3 Classic Red Hot Chili Peppers Tones with Cab Rig
Over the last 30 years, the Red Hot Chili Peppers have been a mainstay in the world of rock. Their mix of funk, punk and rock music has wowed audiences for years and many guitar players have chased the iconic tones of John Frusciante.
A lot of his iconic tones are typically clean. While John does dabble with fuzz and drive textures in various RHCP tracks, some of the bands iconic guitar moments are with cleaner tones. He prefers a mix of British voiced amps with Single Coil pickups. Tonally, he sits quite close to the Hendrix area of tone.
In this lesson we’re going to check out 3 classic tones from the bands catalogue and look at how to create those tones with just the St James 6L6 and Cab Rig. The Cab Rig presets for each patch are listed below.
The amp is set the same for all 3 tones. You can use the following settings:
While John typically uses British voiced amps, we can get a similar mid range from the 6L6 tubes in the St James by running it on the drive channel with the drive set very low. The drive channel has a slight British push to the midrange.
All the tones you hear in the video are coming from Cab Rig which is running in stereo for the whole video.
Californication
Get the Cab Rig Patch Here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qwbevxoqyi9z4g8/CALIFORNICATION.cabrig?dl=0
This tone was created with a mix of a 4×12 Classic UK cab on the left and a 4×12 Modern UK Ceramic on the right. John would typically lean more into vintage voiced speakers and cabs, but in this example the modern ceramics just add a little extra top end presence.
The Classic UK cab was mic’d with a 414 Condenser and the Modern Ceramic was mic’d with a 412 Dynamic. Both these mics give a balanced low end to accompany the smoother tone of this riff.
EQ wise, the left cab is EQ’d with a slight scoop to the mids and some additional top end added:
The right cab is EQ’d with a slightly more extreme scoop
Some EQ treatment has also been applied to the master output to recreate some of the processing that would have gone on in the studio after the track had been recorded:
Can’t Stop
Get the Cab Rig Patch Here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/u9v54hejtfljbo3/CAN%27T%20STOP.cabrig?dl=0
This tone is a slightly more percussive and snappy tone and was created with a different pairing of guitar cabs. On the left you have the 4×12 Classic UK and on the right the 4×12 Vintage UK, this is sticking more closely to John’s preferred cab choices.
Mic wise the Classic UK is mic’d with a 57 Dynamic for some extra snap and the Vintage UK is mic’d with a 412 Dynamic mic.
The left cab still has a slight EQ scoop and top end push:
The right cab also has a similar extreme mid scoop to the first tone:
This tone also uses some room ambience blended in quite low just to create a bit of space:
And the master EQ is set relatively flat with a little scoop on the lower mids to make the guitar a little snappier:
Dani California
Get the Cab Rig Patch Here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hrob04k9r0dchpl/DANI%20CALIFORNIA.cabrig?dl=0
This final tone uses the same cab choices and mic choices as the previous tone, but with some EQ tweaks along the way.
The EQ on the left side is much flatter this time with a slight lower mid cut and a top end boost:
The right cab EQ is also different. This time it’s set much flatter with more of an emphasis on the lower boost. This tone is much rounder and mid pushed than some of the more scooped tones he uses.
This riff uses quite a bit more of the room sound blended in:
On the master EQ there is a slight scoop on the higher mids to allow the lower mids and low end to really focus. These areas are slightly boosted:
