Replicating Iconic Guitar Tones

    I’m a bit of pedal head truth be told. And while I am completely void of creativity, (I do write originals), I love playing cover tunes. I have a lot of fun trying different pedals with different guitars and pickups and matching tones to the recordings I hear.
 
    I own several Iconic guitars with the all the classic pick up configurations. I love the sound of a PAF humbucker, the spanky bark of P-90, the crisp twang of single coils. And, just because I can and want to, I get a kick out of selecting the exact guitar a particular song was recorded with (when possible), finding the exact pickup and tone settings that the original artist used, and trying to coax the exact tone from my 20 watt tube amp with the help of my beloved foot pedals.

    How big is my pedal board?  Too big to be practical for sure! But I never move it so I don’t care. I have my scaled down 5-favorite pedal board for road gigs but at home in my tone cave? Different deal!
You have probably heard the saying “it’s all in the hands”. This is the claim that certain artists will always sound like themselves regardless of the equipment used because it is “all in the hands”. I can only say that I sound more like Stevie Ray Vaughn using a Tube Screamer, or more like David Gilmour with a vibe pedal and other stompboxes akin to the ones he used.

Here are a few favorite Tones and hopefully you will share some of yours!

Time / David Gilmour- Pink Floyd :

American Standard Strat, Neck pickup, Vox AC-15 amp, Voodoo Labs Micro Vibe, ModTone MT-CR Compressor, ModTone MT-BD Bohemian Drive, MXR Carbon Copy Delay.

Samba Pa Ti / Carlos Santana:

Fender Custom Shop Strat, Neck Pickup, guitar tone controls rolled off complete, Fender Blues amp, MXR Dyna Comp Compressor, Modtone MT-DO Dallas Over Drive, ModTone MT-VD Vintage Delay.

All Right Now / Free:

Gibson Les Paul Standard, PAF Humbucker bridge pick up,  Modtone MT-Duo Dual Over Drive, Modtone MT-VD Vintage Delay, ModTone MT-CRV Reverb

If you have tips to get specific tones please share them here so all can benefit!