“He ran home and came back with a grocery sack full of old, rusty pedals he had lying around his mom’s house”: Terry Date recalls Dimebag Darrell’s unconventional approach to tone in the studio

Record producer Terry Date has worked with a who’s who of hard rock and heavy metal, lending his expertise and sensibilities to acts like Soundgarden, Dream Theater, Deftones, Slipknot, and Limp Bizkit.

However, his work on Pantera’s first four major-label albums – Cowboys from Hell (1990), Vulgar Display of Power (1992), Far Beyond Driven (1994), and The Great Southern Trendkill (1996) – is particularly notable for capturing Dimebag Darrell’s mastery and distinctive tone on record.

As Date reveals in the latest issue of Guitar World, recording Dime's legendary solos was a fairly linear process. However, it did involve keeping an open mind to different tones, and a healthy dose of experimentation to achieve the best result.

“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,” he explains.

“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.”

The super-producer also recalls a memorable anecdote from his studio time with Dimebag, when the Pantera guitarist wasn’t quite achieving the tone he had hoped for and decided to take matters into his own hands.

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“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!’” he says with a laugh. “It was that kind of shit.”

For more from Terry Date and the ultimate Dimebag Darrell tribute, pick up issue 587 of Guitar World at Magazines Direct.