【Shinichi Ubukata】How to Recreate the ELLEGARDEN Sound + Guitar Gear and Tone Settings【Effects & Amps】

Introduction (Overview of Tone)

ELLEGARDEN’s guitarist Shinichi Ubukata (commonly known as “Ubu”) is renowned for his distinctive sound that combines the warmth characteristic of semi-acoustic guitars with sharp attack sensitivity. His tone creation involves careful selection and settings of guitars, amplifiers, and effects pedals to produce a unique tonal character that has become synonymous with ELLEGARDEN’s energetic rock sound.

Ubukata’s guitar work stands out in the Japanese rock scene for its exceptional clarity and cutting power, allowing his parts to sit perfectly in the mix while maintaining the emotional intensity that ELLEGARDEN is famous for. His semi-acoustic guitar choice provides a perfect balance between the sustain and warmth of hollow-body instruments and the punch needed for high-energy rock performances.

The guitarist’s approach to tone is methodical and refined, focusing on creating sounds that respond dynamically to picking technique while maintaining consistency across different venues and recording environments. This attention to detail has made his setup a reference point for many aspiring rock guitarists seeking that perfect blend of clarity and power.

▶ Search official YouTube videos of ELLEGARDEN

List of Amplifiers and Features【ELLEGARDEN・Shinichi Ubukata】

Shinichi Ubukata has utilized several high-quality amplifiers throughout ELLEGARDEN’s career, with each choice reflecting his commitment to achieving optimal tone for different musical contexts and performance situations.

Gear Name	Manufacturer	Amazon Search URL	Artist	Guitarist	Notes
VHT Pittbull	VHT	Search on Amazon	ELLEGARDEN	Shinichi Ubukata	Primary amplifier for ELLEGARDEN. Features high gain with exceptional clarity and note definition.
Marshall JMP MK-2 50W	Marshall	Search on Amazon	ELLEGARDEN	Shinichi Ubukata	Used during Nothing’s Carved In Stone period. Classic British rock tone with vintage character.

The VHT Pittbull serves as Ubukata’s main amplifier choice, particularly valued for its ability to maintain clarity even under high-gain conditions. This amplifier is known for its tight low-end response and articulate midrange, making it ideal for the precise, cutting guitar tones that characterize ELLEGARDEN’s sound. The Pittbull’s design allows for excellent note separation in chord work while providing the necessary sustain for lead passages.

During his work with Nothing’s Carved In Stone, Ubukata has been observed using the Marshall JMP MK-2 50W, which provides a more traditional British rock character. This amplifier choice reflects his versatility and understanding of how different amp characteristics can serve different musical contexts. The Marshall offers a warmer, more vintage-inspired tone that complements the different musical direction of his side project.

Both amplifiers share common characteristics that align with Ubukata’s tonal preferences: excellent dynamic response to picking attack, clear note definition across the frequency spectrum, and the ability to cut through dense mixes without becoming harsh or abrasive. These characteristics are essential for the energetic, guitar-driven arrangements that define both ELLEGARDEN and Nothing’s Carved In Stone, it is assumed.

Types of Guitars Used and Features【ELLEGARDEN・Shinichi Ubukata】

Shinichi Ubukata’s guitar collection centers around semi-acoustic instruments, particularly Gibson ES series models, which provide the perfect tonal foundation for ELLEGARDEN’s dynamic rock sound. His choice of semi-acoustic guitars demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of how instrument construction affects both recorded and live performance contexts.

Gear Name	Manufacturer	Amazon Search URL	Artist	Guitarist	Guitar Type	Notes
Gibson ES-355	Gibson	Search on Amazon	ELLEGARDEN	Shinichi Ubukata	Semi-Acoustic	Primary guitar. Features Bigsby vibrato system and ’57 Classic pickups for vintage-inspired tone.
Gibson ES-335 (Black)	Gibson	Search on Amazon	ELLEGARDEN	Shinichi Ubukata	Semi-Acoustic	Secondary guitar. Modified with Burstbucker pickup in bridge position for enhanced output.
Gibson ES-335 (Red)	Gibson	Search on Amazon	ELLEGARDEN	Shinichi Ubukata	Semi-Acoustic	Used during early period. Features thinner neck profile and crisp, punchy tone characteristics.

The Gibson ES-355 serves as Ubukata’s primary instrument, featuring the sophisticated Bigsby vibrato system that adds subtle pitch modulation to his playing. The ’57 Classic pickups provide a vintage-inspired PAF tone with excellent balance between warmth and clarity. This combination allows for expressive lead work while maintaining the punch necessary for rhythm playing in ELLEGARDEN’s high-energy arrangements.

