"Rape Me" clean tone?

johnnykazz

All very good points, I'm sure the OP can get fairly close to what he's looking for. At one point, I also wanted Kurt's tones, and when I finally got there I realized "WTF am I gonna use this for now that isn't going to sound like I ripped off Nirvana" haha. My DS-2 is in the closet now, collecting dust mainly. I break it out every now and then and can actually get some pretty sweet "boosted" sounds out of it. To each his own, some people are totally happy with coming home from work and being able to be a big rockstar in their own home and I respect the hell out of that. Let's lighten this thread up with what we are currently running right now. My main rig right now is:

Tech 21 Blonde (Modded with speaker emulation removed) ->

DOD Supra-Distortion (Really noisy, squeals out and I use this occasionally for feedback) ->

NYC Big Muff (Heavily modded with mid and low eq pots, and toggle that bypasses all EQ including stock "Tone" pot) ->

MXR Micro Chorus (I find I rarely use this either but it can make things more spacious on a low setting) ->

Fender Reverb tank (Purely amazing) ->

VHT Special (20 watt, upgraded to 6L6 Winged C's, 7025 12AX7's, and a Jensen C12N speaker)

Occasionally, I run right into my modded Champ 600 and just crank it all the way. Really unbelieveable Tweed sounds with just some upgrades.

brandonwinmill

I'm not after the rockstar at home thing but i do like to take bits and pieces of others sounds to create my own. The tone i was after can be heard in short periods during the reading show and really isn't associated with Kurt because it isn't his signature tone. I had a song that could benefit from that tone and thats why i wanted it. I figure that if i understand how to get a certain sound then it broadens me as an artist. Even if i don't use that tone ever. You know what i mean? Knowing how to achieve a tone is like learning math backwards. It may help down the road and it teaches me and lets me be independent. The backwards math thing simply means that if i'm hearing something weird coming through the mix like too much mids for example, i will be able to go to each piece of gear and find the conflict. If you are a performer you'll know that every venue is different and if you want to sound like you then you need as much knowledge as possible. I'm not trying to argue and i like the comment you made about lightening it up. I appreciate that but i wasn't sure if you thought i sit at my house and play teen spirit in front of a mirror. I do dig nirvana a lot but i have never played any of it live and honestly haven't played a nirvana song in 2 or 3 years, even to practice. I learned how to play guitar because of Kurt so we have that bond and the first 10 songs i learned were his.

My current setup varies on either the type of song i'm recording or the type of show i'm playing. I only play a couple times a year and its mostly blues stuff at festivals. I never stay long in one genre so my gear is changing all the time. If i were famous..it would probably be my sheraton II or strat through my mesa with a rat and a boss fender deluxe reverb pedal and a muff or a voodoo labs sparkle drive. I always use a tech 21 para also, even when i play acoustic or slide so that will be there also. Those pieces of gear are the ones that i trust and i feel comfortable with.

johnnykazz

brandonwinmill said:
I'm not after the rockstar at home thing but i do like to take bits and pieces of others sounds to create my own. The tone i was after can be heard in short periods during the reading show and really isn't associated with Kurt because it isn't his signature tone. I had a song that could benefit from that tone and thats why i wanted it. I figure that if i understand how to get a certain sound then it broadens me as an artist. Even if i don't use that tone ever. You know what i mean? Knowing how to achieve a tone is like learning math backwards. It may help down the road and it teaches me and lets me be independent. The backwards math thing simply means that if i'm hearing something weird coming through the mix like too much mids for example, i will be able to go to each piece of gear and find the conflict. If you are a performer you'll know that every venue is different and if you want to sound like you then you need as much knowledge as possible. I'm not trying to argue and i like the comment you made about lightening it up. I appreciate that but i wasn't sure if you thought i sit at my house and play teen spirit in front of a mirror. I do dig nirvana a lot but i have never played any of it live and honestly haven't played a nirvana song in 2 or 3 years, even to practice. I learned how to play guitar because of Kurt so we have that bond and the first 10 songs i learned were his.
My current setup varies on either the type of song i'm recording or the type of show i'm playing. I only play a couple times a year and its mostly blues stuff at festivals. I never stay long in one genre so my gear is changing all the time. If i were famous..it would probably be my sheraton II or strat through my mesa with a rat and a boss fender deluxe reverb pedal and a muff or a voodoo labs sparkle drive. I always use a tech 21 para also, even when i play acoustic or slide so that will be there also. Those pieces of gear are the ones that i trust and i feel comfortable with.

