GEORGE LYNCH
spatial composition in the mix and have their
own little unique space in that spectrum.
That’s why whenever I go for an overdub on
the rhythm, even though I’m playing exactly
the same thing, I’ll either change the mic pre,
the cabinet, amp or guitar, but I’ll leave everything else the same. It gives it a little different
character and the trick is to find that blend.
Use that other amp to add to it instead of just
doing a straight double. Of course, your playing is always slightly different, so that gives it
that Iommi doubling effect.
I was just going to make the Sabbath refer-
ence for the touch of out-of-tuneness that
makes it cool.
He didn’t do it intentionally; he tunes it down
never play it exactly the same way or as good
as when I played it the first time, so I have to
live with that first one. Then, when I overdub
it, to tune I have to take that guitar, sample it,
run it into the tuner, calibrate the tuner and
then tune my next guitar to that calibrated
tuner to get the tuning right.
I go for that carnal spontaneity. My ideal
record would have the band rehears-
ing, setting up and recording the fucker.
Unfortunately it never happens that way; it’s
usually good the first time or the 100th time,
but never in-between.
Souls of We has that really cool, stripped-
down, natural vibe coming across on the
lead tones, and even some vintage tones.
tubes. I’m constantly evolving those modules.
The other amps that I’ve used for recording
this thing have been the ENGL Special Edition
head – it has less mids, more of a Boogie-esque sound. For 6L6s, I use a Voodoo and
a Budda Superdrive 80. I also use an old,
original Soldano SLO100, and I’ve got an old
Orange head that I like to use once in a while.
I’ve got an old Marshall TA head that sometimes I plug in and I occasionally use an old
65 or 130-watt Music Man HD for leads. Both
[of the Music Mans] are very unique, with sort
of a blackface sound, but they have a transistor front-end that accepts pedals in a really
nice way in their power tube section. I use
two overdrives when I use that and I use a low
input with some delay.
to D and uses very light strings because his
fingers aren’t real, so he has to use them.
That was sort of a happy accident – I don’t
think he consciously said, “Ok, I’m going to
be out of tune.”
I put all this energy into my gear, writing these
songs, getting my engineers and the studio,
making everything pristine, getting the mics up
and finding the right sound, and I didn’t even
have the patience to plug in the tuner. I just
thought, “I’ve got an idea, let’s just go with it.”
That’s great – no tuning on the recording,
just trust the gear.
Well, it’s great when you do your first track.
When I write, I have a very hard time duplicating anything I’ve just played because it’s just
off the cuff. Even if I listen to it 50 times, I can
How do you get those sounds?
In the studio, I rely mostly on the Lynch Boxes,
but I also have an arsenal of other amps, pedals and guitars that I pull from, depending on
the moment. First, I do a basic track with the
Lynch Box and the Brahma module or the Mr.
Scary module, and for the next track I’ll skip
over to my ‘ 69 or ‘ 68 plexi, or a number of
other amps.
The Bravo module is actually based on your
‘ 69 plexi, right?
It’s obviously slightly different because we’ve
got a different transformer, but I use NOS
tubes in them and I’m constantly reworking it.
I could just replace all the tubes in my modules to Ei tubes, which makes a tremendous
difference over the JJs and other Chinese
You have quite an array of pedals – I
noticed the Cusack Screamer in there…
I’m always swapping out overdrives. I obviously use Tube Screamers and hybrid Tube
Screamers – which the Cusack is. I have the
Lynch Time Machine Boost – the hand-wired
version. It’s got silicon, germanium and FET;
it has all three in one so you can pick and
choose. I just use a straight overdrive on it
most of the time, but sometimes I use the
germanium when I want something a little
nastier. I’ve got a Keeley-modified DS- 1, an
early Japanese DS- 1, and I really like the TIM
pedal as well – it has a great overdrive.
There are so many overdrive pedals out there,
so I swap those out because it really depends
on the amp. As far as the Lynch Boxes, I find
that I don’t even need overdrive with those
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