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Guitars:
I'm not going to list here all the guitars
he owns - they're over 90! - but he mainly uses a Gibson Les Paul Standard,
Gibson Les Paul Slash Signature Model (a
Custom Shop Les Paul model with Slash image
carved into top, cranberry finish and a coffin case that was produced in
1997 in a limited run of only 50!), BC
Rich Mockingbird SL (the Slash Model), Gibson
SG Double neck, Guild Crossroads Double Neck (designed by Slash) and a
Travis Bean electric (for slide
guitar). His acoustic guitars are mainly Guild
Jumbo design guitars.
Most of his electric guitars have Seymour
Duncan Alnico II Pro pickups which are low output pickups.
Amps:
During the 80's Slash was using a Marshall
JCM 2555 Silver Jubilee Anniversary amplifier made in 1987. This model
was produced from 1987-1989 and
it was built to celebrate 25 years of Marshall
Amplification and 50 years of Jim Marshall's personal involvement in the
music business. It featured four EL34's
power tubes and three ECC83 preamp tubes.
This was the only amp Slash was using around that time and he only had
a few Jubilee heads.
"I've been using the same Marshall Jubilee heads
at every gig and session since I got them in 1987.
A bunch of those got badly damaged at the riot
we had in St. Louis in 1991. After that, I was really
nervous about my amplifier situation because
I knew that if anything happened to the Jubilees I
had left, I would be totally screwed."
Since this model was no longer in production
and aware of Slash's concerns about his sound, the Marshall company approached
Slash and they worked on a
reissue of this amp. The result came in 1996
when the Marshall JCM 2555 SL Slash's signature model was released, the
only signature model Marshall ever
produced! This amp was a reissue of the Silver
Jubilee series of amps that Slash had always use. What distinguishes the
Slash signature model from the original
model is a snakeskin cover, Slash's signature
along with Jim Marshall signature in the front of the amp and the Snakepit
logo (the same as the featured in the It's
Five O'Clock Somewhere album cover). The Slash
signature amp was only made in 1996 and only 3000 were ever produced so
is very hard to find one.
The JCM 2555 SL comes with a footswitch and
it features 2 channel: Rhythm and Lead.
The knobs on this amplifier are the Presence,
Bass, Middle, Treble, Input Gain, Output Master and finally the Lead Master.
The 2 channels share the same
equalizer which means you can't separate your
Rhythm equalizer settings from your Lead equalizer settings (Slash solves
this problem using 2 amps, one with the
equalizer set up for the Rhythm channel and
the other for the Lead channel - a A/B switch is used to select between
the amps).
The input gain is a push / pull knob: if you
pull it out it distorts the Rhythm channel and by turning the input gain
knob clockwise you can increase the amount of
gain for the rhythm and lead. The output master
is also another Push / Pull knob and is basically the master volume for
the amp. By pulling this knob out you can
switch between the Rhythm and the Lead channels
(you can also use the included footswitch to switch between the channels).
The Lead Master adjusts the
volume of the Lead channel compared to the
rhythm channel.
Some other features are the 50/100 watt switch
(pentode / triode modes) on the front of the amp and the standby and power
switch.
On the rear panel of the amp there's an output
select switch to switch between 4, 8, and 16 ohms and a mains select switch
to switch between 110v, 220v, and
230v. Finally, there's an effects loop and
a DI jack.
This amp comes loaded with three GT12ax7 (also
known as ECC83) pre-amp tubes and four EL-34 power tubes.
Slash's recommended settings for his amplifier
are:
For distorted sounds: Presence: 8, Bass:
7, Mid: 7, Treble: 4 1/2, Output Master: 10, Input Gain: 6 1/2
For the clean sounds Slash replaces the EL-34
power tubes with KT88 tubes: Presence: 0, Bass: 9, Mid: 3, Treble: 5 1/2,
Output Master: 10, Lead Master: 0,
Input Gain: 4.
When Slash uses the talk box he plays trough the 2555 Silver Jubilee amp in the 50 watt mode.
All his amps are plugged into Marshall 1960A
and 1960B (full stack) 4 x 12 cabinets loaded with four 70W Celestion Vintage
speakers.
Slash uses Monster Cable Studio Pro 1000 in
front of all the amps when playing live.
If you listen carefully to all of Slash's related
discography you'll notice that Slash's sound has changed trough the years.
His sound on the Snakepit records is
clearly different than the one he used on
the Use Your Illusions records. They're also both different than the sound
used to record the Appetite For Destruction
record although the main differences are between
the Use Your Illusions and the Snakepit records: just listen to that distinctive
sound featured on Don't
Damn Me, Right Next Door To Hell, You Could
Be Mine, Locomotive, ..., solos. Personally, that's my favorite guitar
sound ever and since I had many
requests from Slash fans asking for
more info on the differences in Slash's gear for that particular sound
I've contacted Jennifer Day, Adam Day wife, who was
very kind and passed my questions to Adam
Day and then answered me back:
"Slash used to use a Marshall mid-80's JCM
800 with 6550 output tubes (Ed: you can see that amp in the picture above
where the JCM 800 is on pair with
the JCM 2555 Slash signature model) through
Marshall cab's with 25 watt greenbacks using more master volume than preamp
volume (very loud). What he's
done more recently is incorporate it with
a 2550 model amp (Ed: 50 watt version of the JCM 2555 Silver Jubilee head)
so that the 2 sounds are blended
together". That's the trick we were wondering
for so long but could never find the answer anywhere! Adam and Jennifer
were so kind that they even asked me
what sound did I prefer, the old featured
on the Illusions records or the more recent sound (needless to say, I answered
the old one with the JCM800 only)!
On the forth coming album featuring Slash,
Izzy and Duff, Slash blends the 2 amp's together using a little bit more
of the JCM 800 & vintage 30 speakers.
Since the tracks of the album were being recorded
in different sessions there's a slight variance in tone (different engineers,
different recording equipment,...).
We would like to thank Jennifer and Adam Day
for helping us with all this info on Slash's amps!
Effects:
The only effects Slash uses are a Dunlop DCR-ISR
Crybaby Rack, Dunlop Heil Talk Box, Boss DD-5 Digital Delay and a
Boss GE-7 Equalizer (to boost his amplifier volume
in the solos when playing live).
Anyway, the best advice I can give you
is try to find your own sound. Don't buy a specific product just because
your guitar hero uses it.
If you're into hard rock than a Les
Paul plugged into a Marshall is a good choice but it's not the only one.
Remember that Les Pauls are very heavy, expensive
and they don't have a floating tremolo
bridge. Also, Marshall amps are very popular along hard rock players but
they're not the best amps to play clean sounds
or to play at home levels. Always buy
the equipment that suits your playing better.
For beginners I strongly recommend starting
with a strat shaped guitar (the double cutaway body format allows you to
reach the higher frets much more easily)
and starting with a good amplifier.
Believe me, a good amp will affect much more your tone than a good guitar
will. The best way to have a good sound without
spending much money is to buy a multieffects
processor unit. These kind of units allow you to choose between famous
amplifiers (Marshalls, Fenders, Peaveys,
...). Of course no matter how good these
simulations sound they're never the same as the real thing but they'll
help you to choose the sound you're looking for
and they'll give you lot's of effects depending
on the unit.
All in all it's like Slash said, "The most
important thing is to learn how to play the guitar before you get fucking
50,000 dollars worth of fucking complicated gear"!
The equipment that I own and that you'll listen
here in the sound files is a Ibanez and a Gibson guitar and a Marshall
tube amplifier. Eventually you'll ear a Jim
Dunlop slide, a Cry Baby Wah pedal and a talkbox.