Steve Albini's guitar tone

Bucket

Weird but brilliant - anyone else familiar with this stuff?

In 1987:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEZ5yDTNrYo

In 1994:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLJzISJncB4

It's very weird, isn't it? Scratchy, zingy and shrill but I love it. It fits perfectly.

Really getting into the music recently as well, cool stuff.

xHymnal

You need to get yourself a harmonic percolator; that's what Steve uses! 

Cirrus

It's a cool sound, shows that "good" tone is pointless if the song wants something else.

grungebob

Hymnal;80389" said:

You need to get yourself a harmonic percolator; that's what Steve uses! 

Beaten to it! My mate had a Kramer aluminium neck guitar similar to a Travis beem(? Or beam?) with a hp clone into a fender ultimate chorus amp and it nailed that tone perfectly.

xHymnal

Travis bean I think? Those alu neck kramers are very awesome, and quite rare too

ThePrettyDamned

Poodle pedals do a harmonic percolator kit, mate!

It's proof that tone should be decided by the song.

dogload

I was well into Big Black back when Songs About Fucking came out. John Peel played it all the time. It just sounded so hard!

paulk

Huge Big Black fan here. I saw them in Leeds around 86/87 and they were just brutal live. At that time the loudest band I had ever seen. Great band.

Deijavoo

LOVE Albini!

Harmonic Percolator, Aluminium Neck guitar and fuck loads of volume. 

thermionic

I'm a big Albini fan, especially his attitude towards recording bands. Pixies' Surfer Rosa, PJ Harvey's Rid Of Me - massive sound, and not due to over-compressed mastering.

Didn't he use a transistor amp in one of his bands? I must make myself a Harmonic Percolator some time...

Deijavoo

Rid of Me is one of my favourite drum sounds. You read the letter he sent Nirvana prior to the In Utero sessions? 

A real class act.

Antique_Guitars

Yeah you need:

1) His weird amp setup

2) A Harmonic Percolator (you will never afford an original so clone is the nearest) you can get one here https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/10929664/harmonic-percolator-interfax-exact?ref=sr_gallery_1&ga_search_query=hARMONIC+percolator&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=GB&ga_search_type=all&ga_facet=hARMONIC+percolator

3) An aluminium guitar of some kind preferably a VELENO if you can afford and find one or a Travis Bean or an ECG. If your on a budget then a Kramer

grungebob

Doesn't he use a 12"cab and a15" bass cab for his live rig? The letter he sent to nirvana was indeed class and probably the only honest dealings they received at that time of their fame.

Bucket

Apparently he uses a full-range cab (is that like a PA speaker? Not really up on these things) and an old Bassman. There's also some kind of solid-state pre and power amp involved somewhere along the line.

As you guys have said, seems the aluminium-neck Travis Bean is an important part of things. His is apparently absolutely knackered, due to another component in his tone - the fact that he absolutely beats the shit out of the guitar. He's supposedly using metal picks as well.

Thanks @Antique_Guitars for the link to the Harmonic Percolator - probably not the kind of thing I'll be spending £200 on but it's good to know it exists if I win the lottery Very cool-looking pedal.

Another track from Songs About Fucking - an exceptionally grating, fucked-up tone here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxs_r40fWuE

I bought Songs About Fucking a month or two ago (had to hunt around for the CD)... At Action Park came in the post this morning.

Deijavoo

1000 Hertz is still my favourite record of his by miles.

Deijavoo

By miles is an exaggeration, but I do love it dearly.

Deijavoo

My mates started a band featuring ECG/Danelectro guitars, home built amps, beards and a healthy dose of Albini love;

http://claustro.bandcamp.com/

Give their stuff a listen/download for free!

jimmyd

The cover of Just Got Paid by Rapeman is ace.

p90fool

I love the sound of that stuff, it's great when you need a re-think when you're bogged down by a studio project.
When I was doing a lot of European tours I kept a house near the Loire Valley which turned out to be just around the corner from Studio Black Box, which was built and run by Iain Burgess, Steve's mentor and early producer.

Iain and I became firm friends, often spending late nights in his control room gassing about the Chicago scene, with him demonstrating mix ideas to me on the desk, often referring back to stuff he'd done with Steve Albini. When things got out of hand at the studio he'd often come and crash at my house to chill. He also found me plenty of session work when I decided to settle in France, it's safe to say I couldn't have survived there as a musician without him.

Steve talks about his friendship and influence here;
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/those-we-have-lost-memorials-rips-obituaries/466245-iain-burgess-has-died.html

It's ironic that Steve talks about Iain's enthusiasm for sports cars, Iain once drunkenly confided in me that he'd never passed a driving test in any country....
Good times