Arctic Monkeys Tone

[cranio_1]

Hi, I started playing guitar at about a year and a half ago inspired by the Arctic Monkeys. I was blown away by their music and started to learn how to play their songs. Then i went researching their tone and as everybody knows now, their ealry setup is quite simple. So i got the American Standard Strat, a Pro Co Rat 2 and a EH Memory Boy. As for the amp i didnt research much at the time, but i liked the Tiny Terror Combo, and went for it. After all this time playing and tweaking my gear i cant get the early arctic monkeys tone, i guess mainly because of the TT, i guess it has too much mid range gain. So my questions are:

1 - Is there anything i can do (to my gear/amp) to get that tone?
2 - Does anyone get a similar tone with the Tiny Terror? If so, what are the dials setup?
3 - Should i give up on the TT and try getting a Vox AC15 C1? (in my latest research i discovered it has a more Arctic Monkeys tone, on the modern amps)
4 - Changing the tube setup of TT would help me get that tone?

Thanks to all who reply, i hope i started here a nice topic for discussion

[chimpboyjay1]

In the early days Alex was using orange ad30's so you might be able to get fairly close! Just trying backing off the gain and pushing the volume a bit more, that should help!

[Le Chat Noir]

You should have no problems getting close to that general guitar sound from their first record with the TT with not too much fiddling, it has a similar basic tone to the AD30 and should get you in the right ballpark very easily - if you aren't pleased with the TT I doubt a Vox will do you any better. His tone is very recognisably an AD30 on that first record, I'm not familiar with their newer stuff.

Tubes will do very little to help you get closer to that specific tone, though a good set of tubes over stock is always a sound investment anyhow.

Jamie's suggestion of cranking the master and lowering the gain is a good one, to be honest the guitar sound on that record isn't actually that dirty. Again, the TT has a very similar 'fuzzy' gain texture to the AD30, you should be in the same sonic space on pretty much any sensible settings really!

I'm not sure exactly how close you're hoping to come... just remember that you'll never get it 100% dead on even if your setup was identical to his - on any studio recording of a guitar you're also hearing the effects of the micing, EQ, compression, placement in a mix, etc...

[colfaxrev]

even the same guitarist same studio same producer can't always get the same tone replicated twice!

[jason41224]

very true. also if you're going after their studio tone, forget about it, because often it won't be just one amp, but several. on top of that, they'll use different mics, micing technicques and stuff like post-recorded EQ and Compression. what i would do is go look at a LIVE video of them and see what amps they use (i know one has an AD30), and try to listen very carefully for their tone. chances are, it will probably be a combination of a cranked master and lower gain. i would also imagine the tone knob placed pretty high would help as well.

if not, sounds like a Fender DRRi or the Vox AC15 might be better suited for your needs. those could quite easily nail that tone (the fender with some pedals, of course)