What Is The Best Voodoo Child (Slight Return) Wah?

[Brandon]

Anybody have a wah they own or have tried that compares to the classic Voodoo Child (slight return) recording?

I own a RMC picture wah and I think it comes pretty close but wanted to hear all of your thoughts on this classic godlike wah wah tone...

Also what amp is he playing into on that recording? Awesome tone through the whole song. In fact I think it's that song that got me fired up all about the hendrix tone to begin with

Brandon

[Ydna]

I have a 535Q, and up until a few months ago, I didn't tweak much, then I messed with it a bit, and got it sounding good for Hendrix tones. I still want a vox, cheap, and I can tweak it with different designs and such. The fulltone wah has a great Hendrix tone.

I don't know what amp he is using for Voodoo Child (Slight Return), but my guess would be a 67 super lead.

[Xplorer]

vintage only vox v846 italian or american, or clyde mc coy wah. you can maybe mod the modern vox but the best is the vintage one, very different. got this one. really sounds the same. my first wahs were the dunlop cry baby, old one, quite nice, and a wierd wah, the snarling dog whine o wah, very nice, but not totaly a wah. veeery different.
really, the vox 846 italian.

according to eddie kramer, the amp was :


I remember that Jimi played a white Fender Stratocaster on that song. Surprisingly, the amp he used on that song was not a Marshall stack. It was actually a Fender Showman top with a huge cabinet with eight 10-inch speakers in it. You can hear it rumbling around on the floor of the Record Plant when you listen to the beginning of the song. He’s standing right in front of the amp and singing into the microphone, which was a Beyer M160—a ribbon mic that I always used on him. It’s a live recording. You can hear the sound reverberating all around in the room.

but i think he talks about the previous version, not slight return. also, jimi didn't have a showman amp, but a dual showman. you still can get this tone with a 69 superlead easyly.

for slight return, i don't know. yeah, maybe the 67 super lead, didn't hear it by myself.
some think about the jtm45/100 , with this big headroom. it makes sens when you hear the intro.
then, a nice fuzz.

[Xplorer]

about slight return , here is what he says ( allways changing his mind about amps ... ) , but it seems it was a Fender

Engineer Eddie Kramer recalls: “ ‘Voodoo Child (Slight Return)’ was recorded the day after Jimi tracked “Voodoo Chile,” the extended jam on Electric Ladyland featuring Traffic’s Stevie Winwood on organ and Jefferson Airplane bassist Jack Casady. Basically, Jimi used the same setup—his Strat through a nice, warm Fender Bassman amp. Jimi’s sound on both tracks is remarkably consistent, leading some to think they were recorded at the same session.”

[Brandon]

LOL Yeah I've heard some things about Eddie Kramer talking about Voodoo Child SR, and seriously I've heard him say he used AT LEAST 3 different amps on that recording.

The guy must be fucking brain dead from all of the LSD he jammed under his tongue in '69!

Hmm 8x10 huh? Well this guy plays a '73 50w into a Marshall 8x10, what do you think? To me it has a complete different tone than a 4x12. I like the 4x12 a lot more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBir4lvTGDs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Then he plays the same head through a 4x12 here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gavFKBly-Pc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think Xplorer your right about the '67 SL. It makes the most sense to me historically, it would have been easily available to him, and the tone of the 67' is a sweet sweet tone

But it's good to know that you say the '69SL can nail that tone anyway, which to me makes it a little irrelevant as to which amp he actually used, cause I just care about the tone!

[Xplorer]

yeah you're right.

but i meant : i use my 69SL with a tone closer to the voodoo chile long session, totaly that tone. not as close to slight return, but very anyway, especially with a clean and thick tone, with the vox846.
and it can be other tones ...the superlead is really great, it can be voodoo chile, electric ladyland, woodstock, BOG , even jeff beck, even-malcolm angus young, billy gibbons, even andy summers !
lol, and ME ! ha ha ha ! Yes, i have my way to play the guitar now lool.
Amazing amp.

i should add a switch to add the basse specs. didn't heard it yet on this amp. shared cathod is really cool for these tones.

