NPD: The 90s Called…

[SonVolt]

I remember seeing a list of his gear in a guitar magazine* when I was 17 and thinking, "I have better stuff than Kurt Cobain?"

You must have been rich. At 17 I had a Squire, a Marshall Valvestate and whatever crappy speaker cab was sold along with it. I would have killed orphans for a Mesa Studio Pre. Marshall 1960 & a nice Fender .

 

[la szum]

 

[EOengineer]

You must have been rich. At 17 I had a Squire, a Marshall Valvestate and whatever crappy speaker cab was sold along with it. I would have killed orphans for a Mesa Studio Pre. Marshall 1960 & a nice Fender .

During the 90s studio preamps could be had for a couple hundred dollars, Jags and Mustangs were CHEAP. In fact it was Cobain and grunge that inflated the values back up.

Kurt’s gear wasn’t all garbage, but even the good stuff he used was fairly affordable at the time.

 

[greatmutah]

Uh.... this is a thread about the '90s Grunge pedal.

Right?

“Sir this is a Wendy’s.”

 

[AutomationBias]

You must have been rich. At 17 I had a Squire, a Marshall Valvestate and whatever crappy speaker cab was sold along with it. I would have killed orphans for a Mesa Studio Pre. Marshall 1960 & a nice Fender .

Mostly a joke, but I did a lot of flipping that turned pawn shop/flea market finds into money that got funneled into more gear. I think I had a Les Paul by that point ('74 Deluxe routed for full-sized humbuckers with a headstock repair) and a JCM800.

 

[EOengineer]

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We’re WAY off topic now, but I’ve definitely wondered how the studio preamp ever sounded good running into a solid state power amp. Without a tube power amp’s impedance curve it must have been pretty sterile.

My guess is maybe they used the compensated recording outs into the power amp, which probably still doesn’t sound great but I think mimics the big V shape you get from a tube power section.

 

[SonVolt]

I mean, didn't he record Nevermind with his Studio Pre & SS Poweramp? That didn't sound thin or brittle at all. But then again Butch Vig was a much better engineer/producer than Albini.

 

[EOengineer]

I mean, didn't he record Nevermind with his Studio Pre & SS Poweramp? That didn't sound thin or brittle at all. But then again Butch Vig was a much better engineer/producer than Albini.

Some of it yes, but there was also an AC30, a Bassman 50, and some other random gear. I’ve known a couple guys who built a similar studio preamp rig and didn’t complain about it being brittle or whatever, so who knows. Maybe Kurt was high and hooked it up wrong for in Utero.