Fractal Talk

[Ed DeGenaro]

The Gear Used by Jerry Cantrell on Alice in Chains’ ‘Dirt’

‘Dirt’ is one of the most iconic grunge albums, powered by perhaps the genre’s greatest guitarist. Here’s the gear Jerry Cantrell used on it

guitar.com

Some contradictory statements have been made regarding the amplifiers used on Dirt. However, according to a 2022 GearspaceQ&A with Dave Jerden, the rhythm guitar tones on the album consisted of six tracks. One amp was used for low tones, one for mids, and one for highs; those three tracks would be doubled and panned right and left, making six tracks. According to Jerden, the three amps were as follows:

“Lows: Bogner Fish preamp/VHT amp/Marshall Cab with Vox bulldog speakers; mids: Bogner Ecstasy; highs: Rockman Pocket amp direct. I split the guitar signal to all three amps through a Lucas Deceiver guitar amp splitter made by Terry Manning (ZZ Topengineer). I miked the low and mid amps with a Shure SM57 and the Rockman I took direct injection. As far as the lead guitars, we used my 1988 Marshall 100/50-watt convertible Super Lead amp (with 6L6 tubes, not EL34) modified with an extra preamp stage (and made 100/50-watt convertible) by Mike Moran. This amp (besides the Bogner Fish preamp) are my favourite amps. By the way, Bogner custom-built and modified the Fish and Ecstasy to sound as “brown” as possible. When recording, I compressed all the guitars. We used Summit compressors. I record guitars flat with no EQ so as not to introduce phase problems.”

Cantrell made statements that seem to back this up in a 1993 interview with WoodyTone.

Yep, the general makeup of that album is one cleanish track hard panned, one dirtier track hard panned the opposite and then one fully gained out track straight down the middle. The Bogner Fish, the 5150’s Ed gave him, Dual Recs and the infamous Snorkler were the brunt of the amps used on it.

 

[norminal]

At 12:09, he makes the argument why the “favorites,” (or Blocks Library in this case) should be accessible from the front panel.

This with the ability to hide extended parameters, (or toggle visibility of tabs other than “Advanced” for example) would be a huge QOL update.

 

[metropolis_4]

I’m partially convinced it’s my picking hand. I can go back to posts from 20 years ago where I was griping about ‘mids following me around’, which is how I ended up with a Mark IV, after someone told me “Get a Mark, you can cut all the mids you want!” Whenever I go for the scooped metal tone I find myself using what I’d consider extreme EQ settings to get there just because of the mids.

I think some people are more sensitive to different frequency ranges. I knew a drummer who was like that with bass. No matter how much he HPF’d his monitor mix there was always too much low freq for him.

 

[KHAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!!!]

I run the midrange knobs on my Mark V around 2:00, and the middle slider is NEVER below zero!

 

[Stone]

At 12:09, he makes the argument why the “favorites,” (or Blocks Library in this case) should be accessible from the front panel.

This with the ability to hide extended parameters, (or toggle visibility of tabs other than “Advanced” for example) would be a huge QOL update.

yeah but he also said that here on TGF were all crazy

 

[Stone]

folks and YouTubers can complain all they want about the UI, thats a them problem not a me problem, I know how to use my fractal and hence it works for me, everything else or what other say or think is irrelevant

 

[Frodebro]

folks and YouTubers can complain all they want about the UI, thats a them problem not a me problem, I know how to use my fractal and hence it works for me, everything else or what other say or think is irrelevant

Ask ten people and they'll probably all say that the UI could be improved. But ask them how, and you'll get ten different answers. Which circles us right back to where we are now-people bitching about the UI online.

 

[JiveTurkey]

At 12:09, he makes the argument why the “favorites,” (or Blocks Library in this case) should be accessible from the front panel.

This with the ability to hide extended parameters, (or toggle visibility of tabs other than “Advanced” for example) would be a huge QOL update.

Watching now because I like Henning. He is also probably not the best for this series because it's already daunting enough without interruptions every 5 seconds

 

[norminal]

I run the midrange knobs on my Mark V around 2:00, and the middle slider is NEVER below zero!

Same. The 2200 slider is where it’s all at for me.

 

[DrewJD82]

I don’t think there’s a single person that’d argue against the block library being on the device, but I can’t stand Henning’s use of the “I wouldn’t have a laptop onstage” trope. Who the hell would be changing out physical pedals at a gig? The only guys I know who swap out stuff on tour are guys like Petrucci, EJ or Bonamassa. And EJ wouldn’t if he couldn’t see tone like Neo sees the world in the Matrix and can tell when his Fuzz Face has .001 less fuzzles.

