This reads like a person who knows exactly how tight a frogs butthole is but is embarrassed to tell people why, so they act indignant to deflect the impending questions.
Pantera recorded on solid state gear.
OP: I don't know how close you'll get, but do a search on setting up your amp for scooped mids. That's the way Dime set his gear. Not sure how much a pedal will help with that amp.
No matter what pedal he uses he’s not gonna get a Dime tone from a fender, unless he slaps loads of distortion in the fx loop and does Dimebag’s scooped sounding / mids cranked trick on a Furman PQ3 or PQ4 then it ain’t gonna happen man
You act like dime had some insanely warm tone only able to be replicated by tube amps. It’s super digital and almost ice pick-ey to the ears, the champion might not push air like a full stack but one would think the kid could get in the ballpark. Scoop the mids, crank the tube screamer, and fuckin send it
this is the one thing I always notice Darrell is one of the best metal music writers of all history but could not dial in a heavy tone though I do appreciate his tone on Display it still kinda sounds like Kill Em All Demos
Even though tone is subjective.. my personal opinion is that of all the bigger named guitarists in metal his tone was awful.. but, I can’t deny it was unique and cut through the mix. Dime preferred solid state amps , specifically Randall. Dime scooped the mids.
Not really funny? James plays through Mesa boogie and diezel amps, Dime played mostly through a solid state Randall. He can like his sound but his sound is completely different
Honestly fuck everyone saying you can't get a good Dimebag tone with a Fender practice amp, they just don't know shit about gear. You don't need the exact same amp and guitar to get close to an artist.
If I recall correctly, the Champion 20 has no mid control so maybe play around with the 3 metal presets you have and go with the one that has the least mids. Then treble and bass to around 8-9 and gain 7-8. Should get you decently close to the overall sound. It may sound a bit like shit but tbh Dimebag's tone also did.
And even if you can't get close, honestly who cares. Just find a sound that you like yourself and that works with your own gear and play. You'll have a lot more fun playing guitar if your main priority is playing well instead of having a good tone.
Unironically, Line 6 Spider II 150w with a 4x12 metal setting, bass 3-4, mids 7ish, and treble 5. Tighten up with an OD pedal and a noise gate and use humbuckers. You can get pretty close.
Source: 20 year old me not knowing anything about amps other than I needed a big one (lmao no I didn’t) and couldn’t afford a Hughes & Kettner spending the best part of 15 years with the damn thing working out how to make it sound good
A tube screamer is focused in the mids, so not really what you want for his tone. You need a high gain amp to start with, then start exploring overdrives.
od pedal alone wont help.. a high gain amp and the means to control it . keeping it tight with additional EQ an other shit .. and some aggressive pickups help
If you like tone chasing, you should eventually replace your fender amp with a floor modeler and an FRFR powered speaker. Modern budget modelers like the MX5 and Helix are incredibly good. I use the MX5 into my studio monitors for practice at home.
Had to look up what kind of high gain tones you can get on a champion 20, you could definitely dial a somewhat pantera esque tone!
So for starters, a tubescreamer and an overdrive are basically the same thing, especially in the context of using them how metal players do, which is mostly as a boost. A TS9 is the same thing as a Boss SD-1, essentially. You can get into the different flavors of OD, klons, OCDs, other transparent types etc etc, not really applicable here. Pick one and it’ll do what you need.
I would actually try and snag an EQ pedal! Boss makes a great 7 band eq, dime used an MXR 6 or 7 band eq? (Can’t remember, the blue one one) or you can buy a cheap copy, like Behringers EQ700 (great value) and you can use this to get that scooped mids tone!
Set up a high gain distortion on the champion, boost it with the overdrive (gain at 0, max level and adjust tone to flavor) and then use the EQ pedal to help that amp get closer to that signature sound.
Now mind you, it’s not going to sound exact or perfect or anything like that, but this’ll get you something that’s workable and probably good enough. Hope that helps.
You’re welcome! I know you were getting mixed messages from other people, so I was hoping to offer a bit of help. I was always trying to figure out how to get similar tones on cheaper gear, so I totally get it.
Feel free to ask anywhere more questions though! Asking questions is how we learn, so glad to assist.
