Guitar Tone Match: DOKKEN “The Hunter”

By Dimi Nalbantov on May 27, 2018

First time I heard Lynch’s guitar playing was around 1992-1993. A friend lend me the cassette tape. I went home after school in my small rented room and played the tape on my Hitachi player. I was floored. George’s tone and the way he approaches the guitar was out of this world. I was replaying the tape thousands times

Well I was still a young pall, but I was able to absorb his musicality and to try to understand his chops.

Its subjective, but he left a big mark in my ‘guitarist’ brain that was just starting to grow.
Many years later after watching him playing live and also his videos from his deserts studio, It’s still blew me away. His pinch harmonics are so distinctive. You will recognize his sound easily!

There are many guitarists in the planet already, but few have remarkable tone, exceptional vibrato, unique scales decisions. Lynch will remain in the hall of the guitar gods from the 80’s who’s still rock the world.

It’s all about the unique tone and unmistakable style of George Lynch, best known for his work with 80’s heavy hair rock band Dokken.

“The Hunter” is a song by American heavy metal band Dokken, released in 1985 on the album Under Lock and Key. It was released as the first single from the album, which peaked at number 25 on the Mainstream Rock chart in the United States.[1][2] The song remained on the chart for 9 weeks.[3]

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunter_(Dokken_song)

Most of his tone was based on a few classic amps./Of course! What else?/ Marshall heads, Laney heads, or even a Plexi. In the latest years he is endorsed by Randall Amps. The design is based around older Marshall Plexi head used early in the Dokken era. He also used Seymour Duncan Distortion pickups. Maybe a TS808 as a boost.
Maybe MXR Phase 90. Also, the delay is a large part of his sound. One of the secrets to get this tone is to have guitar tracked in stereo from a single performance, using two separate amps or two different cabinets. In this way the stereo imaging captured gives that wide and big rhythm guitar tone.

In recreation of his tone,
The most important thing was to choose the correct cabinets, miking them in stereo and separate the left and right microphones.

Using Amplfikation Creme cab section is a breeze.
There are two cabinet – speakers slots giving us the freedom to use different cabinet configurations with different microphones. Engaging the mono-stereo switch in the middle opens the left and right sliders and separate level controls.

The best guitar amp simulator for more modern high-gain guitar sound, metal, and alike.

Efektor Distortion & Amplifikation Creme

I’ve instantly reached my favorite Vintage British and Standard British cabinets with the classic 57 mic. Panning them and carefully set the microphones’ position. After analyzing the tone from the Hunter, I have got a quite close match. Playing the main riff a dozen of times convinced me, that using classic techniques in the virtual world gives the same amazing results!

Speaking about the core of the tone. Kuassa’s Efektor DS 3603 Heavy model landed in front of the Creme Amp, boosting and shaping the attack, giving enough grit and great notes separation.