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“I’ve got information, man. New s**t has come to light.” —Jeffrey Lebowski

It’s been a while since we last posted about this album, and while we’re always working on the next tone, we’ve got some new information to share. It’s timely because we now have a model of the classic DS-1 Distortion pedal too. All signs are pointing toward revisiting the recording of Nevermind.

New S**t Has Come to Light

In a recent interview with Rick Beato, Butch Vig revealed that the recording of Smells Like Teen Spirit could have had a Fender Bassman mixed in at low volume, panned to the center, just to thicken things up a bit.¹ That would have been accompanied by stereo-panned, double-tracked guitars through the Mesa/Boogie with clean tones coming from a Vox AC30. Recently, we came across the track sheet for Smells Like Teen Spirit on Instagram. Not only does this confirm Vig’s statement about a center panned Bassman, it also reveals that the original stereo tracks were recorded with the Bassman, not the Mesa/Boogie.

That M**********r Stole My Guitar Tone

In another interview with Beato, Billy Corgan described how he pioneered use of the Big Muff with Butch Vig during the recording of their first album, Gish.² Corgan figured out that using the low input of the amplifier helped improve note clarity, providing headroom for a heavily distorted guitar at the input which Vig was able to get on tape. Really, Vig just had to hold back his reservations since no one at that time was willing to record such heavily distorted guitars. Butch’s experience, or lack thereof, was about to alter music history.

During that same interview, Corgan admitted that when he first heard a pre-release copy of Nevermind, it was immediately obvious that Butch had applied the same techniques they had pioneered on Gish to the sound of Nirvana’s major label debut.

The Fender Bassman

Could this be the defining sound of grunge? Vig was no stranger to promoting how important this amp would turn out to be. With Corgan, they ran the Big Muff into a Marshall amplifier, however for Cobain they would use the Fender Bassman. This was a favorite amp of Vig who had a modified version at his own Smart Studios. Since the Bassman and Tremolux share similarities in their circuit, we decided to start with the 204D Amplifier and 1×12” C 15W ‘63 Cabinet.

I have to admit that Smells Like Teen Spirit has always been a mystery. That tone. That riff. It’s a song that has definitely spent it’s time in the spotlight, maybe too much time. A magnet for fans that knew nothing about the previous record. Refined over hours of rehearsals and pre-production until every second felt right. It’s the only song on the record over five minutes in length. Regardless of what anyone in the band has said, this was intended to make a statement. And it did. It revolutionized the music industry almost overnight. You know the story well. But the guitar tone? We thought that was lost to time. Lost to forgotten facts about amps and effects. Lost to a mix engineer that crafted ear candy so sweet, we all fell prey to his whims.

In Bloom

We decided to tackle In Bloom first. The stereo mix sounds like two heavily panned guitars, enough to isolate each tone and compare what might have been used in the studio. And it seemed logical that one of those might be the Mesa/Boogie and the other could be the Bassman.

After firing up the 204D Amplifier, we could almost instantly hear that the right channel was the Bassman. There’s a certain rasp to this Fender amp that’s unmistakable. In this case, we’re just cranking the amp, no distortion pedal. That left us with the left channel for the Mesa/Boogie. We spent some time with the 802C Amplifier and 4×12” A 300W ‘87 Cabinet going back and forth between the DS-1, the Big Muff, and the preamp and found that the Big Muff had the closest tone.

Preset: Teen Spirit

Preset: Mesa Verde

Smells Like Teen Spirit

With In Bloom sounding pretty good, it was time to revisit Smells Like Teen Spirit. Based on the track sheet, we mixed two separate takes of the Bassman, panned hard left and hard right, but there was something missing. Just like Vig said, there’s a thickness present in the final mix that we couldn’t hear with just two tracks. However we knew adding a third take with the same Bassman would be overkill.

We happened to notice that the track sheet had the stereo guitars listed as DIST GTR, but the center track listed as GTR. Did DIST indicate that a pedal was used? We went back to the stereo Bassman tracks and added the Big Muff. That was too thick, so we tried the DS-1. It still wasn’t sounding right, but we pushed on with the third Bassman track. First with the Big Muff to provide some contrast to the stereo DS-1s, but it wasn’t working. Since there was no DIST in the center track’s label, we went back to just the cranked Bassman. That sounded really close. The rasp from the Bassman was sitting perfectly on top of the smoother distortion from the DS-1s, pulled back a little in volume, panned to the center just like Vig said. It was the closest to tonal Nirvana we’ve ever come, much closer than we had been before. If you want to try the mix yourself, follow this layout in your DAW:

• [Left] Bassman + DS-1 (Take A)
• [Center] Cranked Bassman, -3 to -6 dB
• [Right] Bassman + DS-1 (Take B)

We also added a clean tone with chorus for good measure.

Preset: Cranked

Preset: Cleen Spirit

Lithium

One more thing. From interviews, we know that the Big Muff was a key element to the chorus in Lithium. Since we dialed in presets with the Bassman by itself, and with the DS-1, we thought it would be worthwhile to also dial in this classic preset with the Big Muff.

Preset: Immodium II

While there’s still more songs to cover, we felt these core tones needed to be heard, asap. We’re taking some additional time to think about studio effects like reverb, the elusive SPX-90 Symphonic preset, as well as Kurt’s live tone. Also that searing guitar, supposedly plugged directly into the mixing board on Territorial Pissings. But more on that later, for now our little tribe is going to take a rest, as a friend.

¹ Beato, Rick. “Butch Vig: From Smashing Pumpkins to Nirvana – Alternative Rock’s OG.” YouTube, uploaded by RickBeato, 21 March 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U9XJdd4FlM.

² Beato, Rick. “The Smashing Pumpkins: The Billy Corgan Interview” YouTube, uploaded by RickBeato, 13 December 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAfkxHcqWKI.

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Did you know that Rhino released all of the tapes from the Fun House sessions? Like everything? It captures a moment in time when bands wanted to stay true to their art and capture complete performances. They had to ask themselves questions like, did someone mess something up? Do we feel like we could do better? And always, let’s do one more as a safety. In this case, we’re given access to the complete process. For instance, all 28 takes of Loose. The mistakes, the banter, the brilliance. It’s a cool snapshot. Released in 1999 and spread across 7 compact discs, 1970: The Complete Fun House Sessions may have originally been positioned as a collectors item but it’s really a pillar of our rock n’ roll heritage and should be heard by everyone that picks up a guitar, microphone, or pair of sticks.¹

Social Distortion

Iggy famously hated the sound of his voice. Starting with this recording, Iggy actually ran his vocal mic through Marshall amplifiers, acting as a P.A. for their live performance as well as adding some dirt, essentially creating his signature sound.² Note that while Iggy did not sing through an amplifier on the first record, they did treat his vocal with one during remixing. This was likely the start of the idea, and why not capture it live?

Ron Asheton, the guitarist and brother of drummer Scott Asheton, has gone on record stating that he used Marhsall amplifiers for his sound as well. And while we do see live footage of Ron with a few Marshall stacks, our ears tell us something different. When we sat down to run some tone tests, we found that the amplifier used on this record sounds more like a Vox. Why? Our guess is that a small Vox combo that could only output 30W was much more acceptable in the studio. Remember, this was a time when engineers were unable to tame the extreme volume of a 100W Marshall, let alone more than one.

All the King’s Men

Don Galluci served as the producer on Fun House. In Ron’s words, “Galluci was Elektra’s choice,” but the band was ultimately happy.³ Don had a career in television which cemented his status as a famous icon with the group, and at the young age of fourteen played organ on “Louie Louie,” a song that certainly shares some D.N.A. with The Stooges. Galluci would be the one who influenced the group to record live, charging forward in an all-for-one onslaught of crazed-rock togetherness. The idea was to capture the power of the band live, a phrase that continues to echo through the music industry today with bands far and wide.

And capture the band live they did. With take after take, each song getting refined into the diamond we now know, you can hear the bleed from the instruments in the room. You can hear the room caving in on itself. Add a layer of plate reverb smearing the guitar like butter on bread and you’ll get a taste of this sonic toast in your ears.