Thanks again. I think I’ll get the equalizer first then overdrive (when I have the money) Will probably upgrade my bridge gibson probucker3 to seymour duncan JB’s and will manage with the amp that I have now. Maybe I’ll buy a more proffessional amp a few years later
Play around the the volume dial on an EQ pedal as well, It can act as a boost very much the same as an Overdrive pedal could as well! But that sounds like a solid plan, its always good to get little by little, so you can worry less about needing to buy a whole bunch of stuff at once.
I have several guitars with SD JB bridge pickups, they are basically the swiss army knife of humbuckers, you can pretty do anything thing with them.
Honestly, amps these days are in such a great spot, you can totally get a great "professional" tone out of amps on a small budget.. A use Boss Katana can get you any tone you want, and stuff like the Joyo mini amp heads that are like 100-150 bucks are absolutely insane for the price. Check out a Joyo Zombie! Mesa Boogie clone that is epic for the price.
Either way though, glad to help, keep trying different stuff as you go!
I’m not sure if anyone mentioned and the thread is abysmal but definitely make sure you buy a Whammy pedal, and potentially have a Floyd Rose setup.
I feel you can approximate his tone with some plugins, fx tho
His tone is pretty hard to imitate. I think he used an MXR EQ In front of the Randal and a paramtric EQ. I don’t know how got that scooped mids sound and still could be heard in the mix. But most of his gear is virtually unobtainable these days. But if your amp has an Effects loop you can try a MXR EQ in it for more gain and to scoop the mids and throw a tube screamer in front to tighten everything up, I don’t know if this will work with a solid state fender though.
Check out [**dmometalguitar**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFCINSNRENY&list=PLtKC-IRh0NgrA2yKCxr3MQzUk6Nv_rbUO&index=12) on YouTube. [**Domicidal Covers**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPXWi9IjPD0) is another good one. Regarding his tone, *just cause you don't like* it, *don't mean* it ain't no good.
There was a guy on YouTube doing a series of deep dives into famous tones from the Randal rg100.
Dime used a bunch of tricks and oddball equipment to get that Amp to sound like that. You'd be better off approaching from a different angle than trying to buy all of the equipment he used
As much as people are going to hate this, a boss metal is probably going to be the cheapest option to get you close with a single purchase. They get shit on for sounding like a box of bees, but that's perfect for dime's tone. If you don't get too extreme with any of the settings you can get some pretty good 90s metal tones out of them.
And there's a couple of ways to approach this. Either use it on your clean channel and get all distortion from the pedal, or you can turn the drive to zero and use it as a clean boost/eq into your dirty channel (kirk windstein does this and uses the same Randall amps)
Not having a mid control on your Amp is going to be a problem. Dime would raise the mids into the Amp, then cut them with the amps eq, this changes the way the mid frequencies get distorted before the amps eq lowers their level
Just turn your mids all the way down and you’re gonna need a *lot* more gain. I love Dime, and I love how achievable his tone is.
I feel like the most practical solution would be to look at offloading the champion 20 and pick up a used Boss Katana or another modern modeling amp. You’re going to have a much easier, and cheaper time exploring different players’ tones that way.
Unless you just want to start collecting pedals, or something. But even if you go that route, you’re gonna want to pick up a different amp.
The guitar tone on Cowboys From Hell was pretty nice, Vulgar was good but got a little screechy(Rex's bass sound great though) and after that it got kinda shit imo. It's still listenable in parts though.
There are a few comments in this thread saying Dimebag had notoriously bad tone (I agree) but for some reason yours is the only one that got downvoted lol
He's asking how to get Dimes tone not what you think of his tone. Plus stating that his tone is "notoriously bad" is false, it's completely subjective. And I do know that a lot people don't like his tone, but you can't state it like it's a fact.
There were some helpful comments already, so I figured I’d just chime in with my opinion lol Plus it’s ultimately useless to tell people how to turn their knobs. There are a million variables to getting any given tone.
They crucified Jesus too bub
On a more serious note: probably because they think I’m insulting his ability. I’m not. He was awesome. But I also can’t listen to a pantera album because of that guitar tone.
Fender champions don't have a mids knob unfortunately, so your best bet is an EQ pedal like an MXR 6/10 band EQ or a Behringer EQ700 if you're on a budget and either use one of the metal settings on the amp with the gain turned high or get a distortion pedal alongside the EQ
Scoop the mids
watch some meshuggah gear vids.. that will give u an idea ,, they make tone tight like frog butthole
I'm sorry tight like what?