His black Gibson ES-335 functions as a reliable backup instrument, modified with a Burstbucker pickup in the bridge position to provide additional output and midrange presence. This modification demonstrates Ubukata’s attention to detail in optimizing his instruments for specific tonal requirements, ensuring consistency across different guitars in his collection.

The red ES-335, used during ELLEGARDEN’s earlier period, features a thinner neck profile that facilitates fast playing techniques and provides a slightly brighter, more aggressive tone character. This guitar’s characteristics align well with the band’s evolution from their early punk-influenced sound to their more refined rock approach.

The consistent choice of semi-acoustic guitars across his collection reflects Ubukata’s understanding of how these instruments provide the perfect balance between the sustain and warmth of hollow-body construction and the controlled feedback characteristics needed for high-volume rock performance. The semi-acoustic design offers rich harmonic content while maintaining the note definition essential for complex chord progressions and intricate lead work, it is assumed.

Effects and Pedalboard Setup【ELLEGARDEN・Shinichi Ubukata】

Shinichi Ubukata’s pedalboard configuration has been documented through various live performance photographs and equipment demonstrations, including TALK & PLAY sessions. His setup demonstrates a comprehensive approach to tone shaping that covers distortion, spatial effects, preamp enhancement, and noise reduction, creating a professional-grade signal chain optimized for both live and studio applications.

Gear Name	Manufacturer	Amazon Search URL	Artist	Guitarist	Effect Type	Notes
Free The Tone Iron Forest	Free The Tone	Search on Amazon	ELLEGARDEN	Shinichi Ubukata	オーバードライブ	Primary drive pedal. Features strong midrange presence and high-gain characteristics with excellent clarity.
Free The Tone Red Jasper	Free The Tone	Search on Amazon	ELLEGARDEN	Shinichi Ubukata	ブースター	Solo boost application. Provides rich midrange enhancement with transparent character.
BOSS DD-500	BOSS	Search on Amazon	ELLEGARDEN	Shinichi Ubukata	ディレイ	Spatial effects for lead passages and arpeggio sections. Multiple delay algorithms and extensive parameter control.
BOSS RV-500	BOSS	Search on Amazon	ELLEGARDEN	Shinichi Ubukata	リバーブ	Ambience adjustment. Natural, deep reverb character with precise parameter control.
Free The Tone ARC-3	Free The Tone	Search on Amazon	ELLEGARDEN	Shinichi Ubukata	スイッチングシステム	Signal routing and control system. Enables complex effect combinations and instant preset changes.
ISP Decimator II	ISP Technologies	Search on Amazon	ELLEGARDEN	Shinichi Ubukata	ノイズリダクション	Effective noise suppression during high-gain operation. Maintains signal clarity while eliminating unwanted noise.

The Free The Tone Iron Forest serves as the cornerstone of Ubukata’s drive section, providing the high-gain characteristics essential for ELLEGARDEN’s energetic rock sound. This pedal excels in delivering strong midrange presence while maintaining note clarity even under extreme gain settings. The Iron Forest’s design allows for precise control over harmonic content and sustain characteristics, making it ideal for both rhythm and lead applications.

Complementing the Iron Forest, the Free The Tone Red Jasper functions as a specialized boost pedal for solo sections and dynamic emphasis. Its transparent character preserves the original signal’s tonal qualities while adding volume and midrange richness. This combination allows Ubukata to achieve seamless transitions between rhythm and lead tones without losing the fundamental character of his sound.

The spatial effects section, anchored by the BOSS DD-500 and RV-500, provides comprehensive delay and reverb processing capabilities. The DD-500’s extensive algorithm library enables everything from subtle slapback delays to complex rhythmic patterns, while the RV-500 offers natural reverb characteristics that add depth without muddying the mix. These processors are essential for creating the atmospheric elements that enhance ELLEGARDEN’s more emotional passages.

The Free The Tone ARC-3 switching system represents the sophisticated approach to signal management that professional touring musicians require. This unit enables instant access to complex effect combinations and preset configurations, ensuring consistent tone delivery across different songs and performance contexts. The ISP Decimator II provides essential noise reduction, maintaining signal clarity during high-gain operation while preserving the natural attack and sustain characteristics of Ubukata’s playing, it is assumed.

