Wedding Present Guitar

UnlikeKurt · Post by **UnlikeKurt** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:36 am

Hey everyone.
I've been revisiting the wedding present a good deal lately and have become somewhat obsessed with some of the guitar sounds.
Especially the distorted lead kind of thing on a song like "sportscar"
http://www.last.fm/music/The+Wedding+Pr ... Sports+Car
Around 1:25 in.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to achieve it?
I realize it is obviously some really compressed distortion; I think he had cascading rat pedals when I saw them. I don't hear very much modulation though so I'm not thinking chorus or delay...maybe a spring reverb? Or just really distant mic placement?

Of course everything in the mix seems to have really good space to it and perhaps that is contributing to it in some fashion as well, don't hear any "close" mic kinda tones from the drums even.

If anybody has any thoughts I'd love to read them.

Thanks
James

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 9:03 am

Sounds like stacked pedals into a gained-up amp to me.

I've had that sound before with a Rat2 into a TS5 (cheap Ibanez OD copy of the green pedals) into a Marshall with the FET pre (like a 900.)

UnlikeKurt · Post by **UnlikeKurt** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:23 am

What kind of gain staging is applied when stacking pedals?
Is it like trying to get moderate overdrive from each or light dist on one havy on the other? I think that's what is confusing me. And then to have the amp super clean, a little crunchy, full overdrive. I reckon' there is a lot of experimentation coming my way.

The gain staging on the stacked pedals is definitely confusing me though.

Gentleman Jim · Post by **Gentleman Jim** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:48 pm

That track was from a Peel Session, which I think were generally pretty rote affairs as far as recording. I say this because I would guess that the guitar sound was probably what came out of the amp, not something that was toiled over for hours as the engineer moved the speaker cab and a 100 foot long mic cable into the stairwell or anything like that.

Next wild guess: considering the time frame of that album's recordings, (1992 to 1995), there's a halfway decent chance the guitarist may have had one of those rack mounted multi effects units that were so ubiquitous in those years.

(Off topic: Wanna know why you can't recreate a bunch of crappy guitar tones from a bunch of your formerly favorite arena bands? Perhaps you should be searching eBay for 'vintage' Digitech units like the GFX-1 Twin Tube and the GSP 2101. Now you're going to have the most authentic Smashing Pumpkins/Collective Soul tribute band in the whole county!)

Anyhow, back on topic... I would guess a heavy compressor > some kind of distortion > short delay > thick room reverb setting > some kind of lighter reverb, maybe from the amp.

Cool song though. I was never familiar with them.

ThePitz · Post by **ThePitz** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 12:04 am

Yeah - small delay (30-100ms?) seems to be the sound. And a bunch of gain. Perhaps a bit on both sides of delay? A lotta lowish mids on it - not a lot of highs...

Sounds to me like it may be double tracked with the double just below the 'noticeably doubled' db threshold.

'Tis a nice sound. Never heard of this band before.

Trick Fall · Post by **Trick Fall** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 7:31 pm

Good song, I don't know a lot of their stuff, but I always like what I hear. Anyway I'd start my attempt at getting that sound by running an overdrive pedal into a distortion pedal and a short delay into an amp with preamp gain up. I think I could get pretty close with a rat and a JCM 800.

chuckfurok · Post by **chuckfurok** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 9:14 am

I know that back in the day they used yamaha distortion pedals.

Guitar Geek for David Gedge

wigwam · Post by **wigwam** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 8:08 am

good call on the wedding present - that's a great song by a modestly great band. makes me nostalgic for a period of music that I didn't even like at the time! How does that work?

Neil Weir · Post by **Neil Weir** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 9:45 am

More than specific pedals or delays, I think the two most important elements of that sound are...

1. A slide
2. The tuning... Who knows? Most strings tuned to E, I bet...

I remember seeing Cinerama right after Sally Muriel quit and they had started played a lot of Seamonsters and Bizarro stuff. It was really good. I had a "Oh, yeah... weird tuning and a slide... that's what he's doing.." moment when they went into one of those sections for the first time...

djgout · Post by **djgout** » Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:26 am

damn...i thought you meant you got a guitar as a wedding present. that'd be rad, i got a weedeater and the wife got like every kitchen knick-knack imaginable......

I'm Painting Again · Post by **I'm Painting Again** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 9:20 pm

Hey James got your PM just now..not on too much anymore..

VVV has good ears..it's two rats stacked on top of each other..

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