Apaches through a couple of small Cornell amps

[Andrew W]

I've been meaning to start trying to learn the basics of recording guitars for a while now but have lacked the kit and time until now.  I also thought it might be useful to people if I recorded a few different sounds through a couple of amps with my Highway One Strat loaded with Apaches, just to see the range of noises the pickups are capable of. 

This is my first attempt at recording since I tried to tape the terrible bands I was in at school about 20 years ago.  I have used one SM-57 about 4 inches away from the cabs and I'm not sure how on or off axis they were: I just moved them around until it sounded OK.  The amps are running on their most power-scaled setting so the head room is low.  They can sound a lot better than this, but not at volumes that will get my tenancy renewed.  Both amps are outputting a mighty 1/8 watt in these recordings :)  Feel the power.  What else might be useful to know?  Err, well the guitar is tuned down half a step and has DR Blues 11 gauge strings on it.  I did my recording into Garage Band through an E-MU Tracker Pre.  I added a smidge of compression in Garage Band but that's it, otherwise it's the signal straight out of the teeny pre-amp digi box thingamy.

Below is a breakdown of the settings for each part of the MP3.  I rolled the tone controls down a bit on the guitar and the volume ranged from 7-fully on.  The Romany Plus had all the controls set at 6 o'clock apart from the reverb which was on 2.  The Plexi 7 had the volume on full and the tone 2/3 of the way up.  Hope you might find this useful if you're thinking of getting some Apaches.  I absolutely love mine.

Neck pickup - no FX - Romany Plus - 0:00-0:30
Neck and middle pickup - no FX - Romany Plus - 0:30-0:53
Middle pickup - no FX - Romany Plus - 0:54-1:21
Bridge pickup - TS 808 - Romany Plus - 1:23-1:35
Neck pickup - TS 808 + MXR Carbon Copy - Romany Plus 1:40-2:10

Middle pickup - Deja Vibe - Plexi 7 - 2:14-2:37
Middle pickup - no FX - Plexi 7 - 2:15-3:10


--> Clicky <--

[tomjackson]

Really nice tone, very Hendrixy like :D

Romany Sounds better IMO BTW.....

[Andrew W]

I think the Plexi is suffering a bit in this recording from not having had as much time spent on mic placement.  In this recording it sounds a little indistinct and woolly which in reality it doesn't.  The Plexi 7 is a more limited amp than the Romany but it produces sounds that the Romany can't, which is why I have it.  The other thing to consider is that I'm running it on the lowest wattage setting which is compressing things further.  On 7 watts it howls but then so do my neighbours.  I am learning, very slowly, that this whole microphone placement is very dark art indeed. :)  More experiments as I record them...

[sgmypod]

nice sounding playing and amp

[Ratrod]

There's more versitlility in those Apaches than I expected.

[Andrew W]

Thanks for the kind comments about the recordings.  RE Ratrod, I was a bit surprised how versatile the Apaches were.  I bought them based on their clean tone, which I liked best of all the BKP Strat pickups I'd heard.  My rationale was that there's much more scope for getting the overdriven sound you want with different amps and pedals but if you don't like the clean tone there isn't as much you can do, so I picked the clean tone I liked best and hoped that I could get the overdriven sounds I wanted too which, thus far, I have.  It's probably also worth noting that my Strat has a maple fingerboard which, I'm told, can make some of the edgier sets, like the Irish Tours, sound a bit harsh.  The roundness of the Apaches combined with the maple balances very well to my ears.

[Tomcaster]

Amazing tone!!

[38thBeatle]

Apaches are amazing and I agree that they are very adaptable and I think sometimes the name, or at least the association, does not do the pickups any justice. The cleans are warm and have the "sprang" but they can get rowdy too. A great clip which does show the range of tones available. 

[FernandoDuarte]

Nice tones!

[Adi]

Are there any other recordings of this quality featuring high quality examples to demo the bare knuckle range..? I would have purchased by now if I could have really listened to the entire range properly..Thanks -Great to hear a comprehensive collection of tones and well recorded..

[Andrew W]

Thanks for the kind comments Adi.  There are a lot of much better recordings than mine on here but you do have to dig around a bit.  When I was choosing my pickups I spent a lot of time going through this thread to try and hear the differences and work out which I liked.  There's plenty more here: people are very generous with their time and it's worth spending an hour or two searching.

[shobet]

I spent last weekend playing a Romany and a Plexi at World Guitars. Both were very nice amps, the Plexi being the loudest side by side, however my ears favoured the sound of the Romany. Don't get me wrong the Plexi does what it does very, very well, but the Romany was the one that covered more bases and suited my playing best.

I nearly walked away with the Romany, but my head overruled my heart.

The apaches do indeed sound very nice and I'm also a sucker for the univibe tone and I think you're on the ball with your recording Andrew.