Eric Valentine's Electric Guitars - Queens Of The Stone Age

[@11metalfan]

This is where all the scooped mids go

[@alexjefferson3383]

Probably the funniest quirky KZbin comment I've ever read.

[@mikebuchanan1881]

KZbin comment of the year!-) Nice one Magitician!

[@kenherbst9460]

hilarious

[@MetalAriel]

What a great geeky comment!

[@CIRCLEOFTONE]

The obsession with mids on guitar forums of the early 2000's came hand in hand with the death of guitar in rock and metal. Mids mids mids = ear fatigue and common rules = vanilla sausage land. Guitar forums killed guitar production. V30 celestion SM57 close mic'd forever.

[@Diax1324]

All the midrange meme comments, but tbf, that IS the guitar's place. To emphasize the shit out of it is definitely a stylistic thing, but it's never really a bad thing until it becomes hysterically boxy.

[@DavidDiMuzio]

Eric Valentine is one of the most interesting and creative producers in the game. Really appreciate this video.

[@Kaptaincarter]

I'm still weighing discrepancies against novel ideas he employed, but I'm still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

[@kurdtjohn]

No doubt about it. The sounds of his records kinda go against the grain of what we expect from a “rock” record.

[@kvasios]

I think it would be better if he could just boost the midrange

[@samxday]

Konstantinos Vasios just a touch

[@Craigjordan121]

To 11.

[@miked7795]

So damn hilarious

[@andriealinsangao613]

@@Craigjordan121 But why not turn the mids up to 10 and make it one louder?

[@billyhughes9776]

Eric is so legit -- his overall technical skill as an engineer is on another level. All of the records he's either engineered and/or produced (regardless of genre) sound amazing.

[@fastsavannah7684]

So glad he chose THE riff for the demonstration!

[@Hevvvyyy]

Love that riff, it's hypnotic

[@Labyrinth1010]

My favorite Queens record. The guitar (and drum) sounds are just STELLAR. So, so good. Wish the band would go back to their heavier sound.

[@Martin-kn6vc]

Really cool tip when he mentions the cab's speakers all converging at a particular area and placing a mic there. Going to have to give that a try in future sessions.

[@Cantstandtherock]

Martin I call that the “cone zone” it really is a cool thing.

[@WompRok]

Apparently this is why I want a 4x10 now

[@mrdrumfreak456]

Crazy how no pedals were used for the drive on these songs. I'm blown away

[@madmuso5]

6:40. Thought Eric was gonna bust out into his Mick Jagger impersonation! Cool vid.

[@maxrb67]

madmuso5 HAHAHAHAHA Hilarious , how did you noticed ?!?!

[@kukoshkin]

Lol

[@nelsano3]

The guitar sounds on that record are Devilishly good

[@efebezmez6386]

Slash, Queens of the Stone Age and smash mouth?

[@ziphrox]

Efe Bezmez Ikr how could they mention those two shitstains next to the allmighty Smash Mouth.

[@h1th3r35]

Elliott T buster boi did you call Queens of the Stone Age a shitstain? Degenerate lol

[@adammays3128]

At least they chose to omit saying "Good Charlotte" even though they showed the name. I'd take Smashmouth over GC haha

[@haloskycrash]

Yeah GTFO

[@h1th3r35]

@@emerald_archer i know it was a joke but it just hurt me inside bruv

[@josephpickard3108]

Ampeg VT-40, a Boss SD-1 (really) with Level and Tone on Max, Gain on minimum and a Graphic EQ pedal boosting 400hz to the max with everything else on the EQ pedal flat. Can't remember the amp settings but there's probably a ton of photos from that tour. The amp is terrifyingly loud. Shame Boss don't make the PQ-4 anymore, it was a great pedal.

[@mattg082]

Yep…I have the amp. But also a treble booster can get in the area of the Boss. That’s what the Boss pedal is emulating with those settings.

[@Voxtender]

Can't believe how quiet everything is - would have expected a ton of hiss from all that mid range boost - especially from the EQ pedals. Wiring in his place must be pristine.

[@paultweten1472]

RIFFHANGER I am guessing he has filters maybe?

[@johanherrera4055]

Compressors, maybe

[@Steakduboeuff]

7:25 'Old Ampeg portaflex B15' Ain't that the darnest thing! I must've read 'VT-40' wrong!