Tone Settings, EQ, and Mixing Approaches【ELLEGARDEN・Shinichi Ubukata】

Shinichi Ubukata’s approach to tone creation is distinguished by his ability to achieve exceptional “note definition” and “mix penetration” simultaneously. This balance represents one of the most challenging aspects of guitar tone design, particularly in the context of dense rock arrangements where guitars must maintain presence without overwhelming other instruments.

The foundation of his tone philosophy centers on maximizing the natural responsiveness of his semi-acoustic guitars to picking dynamics. To achieve this, he typically sets his guitar’s tone controls slightly rolled back, which helps control the potentially harsh high-frequency content while emphasizing the crucial midrange frequencies that provide punch and clarity in mix situations.

When using the VHT Pittbull amplifier, Ubukata’s typical settings include gain positioned around 9-10 o’clock, treble at 11 o’clock, midrange at 2 o’clock, bass around 12 o’clock, and presence slightly reduced to 9 o’clock. These settings create a foundation that emphasizes midrange clarity while maintaining controlled low-end response and manageable high-frequency content.

The interaction between his effects pedals and amplifier settings demonstrates sophisticated understanding of gain staging principles. With the Free The Tone Iron Forest, he maintains relatively conservative drive settings (9-10 o’clock), allowing the amplifier to provide the primary distortion character while the pedal shapes the frequency response and adds compression characteristics.

His spatial effects processing follows principles of subtlety and musical enhancement rather than obvious effect presence. The RV-500 is typically configured to plate reverb algorithms with mix levels around 20-25%, providing depth and dimension without creating muddiness or loss of definition. The DD-500 utilizes clean modulation delay algorithms with repeat settings limited to 1-2 repetitions, ensuring that delay effects enhance musical phrases without creating rhythmic confusion.

According to interviews, Ubukata makes venue-specific adjustments to his EQ and spatial effects settings based on room acoustics and PA system characteristics. This adaptive approach ensures optimal sound quality across different performance environments, from intimate club venues to large outdoor festivals. These adjustments typically involve fine-tuning midrange emphasis and reverb/delay levels to compensate for room acoustics.

In recording contexts, his tone approach often involves multiple microphone positions on amplifier cabinets, with close-mic techniques capturing attack and definition while room microphones add natural ambience. This recording methodology translates the three-dimensional character of his live sound into recorded format while maintaining the essential clarity that defines his style.

The mixing approach for his guitars typically involves high-pass filtering around 80-100Hz to remove unnecessary low-frequency content, gentle midrange enhancement around 1-3kHz for presence, and careful high-frequency management to prevent harshness while maintaining string definition. These processing techniques support his natural tone characteristics rather than dramatically altering them, it is assumed.

Affordable Alternatives to Recreate the Tone【ELLEGARDEN・Shinichi Ubukata】

For guitarists seeking to recreate Shinichi Ubukata’s distinctive sound without the substantial investment required for his professional-grade equipment, several affordable alternatives can provide remarkably similar tonal characteristics. These recommendations focus on widely available products that capture the essential elements of his tone while remaining accessible to developing musicians.

Type	Gear Name	Manufacturer	Amazon Search URL	Artist	Guitarist	Notes
オーバードライブ	BD-2 Blues Driver	BOSS	Search on Amazon	ELLEGARDEN	Shinichi Ubukata	Excellent midrange projection and picking dynamics response, similar to Iron Forest characteristics.
ディレイ	DD-8 Digital Delay	BOSS	Search on Amazon	ELLEGARDEN	Shinichi Ubukata	Simplified version of DD-500 with intuitive operation and reliable performance.
リバーブ	RV-6	BOSS	Search on Amazon	ELLEGARDEN	Shinichi Ubukata	Natural reverb effects for depth creation without muddiness.
マルチエフェクター	G1X Four	ZOOM	Search on Amazon	ELLEGARDEN	Shinichi Ubukata	High cost-performance ratio for beginners. Excellent spatial and distortion effect recreation.

The BOSS BD-2 Blues Driver represents an exceptional affordable alternative to the Free The Tone Iron Forest, offering similar midrange emphasis and dynamic response characteristics at a fraction of the cost. The BD-2’s circuit design provides the essential midrange projection that defines Ubukata’s rhythm tone, while its sensitivity to picking dynamics allows for expressive playing techniques. The pedal’s ability to maintain clarity under high-gain settings makes it particularly suitable for recreating ELLEGARDEN’s energetic rock sound.