The Presets

We ended up blending our ‘67 cabinet with 20W Celestion speakers. It’s possible that Ron used his Marshall cabinets as extensions, or maybe there was additional EQ from the console that we’re hearing. Either way, this trashy sound is yours to keep. Have fun! House!

Loose

The core sound, with more Vox than Marshall from the cabinets. This tone has a ringing, jangly quality, like something’s actually loose in the amplifer. Where this tone is more lacerating to the ears, turn to TV Eye for something more stabby.

TV Eye

The core sound, tuned to the song T.V. Eye. Some of the other tracks on this album were less bright and more washed out in reverb. For big chords pull back the Boost for more clarity. Like most records during this era, there really wasn’t a lot of distortion on the guitar signal. Single notes might sound thinner than you’d expect from today’s high gain amps. If you need it, the extra boost is at your fingertips.

TV Eye B

Similar to the core tone but with more bass if you’re still feeling like this tone is too thin with the boost up. This has a little more of that 4×12” meat on the bones.

TV Fuzz

Rolling back the gain and engaging the fuzz was Ron’s lead tone. It has a less brittle, smooth sustaining quality. There’s still a heap of garbage coming through the speakers, but it stands in contrast to the rhythm guitar sound. Used on tracks like Down On the Street, and Loose, pan right with the rhythm guitar on the left for a fun mix.

Fun House Wah

And of course the Wah. What’s left to say. Pair with a controller like the FCB1010 for hands free operation with the new device profile now available in the MIDI configuration selector.

¹ https://www.rhino.com/product/complete-funhouse-sessions

^{2, 3} Edmonds, B. (1999). [Liner notes]. In 1970: The Complete Fun House Sessions [CD]. Rhino.

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“…if I turn it down, the sound changes. And I can’t get the sustain I want.” ¹ – Eric Clapton discussing the recording of Blues Breakers

Time seems to have a dulling effect on our collective memory. Stories that we thought would last forever don’t seem to be as relevant in today’s culture. Things that were shocking no longer seem to shock. Sounds that were too loud and aggressive no longer seem as loud or as aggressive as they once were. In 1968, Cream was at the height of it’s commercial success. Bringing intense, improvisational blues rock to audiences night after night. As Mickey Hart said in Beware of Mr. Baker, “They were like Vikings. It was like scorched earth. They were there to take heads.”² But they were simultaneously falling apart at the seams due to internal friction, they would break up by the end of the year.

But not before releasing two albums and going on a farewell tour. At this point, there was no question audiences were going to be subjected to some very serious volume, specifically coming from cranked Marshall amplifiers. But just like a distant memory, that’s no longer what people hear when they listen to these performances. In stark contrast, modern sound systems put cranked Marshall amplifiers to shame. With advances in sound reinforcement and improvements in audio quality, audiences now experience a much higher fidelity concert, in some cases in stereo or multi-channel audio. And while there is still room to grow, to take live shows to new levels of creativity, the days of driving guitar amplifiers to their destructive brinks are faded memories of the past. It was with this in mind that we set out to revisit some of the sounds heard on Disraeli Gears when we realized Wheels of Fire and it’s groundbreaking live performances might be more interesting to analyze.

This Wheel’s on Fire

Tom Dowd first worked with Cream on Disraeli Gears and would go on to work with Eric Clapton extensively during his solo career. He may have been the first, or at least one of the first engineers to figure out how to record a Marshall amplifier on full blast. While most would have asked the artist to turn it down for the purposes of making a proper record, Tom let it rip and got it all on tape. And for this we are forever grateful. Despite his involvement with Cream in the studio, Tom had a busy career working for Atlantic Records and for the live recordings on Wheels of Fire he was only present early on to check sound quality before turning the engineering reigns over to Bill Halverson, a relatively new engineer from Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco, then on his second remote assignment.

