Whenever I want to shock my buddies with a tune, I throw on Buckcherry’s hit, “Too Drunk...” (See video above.) It always does the trick!
What amazes me about Buckcherry is that they have some incredibly funny songs, but yet it’s also great rock and roll. A hard beat, really good guitar tone and lyrics that make people laugh.
I’ve watched people at bars when “Crazy Bitch” is being played, and they get into that song like few others I’ve seen. Their music is fun. Isn’t that what we all want in a song?
Ultimately, we want to be entertained by music. Sometimes that comes in the form of deep soulful lyrics and other times it’s in the screaming guitar of players like Zakk Wylde. Buckcherry delivers a little bit of everything.
Besides “Too Drunk...” and “Crazy Bitch,” Buckcherry also show a softer side with songs like “Sorry.” That gives the band another dimension that is missing from a lot of bands in that genre. Very few can actually pull off what they have and when it comes right down to it, the quality of their music stands out.
Lead guitarist and Buckcherry founding member Keith Nelson is a fantastic guitar player. Not just for tone or speed, but the feel he brings to the band’s songs.
Here’s an interesting little tidbit for you. Nelson and Buckcherry co-founder Josh Todd were both part of Velvet Revolver, the hard rock band headed by Slash. Nelson even has writing credit on one of VR’s best songs, “Dirty Little Thing.”
Keith has a lot of gear and has said himself that he has every vintage Marshall and Vox you’ll need. When it comes to guitars, Nelson has a large collection of Gibsons including a Les Paul Junior, Les Paul Goldtop and SG, and a 355, among others. He also plays various Fender, Zemaitis and Gretsch models.
Nelson uses several effects with mods by Robert Keeley.
I’ll be using Native Instruments' Guitar Rig 3 to build the tones on my computer and a high-gain guitar.
When I started making this tone I decided on using a Marshall amp with a classic distortion effect, but I kept experimenting until I ended up with two complete tones. I’ve included both tones as a downloadable file at the end of this article.
Let me explain what I did. First, I did one tone with a Marshall JCM 800 amp model. Settings for the amp are Master 9; Preamp 9; Bass 5; Mid 7; Treble 10 and Presence 8. Leave the Boost button off.
I also used a Marshall 4x12 cabinet with the Mic setting at 92% towards Mic A and the Dry/Air setting at 1.95 Air. The Volume on the cab is -9.2db.
I inserted two effects into this tone. A Spring Reverb with settings of Reverb 28.2%; 0.983/s; and Bass 5. I’m using a regular Distortion with Volume 5; Tone 4 and Distortion 3.
In the second tone includes the Marshall amp with the same settings, the Marshall cab with the volume set to -6.8db, the Reverb and Distortion with all the same settings.
What’s different is that I added in a Vox amp. The settings for the Vox are Normal 7; Brilliant 10; Treble 6; Bass 5; Tone Cut 2. The Vox 2x12 cab has the Mic set to 68% Mic A and the Dry/Air setting on 5.26 Air. The Volume is at 10.
I panned the Marshall 62 to the left and the Vox 66 to the right. Personally, I really like the dual tone sound for Buckcherry, especially songs like “Crazy Bitch,” but they are both there for you to try out.
Download this preset here.