Who Knew??? A Mesa Mark V Is The Best Amp To Get Nirvana/Cobain Tones!

laxu said:
They also came at a time when the sound on the radio was the very polished, heavily produced stuff. By comparison Nirvana felt raw and exciting, which of course resonated with guys like me who were growing up in that era.
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I played “smells like” on my vêry first gig if I’m correct ;)
 
EOengineer said:
I mean if we’re cherry picking listen to how awful EVH sounds here. :satan

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oh im not cherry picking at all- that was two months before in utero was recorded- i literally typed in 'nirvana live december 1992' i think, knowing they recorded in early '93 and probably woulda been right before they prepped for recording. id think thatd be at the top of their form with that live rig! that was the first vid that came up- and thats the very rig in question :LOL:

in the meantime- im not smearing them in the least, for real. im not sure why nobody was like... hey bud.. the HELL are you thinkin? but thats confirmably not great sounding, as much love and respect as i have for those guys AND their engineer.
 
newholland said:
oh im not cherry picking at all- that was two months before in utero was recorded- i literally typed in 'nirvana live december 1992' i think, knowing they recorded in early '93 and probably woulda been right before they prepped for recording. id think thatd be at the top of their form with that live rig! that was the first vid that came up- and thats the very rig in question :LOL:
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The cherry picking comment was just a vehicle to post that EVH video. I get a kick out of those SHREDS videos.

In seriousness, I guess different strokes for different folks? The tone in the video you posted sounds totally representative of Nirvana to me.

I don’t think any of Kurt’s distorted tones have ever been “good” in the traditional sense. Nevermind was probably the closest but obviously there’s lots of layers and production happening there.
 
JiveTurkey said:
I'd argue the point of Nirvana was NEVER in a million years about sounding good tonally. It was about stellar songs in spite of that fact.
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This is the most concise way to put it.

The abrasiveness was the point.

To @la szum original point - I do think the Mark circuit does carry the Nirvana sounds well if you’re using the DS-1 or similar to grunge it up. The Mark lead channels offer a more refined option, obviously.

And to @newholland point - the songs are awesome. You can dial in better, more traditional tones and the songs still stand up.

I’ve not listened to Nirvana since my teens, but I’ve recently considered putting together a cover project for fun and bar gigs. Something about the unease and simplicity of the music feels fitting right now.

When I get my Studio Preamp back from service I’ll try to make some clips with my DS-1 and see how things go.
 
We watched that Post clip yesterday and it was great. Because of how raw it was. It definitely made you look at how a modern band's performance is (tracked/quantized to hell and back) comparatively vs. this raw as FUCK take. I would have rather seen this as a 3 piece. I continue to wonder why Pat Smear ever needed to be in Nirvana. What's funny as well is watching @newholland vid and the performance sounds pretty much the exact same despite the player being different :roflThat chorus riff is slop perfection that is super weird to hear out of recorded context.
 
EOengineer said:
This is the most concise way to put it.

The abrasiveness was the point.

To @la szum original point - I do think the Mark circuit does carry the Nirvana sounds well if you’re using the DS-1 or similar to grunge it up. The Mark lead channels offer a more refined option, obviously.

And to @newholland point - the songs are awesome. You can dial in better, more traditional tones and the songs still stand up.

I’ve not listened to Nirvana since my teens, but I’ve recently considered putting together a cover project for fun and bar gigs. Something about the unease and simplicity of the music feels fitting right now.

When I get my Studio Preamp back from service I’ll try to make some clips with my DS-1 and see how things go.
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I was like, 19-20(?) when Nevermind came out? Past the super impressionable first time you hear something point but still super excited to hear music with energy to it; no matter what genre. I worked with a friend who nutty for Bleach beforehand so I was prepared when it came out. Awesome, awesome record. Obviously. I think covers of this era would be a blast provided you had someone who could sing. Easy to play, generally speaking; and would be fairly quick to get up and running \m/
 
EOengineer said:
Little known fact - Nirvana actually started as a 4 piece with 2 guitars. They lost the 2nd guitar before recording Bleach.

I suspect Pat’s utility was:
1. Make the wall of guitars bigger.
2. CYA when Kurt’s too fucked up to play.
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I'm sure he did the work over the years dealing with that whole situation. But watching Post and thinking, "Gee Pat; you've played in the band for 30wtfever years but couldn't learn that solo?". And I say this as someone who generally abhors playing guitar solos because I am wayyyyyy too self-critical.
 
