The Cranberries tone

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Unicorn Warrior
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The Cranberries tone

Post by Unicorn Warrior » Tue Jun 02, 2015 6:36 pm

Alright guys, been on a big Cranberries kick lately. Their chorusy/spacey atmospheric guitar tones are something that takes me back to my childhood. I'd like to try to emulate mostly their cleanish stuff.I feel that I am somewhat close but missing a few pieces of the puzzle (mainly chorus). Right now i'm going from either a Rhoney Oceana jr (most always now) or Fender Mustang into xotic sp compressor > visual sound volume > el capistan delay > Trinity reverb > amp.

I got got rid of my small clone because it just wasn't tweakable enough. I'm thinking maybe a ce-3? had a ce-2 and didn't get along with it (could have been my amp of choice during that era which made me hate my tone). Chorus is my favorite effect, but I still have been able to find a chorus I get along with. With the exception of the chorus which was on a malfunctioning JC-120 I used to own. When that amp would work, it was blissful. I believe the circuit was a ce-1 circuit on those. Any ce-1 clones out there? Chorus may not be the only thing I'm lacking but that's the obvious one that sticks out. Help much appreciated.

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ralfcaetano
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Re: The Cranberries tone

Post by ralfcaetano » Tue Jun 02, 2015 8:46 pm

i'm gonna go on a limb here and say the choruses you're betting on are too deep... it may sound cliche, but have you tried the Boss CH-1??? it's a lot more subtle... if you put the EQ setting at low it should give you what you want... depth without too much "feel" of the effect

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Re: The Cranberries tone

Post by BlueMelody » Tue Jun 02, 2015 9:37 pm

Quite a bit of trem on the early stuff.

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Re: The Cranberries tone

Post by boomlights » Tue Jun 02, 2015 10:42 pm

The old Boss CE-1 is on one of their boards: here's an old rehearsal picture from 2012 (something about those chips probably makes a decent clone kind of hard to make these days, I suppose).

Good alternatives: Boss CE-3 (close to a CE-2, but w/ Depth & a Stereo Out, & cheaper), Analogman Chorus (a very good, true bypass version of the Small Clone, but with Depth control) or Bi-Chorus (w/ optional stereo ins/outs), maybe an MXR Analog Chorus (even more controls, but a tonally different beast) or Stereo Chorus (big & yellow w/ a bass filter).

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Re: The Cranberries tone

Post by FightingPlankton » Wed Jun 03, 2015 1:08 am

I used to be really into his clean tone. Envious in fact. IIRC... he has always used the CE-1 live and in recording. but the secret to the tone on the albums was the ultra-rare Roland SRE-555(or 501, cant remember) The boss re-20 is about as close as you can get without breaking the bank. I know in later years he also had the original DOD Chorus(not the ice box) along with the CE-1. AFAIK, he has always used the dunlop tremolo. I personally bought the Semour duncan shape shifter because i thought it was more suited to what i was doing, but i can still get those tones.
What is acoustic? Oh, you means a grandpa's guitars? A grandpa's guitars? That's for pussies and grandpas. I think you know it.

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preservation
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Re: The Cranberries tone

Post by preservation » Wed Jun 03, 2015 3:56 am

they were basically my favorite band in the 5th grade.
i'm since moved on from Dolores' gutteral howls, unless of course
i hear "Dreams" and i'm instantly sent back to the feeling of my middle
school crush. Erin, what happened to you !?!

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Re: The Cranberries tone

Post by cestlamort » Wed Jun 03, 2015 8:39 am

The El Capistan will do what the RE-20 does, but sounds much better (other than some odd multi-tap settings). I'm still crushed that Boss chose to model the RE-201 instead of the RE-501.

Also keep an eye out for a Boss CE-2b. Really close to a CE-2, but with a mix knob.