[@colbymck]

Just thought the same thing. That looks NOTHING like a B15. Nor is it a bass amp. It's a 4x10 guitar combo with the head removed and sitting on top! VT-40!

[@jgharding2]

This must have been a slip of the tongue, one old Ampeg amp blew up (an unfortunate fact of using old gear) and we had to swap it for another Ampeg, good spot! I'm assuming the one we were originally going to use was the Portaflex...

[@jonhaugneskarlsen]

Taking the chassis out of an Ampeg VT40 and putting it on top definitely doesn't make it a B15 ;) Haha Its common knowledge now that Josh Homme's sound is based around the Ampeg V4/VT40, so i don't know how they benefit from hiding it here, but cool video anyway!

[@psychorock83]

you 100% right probably this was the secret..but i ve to say, when he show the pictures of the amp set to record the album ,you can see a vintage V4b on 412cab

[@Kaptaincarter]

It gets weirder than that, The front face of that amp is IDENTICAL (except that it says VT-40) to the head sitting to my left which is an Ampeg VT-22! Of which I can only find variant combo demos of, haven't seen my head in a demo yet...

[@NickHolum]

The 441 by itself without the EQ cut sounded fantastic. Might have been an even better tone than the final combined tone.

[@FiragoMusic]

Totally agree!!!!

[@metalupyourass9]

It's all about in the mix though man

[@jordankrecek880]

Yeah, it probably did sound better isolated but the second it was in the mix it might have disappeared or all of the transients washed out. That extra layer of tone made a world of difference of where the guitar sat in the mix.

[@PatFlanigan]

I woulda killed to have been a fly on the wall during those sessions!

[@nickdillie1735]

To sum up the video, crappy amp heads, loads of expensive mics in a small room and oh yeah mid range mid range mid range boost and hell ad some more mids. Awesome though sounds epic!

[@samxday]

Nick Dillie ...and drop C 🤣

[@xeroinfinity]

i agree it sounds awesome. but I'd cut some of those Mids. lol

[@connormorrissy3972]

"Crappy amp heads" lmao the b-15 is amazing what

[@kimmygibler760]

Dont forget the half a million in rack gear.

[@mikejones-vd3fg]

@@kimmygibler760 Yet I can dial in a tone I prefer better with a $35 interface and free vst plugins.

[@cmousdale]

Great video - thanks for taking the time to do it! 🙌🏼

[@brantsummerlin8630]

Long time qotsa fan. Thanks for the insight into the recording process. Fascinating!

[@fastsavannah7684]

17:27 and this is what you get - Eric Valentine actually rocking out from his coldness... geez it takes a killer riff like that!

[@mattg082]

Nice, I just picked up a 1974 no distortion/master volume V40 for $350! It really gets that sound cranked with particular settings I find. Treble booster also helps to bring that sound home as well. But the EQ pedal boost is wild on top of the amps already 300hz boost. I still haven’t been able to make the mids at full on the amp work in a pleasing way. Maybe it’s the EQ pedal boost with that, that’s making it work here. But to be honest for a live scenario… just a treble booster, and amp settings sound like it to me. Then optional Foxxy Tone I use for octave up fuzz is cool. I could also see using a TS808 at 0 gain and set tone to cut bottoms on the way in…then let the amp boost at 300hz. Seems like a lot of cutting stuff out, and a puzzle to put other frequencies in from 250-1khz here. Then there’s the Boss drive at 0 gain, volume and tone all the way up to emulate a treble booster people have used. It seems secretive but not so secretive 6 years later, if you piece together others findings and if you own the gear. May not be spot on for recording, but getting the live sound not too hard. These amps bass is not easy to pick up, I find mic the back of my V40 has to be done, and front mic backed off 12in or off axis from the cone to work. 2 mic kinda setup

[@Glurbschnurb]

Great video! Very cool to get insight from an insider on one of the best albums ever made!

[@teriakamoto]

Heavy ass gauge strings on that 'ol Silvertone. I have an old silver tone from early 60's and I love the neck on it. The whole guitar weighs around 4-5 lbs. The wooden bridge cracked from age and I need to replace it after seeing this.That Jupiter has foil pick ups. Microphonic pickups and crazy sounding.Feedback.noisy. I love obnoxious tone. I love the high end shit too. Josh's Kyuss and Doom background give the Queens that sound and of course the magic happens in the studio. Thanks for the video S.O.S.M.

