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Thread: David Gilmour's Rat Settings

  1. #1
    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
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    David Gilmour's Rat Settings

    Guys, when I watched the video from the Delicate Sound of Thunder tour and saw Dave Gilmour playing a Strat, I hadn't played electric guitars in years. I was so inspired that I found a good Strat copy for 140 bucks. I was between semesters in grad school and could barely afford rent, utilities, and groceries. I had a minimum wage job in an academic book shop. I payed off the guitar at $20 a week until I got it paid and they gave me my guitar.

    I know guitarists sometimes want to adopt their heroes equipment and styles and most importantly tones.

    So I love my Rat pedal, but I wonder if anybody has knowledge of what his settings are on Dave's Rat? As is, my Rat doesn't get close. It's about 5 years old, so I don't expect it to sound exactly like Dave's, but it ought to be close enough with the right settings.

    Thanks in advance for knowledge or even opinions.
    If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison

  2. #2
    Forum Member DanTheBluesMan's Avatar
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    Re: David Gilmour's Rat Settings

    far from a Rat expert but I wish you luck in your search. It's complicated by the variation of the parts/circuits over the years.
    "Live and learn and flip the burns"

  3. #3
    Forum Member Offshore Angler's Avatar
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    Re: David Gilmour's Rat Settings

    Been playing my RAT forever. When in doubt place all the knobs pointing straight up. That seems to be the sweet spot.

    Regarding Gilmore, uh, you may have fallen for the hype. Gilmore usually recorded straight into the board and the effects were added afterwards. He was ahead of the curve since this is pretty common in recording these days BTW. You may be using an amp and pedals - or nowadays your modeler into your cans, but what gets recorded is the dry guitar signal. That allows the engineer to re-amp, multi-amp, and choose effects on the channel's effects loop. You can also tweak your effects real time during the solo playback to dial them in. Additionally you can add delay and reverb here and there, ramping it in and out for a "3D" sensation to the playback.

    It's really nice because you can totally change the feel of the guitar sound and get that deep, lush layered feel to the solo (as is common on Pink Floyd recordings).

    A far cry from the old days where you had an Orange Crush plugged into the amp and mic'ed it!

    Chuck
    "No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim

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    Re: David Gilmour's Rat Settings

    The Rat Pedal isn't what will necessarily get you that sound for many reasons. One, because of everything else that signal ran through on its way to being recorded and the number of fixes that took place to make it listenable to the buying public. There's just a mountain of things. Even if you had the exact settings he used the acoustics of where you're rig is set up may prevent it. What you hear, what you feel, and how it comes out of your fingers is what's going to get you there.

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    Re: David Gilmour's Rat Settings


  6. #6
    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
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    Re: David Gilmour's Rat Settings

    Chuck, that's right. I'm just trying to get as close with my rig as possible. I know I can't sound like him because I'm not him. I just admire the sound, and even though I wander out of the pentatonic more than he does, I've been greatly influenced by his phrasing. His playing and sense of melody speak to my emotions (of course the lyrics help).

    Quote Originally Posted by Offshore Angler View Post
    Been playing my RAT forever. When in doubt place all the knobs pointing straight up. That seems to be the sweet spot.

    Regarding Gilmore, uh, you may have fallen for the hype. Gilmore usually recorded straight into the board and the effects were added afterwards. He was ahead of the curve since this is pretty common in recording these days BTW. You may be using an amp and pedals - or nowadays your modeler into your cans, but what gets recorded is the dry guitar signal. That allows the engineer to re-amp, multi-amp, and choose effects on the channel's effects loop. You can also tweak your effects real time during the solo playback to dial them in. Additionally you can add delay and reverb here and there, ramping it in and out for a "3D" sensation to the playback.

    It's really nice because you can totally change the feel of the guitar sound and get that deep, lush layered feel to the solo (as is common on Pink Floyd recordings).

    A far cry from the old days where you had an Orange Crush plugged into the amp and mic'ed it!

    Chuck
    If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison

  7. #7
    Forum Member Offshore Angler's Avatar
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    Re: David Gilmour's Rat Settings

    Quote Originally Posted by ch willie View Post
    Chuck, that's right. I'm just trying to get as close with my rig as possible. I know I can't sound like him because I'm not him. I just admire the sound, and even though I wander out of the pentatonic more than he does, I've been greatly influenced by his phrasing. His playing and sense of melody speak to my emotions (of course the lyrics help).
    I'd play pretty clean, on the neck pickup or the neck/middle position and use a lot of delay with tails. Maybe scoop the mids too. If you use the RAT keep the drive down to where it's just noticeable. The other thing is that Gilmore uses a unique vibrato that's barely there but perfectly timed. Put your pinky on the bar and just massage the note ever so slightly.
    "No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim

  8. #8
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: David Gilmour's Rat Settings

    I’m a Ratter myself but I dial in something different each time I put a set list together.

    For anything Gilmour-related, check this: www.gilmourish.com

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