Mudhoney equipment tutorial

version 3.3

By Vincent Thuvignon

Introduction

Welcome to the Mudhoney equipment tutorial. This page was last revised on December 5th, 2000.
Updates : :

  • New pedals in the Pedals section.

You can email me for any comment, correction, adding or question about my work, which I hope you'll enjoy. You can send me an email with just "tutorial mailing list" as a subject, so you will be aware if i make a modification, or if me or Giordano have important informations to spray. (Don't hesitate, Giordano and I will keep your email adress secret.)
- Vincent (hagstrom@infonie.fr).

To know more, you can check out my page. This page is updated often. In fact, i work every day on it, and when i find it ok, i send it to Giordano!

I'd like to thank all the mudhonies who emailed me so far:
Daniel, Rick, Kam, Petter, Josh ,Vince M., Placidyls, Adam the great (email Adam at atg.dws@juno.com) and everybody else (you know who you are).

This tutorial could be found there too :
www.unofficial-mudhoney.com
pic of me
Behave yourself, girls! That's right he's Vincent.
He's cute, he's french, and his email is over there

- Giordano -

This document is divided in the following setctions:

  1. Guitars
  2. Amps
  3. Fuzz Boxes
  4. Wah-wah
  5. Bass
  6. Settings
  7. Pics
  8. Conclusions

You know all this stuff and all you need are notes and chords? Well then you'll surely love my TABs here.

I can also help you to build your Superfuzz.

1. Guitars

Fenders

All you need is a cheap guitar. A Fender Mustang [27k]. Another one [11k]. Japanese, or used american Mustang [29k], a Fender Stratocaster or whatever you can find with singles coils pick ups. Single coils are important because they have that flat sound when you overdrive them. You don't need a humbucker loaded guitar because their sound is too accurate and loud, and not enough noisy... Though Steve and Mark have lots of guitars to change their sounds, but it's always the same, humbuchers or not. (Mark uses a white Gibson SG). In their sound the essential elements are the pedals and the amps.

But the sound of Mudhoney is definitely a Fender guitar with lots of fuzz. Mark plays his Jaguar [22k] (from the Sub Pop Mudhoney page)

Hagströms

I have so many Hagström information that a friend and I are making a special Hagström page. You can see it in our new page.

Mosrites

For "My Brother The Cow", Steve used a Mosrite [47k]  (courtesy of Choice Guitar). MC5 's Fred "sonic" and Johnny Ramone used this guitar too. So... maybe this influenced his choice. We all know that Steve is a Punk Fan.

A bunch of nice Mosrites are there : it's the photos of all the Mosrites owner that have known to have an internet connection. Great ! here

Ramones photos from greatest ramones page : www.the-ramones.com

More about the ramones guitars here
Click here for Ramones TABs

MC5's Sonic :

Harmony

Chris Lawrence who wrote the Nirvana Tutorial said that Steve and Mark were into Harmony guitars...So I looked for that guitar and I saw that pic on the official page. Steve's guitar is an Harmony. Harmony is a bad make of guitars. They probably choose Harmony for the low cost. Click to believe [22k].

Gretsch

Here is an exctract of Chris Lawrence's email : it's supposed to be Jack Endino's words...

"Strangely enough the memory is a little more blurry, maybe because their gear has changed a few times. Steve's mostly used silverface Fender amps, late 60's. Mark used to use a different kind, might have been an Ampeg, hard to remember, last I knew they were both using Fenders but I wouldn't swear. Matt used an SVT I think. Mark presently has a Gretsch reissue gtr with Silver Glitter finish and genuine filtertron pickups, I believe, and probably some others, and Steve I don't remember. He used to always use Fender, what was it, Jaguars? Mustangs? Don't know about now. Steve has a big collection of pedals, too many to describe, but if its old and funky he probably has it. Don't recall exactly what gear they used for the early sessions 'cause no one ever asked me before so I've forgotten much. I know what they DIDN'T use at least..."

Do yourself a favor and check Jack's page here

Mark uses a Gretsch Duo Jet reissue with Silver Glitter finish for almost every gigs. click here for more live pics at www.unofficial-mudhoney.com. Here is another pic of Mark with his gretsch [11k]

Miscellaneous

Mark loves his Silvertone AMP-IN-CASE model [27k] (behind Mark, on the big sono speaker). You can see another great pic there, it's not mark's instrument, but another amp in case [37k]

If you have a good pic of a Silvertone Amp-In-Case, send it to me.

