DRY DRY DRY!!!!!!!

[dirtycooter]

Up for scrutiny here at this place of the most high tone.... a serious subject that requires some humility, respect, and a reality check

I have a problem .... no I didn't forget to put my helmet on.

When Ed was jammin-he didn't have any fancy ass reverb. Only thing available back then was spring verb and that was generally built into an amp-NOT a plexi
None. Nada. Zip. It was dry as could be.
Occassionaly in places he would kick on an echoplex. But that was it for spatialization back then for him..
or did he have a big ass rehearsal space with natural verb?? Doubt it.

This subject makes me wanna swear off usin any verb and say f it to all the lexicon pcm's and killer sounding cheap verbs today.

I have to wonder and try to do it myself-how in the hell did he play so damn dry???
had the same discussion with another guy over sound clips on the net-he said "sure it sounds great. But how does it sound with out verb is the real question?" Seems kinda snotty but actually its balls out correct.
Is this why I keep goin back to plain W/D? Just mono echo on the wet cab??
I think we all know when we got all the bells and whistles goin we sound bad ass.
Today we can mimic that studio thing so easy -but for Ed it was just plain bland like bran flakes with no sugar.
Kool-aid with no sweetner.

Think..... about it!

But how do we play when we are completely BONE DRY????

I think this begs for some discussion for sure.
There were a pair of ass kickin boots issued back in the day.. Ed put em on bag deep

Been tryin this myself and I have to say...
its not easy at all.
Tech advances of gadgetry have left us to well off compared to when Ed had to whoop his way to the top.

[dirtycooter]

I am not tryin to start an anti reverb coalition but hell even on this last record I thought it sounded too dry and stiff. But even so its more accurate to what he is used to hearing when he used to play back in the day outside of the studio.
Like the t.v. spot they did for the Today show where they were in his studio doin the cover of the Who. He had headphones on and were monitoring while playing that way. And that studio shot of Ed on VH2 he had phones around his neck-the pic where his cabs are behind him, his head and echoplex are on the floor, and he has the black and white frank.
I think about what he was hearing in the phones. The treated final product??? Plain dry mix of everyone??
One has to wonder what it was like to write or practice the way he did. Did he just plink unplugged and when he had to jam with the band was when he only plugged in??
I am brainstorming an experiment of isolating the cabs and monitoring this way. Just to see a few things.
This way volume will be non issue and things can be heard without much room interaction and odd reflections-better sweetspot if you will. Then start addin fx at the mixer. Like a giant analog POD lol!!
Thing is I will lose feedback ability. But is this how Ed used a dsd for the first record? It would kill that problem of excessive feedback usin the dsd.

[Tone Slinger]

The Bray box is pretty cool, you keep your unadulterated Dry Plexi sound, but can mix in a second amp for your verb. I have several solid state combo's that would work for the wet sound, but my Music Man Hd-130 head has the best sounding reverb I've heard yet, pedal or otherwise.

I prefer more dry to wet though. I used to only use my old Tokai analog delay, but I thinkI will try this Bray wet/dry set up.

[fhn_lopes]

been playing wihtout any Fx for so long that I really don't know how it is like anymore... tried my delay a couple times in the front... sounded like crap... gave it up and saved it untill I get a poweramp to slave my rig...

I'm really used to play dry, I'm not a pro or anything, but I don't feel like it's so hard or harsh... My amp has a sweet juicer tone wihtout verb or delay... In the other hand, a JCM800 would sound too dry though... I'm seeking for a nice verb, but again, I need a poweramp or a fx loop to use it

[fivecoyote]

I play dry. Can't stand stuff on the signal. Fx are fun for fooling around sometimes, but lack the feel/immediate response of dry to me. So DC, I am with you.