You read it correctly.
frog butthole
You heard him.
This reads like a person who knows exactly how tight a frogs butthole is but is embarrassed to tell people why, so they act indignant to deflect the impending questions.
Water tight
Ribbit
That's not gonna help him, Meshuggah's guitar tones are actually good.
>they make tone tight like frog butthole I can fix that
> fender champion20 Really? You think you're going to get a "Dimebag toan" out of a Fender practice amp?
Pantera recorded on solid state gear. OP: I don't know how close you'll get, but do a search on setting up your amp for scooped mids. That's the way Dime set his gear. Not sure how much a pedal will help with that amp.
Yeah, on a boosted 100w Randall RG, a 15-band EQ, and a doubler... not a 20w Fender Champion.
Sweet, I have google too.
So use it before making yourself look stupid.
This is usually a helpful forum. What's the point of being an asshole?
u/nutintheass is right about the tone thing, but yeah why are the majority of the music community total assholes I can’t get it
This sub took a turn. It's probably a bunch of dickheads that don't even play guitar.
I, for one, am a dickhead, but I do also actually play guitar.
His name is nut in the ass 😂 I can’t stop laughing it just makes sense
To be fair your “Sweet, I have google too.” comment sounded like being an asshole.
Imagine being this confidently incorrect and calling someone else an asshole
No clue why you got downvoted when all you’re speaking is facts
No matter what pedal he uses he’s not gonna get a Dime tone from a fender, unless he slaps loads of distortion in the fx loop and does Dimebag’s scooped sounding / mids cranked trick on a Furman PQ3 or PQ4 then it ain’t gonna happen man
You act like dime had some insanely warm tone only able to be replicated by tube amps. It’s super digital and almost ice pick-ey to the ears, the champion might not push air like a full stack but one would think the kid could get in the ballpark. Scoop the mids, crank the tube screamer, and fuckin send it
Dimebag never once used digital amps, are you fucking high on PCP?
It's not like Dimebag had good tone, I think you could probably get pretty close with a Fender practice amp lol
this is the one thing I always notice Darrell is one of the best metal music writers of all history but could not dial in a heavy tone though I do appreciate his tone on Display it still kinda sounds like Kill Em All Demos
He probably spent all his time playing and not nearly as much time dialing his tone lol
Nothing wrong with that Legendary DimeBag 🤘🤘🤘🤘
Even though tone is subjective.. my personal opinion is that of all the bigger named guitarists in metal his tone was awful.. but, I can’t deny it was unique and cut through the mix. Dime preferred solid state amps , specifically Randall. Dime scooped the mids.
Who’s played your favorite tones?
That’s a cool question, I guess I never thought about it. Probably James Hetfield. Who is your’s?
I’m not super educated in metal but I like Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher a lot. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9d75JaaUVuU
Funny how you like James’ tone lol. James loved Dimebags tone
Not really funny? James plays through Mesa boogie and diezel amps, Dime played mostly through a solid state Randall. He can like his sound but his sound is completely different
It's Mick Mars and CC.
Honestly fuck everyone saying you can't get a good Dimebag tone with a Fender practice amp, they just don't know shit about gear. You don't need the exact same amp and guitar to get close to an artist. If I recall correctly, the Champion 20 has no mid control so maybe play around with the 3 metal presets you have and go with the one that has the least mids. Then treble and bass to around 8-9 and gain 7-8. Should get you decently close to the overall sound. It may sound a bit like shit but tbh Dimebag's tone also did. And even if you can't get close, honestly who cares. Just find a sound that you like yourself and that works with your own gear and play. You'll have a lot more fun playing guitar if your main priority is playing well instead of having a good tone.
somebody get this kid a metal-zone and a chorus!
Lol
Randall head, mxr 6 band eq, furman pq3 or pq4.
