicate, something instinctive rather than learned I think.