Shot in the dark tone

[Tyler]

hi

so i am doing a performance os the song shot in the dark -ozzy
in 2 weeks for school and was wondering if anybody has the setting used to get jakes tone on that song ?thanks

[markymarc1979]

What sort of amp are you using? I think jake's settings are on this site somewhere.

[tedeeoo]

The basis of Jake's tone was always a Boss OD-1 with the drive turned all the way down and the level turned all the way up, this pushed the front end of a Marshall JCM-800 which was fed to Marshall 412 cabs loaded with Electro-Voice speakers. His guitar sound for that era was a "Chavelised" hard-tail Fender Strat with a Duncan JB in the bridge and Dimarzio sds in the middle and neck positions. The od1 is now out of production but a Boss Superoverdrive with the gain down and the level maxed out pushing a Marshall Jcm will get you in the ballpark, set the tone on the superoverdrive around 12 o'clock to start with and adjust to what your ear tells you. Remember also, Jake is known for playing extremely loud (which Marshall's like) and do not discount the part of his tone that came from his hands. Remember to that the studio track on "Shot in the Dark" is a multi-tracked guitar (Jake usually double-tracked or triple tracked in the Ozzy days). What is your set-up and maybe me or someone else can help you more.

[markymarc1979]

/\ This is good advice, you can get near with a his tone with a JCM800 or DSL and boost pedal, I find running my mids & treble very high and running the bass around noon is a good starting point. if you have a Marshall one thing is very important....turn it up!!

[tenfingersofdoom]

Boss makes a pedal called "mega - distortion". I always thought it sounded like the ultimate sin album. it is a little darker than other boss distortion units

[tedeeoo]

Alot of it will depend on what amp you are using, some of the older Marshall's seemed to prefer an overdrive rather than a distortion. To me pedals like the Mega-Distortion (esp. this one) are really good for giving you that "John Sykes" Mesa-Boogie type tone when pushing a JCM, but that's just to my ear. The ds-1 is sort of unique in that it doesn't really "sound like" something else to my ear, of course I've never really liked that pedal either, lol. Again, it would be good to know what you are using, some amps, esp. modelers, may not need anything boosting them to get you the tone you want.

[Shemp]

Don't forget the chous, and mabey a phaser set as a boost.

[dillivered]

Make it your own "inspired" by jake version - listen to how jake in·ter·prets
I'll be creepin, Fire & Rain, or Surfin' with the Alien... pay homage to it, but don't feel you have to be Jake IMO

[torbjorn]

don't forget to tune the A up to B, and the low E up to F#.

[torbjorn]

don't forget to tune the A up to B, and the low E up to F#.

[dillivered]

I'm a standard tuning guy, but I see a fifth interval here... any thoughts on this usage? Can you expand this idea?

[torbjorn]

that's how jake recorded and played it live, according to guitar school magazine march 1990. "jake says he's seen people play it in standard tuning, but that it looks painful."