There’s a ton of other logical reasons to want UI upgrades, the ‘onstage’ or ‘at a gig’ ones are my pet peeve.

Hahahha I’m going to stop watching this, he’s hitting every tired complaint against modelers I’ve read on forums over and over and over again that equate back to “It’s not like playing a real amp”

 

[dk_ace]

I don’t use a modeler because I’m 100% convinced that every amp and model plus the combinations of them together is 100% just like the real thing with no compromises. I use them because they’re the right tool for some jobs as I see it. Quiet stage requirement: modeler. Gig where I don’t want to haul a lot of crap: modeler. IEMs: modeler.

There are certain gigs where I’d rather use an amp and pedalboard. On a big tour with no cost issues and roadies to haul stuff, I’d probably take a traditional rig. If I were a top session guitarist, no question I’d use the traditional rigs. If I still had big amps and had a great place to crank them up and enjoy a killer mostly analog rig often, I would.

For the real situations I find myself in most of the time, the FM9 is about as good as it gets and has less compromises for me than a traditional rig would. Horses for courses.

D

 

[jellodog]

No matter how much he HPF’d his monitor mix there was always too much low freq for him.

Sounds like he may have already destroyed his treble frequency hearing?

 

[laxu]

yeah but he also said that here on TGF were all crazy

He's right, you know.

 

[TubeStack]

 

[Orvillain]

This is odd.

Axe 3 Output 3 Left - Mark V input.
Axe 3 Output 3 Right - JVM input.
Mark V send - Axe 3 Input 4 Left.
JVM send - Axe 3 Input 4 Right.
Axe 3 Output 4 Left - Mark V return.
Axe 3 Output 4 Right - JVM return.

IE: Full stereo setup with two amps, and the Axe3 doing pre and post effects for both.

Now when I load up a mono delay, the JVM side (so the right) ... the WET signal is a lot louder than the left. I don't understand why.

When I load up a stereo delay, no problems. Get the expected level.

Thoughts????

 

[OrganicZed]

I would check the meters page on the Axe-FX III to see where the difference in output is occurring (go to the preset layout and then page right to see the meters for each block).

You might also check the echo pan parameter in the delay block.

 

[makeitstop]

Soundgarden and AIC were two of my favorite bands back in the day. I saw them both live in NYC, Soundgarden at Roseland and AIC at Lollapalooza '93 at Standhope Village.

The AIC guitar tone on Dam That River is one of my favorite high gain tones of all time. Apparently Cantrell used three amps to get it.

Great tone. Since I'm using an FM3 I can only use one amp - but the Bogfish Strato model is getting me close enough for live.

 

[la szum]

That’s EXACTLY where I’m at right now, I have been working on a 4CM preset for my Studio JTM, and I have eight different drives going between the two blocks. The challenge is paring it down to a single overdrive and a single distortion, and I’m just not getting there. I’ll probably wind up using the preset I’m working on as a template, copy it into a few more slots, and then refine each one by era or something like that. Like a 60s preset with the period appropriate effects, 70s, 80s, etc. I really don’t need everything shoehorned into a single preset, and I really have to break that habit.

That Template feature is so convenient!

 

[la szum]

I don’t think there’s a single person that’d argue against the block library being on the device, but I can’t stand Henning’s use of the “I wouldn’t have a laptop onstage” trope. Who the hell would be changing out physical pedals at a gig? The only guys I know who swap out stuff on tour are guys like Petrucci, EJ or Bonamassa. And EJ wouldn’t if he couldn’t see tone like Neo sees the world in the Matrix and can tell when his Fuzz Face has .001 less fuzzles.

There’s a ton of other logical reasons to want UI upgrades, the ‘onstage’ or ‘at a gig’ ones are my pet peeve.

Hahahha I’m going to stop watching this, he’s hitting every tired complaint against modelers I’ve read on forums over and over and over again that equate back to “It’s not like playing a real amp”

Yup. 1000%. My time is too precious to give a second to that nonsense.

It's inevitable that YT'ers are going to have their own tired Greatest Hits. There
is only so much content to rant about, or gush over.


So all we get are the same 3 or 4 notes over and over again.

 

[JoeBfstplk]