Awesome man! All great gear. Yeah, I wasn't taking a shot at you, directly nor indirectly dude. I just was stating that some people (not you) do like to play the rockstar thing when they get home from work as an example and I don't see anything wrong with that. Honestly, even the hypothetical situation you brought up — If someone wanted to sit in front of a mirror and play "Smells Like Teen Spirit", I don't see myself judging them or even laughing at them. If that makes that person happy, what does that have to do with me? IMO, that's Kurt's music being completely successful. He wrote a song that makes someone happy and a chance for them to use their imagination and live a dream. That's where I was coming from. I wasn't using you as an example, but rather "you" in a hypothetical way haha. Sorry if I came off as an #### to you in my last post, I have a bad habit of saying "you" in that hypothetical way and coming off as a prick haha. it wasn't my intention to even mention anything regarding you at all, let alone take a shot at you. Peace, keep on making music.

brandonwinmill

I agree with everything you just said.

helsinkirocks

My current is really, really simple.

I have more, but this is what I use for recording:

2011 Kurt Cobain signature Jaguar

1984 MIJ Stratocaster

Peavey XXX 2x12 (godlike distortion, sounds huge when double tracked)

Fender M-80 (Beautiful cleans)

Electro-Harmonix Small Clone (used in combination with the Fender)

Vox Wah

johnnykazz

helsinkirocks said:
My current is really, really simple.
I have more, but this is what I use for recording:
2011 Kurt Cobain signature Jaguar
1984 MIJ Stratocaster
Peavey XXX 2x12 (godlike distortion, sounds huge when double tracked)
Fender M-80 (Beautiful cleans)
Electro-Harmonix Small Clone (used in combination with the Fender)
Vox Wah

I saw Dinosaur Jr. last night man, and I really really want a wah pedal haha. They rocked the #### out of a really small venue in Philly. J ran his sunburst Jazzy through 3 half stacks, it was so loud and so ####ing awesome! 😀 Sorry to change the subject so much, but I like talking about gear with people. Anyone use the new Digitech Whammy 5? They went back to the Gen 1 logo on the pedal and its getting killer reviews. It's awfully expensive though.

johnnykazz

brandonwinmill said:
I agree with everything you just said.

Most of the first songs I learned on guitar were also Kurt's creations. Even though they are purposefully simple, that guy was a serious songwriter and my mind does wonder whether or not Kurt was a better guitarist / musician then he let himself be perceived as, and what he may have went on to create had he not passed away. I hope everyone on this forum agrees, regardless of their opinion of Kurt, he should be looked at as one of many musicians that has shown that regardless of technical skill you have or choose to show, you are allowed to create and can still make music.

redman1401

johnnykazz4l said:
Most of the first songs I learned on guitar were also Kurt's creations. Even though they are purposefully simple, that guy was a serious songwriter and my mind does wonder whether or not Kurt was a better guitarist / musician then he let himself be perceived as, and what he may have went on to create had he not passed away. I hope everyone on this forum agrees, regardless of their opinion of Kurt, he should be looked at as one of many musicians that has shown that regardless of technical skill you have or choose to show, you are allowed to create and can still make music.

He was definitely getting better, I mean look at the progression from Bleach to Nevermind to In Utero to "You Know You're Right". He's definitely a prime example of someone who let the rhythm of the music show emotion over some flashy over the top guitar solo or technical thing.

That being said the gear i use are a 94-95 mustang, a 97 jagstang, the cobain jag, a squier strat, an SX tele, running through my ds1 pedal that i modded by removing the d4 and d5 diodes to remove some of the hiss, an EHX small clone and thats all plugged into a 1988 fender princeton chorus or my kustom kg100fx half stack. With those i'm able to get a kurt-like tone which, when i play Nirvana stuff its clearly reccognizable, yet i can still play other stuff like AIC, The Offspring, green day, whatever and it work for everything.

Rapeme

hello there,

I just taken a MIM fender jaguar classic player HH and a fender champion 5 w.

I'm desperately trying to reproduce that fantastic intro sound, but not lucky. Can he have used an effect that escapes us? Any help is appreciated.

Thank you

frank

JamesJ

Well there is more than likely compression, eq, etc on the studio track, but as far as Kurt having any effects on his guitars, no. He used either the Jag, or a Univox on this song, plugged into his Twin Reverb. The only pedals in his signal chain were as follows. Guitar-DS2-Echoflanger(vintage 70s)-Small Clone-Amp.