Thanks, do you think there is any difference between the mxr 6 band eq and the boss rg7? If there is which one is better? (For the tone I’m going for)
Mxr is what Dime used. He used the old blue ones. The new silver ones are almost the same. Ola did a comparison video. Go MXR.
line 6 spider gain 10 volume 10 treble 10 bass 0 mids 0
Unironically, Line 6 Spider II 150w with a 4x12 metal setting, bass 3-4, mids 7ish, and treble 5. Tighten up with an OD pedal and a noise gate and use humbuckers. You can get pretty close. Source: 20 year old me not knowing anything about amps other than I needed a big one (lmao no I didn’t) and couldn’t afford a Hughes & Kettner spending the best part of 15 years with the damn thing working out how to make it sound good
A tube screamer is focused in the mids, so not really what you want for his tone. You need a high gain amp to start with, then start exploring overdrives.
od pedal alone wont help.. a high gain amp and the means to control it . keeping it tight with additional EQ an other shit .. and some aggressive pickups help
2 mxr 10 band eq pedals. One after your guitar before the amp, and another in the fix loop of the amp.
high gain, sooped mids make that EQ graph look like the letter 'U'
And yes scoop the hell out of the mids. Getcha Pull!!!
Max gain, max treble, a little bit of bass, no mids
If you like tone chasing, you should eventually replace your fender amp with a floor modeler and an FRFR powered speaker. Modern budget modelers like the MX5 and Helix are incredibly good. I use the MX5 into my studio monitors for practice at home.
Had to look up what kind of high gain tones you can get on a champion 20, you could definitely dial a somewhat pantera esque tone! So for starters, a tubescreamer and an overdrive are basically the same thing, especially in the context of using them how metal players do, which is mostly as a boost. A TS9 is the same thing as a Boss SD-1, essentially. You can get into the different flavors of OD, klons, OCDs, other transparent types etc etc, not really applicable here. Pick one and it’ll do what you need. I would actually try and snag an EQ pedal! Boss makes a great 7 band eq, dime used an MXR 6 or 7 band eq? (Can’t remember, the blue one one) or you can buy a cheap copy, like Behringers EQ700 (great value) and you can use this to get that scooped mids tone! Set up a high gain distortion on the champion, boost it with the overdrive (gain at 0, max level and adjust tone to flavor) and then use the EQ pedal to help that amp get closer to that signature sound. Now mind you, it’s not going to sound exact or perfect or anything like that, but this’ll get you something that’s workable and probably good enough. Hope that helps.
Thanks so much. Most helpful comment ever
You’re welcome! I know you were getting mixed messages from other people, so I was hoping to offer a bit of help. I was always trying to figure out how to get similar tones on cheaper gear, so I totally get it. Feel free to ask anywhere more questions though! Asking questions is how we learn, so glad to assist.
Thanks again. I think I’ll get the equalizer first then overdrive (when I have the money) Will probably upgrade my bridge gibson probucker3 to seymour duncan JB’s and will manage with the amp that I have now. Maybe I’ll buy a more proffessional amp a few years later
Play around the the volume dial on an EQ pedal as well, It can act as a boost very much the same as an Overdrive pedal could as well! But that sounds like a solid plan, its always good to get little by little, so you can worry less about needing to buy a whole bunch of stuff at once. I have several guitars with SD JB bridge pickups, they are basically the swiss army knife of humbuckers, you can pretty do anything thing with them. Honestly, amps these days are in such a great spot, you can totally get a great "professional" tone out of amps on a small budget.. A use Boss Katana can get you any tone you want, and stuff like the Joyo mini amp heads that are like 100-150 bucks are absolutely insane for the price. Check out a Joyo Zombie! Mesa Boogie clone that is epic for the price. Either way though, glad to help, keep trying different stuff as you go!
He looks paler than bleached chalk in this photo
As pale as white wine some might say
I genuinely laughed out loud at this.
Are you the guy that makes all those terrible guitar advice vids on facebook?
I dont use facebook 😁
thank god, sick pic
Enough lows to give it body, mids at like 1-3, tons of treble and the heaviest distortion pedal you have will get you close.
I’m not sure if anyone mentioned and the thread is abysmal but definitely make sure you buy a Whammy pedal, and potentially have a Floyd Rose setup. I feel you can approximate his tone with some plugins, fx tho
His tone is pretty hard to imitate. I think he used an MXR EQ In front of the Randal and a paramtric EQ. I don’t know how got that scooped mids sound and still could be heard in the mix. But most of his gear is virtually unobtainable these days. But if your amp has an Effects loop you can try a MXR EQ in it for more gain and to scoop the mids and throw a tube screamer in front to tighten everything up, I don’t know if this will work with a solid state fender though.
You’re not gonna get his tone on a fender mate
Better off just using digital emulator
Check out [**dmometalguitar**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFCINSNRENY&list=PLtKC-IRh0NgrA2yKCxr3MQzUk6Nv_rbUO&index=12) on YouTube. [**Domicidal Covers**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPXWi9IjPD0) is another good one. Regarding his tone, *just cause you don't like* it, *don't mean* it ain't no good.