[shakti]

The guy must be fucking brain dead from all of the LSD he jammed under his tongue in '69!

Easy there, young boy.

I'd take Kramer's words over some internet know-it-all any day. Kramer's memory probably isn't exactly right, but he could also have been easily misquoted. He's stated many a time though that Voodoo Chile (the blues jam) is a Fender head (being variously reported as a Bassman or Showman). This is the first I've heard about an 8x10, but I'm ready to believe it. I think it sounds very different from a Marshall, definitely has that cleanish Fender "swank".

As for Voodoo Child (Slight Return), apparently it was videotaped, so somewhere there must exist footage of the Experience recording it. To my ears it sounds totally different from the blues jam, and very much like a Marshall, but then there's the studio trickery. Judging by the sound and recording date, I'd say either a typical late '67 JMP100 with Drake OT and shared cathode/"bass" preamp, or a late '67/early '68 Super Lead with Dagnall OT and the split cathode preamp. I tend to lean towards the latter...

[Roe]

the video is long lost
strangely, I get closer to the blues jam with my 67 jtm than any fender I've tried, including a blonde bassman. however, the bassman does a pretty good slight return tone, as does the later super lead circuit. But it all depends on the fuzz. a 67 100w can also give a good slight return tone.

[Xplorer]

looool, just woke up, and in my dream, i was talking to you guys, about a showman used at the fillmore east, and my mind invented a 62 showman, on a black and white picture, standing on the scene. and i was telling you that it was something we didn't see before. ha ha ha ! true story.

unless jimi borrowed some amps this day, jimi just had three fenders ( unless you know more than what i know . i think i've seen some fender amps on some concert pictures ) : a dual showman at the time ( later, also a twin reverb, in 1970 ) , and a fender champ. i didn't try and hear a dual showman personally. but after all, the early marshalls were copies of the bassman, right ? but a SL , and some altiverb reverb, and you totaly have that first voodoo chile session tone.

[Tone seaker]

My old V846 nails it with my old marshall plexi super lead. God like

[Roe]

looool, just woke up, and in my dream, i was talking to you guys, about a showman used at the fillmore east, and my mind invented a 62 showman, on a black and white picture, standing on the scene. and i was telling you that it was something we didn't see before. ha ha ha ! true story.

unless jimi borrowed some amps this day, jimi just had three fenders ( unless you know more than what i know . i think i've seen some fender amps on some concert pictures ) : a dual showman at the time ( later, also a twin reverb, in 1970 ) , and a fender champ. i didn't try and hear a dual showman personally. but after all, the early marshalls were copies of the bassman, right ? but a SL , and some altiverb reverb, and you totaly have that first voodoo chile session tone.

the first session is the long blues jam. I cant believe that is a super lead unless you mean one of the very first superleads

[Xplorer]

yeah i don't know myself. my SL can deliver this tone, even if it can't be this amp used in 67, mine is later amp.

[Brandon]

Tone Seaker and Xplorer,

Have you tried or compared your vintage vox to the RMC picture wah?

looool, just woke up, and in my dream, i was talking to you guys, about a showman used at the fillmore east, and my mind invented a 62 showman, on a black and white picture, standing on the scene. and i was telling you that it was something we didn't see before. ha ha ha ! true story.

Dude, for the last few months I can't tell you how many amp dreams I've had. Just ask my girlfriend lol, I would literally be talking in my sleep (LOUDLY I might add) about vintage marshall amps. She would wake up in the middle of the night freaked out wondering WHAT THE HELL was happening but then realize it was just me having another amp dream... yeah I'm amp stoked.

[Brandon]

the video is long lost
strangely, I get closer to the blues jam with my 67 jtm than any fender I've tried, including a blonde bassman. however, the bassman does a pretty good slight return tone, as does the later super lead circuit. But it all depends on the fuzz. a 67 100w can also give a good slight return tone.

Do you know what kind of fuzz he was running?

[Xplorer]

a dunlop fuzz face jimi hendrix ! looool
no, i wish i knew. maybe an arbiter