Denny Laine's tone

Anyone ever try to emulate Denny Laine's stuff when he was with Wings? I'm interested in the tone he got with McCartney and their song "Band on the Run", especially the opening few licks. Does anyone know what guitar/amp he used? A Vox? Its a reasonably subtle distorted tone. I'm trying to model it.

I know he endorsed Vantage and used a VA900 early on in Wings..... other than that, nope - you're on yer own!

Denny Laine ....... oh man Anaerobe, you are really dating me there. Knock it off, will'ya??

Why do I have this picture in my head of him standing in front of a Musicman stack??

If it's the lead tone you want, I think it might be Jimmy McCulloch, rather than Denny Laine. On You Tube there's 1976 footage with Jimmy playing an SG.

Hoax

John - I had no idea Laine played a Vantage VA900 - that is really interesting. Are there any articles published on the web on this topic?

Ice - believe me, I had to work up some courage prior to actually posting. In 1973 I was still very young - that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Hoax- I think JM (a truly gifted leadsman) played the famous and beautiful riffs on "My Love"... but IIRC he quit Wings prior to the recording and release of "Band on the Run". That was mainly Laine and McCartney if my info is correct.

John you will like this - I picked up my some of gear last night, and found an approximation of this tone on - get this - my Vantage "Entertainar" (sic), using my old Univox bass amp and a Radial Tonebone Trimode pedal. The guitar has twin MMK45 HB pups. Since Laine liked Vantage, I think this is a bit of a blues brothers moment eg, I'm on a Mission from God.

anaerobe wrote:John - I had no idea Laine played a Vantage VA900 - that is really interesting. Are there any articles published on the web on this topic?

I don't know about any scribblings but there is a full page ad in a guitar rag featuring him and a VA900 -

http://www.matsumoku.org/ggboard/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=5261&start=0&hilit=denny+laine

Ice - believe me, I had to work up some courage prior to actually posting. In 1973 I was still very young - that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Hey.. you're not much older than me, and I was gigging in 1973... at 13!!

Hoax- I think JM (a truly gifted leadsman) played the famous and beautiful riffs on "My Love"... but IIRC he quit Wings prior to the recording and release of "Band on the Run". That was mainly Laine and McCartney if my info is correct.

I thought it was Henry McCullough, and yes - he and the drummer both ditched Wings just before they went to Lagos, so Laine and Macca did the lot. McCullough winged that entire solo on My Love, too - he told McCartney that he "had something different" to what they'd been practising and was going to play it! He was a bit of a wild man, was Henry; not even McCartney could settle him down, but what a guitarist...

John you will like this - I picked up my some of gear last night, and found an approximation of this tone on - get this - my Vantage "Entertainar" (sic), using my old Univox bass amp and a Radial Tonebone Trimode pedal. The guitar has twin MMK45 HB pups. Since Laine liked Vantage, I think this is a bit of a blues brothers moment eg, I'm on a Mission from God.

Ahh, but the VA900 has MMK 63s on board... or 57s? I can't remember now and it's been an awful long time since I've seen that guitar!

Nice! I guess my with my "Mission statement" the point is that prior to your email I had no idea Laine played anything but Fender/Gibson/blahdeblah...it was thus a matter of pure chance that just like he, I picked up a Vantage.