[@monkeyxx]

Wow, I never would have thought of that technique in 400 years. Maybe they have been recording since the stone age?

[@Spedly]

you're not funny.

[@adamr63]

Your.

[@gonzo_n_thetots9405]

Their

[@adamr63]

There you are, you're their.

[@phlopalopagus]

Who would have guessed that is how the tone was made. Im not surprised I couldn't dial this in.

[@darkhell227]

would like to see a video on the albums drum sound

[@SHADETREE666]

Jawknee .Newness overdubbed the cymbals

[@-........]

They used a really small, claustrophobic room. As shadetree said, they recorded the shells and cymbals seperately. I don't even think they used that much mics. A dynamic on the snare and maybe some small diaphragm condenser or ribbons on the toms.

[@liamshanley_21]

@@-........ toms weren't close mic'd on the album. I can't remember what the kick and snare mics were like but most of the drum sound for the shells is from room mics but in a small room

[@messygamez5675]

The drum sound is one of the few thing I dislike from this album. Dave's drumming is amazing, but the mixing leaves a lot to be desired for me.

[@stoneylonesome4062]

Dave Grohl was using Brant Bjork’s Ludwig drum kit for the album.

[@Andrew.G.Junior]

Great video! I have heard that Josh had also been using the Zvex Super Hard On pedal for his core sound on Songs For The Deaf album. (The movie "Fuzz, The Sound that changed the world")

[@Psyfonify]

i've heard he uses one of the somewhat older fulltone octave/fuzz pedals, but uses the fuzz only (then of course kicks on the octave switch for solo tones like little sister and stuff..little sister is definitely some sort of octave/fuzz) i think everyones probably thought that josh has used every fuzz under the sun, but it could be that he barely uses them at all. i think a really hard volume + midrange push on an ampeg vt-40 is probably it, but "no one knows"...

[@johnnycab8986]

Eric said most of the distortion was actually from most of the weird crappy amps they bought, The only fuzz they had in the studio was a Foxx octave fuzz. The guitar he doesn't mention here is that Homme was using an Ovation GP I htink.

[@TheBrokenStairs]

Fuzz tones were used mainly for lead tones (listen to the leads in Millionaire, Deaf, I'm Gonna Leave You). If it was tasty rhythm guitar riffage, chances are it was the boosted bass amps.

[@mogmason6920]

Johnny Cab Yep, there's a video on here from the SFTD recording sessions and josh is clearly using an ovation ultra gp to record the title track at least.

[@chrishansen3921]

awesome review, Eric, and killer sound. very impressive to witness a case study of sound engineering as an art form. thanks for sharing.

[@josefrancisco6969]

Great video.

[@GranulatedStuff]

Was just about to mention a few Qotsa articles in SOS coming up to 20 years back that discuss equipment and recording methods when I realised this was an SOS video

[@rrrrrr1669]

"Mentions big bands he's worked with" *shows Good Charlotte*

[@Ottophil]

Bobby sold milllions more than you

[@rrrrrr1669]

@@Ottophil we found the last good charlotte fan

[@Ottophil]

Bobby I’m not a fan at all. I can’t stand those dorks. I’m just saying they are waaaaay more famous than you dude

[@Ottophil]

Bobby um huh?

[@rome8180]

Uhhh....Good Charlotte was pretty damn successful. What are you talking about? Just because you don't like something doesn't mean it wasn't popular.

[@TheWallBeyond]

That’s like a 14:00 min intro to the guitar sound. Amazing

[@cesteacy]

Thank you for this. Great videos coming out as of late.

[@peterrizzo9258]

Awesome... very impressed how clearly and simply Eric laid out the approach QOTSA's awesome tones

[@edidpro]

I'm gonna boost the mids 120dB, then EQ out the boxiness...

[@AS-ug7gr]

Where in the chain you EQ matters just as much as the Freq and Db ranges

[@amitheoneforu]

What is it with all these older guitar dudes wanting to be so secretive about their guitar chain? Usually Eric goes into quite a bit of detail about chains so the Stone Age guitarist must be super particular about keeping those secrets. It’s just so silly to me lol.

[@paniccleo]

Really interesting that overdrive is just coming from pushing so much mid and volume into the bass head! I had always assumed it was fuzz pedals all the way. Would have also been really interesting to see how the bass guitar was handled here, but it was probably a more conventional setup.

[@mitchelldries6628]

this vid is one of the best i've seen, but i'll still do it my way. i;m mostly applauding his conciseness. seriously, a good watch..

[@bloc01]

Been waiting for something like this

[@homeskateco.538]

This album destroys my earballs every day. It's recorded like 5 times louder than anything else, ever. Still dig it, but Loudness Wars.

[@chadb1866]

what?

[@homeskateco.538]

Chad B hahaha. NICE

[@burninglcd]

Exactly. It's wonderful.

[@Labyrinth1010]

I hear you, it’s stupid-loud. Peak loudness wars, indeed. So many mixes destroyed by crushing the dynamics.

[@timandae.6332]

All this for it to be played on my shitty car speakers

[@simondanielssonmusic]

That's what music is all about dude haha

[@_portsmyth]

If anything that's what they would have wanted - even more mid boost lol

[@Bubs0271]

So ALL that could be boiled down to this: Mids.

[@whatyoumakeofit6635]

With all the craziness going on to get the tones for recording, it must have been a trip trying to put together a rig to tour that album. Id like to see a vid on that.

[@Kaptaincarter]

There's a 35 sec clip from backstage 'somewhere' and it didn't exactly sound like Queens live or sound checking even though it did sound like their style (?), but it does show parallel VT-40s mic'd. Which is what that detached head was, not a B-15 or whatever...

[@mikelseyfert21]

This was amazing! So interesting to watch thank you 😊

[@jarcuadanantus28]

I understood none of this but like the bands music so much I watched the whole thing anyway.

[@NathanHassall]

*I can't feel the air in the room moving*

[@bobsondugnutt5688]

lol

[@PapaHett]

Just stumbled on your videos. These are amazing.. Love the real in depth behind the scenes/nerd out.

[@paulj0557tonehead]

Copyrighting rigs, I never understood. I've shared so many gear setups...playing through oddball shit is the best stories.

[@shawnmichaeladams1]

This is a dope video! I love studio setup info, thank you!

[@duanedahljr1669]

I love the "mid-range" especially with my big block Chryslers.

[@kurdtjohn]

Eric made a really in-depth video of the recording for No One Knows last year, it was deleted for some reason.

[@RossTheSoundGuy]

That’s why I downloaded it! 😂

[@benedekgabor.]

@@RossTheSoundGuy Can you send it to me somehow please?

[@roni6135]

@@RossTheSoundGuy upload it please

[@vicesquadpunk]

ERIC is phenomenal.... what a producer... WOWSA ;-)

[@Therealstoob]

I know its been 6 years but please make a video on how to get the bass sound from the 1st qotsa album

[@Audiojunkk]

Great video once again guys!

[@phasmoid666]

Great content, thanks Eric

[@CarstenGoeke]

This is soooo good. Thanks for sharing. Greetz

[@sirspikey]

Very interesting and well explained, easy to follow.

[@doctortono]

This Ampeg amp isn’t a B15 amp, that Ampeg is a V-4B for sure I have 4 of them and that amp is an unmistakable amp!

[@RuffisInc]

He’s being overly secret about stuff that most of us know about. Fuck me, Josh played those Ovation guitars onstage for years, they’re well known among fans

[@tmitz73]

Great Video, inspiring! And what a great record!!

[@Banana_Rama-123]

Great video! Defiantly some interesting concepts to try out when recording guitar! As a plus watch the Living Room Gear Demos QOTSA video and see how he gets similar tones at far less of a budget!

[@SuperDanHimself]

Tone King Amp, ES-335 and Fano Guitars and Catalinbread effects : not sure about the far less budget ! :D

[@LivingroomGearDemos]

Hey man! Thanks :)

[@LivingroomGearDemos]

Kind of the point with the video is to show that you don't need the Fano or the ES. You can get very far with just Catalinbread SFT.

[@Banana_Rama-123]

Livingroom Gear Demos No worries man, the tones are just nailed right on imo. It deserves way more exposure than it already has!