Mudhoney sometimes uses acoustic guitars too : Harmony ones I think. In "Acetone" (Piece Of Cake) and in "Blinding sun" (Piece Of Cake) for the rhythm guitar.

I would like to have information on the guitar Steve is using in the "Pump It Up" video. If one of you has any information on this hard rocking guitar, please email me. I haven't seen this video myself, so, maybe this guitar is already in my tutorial?

2. Amps

You definitly need a valve amplifier. It's not very cheap (well ok, it's not at all), but you can find old used ones every where. You can find an old and used "silver faces" Twin Reverb [72k] for $650 easily and less for a Deluxe Reverb. Mudhoney guitarists have always used them. A transistor amp is too "linear". And clean. You have to use your amp at least at 50%, so you can hear the amp overdriving, even with a simple stratocaster. This isn't possible in an appartment, you will be in troubles !

Mudhoney mainly uses Fender 60's and 70's amps, such as Deluxe Reverb, Deluxe, Super Reverb [57k], Twin Reverb... even a Band Master could be good. Check Mark's Super Reverb silver face here (behind Matt's shadow) [23k]. Any Fender Amp with only control: volume. The sound of a valve amplifier running at 100 % is always easily recognizable. It's not like this Mosquitos' sounds transistors amps have. Yeah, you may say "pedals do have transistors" -> but it's low gain transistors. Not high silicon ones. In a interview for a french guitar magazine, they say they used Fender amps for "My Brother The Cow" but I'm sure they always use them. You should try siver faces fender amps. They're from the 70's and have a very low price even if they have a great tone.

A Marshall, again, is too occurate, the distortion is too "beautiful", too compressed. Fender distortion has lots of treble. Their sound is like free and not compressed. A good example is the sound of BB King. I know he's not grunge but if you have the chance to listen to one of his record, be careful to his guitar sound. Though you could hear that sound in many Mudhoney songs, they've two guitarists, so it's not very clear sometimes... for a good example if you hate BB King : the beginning of "In my finnest suit" (My Brother The Cow). And use the clean channel , not the distortion one. Don't forget that Fender amps have only one setting : LOUDER! The volume is linked to the distortion. You can play clean and low, or loud and distorded . Not clean and loud or overdriven and low... and it's boring when you want to play in middle of the night. A good solution is the power brake (by Marshall). I am not trying to advertise for Marshall, but if you need one of their products, it's the power brake. You can play at 100% on the volume and you almost can't hear it ! It's a good solution for practising at home because you keep the same settings than when you play on stage.

To get the almost perfect sound, add a pedal. The sound is at your feet in your pedals.

I dont know if you saw this, but in the sleeve of " Piece Of Cake" there is an odd amp between Mark and Matt. This amp is a Kustom. I dont know the model yet but guess i will. I found several pics on the www for you :

I found that Sonic Youth used that amp in their beginning. It's not just a Kustom, it's the same amp exactly than Mark Arm in THIS PIC [k]. By the way, appreciate this live pic.

And if you only have a transistor amp, well, try running it with the clear channel, and never use the inner distortion: it sucks!!

3. Fuzz Boxes

Most part of Mudhoney's sound is in their pedals. They even titled their album with the name of their favourite pedals! What do you think the Superfuzz [8k] is? And the Bigmuff [43k]? Yes, they're distortion units! Their inspiration, of course.

Univox/Unicord Superfuzz: used on all the distortion effects. I think it's Mark Arm's pedals because the hard distorded sounds come from an Electro Harmonix Bigmuff pi, and it's Steve sound. Don't even try to find original models. You won't succeed. Sorry to tell you, but this vintage 70's pedals are extremely rare (=expen$ive).
I'm not saying "don't buy it if you find one", but "you'll NEVER find one". Even Kurt Cobain had to make one Superfuzz by himself, because he lost his only one after a gig with Mudhoney...

If you want to do like Kurt, visit my How to build a Superfuzz pedal page.

In fact, I made myself a Superfuzz using this schematic. I have to say it works really fine and it's very cheap to make a Superfuzz. It's cheaper than the $300 you would be asked on the Net. But it's not easy and you'll have to spend a lot of time to draw the printed circuit, etc... If you want more information about how I built my Superfuzz, my Superfuzz page is there for you; or you can simply email me. I corrected the mistakes of the schematic and added some useful components like diodes to protect the circuit, etc... All you need is an old pedal to put your new superfuzz circuit in. Mine is a boss bass limiter a friend gave me.

