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R/E/P => R/E/P Archives => Chris Walla => Topic started by: Rivers on April 08, 2005, 02:33:34 PM

Title: Guitar sounds
Post by: Rivers on April 08, 2005, 02:33:34 PM
Welcome Chris,

Cool you are doing this.

I have really dug your guitar sounds the last few Death Cab albums.Could you go into your thinking about recording guitars and what equipment you tend to favor.
Gts,amps,mics ,pres,whatever.
Title: Re: Guitar sounds
Post by: WALLA on April 25, 2005, 11:04:23 PM
Guitars.

We've traditionally just used whatever's around.  Ben has a Fender Bullet that he's in love with; that's been his go-to for the last few records.  It's got a now familiar honk about it; a guitar that loves little low-wattage amps:  the Champ, the Pro Junior, the Silvertone Twin Twelve.  Thick, forgiving rock & roll tones, I guess.

I tend to favor the squeakier guitars:  My favorite guitar for years was a Mexican Telecaster that I bought new in 1993.  It also has a very particular 'thing' about it; lots of mids, not a lot of sustain.  It's not really a very nice piece of wood, but it's mine and I love it.

I have a few key amps these days:  A 1964 Tremolux, a 1965 Ampeg M-12 and a new Dr Z Maz 38.  These cover most of the bases, at least in this band's guitar tone lexicon.  There are more guitars on this record, too; I have a G&L Bluesboy that has proven itself completely, a great old Harmony semi-hollow, a 1948 National that sounds like a bee sting.

And microphones:  the go-to transducers are, in this order, the AEA R84, the Coles 4038, the Shure SM7 and the AKG 414 B-ULS.  I like either wide, wide open preamps (the Millennia HD-3V is a favorite) or my Quad Eights, which I sadly can't use right now, because my console is still down.