[@Banana_Rama-123]

SuperDanHimself factor in amplifiers, microphones, pedals, guitars and mic pre's your talking about tens of thousands and for most it would be way of reach. Especially with what I think is a tasty looking 8038 with some sort of retrofit flying faders. But that's all irrelevant. The gear doesn't matter and all that matters at the end of the day is how it sounds. The fact is that both videos are entirely valid and they both explore different concepts that are meant to get you in the ball park and both do so very well.

[@alexbozas887]

sennheiser 441 behind the speaker with no eq sounds bad ass.

[@kegancastillo760]

I have to admit, I’m slightly bummed that we didn’t get to hear the mic behind the cabinet, I was curious about that one

[@beekan8787]

listen again, he shows it

[@jimmyknight1]

Excellent info. Thanks!

[@diegogomez6835]

He's like a fusión of Peter Capaldi and Paul Rudd with a lot of midrange

[@caminglis53]

Eric is an amazing human!

[@kellymoon3406]

The Maestro is the key for those super buttery, midrange-equalized leads.

[@sniggity]

If you want to know what any guitar player uses, go watch him in a small club. Even if the name plates are removed you can still see a Marshall jcm 800 or a Fender combo. Some bands are so secretive they won’t even put gear on stage. That’s when you realize that the gear is truly secondary to pure creation, it is only an element to an artist. If you can’t write songs or play it doesn’t really matter.

[@LizardWizard_]

Appreciate the effort

[@crazyboyz313]

I wonder how SFTD would've went if Chris Goss was involved, probably would have went even better than it already did, i love EV so its a no brainer.

[@tanveerhasan2382]

I dunno, I think SFTD is so unique precisely because of Eric Valentine

[@victorazuar5733]

Now I understand why I always push the mid to the top atn the tone stack xD

[@GideonKSays]

It's a different thing. On the amp itself the mid boost is post-gain. All the EQ pedals are mid boosts before the input which is causing it to overload but in a specific way. Pre and Post eq are different things. If they were only boosting the midrange in the mix ti would sound awful.

[@victorazuar5733]

Yeah tis totally different, what I mean is if you dont have those eqs (I don't xD) the only thing you can do is push the mid control and even scoop it turning down treble very hard. Just to approach that stoner tone

[@GideonKSays]

Any EQ pedal will do. Just got one and push the (lower) mids in front of the amp.

[@JimijaymesProductions]

Depends on the amp lots of amps have the tone stack in the middle before certain gain stages. On a cranked up old marshall say, the tone stack in before a lot of the distortion.

[@SkeeterMcBeater]

While most other metal musicians were trying to scoop their tone, Josh was like, "Nah bro."

[@MGMNTmjn]

Eric...I doubt you’ll answer this, but I wanted to ask anyway. Was there a phase issue with the mic in back of the cab? Seems like having a mic in front and a mic in back would be 180 degrees out of phase. Did y’all flip the phase at the board? Or with the front mics being so far back that the phase issue was nullified? Just wondering. If you do get a chance to reply, many thanks in advance.

[@Alex-jq5ft]

that's not a B15, that's the amplifier section of a VT40 combo (It literally says VT40 next to the Standby/Polarity/Power switches) Infact, it's almost definitely the amplifier-section from the 4x10 "cab" that it's sitting on, as that also appears to be part of a VT40.

[@davidlima7671]

Beautiful!

[@godofspacetime333]

I’ll never understand a band or guitarist not wanting to let anyone know what equipment they’re using. If people really want to know, why not tell them? What could you possibly lose? Do you honestly think someone is going to perfectly replicate your sound and start a cover band and take all your gigs from you or something? I don’t get it. On the opposite end of the spectrum you have someone like Billy Corgan, who not only does the “Show Us Your Gear” type interviews/Q&A’s, but actually wrote and entire 7 or 8 part series for Guitar World back in the day on his gear/sound, recording techniques, and even how he writes songs. It’s a pretty amazing series too, I just wish it was longer. I learned a lot from that, copied some of it (like immediately buying a big muff) and disregarded some of it. But it gave me a sort of mooring, which for someone just starting out at 13 was immensely helpful and inspiring. So yeah, basically, BOOOOO QotSA.