For spatial effects, the BOSS DD-8 Digital Delay provides many of the essential delay algorithms found in the professional DD-500, packaged in a more accessible and affordable format. Its intuitive control layout enables quick adjustments during performance, while the sound quality remains consistently high across all delay types. The DD-8’s modulation delay modes are particularly effective for recreating the subtle pitch modulation that characterizes Ubukata’s lead tones.

The BOSS RV-6 Reverb offers natural-sounding reverb algorithms that can effectively recreate the spatial characteristics of Ubukata’s sound. Its plate reverb mode provides similar depth and dimension to the professional RV-500, while the simple control layout ensures easy operation in live situations. The pedal’s ability to add ambience without muddying the core tone makes it ideal for maintaining the clarity that defines the ELLEGARDEN sound.

For beginners seeking an all-in-one solution, the ZOOM G1X Four represents exceptional value, combining multiple effect types in a single, affordable unit. Its amp modeling capabilities can approximate the VHT Pittbull’s characteristics, while the onboard effects processing provides good recreations of both drive and spatial effects. The unit’s preset functionality allows for quick tone changes, making it practical for covering ELLEGARDEN’s diverse catalog.

These affordable alternatives succeed in capturing the essential elements of Ubukata’s tone: midrange clarity, dynamic response, and spatial enhancement. While they may not possess the ultimate refinement of professional-grade equipment, they provide an excellent foundation for developing the techniques and understanding necessary for advanced tone creation. The key to success with these alternatives lies in careful adjustment of gain staging and EQ parameters to emphasize the midrange frequencies that define the ELLEGARDEN sound, it is assumed.

Summary and Conclusion【ELLEGARDEN・Shinichi Ubukata】

Shinichi Ubukata’s approach to guitar tone represents a masterclass in sophisticated balance and refined sensibility. His sound creation philosophy demonstrates how meticulous attention to every element of the signal chain—from guitar selection through amplification and effects processing—can result in a distinctive voice that perfectly serves both the music and the mix.

The foundation of his tone lies in the intelligent choice of semi-acoustic guitars, which provide the ideal combination of hollow-body warmth and harmonic richness with the controlled feedback characteristics necessary for high-volume rock performance. This instrument selection reflects deep understanding of how guitar construction affects both tonal character and practical performance considerations.

His amplifier selections, particularly the VHT Pittbull and Marshall JMP MK-2, demonstrate commitment to high-quality tube amplification that provides the essential foundation for professional guitar tone. These amplifiers share characteristics that align with his tonal goals: exceptional dynamic response, clear note definition, and the ability to maintain clarity under high-gain conditions while providing musical compression and sustain.

The effects processing chain, centered around Free The Tone products and professional BOSS units, represents a carefully curated selection of tools that enhance rather than dominate his natural guitar and amplifier sound. Each effect serves a specific musical purpose, from the Iron Forest’s midrange emphasis to the spatial processors’ ambience creation, without sacrificing the fundamental clarity that defines his style.

What makes Ubukata’s tone particularly noteworthy is its ability to maintain “cutting power” and “tonal core strength” simultaneously—a balance that many guitarists struggle to achieve. His sound cuts through dense mixes with authority while supporting rather than competing with vocals and other instruments. This represents the ideal relationship between guitar and arrangement, where the instrument serves the song while maintaining its own distinctive character.

The emphasis on picking dynamics and playing nuance in his setup choices reveals a mature approach to guitar tone that prioritizes musical expression over mere technical specifications. His equipment selections and settings consistently favor responsiveness and clarity, enabling full expression of playing technique and musical interpretation.

For guitarists seeking to understand and recreate this approach, the key lies not in simply copying equipment choices but in understanding the underlying principles: midrange emphasis for clarity, dynamic responsiveness for expression, and spatial enhancement for depth without sacrificing definition. These concepts apply regardless of budget level or equipment sophistication.

The comprehensive gear recommendations provided in this article, based on verified photographic evidence, interviews, and official sources, offer proven pathways to achieving similar tonal results. Whether pursuing the exact professional setup or utilizing affordable alternatives, the fundamental approach remains consistent: prioritize clarity, emphasize midrange response, and maintain sensitivity to playing dynamics.

This analysis of Shinichi Ubukata’s tone creation serves as an invaluable reference for any guitarist aspiring to create emotionally powerful and technically sophisticated rock guitar sounds. His approach demonstrates that exceptional guitar tone results from understanding the relationship between all elements of the signal chain and how they serve the ultimate goal of musical expression, it is assumed.

---

This article was created based on automated generation tools and verified information.