Let me preface my post by saying that you should get ready for people to recommend you many expensive and esoteric pedals in order to get the sound you "need" to play that material. What you have is totally fine, and can definitely get the tones you're trying to achieve. Here's are my suggestions:
-Jimmy Page Setup-
Les Paul
Crybaby Wah
Line6 DL4
Crate Vintage Club Head and 2x12
Page's definitive live setup was his Les Paul > Wah > Echoplex Tape Echo > Marshall. . .ultimately it wasn't too complex. The Marshall was set for a little bit of grit and sustain, and, I have to say this constantly, the key to his sound is to avoid too much distortion or compression. As far as the echo goes, Page used 3 primary settings:
- Short, single repeat "slap back" echo
- Medium (roughly 300 ms) ambient wash with maybe 5-6 repeats that gradually fade out
- Long (maybe 350 ms) single repeat for his violin bow "repeat" tricks
Now, since your DL-4 conveniently has three memory slots, I'd just pull up the tape echo mode, get some decent settings that mimic those sounds, and go from there. After that, you're basically all set.
-David Gilmour Setup-
This one is a bit more involved than Page's, but it's still not too bad. Depending on what period you're aiming for, I'd do the following:
Strat
MXR Comp
Line6 DM4
Line6 DL4
Crate Vintage Club Head and 2x12
Basically, Gilmour's classic sound is an old strat with compression, into a Cornish tape-style echo, into a "pushed" Hiwatt setup - he'll then throw on a fat, thick Tube Driver or even Big Muff to boost his sounds for leads. Thus, what you'll firstly want to do is - in a similar manner to the Page approach - set up the Crate to have a very balanced, clear, fat tone with only a hint of compression/overdrive when you dig into the strings. Then turn on the comp and set it so that it's simply balancing things out, not squishing your sound too much at all.
As far as the echo, you'll want to set the DL4 to the tape-echo mode and dial up a sound that's not too overt or present - just a nice subtle wash of ambience in the background (again, about 300 ms). With this in place, you've essentially got Gilmour's base sound. If you want that classic lead tone, simply dial in either the Tube Driver or Big Muff setting on the DM-4 and set it so that the tone is fat and rounded, and there isn't too much gain - you're mainly using the girth of the distortion to boost and fatten the whole sound of the setup. If you feel saucy, you can always throw in the Phase 90 to get some "Have a Cigar" or other pulsing modulation effects from the Animals/Wish You Were Here era. . .but I'd probably stick to the basics.
Originally Posted by triviani
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