Let It Be and Tim guitar tone?

[wing]

Me and a friend are tone hunting for that Let It Be and Tim tone. Think the likes of Seen Your Video and Left Of The Dial. If anyone has any clues as to what pedal Paul was using please let us know!

Thanks in advance!

[curmudgeonman]

Westerberg is not a pedals kind of guy. Like Keith Richards, he thinks a guitar sound should be a guitar plugged directly into an amp, no effects. I don't think I have ever seen a "pedal board" on the stage in his solo performances, and pretty darn sure during the Replacement years. I know he despises fuzz tones, that heavy metal/grunge sound. He has also stated that he uses his volume knobs on his guitar to control tone and distortion, not effects. For his recordings, I highly doubt he drifted from this philosophy.

[badworker]

he did have a boost pedal or distortion pedal during the most recent Replacements shows, mostly for when he took a solo... Couldn't identify it unfortunately. But the Mats tone is all in a vintage Marshall & Les Paul. Paul uses a Soldano amp head since he went solo, which i think is just a Boutique Marshall type amp. He still has a Marshall Super Lead onstage occasionally & i have most definitely seen one in photos or videos of his Basement. Anything for effects was definitely added from the control board, but who knows what they did in the studio. would be interesting to have the Producers & engineers talk about those albums, they are magic for sure.

[badworker]

Welp. after a quick google search, here's Paul in i think '91 SG into a Marshall JCM 800 or 900. But for the first time i notice he has a Boss Chorus & a ProCo Rat Distortion. 

[curmudgeonman]

Here is part of a Guitar World interview from years ago:

GW: You use different tones to create a full guitar sound yourself. Do you utilize different amps to do that?

WESTERBERG: No. Years of performing have taught me to control things from the axe. I’ll just roll off the high end or play with the volume at two or three. I’m not an effects person and I don’t have an arsenal of amps at my disposal, but I am picky about my sound. I don’t like sustain and I don’t like a lot of compression. I prefer a sound that’s right in between dirty and clean and doesn’t have that 10-second sustain when you hit one chord. I’m pretty much lost when the tone gets over-saturated and there’s no distinguishing between one chord and the next. You need to be able to hear me change chords. But I just keep it simple—amp, guitar. Besides, I hate music stores—I never go into them.

link

[markc]

Sounds like a lot of chorus was used on Let It Be.

[firespirit]

If you look at the back of Tim, Paul is playing a 50s Les Paul Special and Bob is playing a late 70s Les Paul.
The thing about those guys is that they would break their gear all the time.
So who knows what they used on Let it Be.
There definitely is a 12 string Rickenbacher(Peter Buck's) on I Will Dare!