Pantera producer reveals the lengths Dimebag Darrell would go to record his solos: “He ran home and came back with a grocery sack full of old, rusty pedals he had lying around”
As the producer behind Pantera’s first four major-label albums – Cowboys from Hell , Vulgar Display of Power, Far Beyond Driven, and The Great Southern Trendkill, Terry Date has had a front row seat to the creative genius that Dimebag Darrell and co. brought to the studio.
Looking back on his time with the late legend, Date shares how Dimebag would go about recording his iconic solos, and the lengths the guitarist would go to achieve the tone he desires.
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“Our basic formula – the way we worked on his solos – was always the same. We would dedicate four tracks [on tape] for the lead and get three really good takes of the whole thing,” Date tells Guitar World.
“We would then go through them and comp the best parts of each of those takes onto the fourth track. It was always a comp situation.”
He adds: “I remember one time he wasn’t getting a sound he liked for a solo, so I said, ‘Maybe we get a different pedal.’ Dime goes, ‘Gimme 15 minutes.’ He ran home and came back with a grocery sack full of old, rusty pedals he had lying around his rehearsal place at his mom’s house.”
“He just plugged them all in, turned them all on, and goes, ‘How does that sound?’ And, I said, ‘That’s perfect!’” says Date. “It was that kind of shit.”
In related news, Pantera will be embarking on their first European headline tour in over 20 years next month. The band’s updated lineup, featuring Phil Anselmo (vocals), Rex Brown (bass), Charlie Benante (drums), as well as Black Label Society’s Zakk Wylde (guitar) will kick off the outing on 21 January 2025 in Helsinki, Finland.
As the man tasked to take on Dimebag’s iconic riffs, Wylde explains why fans should not expect his performances to be a carbon copy of the late guitarist. In his eyes, nobody can play exactly like another guitarist. “I don’t think you can do that,” he tells Metal Injection.
“Just listen to Eddie Van Halen. Whenever he’s playing, you know it’s Eddie. You can look up when he’s playing [Hendrix’s] Fire with Steve Lukather… It sounds like Eddie Van Halen playing Fire.”
“If Dime was in the same position and had to play my No More Tears solo, I’d go, ‘It sounds like my buddy playing my solo, and he’s killing it!’”
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