‘Fused’ guitars and gear
The album was recorded at Monnow Valley studios, just outside Monmouth in South
Wales. The studio features a very large live room and a separate control room
housing the SSL mixing desk, the Pro Tools computer system and the sound
processing gear.
The same guitar gear set-up was used throughout the recording phase of the
project. Three 4 x 12” cabinets, two Laney and one old Marshall, were placed
side by side in the live room, separated by large acoustic baffles. The Laney
cabs were loaded with the old HH 41211 drivers (very similar to the Celestion
G12 75) and the Marshall with Celestion Vintage 30s. Each cab was miked by one
Shure SM 57. The amps were set up in the control room. There were five amp heads
stacked up, two Laney GH 100 TIs, one Laney TT 100, one Paul Reed Smith modified
Marshall JCM 800 and one vintage Vox AC30 head. Also in the control room was a
small M C Electrics effects board with full bypass switch. The guitar effects
used were; Boss Over Drive, MXR Phase 90, AnalogMan Chorus, DOD Octave divider,
Tycobrahe Parapedal wah, Ibanez flanger, Boss delay, Jim Dunlop Rotovibe, Jim
Dunlop Univibe.
The signal path was guitar into M C Electrics A/B switch (to allow routing to
Korg rack tuner), into the bypass switch on the effects board, then into a Pete
Cornish active splitter/ground-lift unit, then out to whichever combination of
amps was being used and finally out to the cabinets via heavy gauge speaker
cables.
The recording can be split into 3 main phases: tracking, solos and overdubs.
For tracking, most songs used the Laney TI100s and Marshall amp heads and a
combination of Gibson Custom Shop Iommi model SGs and Les Pauls. Generally the
SGs had lighter strings and the Les Pauls heavier. Different guitars were used
as some songs were in D# and some down to C# with low strings sometimes going
down to A#.
Most solos were played on the JayDee ‘Old Boy’ SG, though an Epiphone Iommi SG
fitted with Gibson P94 pick-ups and a Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster were
also used. These were played using the Laney TIs and the Marshall.
The overdubs used a selection of the amps depending on the sound required.
Cleaner bits used mostly the Vox head though some used the clean channel of the
Laney TT100. This is where most of the modulation type effect units were used.
Guitars used here were mostly the Iommi Custom Shop SGs, the P94 loaded Epiphone
Iommi SG, a Fender Telecaster, a Fernandes Sustainer and the Strat.
The acoustic parts were played on a Taylor 815L, a Gibson J 50 and an Epiphone
PR 350CE. |