JiveTurkey said:
I'm sure he did the work over the years dealing with that whole situation. But watching Post and thinking, "Gee Pat; you've played in the band for 30wtfever years but couldn't learn that solo?". And I say this as someone who generally abhors playing guitar solos because I am wayyyyyy too self-critical.
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Oh I missed your original point there.

Yeah - ideally you’d want someone who can actually play the songs. I’ve never been a fan of his playing. He’s actually worse than Kurt on heroin in some of their live stuff.
 
EOengineer said:
Oh I missed your original point there.

Yeah - ideally you’d want someone who can actually play the songs. I’ve never been a fan of his playing. He’s actually worse than Kurt on heroin in some of their live stuff.
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He's always seemed super nice but letting someone into that empire (and all the associated $$$$$$$$$ it would bring)....oof. I would argue bringing him into the fold was based on his punk cred and what I am assuming that meant to Kurt and the band overall. That was his ticket in.
 
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JiveTurkey said:
I was like, 19-20(?) when Nevermind came out? Past the super impressionable first time you hear something point but still super excited to hear music with energy to it; no matter what genre. I worked with a friend who nutty for Bleach beforehand so I was prepared when it came out. Awesome, awesome record. Obviously. I think covers of this era would be a blast provided you had someone who could sing. Easy to play, generally speaking; and would be fairly quick to get up and running \m/
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Bleach is a perfect example of "bad" tone made to work well. It fits the songs. Nevermind tones are more refined comparatively speaking, as were the songs. And still works.
 
EOengineer said:
This is the most concise way to put it.

The abrasiveness was the point.

To @la szum original point - I do think the Mark circuit does carry the Nirvana sounds well if you’re using the DS-1 or similar to grunge it up. The Mark lead channels offer a more refined option, obviously.

And to @newholland point - the songs are awesome. You can dial in better, more traditional tones and the songs still stand up.

I’ve not listened to Nirvana since my teens, but I’ve recently considered putting together a cover project for fun and bar gigs. Something about the unease and simplicity of the music feels fitting right now.

When I get my Studio Preamp back from service I’ll try to make some clips with my DS-1 and see how things go.
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haha.. i'm onboard. im all bout absurd guitar sounds. im listening to in utero now and liking how it all sounds without question. i seriously never listened to any of their records critically, tbh except for bleach cause it came out when i was in college (so did nevermind- which i remember thinking.. wait.. nirvana like negative creep nirvana?! on a major label? mmmmkay...).. but im actually really glad steve intervened, cause the guitar sounds on this record are awesome. :LOL:
 
I think it's fun and probably more fruitful to consider any guitarist's context within their personal journey rather than what else was going on at the time they came into the picture in regards to how they sound. Kurt's tones definitely weren't in line with conventional standards of popular rock bands at the time, be it your Slash/Nuno/Eddie etc - he was more from a lineage of Greg Ginn/Woody Weatherman and the like playing thru blown up solid state amps on the 80s hardcore records, and in that regard, to me the way he sounds makes total sense. I think this with another one of my heroes, Randy Rhoads, a lot too - a pretty common retort is that his tone was harsh and brittle compared to EVH/George Lynch and their contemporaries, but when you learn that his biggest influence was Mick Ronson and consider the fact he was playing with a really melodic bass player in Bob Daisley on those Ozzy records, his tone makes way more sense.

The DS-1 has kind of always been instant Kurt to my ears, as far as distortion goes, going clean to dirty for his writing and having pretty limited funds early on probably made it more of a necessity than the result of some tone quest. At the end of my ramblings, I just want to thank you guys for sharing this, hearing the intro to Smells Like Teen Spirit still makes my arm hair stand up like it did when I was 11 and was one of the gateways to this life I have now.
 
oh gad, in some ways its entirely possible he was shooting for the godawful standard of the sunn beta lead, which i think buzz osbourne probably put him onto. fricken horrible sounding amps.
 
newholland said:
oh gad, in some ways its entirely possible he was shooting for the godawful standard of the sunn beta lead, which i think buzz osbourne probably put him onto. fricken horrible sounding amps.
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Red Fang seem to make them sound good, imho.

Probably depends on the style of music.

Kurt did indeed play a Beta Lead during their live shows in 1989, so there's that. 😁

And he played beat-up Fender Twins and Quad Reverbs, among others.

The Mesa and Crown/Crest PA rig came in when they took off with "Nevermind" and went big.
 
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