Sovtek sells reeditions of the Bigmuff. I have one. It sounds great! And the treble control is so sensitive. A jewel! You can find it for less than 70 dollars because it's made in ex-USSR. You can buy one everywhere. It has its name written on it. And it's as big and brown (and heavy) as an armoured tank : you can't miss it!

You could also use a Boss Turbo Distortion DS2, a Proco Rat (classic or standard), etc... A fuzz pedal has its good and bad faces. The Boss Hyperfuzz is a good buy too. It is in a silver box. And never buy the Grunge Dod pedal, it's pure crap and it sounds just too bad.

Rick Castronova emailed me to say that Steve uses cheap pedals and that he loves his Memphis pedal. Sorry, i didnt find any pic of this in the net or in my guitar magazines. Rick says he took this informations "from a 1992 issue of Axe Grinder magazine." Thanks again Rick!

In the last tour, aka "Tomorrow It Today" tour, Mark was using pedals :

Steve also uses odd fuzz box, like the Fuzz-Tone. This odd pedal is the legendary sound of "Satisfaction", very fuzzy. Originaly concieved to produce brace instruments sounds ! Believe it or not. Check the amazing Fuzz-Tone Owner Manual and find the schematics of this pedal there too. Make one. It's simple. I have only one pic of a Gibson Maestro Fuzz-Tone [41k]

Here is a simple description of this pedal i found here:
The Maestro-Fuzz - first commercially available in 1961 by Gibson. Musicians were using similar effects previously - some claimed that their amps fell, others intentially damaged the cones of their speakers.
1962 Rolling Stones Satisfaction introduced the sound to the masses.

Josh wants to say : "You might want to tell people that cell batteries (you know the silver kind with the black cat on them) sound alot better than alkaline with any pedals because they die all at once rather than get crappier and crappier. Also most pedals where designed for cell batteries, Also the big muffs don't have AC adapter ports so you have to use batteries."

And don't use the ac adaptators, cause the DC they produce isn't exactly DC. We can feel the original sinusoidal signal. Use bad battery, in one word, be grunge.

I would like to receive suggestions from you too. Email me if you noticed a pedal when you saw them live or if you saw some magazines or bootlegs with pedal pics. Any information is needed. I will answer every one of you for more details (if i can...)

4. Wah-wah

Used on some songs for the lead guitar. It gives a noisy sound. Hear it on "Execution style" (My brother the cow): time counter is 1'20".

A Dunlop modern model is enough, you don't need Jimi Hendrix's one or Vox or Morley. The Dunlop [11k] is cheaper.

Always put the Wah-Wah between Amp and Distortion pedal. (if you dont believe me, check the booklet of "Piece of cake", where you can see Steve's pedals). But take care of your ears. When the Wah is all the way up, there is enough treble to smash your ears. Really amazing! Never put the Wah between the guitar and the distortion pedal. It sounds flat. And too Hendrix-ish.

The tremolo heard in "This gift" (Mudhoney) is the inner tremolo of the Fender amp. But you can find a good tremolo if you want one. Though Mudhoney guys rarely use it.

I don't remember other effects.. if you have a sound in mind that you don't understand, just email me and I'll try to find a way to reproduce it.

5. Bass

Matt uses a Fender Precision Bass [45k] through an Ampeg SVT bass amp. Oh well. At least this one is simple. But he also plays a Gibson Thunderbird. Matt with a sunburst precision bass in 1997 [23k].

click here for more live pics at www.unofficial-mudhoney.com

6. settings

7. Pics

I made a short index of the pics i put on this site. They are the same pics that you could see above in the guitars, the amps or pedals paragraphs.

1. guitars

2. Pedals

( click here for more exclusive live pics)


8. Conclusions

I can't say anything else. As you all know, a pic is much better than a long text, so, every one, here is what you will become if you follow all my precious advices : A young grunge, Steve Turner [11k]. Don't forget the converse allstars and the beer.

And I'd love to recieve comments and suggestions about my work, so if you have any, please email me, Vincent.

This document © 1998 Vincent Thuvignon (hagstrom@infonie.fr). All rights reserved.
Hosted with author's permission by Another Unofficial Mudhoney Home Page. 1