MICHAEL GUY CHISLETT
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those circumstances.
doesn’t handle the overdriven stuff too well. though, because they’re ribbon mics, and if you
And then, with the Jazzmaster, I love how the bust a ribbon on tour, it’s not good.
top end is really harsh, but if you play it not too
[Michael] It’s funny, because a lot of people heavy, it’s really sweet. If you pick it a bit too One of the big secrets that I do when recording
will wonder why I have the different guitars. much, it almost feels like it’s over-compressed guitars is to put a ribbon microphone on
Even the guys we tour with will ask if we can’t as a natural sound out of the guitar, which is the cone of the amp. Everyone knows that
just travel with one guitar, because it would a really interesting sound. Over the last 8 or you don’t want to put an SM57 on the cone
be so much easier. It’s crazy, but they are 9 years I’ve really gotten into the Jazzmaster because it sounds terrible. It’s the harshest
so different, sonically. The White Falcon, it’s sound just because it has a glassy, chimey part of the amp. But if you put a Royer 121 on
a hard guitar to play, but once you get used sound to it. If you put that with an old Vox or the cone, it picks up the harshest part, but the
to it, it’s like driving a really old car. You have a Matchless amp it really cuts through the PA, Royer is quite a dull sounding microphone so
to be really careful, and you’re really going to that’s for sure. it makes it sound quite sweet. But then if you
hear it if you drive too fast around a corner.
put that through an API EQ, like a 550a EQ,
There’s something about that sound that I really [WM] Do you have a preference on guitar and you boost 7k or 10k, that’s basically my
like. I like it brighter. Some people think that amp mics? secret. Sometimes I’ll boost about 8db of 10k,
they’re too harsh, and then too tubby if it’s on
because amps really do that very smoothly.
the neck pickup. But I feel like it’s the perfect [Michael] For as long as I can remember, range, especially if you’re doing riffs and stuff. when playing live, we always have used the [WM] So you’re an API guy and not a Neve
It’s my “go to” for two-note or three-note riffs. Shure SM57’s. I think it’s easier for them to guy? Or does it depend on what you’re doing?
And then something like the Telecaster is so make it fit in the PA. Now, I usually use the even and clean and quite snappy sounding. It’s Royer 121 and the SM57 mics in combo in the [Michael] I pretty much use API EQ’s for
great for rhythm playing and it’s good for a lot studio, which I think is a pretty standard thing to everything. Maybe Neve stuff for drums. I use
of overdriven stuff, whereas the White Falcon do these days. It’s hard to travel with the 121’s a lot of Neve pre-amps depending on the
Photo: Joe Termini
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August 2017
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