For this album, was it more of the 12-mic
setup or a paired-down version?
We had a Fender Super Reverb, a Fender
Pro Junior, and a custom Trainwreck.
All of the amps were mic’d, but I didn’t
always use all of them when mixing. I
just wanted to be covered in terms of the
tonal colors I might need. If Warren was
listening primarily to a Super Reverb, then
that’s one I would use during the mixing.
How did you keep the Pro Junior from
getting lost among the other larger amps?
That little Fender Pro Junior is really
handy. It was actually the biggest sound-
ing amp because it’s so direct. You have
to mic it in an isolated way that makes
the guitar sound really big with a tight
bottom end. It’s not a Princeton or some
it’s George Porter and I am just some dude in a cowboy hat sitting in the control room. He was playing a bass line that was like “In the Midnight Hour,” and I said, “Can we change it a little bit?” He just looked at me like I had a horn growing out of my head. I hated to even ask him. I wasn’t going to sug- gest what to play, but I just wanted it to be something different. About 10 minutes later it would just fall right back into that. It was getting uncomfortable. I was like, “Look, George, can you please play something dif- ferent. I don’t really know what to tell you.” George was like this statue, this bronze statue just staring at me. I was thinking, “What am I going to do? Warren doesn’t want to record ‘In the Midnight Hour.’” George holds out his hand and looks at it and nods his head. I had to reach in my pocket and pull out a $5 bill. I had to pay him five bucks to change a note! Anytime I had a suggestion for the bass, I had to hold up money.
special old amp. You can buy one for a
couple hundred bucks at Guitar Center.
We have used it on Mule records, and it
is just this little supplement that goes into
the sound and is very effective.
With all the tones at your disposal, how
did you handle the mixing?
I prefer to print the tones I want to hear on
mix day. I’ll hear the guys warming up and
rehearsing the song a little bit and go, “I’m
not going to want to gate the toms, let me
run out there and put a piece of tape on
it.” Or I might move a mic a foot away
from something because that’s how I’ll
want to hear it in the mix. Instead of just
putting reverb on it later, I’ll move that mic
away. I am pretty hands-on that way.
What was the most challenging part of
the session?
Getting George Porter, Jr. to change a note
in a bass line. I felt bad even asking because
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