Bill opened up to an interviewer in a mid-70s publication regarding the recording setup he used for these live performances. Two mics, one on each amp, selecting one of eight speakers across two cabinets per amplifier, blended, and that’s it. And it really is. Clapton had a wah pedal in between his guitar and amp, and nothing else. He relied on volume, tone controls, and the pickup selector to emphasize different passages. More bass for his famed Woman Tone, more volume for blistering solos, rolling back during verses, and changing pick attacks to signal delicate melodies or phrase notes more aggressively, all tied together with an amazing vibrato technique. It would be his voice in the days when he didn’t like to sing.

Cascading Distortion

But then how does the guitar end up sounding like that? It’s certainly distorted, sometimes violin-like, sometimes thick and muddy, sometimes harsh. It’s really combination of things. The humbucking pickups in The Fool pushing the front end, the amp turned up loud driving the power-amp into saturation, and the speakers also getting pushed to the edge of their operable state. It’s interesting, because on playback, far removed from the physicality of the loudness, to a young listener it probably sounds just like a muddy guitar. A recognizable and primitive sound that would get refined by boosting treble, cutting bass, and scooping mids through subsequent hard rock and heavy metal bands. Ultimately ending up in a buzz-saw onslaught until we just couldn’t take any more.

However, if you take a moment to let your ears adjust and unlearn the modern sound of guitar, you might find that this sound is richer, more nuanced, and more dynamic. It’s not squashed and brittle, it breathes with each note. Especially for younger guitarists who can’t yet play with speed, slowing down and learning to articulate phrasing might not be such a bad thing. We’ve read that the Marshall amplifiers Clapton was using were transitional, meaning old stock with new head boxes and logos. While these amps may look like the new models with split cathodes, they’re likely not. Since we’re using the Normal channel, the differences are actually minor, it was the Treble channel (Channel I) that changed drastically between these two revisions, nonetheless we’ve employed the VG402B Amplifier.

More Lore

“I had a little Shure microphone which no matter where I’d put it, it just distorted! …I ended up in the center of [the] speakers, not in front of any of them.”³ – Bill Halverson discussing how he recorded Cream live

That’s revealing and something we focused on when dialing in the VG 4×12 ’67 Cabinet. Using a combination of Offset and Cabinet Drive we were able to replicate the sound of an off-center mic picking up a speaker playing well above it’s operating range. The sound in unmistakable, start with a medium output humbucker in the bridge position and you’ll be right there next to the band in hallowed halls. You can roll off the highs with your tone control or engage the Dark Boost for convenience, simulating tone control effects while also providing a boost for solos via the EQ100 Treble Boost (or in this case, treble cut via the Invert toggle). Lastly, things wouldn’t be complete without the WH100 Wah. Control via MIDI for hands free operation or just let the default setting wrap around your notes, it’s a classic.

The Presets

It was also important to dial in some echo to create sense of space, sounds bouncing off the walls as listeners ears are getting melted. In this case we went with the AMB200 Spring Reverb set to a short decay with a decent amount of pre-delay to get a slapback repeat that was pleasing to our ears. That’s another cool thing about our Ambience modules, they can be configured with shorter decays to get a variety of room sounds as well as the traditional echoes that they’re known for. The spring reverb is in Mono, a nod to the times, but check out the Echo Chamber or Plate Reverb for stereo options.

Loudness II: starts off with the basics: cranked amp, offset mic, and cabinet drive. Instant bliss.

Loudness IIb: engages Dark Boost for violin-like leads, switch to the neck pickup for even more cream.

Bolero: engages both Dark Boost and Wah in fixed position which helps to accentuate lead passages.

Cleanish: dials it back just a little for a change in mood.

¹ Port, Ian S. The Birth of Loud: Leo Fender, Les Paul and the Guitar Pioneering Rivalry that shaped Rock n’ Roll. Scribner, 2019, p. 227.

² Beware of Mr. Baker. Directed by Jay Bulger, Insurgent Media, Pugilist at Rest Productions, 2012.

³ Genzolini, E. Cream: Claption, Bruce & Baker Sitting on Top of the World. Schiffer, 2023, p. 49.

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