Flying In a Blue Dream guitar tone
Joe Satriani · Joe Satriani
Flying in a Blue Dream (1989)
smooth singing legato lead (Lydian)
The rig Joe Satriani used
Researched from interviews, production write-ups and gear histories — not guessed.
Guitar
Ibanez JS1 Prototype
Amplifier
Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ (lead) and Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus (clean layers)
Cabinet
Mesa/Boogie 4x12 (Celestion V30)
Microphone
Shure SM57 (off-axis)
Signal chain
The order the original sound was built in. The exact settings get dialled for your own amp or modeller when you generate the tone.
Get this tone on your rig
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Why we think this is right
Title track in C Lydian (C major with a raised 4th, F#). Satriani's own album-by-album gear list in 'Strange Beautiful Music' for Flying in a Blue Dream 1989 reads: Ibanez JS1 Prototype 'Black Dog', white Ibanez JS1, '83 Kramer Pacer, Boogie Body Strat-type electric, Fender '63 reissue Stratocaster, '71 Marshall Super Lead, '78 Marshall MKII 100-watt head, Roland JC 120, Gorilla practice amp, Scholz Rockman, Mesa Boogie Mark IIc 100-watt head, Boss DS-1, OD-1, and CE-2 pedals, and Cry Baby wahs - which are not used on this song. That primary source resolves three things the stored record hedged: the guitar is the JS1 prototype rather than 'a JS prototype or a 540 Radius'; the Boss OD-1 is a real pedal on this album and is added as the solo's front-end push; and the Roland JC-120 - which Satriani calls his 'go-to traditional amplifier' for cleans, praising its 'quick, snappy, transient response' and 'unusual, wide stereo chorus effect' - is added as the clean amp for the chordal bed. Explicit negation: no wah on this track - no Cry Baby wah, no auto-wah and no fixed filter anywhere in it. Satriani's album gear list names Cry Baby wahs, but not for this song, and adding one would put a fixed midrange filter across the melody. The unnamed 'digital rack delay' and 'studio hall reverb' are resolved to a Roland SDE-3000 and a Lexicon 224XL as concrete era-correct candidates at deliberately low confidence, because Satriani's pedal list contains no delay unit - confirming the echo was outboard - and John Cuniberti describes using 'very expensive signal processors to recreate stereo chorus and delay' rather than pedals.
Sources
- Joe Satriani & Jake Brown - 'Strange Beautiful Music: A Musical Memoir' (2014), album-by-album gear list and John Cuniberti's recollections
- Guitar World, November 1989 - 'Blue Heaven: Joe Satriani's Flying In A Blue Dream' track-by-track interview
- Guitar Player, July 2007 - 'Joe Satriani Reflects on 20 Years of Surfing With The Alien' (recording method, pedals-into-clean-amp approach)
- Equipboard - Joe Satriani and Flying In A Blue Dream album gear pages
- Joe Satriani Universe - discography/gear page