Red Electric

Red Electric

How come my Red EG-RDM Electric Guitar won't make the sound you play in Crazy Train?

I have an EG-RDM eletric guitar and I'm trying to learn how to play Crazy Train, but it won't make sound in the the beginning.

Volume is on 5 with the amp on 5
Tone Knob #1 is on 8
Tone Knob #2 is on 6

You probably don't have enough distortion - what amp are you using?

Randy Rhoads used an MXR Distortion+ pedal into a Marshall tube stack to get that sound - that's a lot of amp, a lot of speakers, and a lot of gain!

So turn all of the knobs on your guitar all the way up - volume and tone, etc. If the volume and tone are anything less than all the way up you won't get a full sound to the amp, which will limit your distortion. You can roll your tone knob back a little to taste, but try it first with all up. On your amp the gain should be at least half way up, if not closer to 75%. Sometimes gain is called volume, with a second knob called "master volume" or "level". The gain should be high, the master volume or level should be low. The treble should be close to 75%, the bass should be around 50%, and the mids can be anywhere between 40 and 60%.

Your sound will really depend on your amp - better amp = better tone, and in many cases cheap amp = cheap tone. If you can't get the sound you want, you may have to get a better amp or a Distortion Pedal to get close.

And I have heard a few people say that Randy used a wah to get that sound, which is absolutely untrue. He stated in numerous interviews that it was just him, his guitar, his amp, and that MXR Distortion+ pedal.

If you're looking for a distortion pedal, I would suggest the Boss Metal Zone or Boss Metalcore pedals... both very good at high gain sounds. The Metal Zone is for scooped rock/metal ie more like Metallica, while the Metalcore has more bass and mids for a chunkier sound, better for detuned metal/rock. They aren't incredibly versatile per se... the Metal Zone will give a wide variety of metal tones, but neither of them will do blues or indie rock or anything like that.

You can try a DS-1 (which is about half the price), it has a sound that is closer to Nirvana, Foo Fighters, punk, etc. It might not have the sound for this song exactly, but if the other two are out of your price range for the moment, it might be worth checking out.

If you have a store nearby that sells Danelectro pedals, a few of them are actually pretty good for distortion - I've used the Fab Tone, and while it was a little off, it still had a pretty decent sound to it, a good fuzz, and it's very inexpensive to boot....

Good luck!

Saul