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Unicorn Warrior
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Re: The Cranberries tone

Post by Unicorn Warrior » Wed Jun 03, 2015 4:45 pm

BlueMelody wrote:Quite a bit of trem on the early stuff.
I also forgot to mention this. I saw the Pulsar come out a few months ago and my immediate thoughts were trying to snag one for the purpose of recreating some cranberries type tones. Yeah, they definitely use trem. I had a boss tr-2 but never really got along with it and pulsars are pretty expensive. Any reccomendations in the trem avenue would be cool too. Nothing too expensive as trem will be only used sparingly.

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Re: The Cranberries tone

Post by Sid Nitzerglobin » Wed Jun 03, 2015 5:35 pm

Tried a Voodoo Labs Trem for a couple weeks and was really impressed for the price ($65 used). Very good tube trem approximation IMO w/ a fair degree of tune-ability that I probably would have held onto if I didn't already have several other trem pedals (trem is probably my most used effect outside of boost/dirt).

The other sort of affordable one I've tried that's fairly decent is the Mooer Trellicopter. It can be fairly noisy (not really more than the average amp trem though) but has a nice character IMO and has a decent amount of range. Can't beat the footprint either.

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Re: The Cranberries tone

Post by shinealight » Thu Jun 04, 2015 10:50 pm

+1 for the CE-3.
Last edited by shinealight on Fri Jun 05, 2015 12:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The Cranberries tone

Post by Trout » Thu Jun 04, 2015 11:29 pm

Unicorn Warrior wrote: Any reccomendations in the trem avenue would be cool too. Nothing too expensive as trem will be only used sparingly.
I have a Nobels TR-X. Four types of modulation, level ( no volume drop like Boss) and at a really affordable price.
#sitdownrock at https://staffanandersson.bandcamp.com/album/det-hemliga-namnet

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Re: The Cranberries tone

Post by gutter rock » Fri Jun 05, 2015 8:03 pm

The last few times I have seen them on TV or in pics, the guitarist was playing a lake placid blue 50th anniversary jaguar so they got that going for them! I read an interview where he said Jonny Marr got him into Jags and that he was always trying to mimic Marr's tone.

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Unicorn Warrior
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Re: The Cranberries tone

Post by Unicorn Warrior » Fri Jun 05, 2015 9:05 pm

gutter rock wrote:The last few times I have seen them on TV or in pics, the guitarist was playing a lake placid blue 50th anniversary jaguar so they got that going for them! I read an interview where he said Jonny Marr got him into Jags and that he was always trying to mimic Marr's tone.
Yeah dude, I actually saw where was using jaguars now. I've got a vm jag that is in pieces waiting on serious modifications whenever I get around to it (most likely never at this rate due to my busy lifestyle). My mustang should come close enough to that territory though. I know during a lot of the earlier days the guitarist used a les paul which took me by surprise. Kinda gives me Les Paul gas a bit. I think that the full sound of the les paul played clean was probably a large contributing factor on their tone as well.

Thanks guys, I will look into the trem suggestions.

So far for a temporary (or possibly permanent) chorus i'm thinking ce-3. I've never tried but I know that Robert Smith used one at one point and his tone is also very desirable for me. Plus they're cheap. I also saw a retro-sonic chorus which is supposedly a clone of the ce-1. Sounded really close in youtube clips, but was a bit darkerthan the ce-1. Looks like one of those could be had for about $250 used. I would ideally like to own an original ce-1 chorus one of these days but the price is something I don't know if I can live with. Also the strymon chorus would probably be good as well, but just not sure if it would sound "authentic enough"?

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Re: The Cranberries tone

Post by FightingPlankton » Fri Jun 05, 2015 9:47 pm

Unicorn Warrior wrote:.

So far for a temporary (or possibly permanent) chorus i'm thinking ce-3.
grandmasterdavid may have one he's willing to part with.
What is acoustic? Oh, you means a grandpa's guitars? A grandpa's guitars? That's for pussies and grandpas. I think you know it.

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Unicorn Warrior
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Re: The Cranberries tone

Post by Unicorn Warrior » Sat Jun 13, 2015 6:39 pm

Anyone have any opinions on the JHS emperor?

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