Looking for Los Lobos Tone recipe

[67gretsch]

I am on a quest to find and dial in for my own use the layout of equipment:IE;, eq,effects ,amp type,pickup configurations etc. to duplicate the tonal qualities of Los Lobos.

I have several guitars mainly vintage Gretsch,Fender and Gibsons to use. I am most interested in the extreme FAT STRAT sound quality Los Lobos produces.Creamy crunchy, yet clear tube sound they seem to have such control of.

There is undoubtedly a recipe for this.

It sounds to me like they are driving the power tubes to full saturation with a alot of EQ in the line before any effects.

Does anyone have any thoughts? I have lately become obsessed in this quest

Thanks

[Dr. Ellwood]

Not sure, but I bet it's some kind of clean boost into a vintage amp, maybe Fender. Look up and read about the Klon Centuar and see if the description of what it does fits what you are looking for.

[Fingerstyle_Jim]

When I saw them (many years ago) both guitarists were using Fender Twins and both were alternating between Strats and Teles. One of the teles had a third pick-up between the main ones and I was close enough to see David Hidalgo step on a foot switch just as he launched into a solo in the song "Don't Worry Baby"(on a Strat). His tone before the switch was already great but when he kicked what ever it was in he got louder with more treble and sounded even better. This was in a small hall, I saw them again a few years later in an arena and even though they played great the sound was pretty bad. I heard that they weren't playing through thier own gear that night but in an arena it's pretty hard to get good sound(in those days anyway).

 

Jim

[Guitar55]

If you're trtying to emulate the tone you've heard on Los Lobos' CDs, that will be difficult, only because they use such a wide variety of guitars and amps in the studio.