SM and Spiral Stairs gear Slanted and Enchanted

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SadFuzz
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SM and Spiral Stairs gear Slanted and Enchanted

Post by SadFuzz » Sat Jun 30, 2018 3:56 am

I've been listening to lots of Pavement and love the lo fi toanz on the S&E album. Anyone know what Stephen and Scott used? I know they were primarily strats and Scott used a mustang live sometimes, so pedals and amps and anything else that featured. I know it's mainly playing though. They are a big influence on my music.
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Re: SM and Spiral Stairs gear Slanted and Enchanted

Post by CrookedRainJr » Thu Jul 05, 2018 12:18 am

Pretty basic stuff, honestly. SM was using his Strat and we can assume Spiral was using his Mustang (I believe their old roadie also confirmed Spiral recorded all the early stuff with it, it's not like they were gear freaks or had access to a lot of gear around in Stockton) played through Fender Twins and maybe a Deluxe Reverb.

The only pedals as far as we know and can hear are just Rats, really. The key was them stacking them and layering them over each other. It was probably a Rat 2, but around that era they all used a Turbo Rat live so it could be either or both.

Big part of it was the tunings they used to get a lot of that drone sound in the chords (Malkmus since he was really influenced by Isn't Anything believe it or not for it) and setting the amps to have a lot of treble and bass.

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Re: SM and Spiral Stairs gear Slanted and Enchanted

Post by anazgnos » Fri Jul 06, 2018 3:55 pm

SM is a known hotcake user, and while I'm pretty sure he didn't get it til later on, a dimed hotcake is kind of an instant Perfect Sound Forever pedal, a bassy buzzy fuzz like going straight into the Tascam.

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Re: SM and Spiral Stairs gear Slanted and Enchanted

Post by SadFuzz » Sat Jul 07, 2018 11:19 am

Yeah I thought it was rats and twins.
Any articles to read or live photos?
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Re: SM and Spiral Stairs gear Slanted and Enchanted

Post by CrookedRainJr » Sat Jul 07, 2018 12:39 pm

Unfortunately many have been lost over time. There was a longer article about it from their roadie, if you dig around google you should be able to use the Wayback Machine for it.

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Re: SM and Spiral Stairs gear Slanted and Enchanted

Post by CrookedRainJr » Sat Jul 07, 2018 12:40 pm

anazgnos wrote:
Fri Jul 06, 2018 3:55 pm
SM is a known hotcake user, and while I'm pretty sure he didn't get it til later on, a dimed hotcake is kind of an instant Perfect Sound Forever pedal, a bassy buzzy fuzz like going straight into the Tascam.
I actually think his Hotcake usage is a bit exaggerated. He definitely at one for a bit while touring in 97, but it was Spiral who was really big on them.

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Re: SM and Spiral Stairs gear Slanted and Enchanted

Post by anazgnos » Tue Jul 10, 2018 10:09 am

CrookedRainJr wrote:
Sat Jul 07, 2018 12:40 pm
anazgnos wrote:
Fri Jul 06, 2018 3:55 pm
SM is a known hotcake user, and while I'm pretty sure he didn't get it til later on, a dimed hotcake is kind of an instant Perfect Sound Forever pedal, a bassy buzzy fuzz like going straight into the Tascam.
I actually think his Hotcake usage is a bit exaggerated. He definitely at one for a bit while touring in 97, but it was Spiral who was really big on them.
SM did have a good laugh line when he said in an interview "all my pedals are named after food like hotcake, meatball, big cheese...except the Rat, I would never eat a Rat"

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