We took a lot of time getting Guitar Tones because, well, I (robbie) am a guitar-tone fanatic. I like "classic but new" tones - tones that allow the playing to shine through without masking the performance but that, at the same time, ring out as new and interesting in their own right as an instrument.
It's difficult to achieve guitar sounds that are genuinely unusual or new - especially while working within a genre-specific overall framework on the well-worn "rock guitar".
Anyway, NOT speaking for Jeff Stanley, I, Robbie, use "weird pickup configurations" and "strange guitars" through "strange recording devices and amplifiers" with "oddball microphone and pre-amp choices" - sometimes doubling-trippling-and-quadrupling a part to get -just that right oddball thing. This note and picture is kind of a description and narrative of some of those tones for those that are interested in geeky guitar-tone stuff. If you're not interested in this stuff, completely understandable too :).
Most of the songs, e.g. Dance Monkey Dance, have two-or-three guitars going at the same time. Usually a rhythm guitar, an "ambient" guitar and a lead/rhythm guitar (because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing).
In the case of Dance Monkey Dance, I used a '63 Silvertone acoustic guitar with a piezo pickup through UA pre-amps and close-and-room microphoned in a small room with an AKG 414 and a little-known but really nice ribbon microphone close on the fingerboard.) This gave the guitar a bit of a "trashy but clean" very present middle-rangey sound so it doesn't interfere with everything else that's going on in that track. On top of that there's one of my "Stratocaster Compatible" monster creations (pictured in the picture) - in this case with a combination of Carvin and DiMarzio pickups that Steve Spalding wired up for me. There's light use of the standard strat tremolo on it to give it that "loose tuning" sound.
The electric guitar was played through a relatively new VoX AC4TV in 1Watt mode stereo with another ''63 sears item - the Kay amplifier (the old Brown Thing near the back on top of the couch in the picture). These were microphoned close , facing apart at opposite sides of the rooms with tube mic's from Blue and Aphex (little known, but kinda fun if you want that dirty-tube-mic-sound). The Akg 414 set in the middle high in the room in OMNI mode provides the small amount of reverb used.
Jeff took the lead on this one with his humbucker-in-the-bridge strat in an in-between setting which gives it that nice belly tone, through the Texas Red Deluxe amp pictured (the big red amp) at ear-piercing volume (sitting outside the studio door) into a Neumann microphone through UA pre-amps and compressors for that super-compressed tight sound.
Dance monkey dance was -relatively simple- compared to, e.g. Jackson County Fair or Space horse.
One of the, I think, interesting things about the recording is that almost throughout there is an Epiphone Les Paul Junior modified with a TV Jones FutureTron (probably discontinued :( ) going through a variety of effects units including an original RAT pedal that has a really nasty but thoroughly awesome jangle-crunch that I personally loved.
K, enough guitar-geeking-out. The drum recording was relatively straightforward but also -interesting-. We used a discontinued drum set (REMO made a kit for like a year, and this is it) with old heads and some trashy (and some nice) cymbals. The room was treated with mild sound reducing material (so there was -some- reflectivity in the room but not a lot). Miking was very standard - We used the Audix D7 on the kick, an sm57 on the snare, two blue mics overhead, an audix d6 on the floor tom. For the percussion we used a remo Cajon and a remo Djembe as well as some cheap maracas, a stick-hit-able tambourine and some other "stuff". In the case of "Rabbits" (the bonus track) - the percussion was done in four different layers for a "drum circle" feel toward the outro-jam, one of my favorite moments on the whole thing.
We recorded "live to a click track" with the whole band (in three different rooms...). In most cases the takes were first-takes and/or combinations of first-takes and comping tracks. Robin Mink was kind enough to assist with the engineering during tracking.
I hope you enjoy listening to what's going on, producing it was extremely fun and the next one should be even more so.
