Producer Mike Hedges, speaking about the recording sessions of "Seventeen Seconds" in Sound On Sounds, december 2004 :eggwheat wrote: Hi Just wanted to say robert smith used a real early Roland JC-160 not a 120 the 160 is a 4x10. Early ones have no brightness switch and the circuitry is also a whole lot different on the early 160's and 120's.. basically the early 160 sounds a whole lot different to the 120.
Yes i am a 100% cure nerd! And I also have a bit of a good source for info..
"I got heavily into choruses and flangers on the album," continues Mike Hedges. "I basically collected every single flanger and chorus I could find anywhere in the studio and borrowed them from people with new units, and for 'A Forest' I think we had as many as seven flangers running on 'envelope', flanging on the shape of the sound coming in rather than as a constant. Aside from bass and guitars, you can particularly hear it on the cymbal crashes, which dive away immediately following the hits. You see, Robert was heavily into choruses — he had a JC120, and so if you had a U47 on one speaker of the amp and a 57 on the other, you then had a stereo chorus, which was great. We loved the chorus, and because of that I originally started playing flangers to do choruses until I realised that flangers were fantastic as well, at which point we actually started using the flangers as flangers. These made the overall sound slightly warped — nothing was quite natural, adding to the underlying atmosphere."
But it's true, Robert Smith favoured a JC-160 on stage in 1980 and 1981. So maybe Mike Hedges lost memory, but the whole interview is so accurate that it is rather amazing to see a mistake in there... He switched to Peaveys in early 1981 (Mark III Musician head + 412 S enclosure), but the JC-160 remained a stage standard until the end of the 'Picture Tour', not to be seen during 1982 'Pornography Tour'. This amp was also part of the rig for the 1984 'Top Tour' for a few concerts (used by Porl Thompson 'round this time though).
http://www.pbase.com/craigparker/image/57197853
Mike Hedges is not only known to have produced and been behind the desk for "Seventeen Seconds" and "Faith"... He is also said to be the one who gave Robert his first Bass VI. The legend says the instrument had been 'forgotten' by someone in the corner of a recording studio... Hedges took it back home and gave it to Smith during the "Faith" recording sessions. This was reported by Smith himself in various interviews (but with Smith, you never know what he dreamt about and what is true).
I've never played a JC120, but I hope it's nothing like this. I'm sure it's all the Metal Zones and stuff 