Rapeme

Thanks a lot James.

Do you think that sound is all thanks to Twin Reverb?

HNB

I think it is likely. I have a twin reverb and it gets that sound well. If you use a Super Distortion or a JB with 1meg pots, you get that sound pretty easily. His Jaguar with the humbuckers still had 1meg pots. I think that helps make that trebley chime.

robertoriginal

for me, i can get the kurt clean tone really easily by shooting about 3 packs of dope and inbetween nodding out playing really sloppy.

i keed, i keed.

i have a 70's peavey musician, i run it thru a carvin 4x12. don't have any pedals anymore, just my old teleguar, and my jag-stang.

JamesJ

Alot of it has to do with the Twin Reverb and those two guitars. I think the only other electric used on the album was the 69 Comp Stang on Dumb.

Rapeme

I'm still chasing that sound 😍 🙄

KaineDelay

someone said:

I've been chasing the sound for this album while building my own sound as well and discovered the Echoflanger (or Poly Chorus - they were the same pedal) played a huge role in colouring his tone. While messing with the Poly Chorus' Filter Matrix setting, both layered or single takes bearing a certain wash about them, and the hi hi pitched feedback heard throughout the record, as if on cue, can be found and eerily resemble those tones heard on FFWHHROS, RFUS, Tourette's, Scentless Apprentice, Sappy, MV, and IHMAWTD. Here's one little clip of me filling in for Kurt's jaguar with a MIM Jaguar Blacktop HH - found at a pawn shop in East Vancouver by myself last month.

Ok, I can't attach the raw file. I'll post a YouTube shortly.

Mirata

He used a 1969 competition mustang the same one in slts video and in rio de janeiro and other clubs like crocodile cafe, he modified it with hotrails in the bridge and used a 1982 twin reverb silverface with 2 blown tubes it later got replaced by brand new ones from my knowledge

SebastianZ

Rapeme said:
hello there,
I just taken a MIM fender jaguar classic player HH and a fender champion 5 w.
I'm desperately trying to reproduce that fantastic intro sound, but not lucky. Can he have used an effect that escapes us? Any help is appreciated.
Thank you
frank

Hey, i just wanted to chime in that one thing i’ve tried when going for something vaguely similar was putting my jag-stang pickups out of phase and turning the amp up to get some more dirt on it. I felt that sound had some of the really pretty strange kind of ‘something” to be specific…

But i’ve been doing engineering stuff for a long, long time and eventually was messing with phase on some instruments recorded with multiple mics and the thought occurred that a part of the sound that i noticed and felt was present might possibly have some strange comb filtering/phase stuff from microphones not quite in phase…and i think that helps as well, and that theory was somewhat confirmed years later as i came across the multitracks for the b-side MV and on that one Mr. Albini definitely just had multiple mics on the amp while purposely ignoring the 3:1 “rule” and using the timing differences to work like a very strange eq. And then also there is a fair amount of bleed in those recordings and the original “scratch” guitar tracks (tracked live) kinda bled into the other instruments’ tracks and they were pretty out of tune (i was surprised!) and that might add a weird ghostly/out of phase type thing (i was also fascinated to (FINALLY!) figure out about the bass tone on that album…i had talked to several people and mostly they talked about using a very short (highpassed?) delay…but after hearing the multitracks, i think it is absolutely from the bass bleeding into the drum tracks (and also the multi mic on the amp, but the weird airiness i believe is the bleed into the drums.)

sorry for going on and on and on, this is a topic i’ve been fascinated with for a while and i’m at work and super bored and a bit “groovy” feeling right now…lol. I hope it might be of some use possibly.

Cheers!

BlackMonday

I´m sorry guys, but for Kurt´s clean tone in the Intro of "Rape Me" it was no Fender, Mesa Boogie or anything like that. It was suspected to be a Hiwatt 100w head initially, but it was finally found that it was a "Frankenstein" amp that Kurt´s guitar tech, Earnie Bailey, put together. Therefore it was a custom made amp completely nameless, together with a 2x12 cabinet that Kurt used ocasionally. The tone itself is absolutely mindblowing, and I have been trying to replicate it myself, but.... unfortunately there is no way to nail it unless that amp was commercially available, which is not.

You can read the whole story about a Nirvana-fan who in fact replicated the amp himself following the instructions provided by Earnie Bailey, previously contacting him. He follows the leads, contacts Earnie, builds it... and absolutely nails the tone!!! Really interesting, guys!!!

Here it is:

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