[@guitarmaniac004]

Because other bands could copy their aesthetic and steal their sound. Look at Greta Van Fleet. They completely stole Led Zepplins style and tone.

[@snorrevonflake]

haha, would never have guessed that this guy uses a Silvertone guitar with goldfoil pickups for that sound, would have guessed some metal guitar and a marshall, yea that vintage studio equipment is cool but i think some small supro amp would have done too

[@acarlovonsexron1994]

He didn't. He used an Ovation Ultra GP, specifically the one in my avatar. He ended up with three of them.

[@wrongfuture]

Sounds like a Boss Metal Zone

[@tommymccracken487]

that was fantastic

[@michaos1]

What if you stack 2 EQ pedals and boost the hell out of midrange? or maybe 4? And then add a little 5 dB on the console like a cherry on the pie. Thank you for sharing wisdom, although i’m not going to even try sounding close to Kyuss and latter. It was interesting how they did it!

[@emendez]

that camp can piss off

[@anjy2l332]

Wes Borland will be pissed that Valentine is giving away the secrets to that tone!!!

[@darrylweller6143]

This is great!!

[@MrBradleeb]

Great insight

[@dowemusic5733]

Excellent!

[@MrSimondaniel3]

9:38 " it was rare to use a pedal as main source of distortion.. ok so we've got 2 EQ pedals boosting +50 dB at 250 & 500 Hz" : )

[@AS-ug7gr]

Technically the EQ didn't add distortion, the amp head being driven hard accentuates those in the breakup but the pedal itself isn't generating any signal breakup.

[@TheMrericmichel]

What would have happened if Mr Valentine let loose the true settings and setups of the " guarded camp " ehhmm Joshua Homme. ? Death, torture?

[@BeingAMonkey]

A face kick

[@Scooby743]

awesome! thanks

[@regortex3364]

It’s like nobody here has ever played a cranked V-4 before, and an eq pedal to boost mids has been done regularly since the early to mid 70’s, not a difficult recipe. Not slagging the engineer/ producer here, he’s describing what that they did, very cool. I think Josh Homme uses a Maestro filter pedal (if memory serves?) in his rig.

[@wixwebs2346]

and a Stone Deaf PDF-1 ;)

[@warshipsatin8764]

i knew there was something weird going on with the guitar sound on songs for the deaf. josh homme always had really cool but unusual tone

[@jarrydee2799]

That is not an Ampeg B15..

[@scottychainsaw5866]

It's weird people are surprised about this stuff. The mids and lows gained out to get real distortion from a tube amp. Rich thick full power. Simple.

[@duhlike]

Homme would be so pissed if he knew Eric Vallentine was giving away his secrets.

[@turdferguson9190]

duhlike Actually Homme has been a lot more open regarding his gear lately. No secrets about what gear he used live with Them Crooked Vultures and there are rundowns of his QOTSA rig that are almost complete.

[@duhlike]

Turd Ferguson I know lately he has been. but never in the past. anyway where did you find these so called rig run downs? i know they did one for Troy but obviously never for Josh.

[@jjg5193]

I’ll listen to anything the dude releases, and enjoy most of it, but sky valley/circus-era kyuss was his best tone.

[@Kaptaincarter]

@@duhlike I found a 35 second clip earlier tonight of assumably the guitar world tech walking backstage with a camera - parallel VT-40 combos by the way

[@the-LeoKnightus]

It's incredible iMO how we are using high end stuff and 5 EQ's to make signals sound like they are complete dirt cheap stuff. We are paying more to have things sound like they recorded with the cheapest stuff man can bring to market.

[@weenibeenies]

song at the start of the video?

[@francisskundaliny1295]

Eric looks like Dweezeely zappa👍,rockn rolly!

[@atomaalatonal]

lol i remember as a kid i went to a big music biz show and on a booth i took a guitar and jacked it into a bass amp and every fucktard around was laughing about the idiot. i always liked the more bass/mid sounds out of amps, especially on my 100w marshall top. the mass people always stick to what they were told to do...

[@juanvaldez5422]

people have been using fender BASSMAN's since the 50s for guitar . . so yeah, you go boi@!@!

[@TEDOBEATS]

Fucking amazing ! Thank you so much!

[@TiANr0ckst4r]

liked it even before watching.

[@J4060]

A lot of midrange, but not enough cowbell.