Cherub Rock Solo Tone

[mvk20]

I was wondering if anyone might have some tips on how to get a reasonable approximation of this crazy tone. I've got the clean and main tones for the song pretty close. For the solo, seems like Corgan used a synth, maybe with an octave up and down, and obviously a load of fuzz. I could especially use some hints with the synth component. Thanks!!

[mnolan98]

My understanding is his sound on this is many overdubs of a Muff Fuzz. 

[mvk20]

I'm using the Ballistic, as that is a model of a clone of the Op Amp Muff that Corgan used. Is there a good way to approximate the overdub? Is stacking fuzzes even an option for that?

 

Also still think I'm hearing the octave up and down on this.

[codamedia]

57 minutes ago, mvk20 said:

seems like Corgan used a synth, maybe with an octave up and down, and obviously a load of fuzz.

 

I'm not hearing that... I just hear a fuzzed out guitar with a ton of sustain and some judicious amounts of whammy bar in places :) 

 

Aside from the core amp tone, I would parallel two fuzz blocks (don't run them into each other, that would just create noise) and add the Rochester compressor near the end of the path. 

[mnolan98]

51 minutes ago, mvk20 said:

I'm using the Ballistic, as that is a model of a clone of the Op Amp Muff that Corgan used. Is there a good way to approximate the overdub? Is stacking fuzzes even an option for that?

 

Also still think I'm hearing the octave up and down on this.

Stacking will probably just give you noise. I would run a couple of parallel amps with slightly different settings but same model and fuzz, and maybe slightly delay one of them to thicken up the tone. 

[benriddell]

21 hours ago, mvk20 said:

I was wondering if anyone might have some tips on how to get a reasonable approximation of this crazy tone. I've got the clean and main tones for the song pretty close. For the solo, seems like Corgan used a synth, maybe with an octave up and down, and obviously a load of fuzz. I could especially use some hints with the synth component. Thanks!!

 

There's a performance notes section in the Siamese Dream tab book.

 

In the general equipment section it says that they used an Electro-Harmonix Micro Synth pedal in places "where it sounds like a totally different range of fuzz comes in" but specifically for Cherub Rock it says the solo was treated with natural flanging, "I wanted the solo to have a certain kind of movement, so i used two tape machines to do the flanging"

 

EDIT: also he would use a MXR Distortion Plus pedal into his Big Muff for leads/solos

 

https://youtu.be/YZemTcTyJKs

[malhavok]

Hey there, I took a stab at it in this video. I used a combination of stacked fuzz and overdrive along with phaser and flanger. I even sprinkled some pitch shift and detune on top. I saw an interview with Billy Corgan in Guitar World or something around the time of release of this album. He talked about the solo on this song using "real" flanging (like, with actual tape machines and pressing on the flange of the tape reels) rather than a pedal. It's one of the things that makes this tone so elusive. You just can't get "that" sound from a pedal. Regardless, I've been chasing this tone for years and Helix is the first thing that's gotten me happy with my results. The track I'm playing over is just drums and bass so all the guitar is me playing Helix direct into the computer. There's no post-processing. There is one track of the clean guitar, two tracks of rhythm guitar, and one track of solo guitar on this recording.