On a JMP MK2/JCM 800 the valves are cascaded for more gain, which basically means running those two valves in series rather than parallel, effectively doubling the amount of pre amp gain getting sent to the master volume, then to the phase inverter, then the EQ section then finally the power section. Which ever input you are using then goes to the phase invertor (V3a and V3B), EQ section, then the power section. In a 1959 Super Lead the first valve (V1) or half of the first valve (V1A) (I can never remember for sure) supplies gain to Vol 1, the second pre amp valve (V2) or second half of the first valve (V1B) supplies gain to Vol 2 the normal channel.
You can jump the 2 channels together with a patch lead to blend the normal channel (Vol 2) in to warm things up a bit. The way you distort those old Marshall is to crank usually Vol 1 which is the bright channel, as I say you don't have a pre gain and master volume on these just one volume per channel. *An old 1959 Marshall Super Lead with the 4 inputs has no master volume, just a Vol 1 and 2 to control the volume of the Bright and Normal Channel respectively. I bet you could get close with a p90/h90 into a jcm800 plugin.
The trick to the dookie tone is a dog ear p90 antiquity into a marshall with the "dookie" mod which is essentially a master volume mod on a 1959 super lead.
You don't need much compression since this is a fairly high gain set up you'll have going.Īnyways, feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Dookie and Insomniac were both tracked on Neve consoles. If you want the Green Day tone, get an SH-4.Īs far as UAD plugins go- I track the guitar with the Neve 1084. You'll want to get a Seymour Duncan SH-4 pickup on the bridge. I converted my SSS strat into an HSS (ie fat strat). The guitar is essentially a Fender strat clone. It's the one in teh basketcase music video). Bilie Joe did hte same thing, but he used a Fernandez (he called this guitar "blue". Don't bother with other amp sim plugins- seriously!Īnyways, I use an HSS strat, but select the bridge pickup only. I found some great impulse responses of a Marshall 1960 A cab that were created with a Neve console- the cab IR is what made these amp sims sound amazing. Then I would send these signals to a bus channel and mix the two amp sounds together (just like Billie Joe's dookie rig).
One channel for Kazrog (hard panned left), the other is TH-U (hard panned right). Before I got a Kemper and the Dookie Drive, I would use amp sims from both of these. If you're going to use amp sims, check out Kazrog and TH-U. Probably my least favorite option though. I have gotten pretty close to nailing the tone with the free UAD marshall amp sim. The mids are boosted quite a bit, which is why the guitar has such high presence in Green Day songs). There is also an on-off button when activated, you can scoop the mids (You don't really want do to this for green day tones though. And Volume is like at 2 o'clock (you generally don't want to go any lower than this). Adjust the tone knob to at least 2 or 3 o'clock (or more. The insomniac songs are almost entirely Meat. Most Dookie songs call for a blend of about 60 Meat/ 40 Pete. More Pete? Turn the knob counter-clockwise. Set it to 12 o'clock and you get a 50/50 mix of Pete and Meat. This pedal sounds SPOT ON and is so easy to use. I play it through my Kemper and use a Fender Twin Reverb or a Hot Rod Deville profile. It's basically a marshall in a box pedal. It's a fairly new pedal and it does exactly what you think it does- it gives you the Dookie tone. The easiest way to do it these days is to get the MXR Dookie Drive pedal. Pete has lighter gain and is a bit brigther (I am pretty sure the song Pulling Teeth is like 90% Pete).
Meat has killer gain with a very thick, dark tone (this is the amp that was emphasized more heavily throughout Insomniac). He would vary the tone from song to song by changing the level of each amp in his mix. I don't know the details about the other amp's mod, but people just refer to it as the dookie mod. One of them is cacading gain mod, which is a pretty common mod for the 59 superleadm (I think it's known as the Golub mod). I believe both amps were 1959 Marshall Superleads, and both were modded a bit differently from one another.
He split the guitar signal so that he could play through two amps, simultaneously. The only tone I have spent more time trying to nail down is the Blue album tone.Īnyways, I have pretty much nailed the tone a few different ways.īefore I go over any of those ways, let me first talk about Billie Joe's rig that was used to record Dookie and Insomniac: