As I mentioned prior, my thoughts for what I wanted guitarwise for this track were going to be a sort of stripped down jangly, indie rock thing. I managed to have a happy accident though , that not only changed the feel of the whole song, but really gave a cohesiveness and direction to the whole album.
Now, tube purists will HATE this, but I don’t care. I’m not a tube purist, and I have no problems admitting it. I prefer recording with my Line6 Flextone II Pro because it’s a lot of amp with very, very low noise. Note: never, ever direct in record with it. Just because you can, does not mean that you should.
What I intended to use for this first electric track was the ’63 Vox AC-30 setting I’d plugged in for some of the recordings I was also doing for Post Orgasmic Trauma. I was playing my ’93 Telecaster (everything cranked to the highest end settings, thus giving me that jangly, half way painful feel I was wanting). I mic’ed it with a RODE NT1 about 12 inches off of the speaker, to add a little bit of the room.
I recorded it, but damn, it ended up a little beefier (and crunchier) than I wanted. It was strangely effective, though. A little “Even It Up” from Heart’s Bebe le Strange. I double checked my notes…a-HA! Not the AC-30 setting, but in fact, I was using the 50 Watt ’68 Marshall Plexi setting (uh yeah, I THINK that might be a little beefier. Other guitarists can quit smirking at me now). This particular setting has a lot of boost on the EQ across the board, plus a little bit of reverb, which I like. I used to be a very dry tone person, but now I’m charmed by reverb a little more.
So, with what was just supposed to be my high-end track to accentuate the changes, I needed to change my approach to my “chug” rhythm tracks. I wanted them darker, but now that I’d gone a little crunchier on the high stuff, they were going to live in a space deeper than what I’d invisioned.
I went with my 2002 PRS Custom 24 (highs boosted) through the ’60′s Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face (think Hendrix), with mids and treble boosted and a little reverb, once again. I kept the NT-1 12 inches off of the speaker still, and doubled the track for an even bigger tone. This is the result. A little less Hendrix, and a little more Siamese Dream era Smashing Pumpkins. For an older sound, it was strangely modern, especially given what I’d originally been going for.
The end result, all together, is this. Still a loose mix, but I’m getting happier with it.
Vocals and solos. Save the fun (and excrutiating hell) for last.
