In order to deliver the legendary tone of Jimmy Page and the much loved song of Led Zeppelin – “Kashmir ” which was performed at almost every concert, we chose one of our most realistic amp simulators – Caliburn. But the core of the sound is simple: A Les Paul plugged directly into a Marshall.
What initially started as The New Yardbirds in 1968, quickly turned into the most legendary English band of all times.
In today’s article we would like to take a glimpse at the magic of one of the most listened to and adored bands ever – Led Zeppelin.
HISTORY
Soon After the splitting up of the original band Yardbird, the lead guitarist Jimmy Page formed a new band consisting of the bass player John Paul Jones, drummer John Bonham, the vocalist Robert Plant and himself as guitarist.
For this quartet we could say that they quickly gained momentum in the world of music and became famous. Their first recorded album together coincided with their North American tour and combining styles as Heavy metal, blues, rock, folk and Eastern influences immediately grabbed the attention of music lovers and very soon they became among the favorites of the people all around the globe and of course this led to more tours.
They released eight studio albums. In the first four the music is mostly written by Jimmy Page and lyrics are the work of Robert Plant. Later on the keyboards took central position in their compositions and that gave to the authors the chance to experiment with the melodies.
The next years for the “supergroup” were marked with ultimate success. Between 1971 and 1975 their live performances together with appearances on TV, gave them a well deserved definition as “ The Biggest Band” in the world.
The iconic songs like the “Stairway To Heaven ”, “Kashmir ”, and many more were born in the end of that beloved Hippie era and will be remembered as incarnations of artistry and mysticism.
After the furore of their first album the second one was just out of the question. They recorded it entirely on the road at different studios in North America. And guess what! It was an even greater success. “Ramble On”, “Whole Lotta Love”, “Heartbreaker”- these are the greatest hits that the whole world loves.
As well as the other instruments that contributed to the music, and the deep interaction between the musicians in the songs, the enchanting guitars hold a special place in the hearts of many guitarists around the world.
In 1980, this “super group” disbanded due to unfortunate events, but Jimmy Page remains one of the most famous and influential guitarists in musical history.
Let’s take a look at his guitar rig and equipment.
GEARS
No doubt you guessed that for so many years of playing he had a ton of gear. Page himself revealed for the public that he has over 1500 guitars but lets count just a few.
In the years with Yardbirds he got a 1959 Fender Telecaster by Jeff Beck and he repainted it with a dragon used on tours and studio with Led Zeppelin.
1958 Gibson Les Paul Standard, Gibson Les Paul Standard from 1959 – given to him by Joe Walsh, 1960 Black Gibson Les Paul Custom with Bigsby Tremolo – stolen in 1970, Rosewood Fender Telecaster 1960, Les Paul Gold top, a few PRS Custom and so on.
As for the amplifiers he isn’t left with a few as well. Creating such innovative music for those times requires an absolutely diverse amount of sounds. Several Fender amps, Oranges, Hiwat, VOX and the absolute beast Marshall.
The Tone with our Amp Simulators
In order to deliver the legendary tone of Jimmy Page and the much loved song of Led Zeppelin – “Kashmir ‘‘ which was performed at almost every concert, we chose one of our most realistic amp simulators – Amplifikation Caliburn. But the core of the sound is simple: Danelectro DC–59 plugged directly into a Marshall. In today’s tone recreation we will plug into our Caliburn Amp A which is 60’s based. Or A Les Paul again into the Marshall inspired amp simulator.
There are many rumors that some small combos were used in the studio and whatever combination to get the job done. But watching him live you can clearly see the walls of Marshalls behind. Modified or not, just Pure Plexi heads with 4×12. There’s probably a small amount of phaser effect mixed in and it’s more pronounced on the chorus.
Make sure that you’re tuned to D A D G A D, or Celtic tuning is an alternative guitar tuning most associated with Celtic music, though it has also found use in rock, folk, metal and several other genres. If you want to know more, search online about the tuning and the implementation in your folk pop and rock music since the 60s.
More info at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DADGAD
Page is a vivid user of many alternative things and the DADGAD is one of them. The Kashmir song is played and recorded in this tuning!
Also, we will add our Efektor Phaser with slow settings in front of the amp to get even closer.
The Eventide [Clockworks PS 101 Instant] Phaser was used on the drum track and could be easily heard on the cymbals. But on the guitar the MXR ’74 is probably the right one.
Here we start with the phaser
Then the fuzz for the last few choruses and live solos.
Then the amp. You can spot that the lows are quite diminished, but that’s normal for the early British amps if you want to get a more tight tone!
After that some EQ for the MIX and then a lightley mixed hall reverb
Here is the full preset in Amplifikation 360
Here you can hear the tone:
Audio Sample:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uXvQ6qLz8OMOZNQtbRcQnpMekYo1GG2Z/view?usp=sharing
Here you can download the preset and copy it to your presets folder:
Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hNgCKfuzSftwBvmgZ5fhuR95SlorKtnl/view?usp=sharing
The preset file for A360 looks like this: Led Page Kashmir .ka360p copy the file after extracting it from the zip file at:
Presets folder:
Windows:
C:\Users\[User Name]\Documents\Kuassa\Presets\Amplifikation360
Mac:
/Users/[User Name]/Music/Kuassa/Presets/Amplifikation360
Jimmy Page is a legend, there is no doubt in that! He influenced generations of guitarists and musicians. His writing skills and unique playing and tone will live forever!
Stay tuned for more tones with history, explanation and preset for download!