Alan Sparhawk on "I Could Live In Hope"?

[tdbajus]

Just curious. He just has that giant sound, not really distorted, but kind of compressed.

I suspect it's really in the fingers, of course...

[percnon]

Just curious. He just has that giant sound, not really distorted, but kind of compressed.

I suspect it's really in the fingers, of course...

No idea what he was using way back then. In interviews he says he'll use pretty much any tube amp but usually Fenders. When I saw them live last year he had both a blackface and a tweed amp, not sure what the former was exactly but the latter looked like a champ. (He had the best electric guitar tone I've EVER heard in my life that night, by the way.) It's in the fingers, guitar, amp and, of course, the production. The guitar could be a Les Paul with P90s. That seems to be his favourite.

Did you ever read this interview?:

http://www.silbermedia.com/qrd/archives/46alan.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[tdbajus]

I have read that one.

"I Can Live In Hope" came out long before I'd ever seen one of those Twins with the 15" speakers, but maybe there was an earlier version.

Sort of sounds like an Ampeg to me, though. Those Baxendall tone controls they have on the B15s sound really different than the Fender tone stack...

[DarnWeight]

Think it was probably a Vibroverb on ICLIH...certainly was on Long Division. Kramer probably had a lot to do with Alan's sound on that first record, too.

[FrankRay]

One reason he got a massive sound was because it's such an empty record; as Matt Johnson of The The used to say, you can only ever have 100% of the sound, so one guitar, one voice, one snare, one hi hat and a bass means the guitar more than 20% of the space on that record, and there really isn't much competition in the high-mids to take away from it's range.

Lou Reed made the same point; "Cymbals eat out guitars."

Plus, of course, being a Kramer production means the record has been marinated in industrial loads of reverb.

[tdbajus]

Lou Reed made the same point; "Cymbals eat guitars."

Plus, of course, being a Kramer production means the record has been marinated in industrial loads of reverb.

I get your point, but when I record guitar solo, it still doesn't sound as massive as that sound Sparhawk got.

Cymbals are the devil.

[WonderCouncil]

It's funny, I just got done watching "You May Need A Murder" for the second time, this morning. I can't recall what got me into Low in the first place...I think it was through listening to Sun Kil Moon, then back to Red House Painters...looking them up and reading about the whole "slowcore" genre...either way I've become hooked on Low from the first time I listened to ICLIH. The intro track alone, "Words"...fucking awesome song.

I had only found out about them in the last maybe, year and a half. Absolutely brilliant music though. It's funny, I don't know how much it has to do with age but as I'm getting older I'm listening to less and less up tempo, fast, loud music. I've always been kind of into the whole drone...doomish kind of stuff as well as minimalist arrangements...any ways...yea, fantastic band, fantastic witting too.

Thanks for posting that interview percnon. I was wondering what all his equipment was. Specifically about what the P90 was, he had in his Les Paul. Now I know...

This was probably posted before but never the less, great concert and footage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMEaXgJuIyA

I had actually done a screen cap and was going to post in the effects section as to what these pedals were. Looks like the closest one is a EHX POG followed by the Z-Vex Octane 3, SIB Mr. Echo, Z-vex Loop Junkie. Not sure what the last one is, maybe the Super Hard On?


So the amp in above youtube video would be a Tweed Champ I'm guessing?

[ziess]

So the amp in above youtube video would be a Tweed Champ I'm guessing?

That really looks like an early tweed Deluxe to me. Can't tell the circuit without seeing more.

[tdbajus]

So the amp in above youtube video would be a Tweed Champ I'm guessing?

That really looks like an early tweed Deluxe to me. Can't tell the circuit without seeing more.

I don't think so- a Deluxe is bigger than that. I was going to guess Princeton or Princeton clone. Seems too big to be a Champ.

Want to speculate? There's photos of all these amp models here:

http://www.thevintagesound.com/ffg/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Fender Amp Field Guide is a good way to lose hours and hours of your time.

[ziess]

I still think its a deluxe... Watch the video with them on KEXP, looks about the same size as mine.

[tdbajus]

I still think its a deluxe... Watch the video with them on KEXP, looks about the same size as mine.

I have a narrow panel tweed Deluxe clone- not a wide panel, like this amp appears to be- but unless Alan's grown 5 inches since the last time I saw him, I'd go with Wide Panel Princeton. It's hard to judge the scale, though.

Could be one of an innumerable number of clones, too- Victoria, Pedaltrain... who knows?

Alan knows. Wish he'd give us hungry gear nerds some scraps!

[ziess]

Either way, it's a wide-panel something and it sounds great!
I like that he's one of the guys who simultaneously disproves that LPs sound clunky and that Fenders only have clean sounds, I can really relate to that. My LP is my favourite Telecaster-sounding guitar!

[tdbajus]

Either way, it's a wide-panel something and it sounds great!
I like that he's one of the guys who simultaneously disproves that LPs sound clunky and that Fenders only have clean sounds, I can really relate to that. My LP is my favourite Telecaster-sounding guitar!

Pretty sure most Neil Young fans are aware of the power of a fully operational tweed amp.

I agree with you on the LP/Tele crossover- I always though they sounded a lot alike- playing a p90 equipped tele and a p90 equipped LP were very similar beasts.

[Mclean]

I'm sure you guys have probably seen this already. Looks like he's using something 5e3 size to me, but who knows!?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPvZb4QhHhc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ziess]

That's a narrow-panel something... Am I making it up or can I see diagonally mounted speakers? Looks maybe a bit bigger than a 5E3, maybe some sort of clone? Looks about as wide as a 5F4, maybe... Is that a Victoria logo I can see on the front of the cab?