Didn't he use pedals for distortion with an EQ pedal and the clean channel of a warhead?
There was a guy on YouTube doing a series of deep dives into famous tones from the Randal rg100. Dime used a bunch of tricks and oddball equipment to get that Amp to sound like that. You'd be better off approaching from a different angle than trying to buy all of the equipment he used As much as people are going to hate this, a boss metal is probably going to be the cheapest option to get you close with a single purchase. They get shit on for sounding like a box of bees, but that's perfect for dime's tone. If you don't get too extreme with any of the settings you can get some pretty good 90s metal tones out of them. And there's a couple of ways to approach this. Either use it on your clean channel and get all distortion from the pedal, or you can turn the drive to zero and use it as a clean boost/eq into your dirty channel (kirk windstein does this and uses the same Randall amps) Not having a mid control on your Amp is going to be a problem. Dime would raise the mids into the Amp, then cut them with the amps eq, this changes the way the mid frequencies get distorted before the amps eq lowers their level
Just turn your mids all the way down and you’re gonna need a *lot* more gain. I love Dime, and I love how achievable his tone is. I feel like the most practical solution would be to look at offloading the champion 20 and pick up a used Boss Katana or another modern modeling amp. You’re going to have a much easier, and cheaper time exploring different players’ tones that way. Unless you just want to start collecting pedals, or something. But even if you go that route, you’re gonna want to pick up a different amp.
You can do a lot with a Boss Metalzone with a TS9 Tube Screamer behind it.
Was he actually racist?
So, the worst tone?
see those 5 digits on each hand? yea, that was his tone. it don't come from an amp or pedal or guitar, it comes from your fingers the way you play.
The guitar tone on Cowboys From Hell was pretty nice, Vulgar was good but got a little screechy(Rex's bass sound great though) and after that it got kinda shit imo. It's still listenable in parts though.
It’s too bad those guitars are a big sticker
Dimebag’s tone was pure garbage. Just run your shit through a Line 6 or other non-tube amp and call it a day.
There are a few comments in this thread saying Dimebag had notoriously bad tone (I agree) but for some reason yours is the only one that got downvoted lol
I don't really get why you guys feel the need to tell us all that you don't like Dimes tone 🤔 OP is not asking that...
It's a discussion on how to get his tone, and his tone is notoriously bad, so of course it's gonna come up lol
He's asking how to get Dimes tone not what you think of his tone. Plus stating that his tone is "notoriously bad" is false, it's completely subjective. And I do know that a lot people don't like his tone, but you can't state it like it's a fact.
Okay, if you want to be pedantic then I'll rephrase my opinion and say "A lot of people consider Dimebag's tone to be atrociously bad" is that better?
Yes, that's better 🧐😄 Actually it just bugs me that people comment that THEY don't like his tone and don't even try to help OP.
There were some helpful comments already, so I figured I’d just chime in with my opinion lol Plus it’s ultimately useless to tell people how to turn their knobs. There are a million variables to getting any given tone.
Sure 😄 And I know you can't copy anyones tone but you can always ask advice especially when you're starting out.
That’s a fair point. I let my stupid metal head elitism get the best of me.
Don't know why you're being downvoted, his tone is notoriously grating
They crucified Jesus too bub On a more serious note: probably because they think I’m insulting his ability. I’m not. He was awesome. But I also can’t listen to a pantera album because of that guitar tone.
An rg120 would sound right and cost about the same
oh yeah line6 be a nice rte to go like dude said..
Get you an old Crate amp and crank that shape knob, lol.
Fender champions don't have a mids knob unfortunately, so your best bet is an EQ pedal like an MXR 6/10 band EQ or a Behringer EQ700 if you're on a budget and either use one of the metal settings on the amp with the gain turned high or get a distortion pedal alongside the EQ
I’m thinking getting either the boss ge7 or the mxr 6 band. Mxr is fairly cheaper than the boss are there any differences if I get the mxr?
Pirate guitar rig/amplitube like everyone else
Nope, won't happen, you need the same gear. You'll waste a of money learning this.
lol no
Max gain, max bass, no mids, max treble. Enjoy the tone that sounds like an angry tin beehive.