The out of phase pickups (hence, weaker/thinner sound) makes a lot of sense. I've played through an IVP and the sound gets really extreme really fast. Fun, but incapable of normal guitar parts (as 'normal' as you can call Big Black).

I like how that Big Black guitar sound is probably the weirdest thing anyone ever made by walking into a suspiciously well-stocked music store in the 80s, except instead of it being composed of the obscure stuff that he used later on, its a bunch of a lot of fly by night guitar magazine gear that became forgotten the minute somebody bought it off the shelf.

Like I can totally see the out of phase thing ‘trick’ half coming from the Peavey T-series stuff that was around in the 80s and then half Steve just being a curious guy with a soldering iron.

It’s amazing that’s what that guy did with his Seymour Duncan era.

eephus wrote: Sat Apr 26, 2025 11:30 am From a playing standpoint, his willingness to utterly abuse his equipment was higher than most people, and he had big hands. He played a lot of surprisingly weird, spread-out chordal stuff in Shellac in particular.

this is something that became very noticeable after steve passed and my social media feed was filled with photos of him playing live. almost every shot of him playing guitar had him really stretched out wildly, reminding me of a thread (or maybe it was a text message thread) about Dave Mustaine’s Spider Chord playing which again, makes sense as Steve would frequently praise his guitar playing while simultaneously criticizing every other aspect of Dave’s persona and music.

https://www.electronicaudioexperiments. ... s/surveyor

Here's something to consider. MegaDave is pretty lame these days, but he was an excellent guitarist.

Is the cover that Heather and Steve did for the Silkworm tribute the only recording of him playing acoustic? Maybe there's some on The Futurist, but it's been a while since I've given that a listen.

tallchris wrote: Sat Apr 26, 2025 4:38 pm Is the cover that Heather and Steve did for the Silkworm tribute the only recording of him playing acoustic? Maybe there's some on The Futurist, but it's been a while since I've given that a listen.

Steve also played acoustic on the soundtrack he did with Tim and Alison Chesley.

eephus wrote: Sat Apr 26, 2025 11:30 am The settings are available--they're just locked up in his Shellac head.

Maybe someday someone will open like it, like one of the pyramids, and divine the secrets.

Those are the settings for Shellac though. I actually found this pretty clear image on flickr And here are some of my own photos from when Shellac played in Sydney in 2012:

And this guy 'Jeremy Ewing' had a photo from the projectivp blog which looks like the same settings.

I always thought the point of Steve using these kinds of things was to find your own possibly unloved thing to abuse and make it work for you

Related -

During the time when Van Halen were recording the band's first album, it turns out that Eddie thought that the amp sound on the first Montrose album was exactly what he wanted his guitar amp to sound like on the album.

Later on once the band was touring, they had to get a few Marshalls as a back up amp for the one Marshall that Eddie owned. Worked out that a friend of Eddie's had bought the very Marshall that Ronnie used to record the sound that Eddie was such a fan of.

He sells it to Eddie without even thinking to mention who had previously owned that Marshall.

Later on he sees Eddie in the grocery store, and asks if the amp wound up working out all right for Eddie.

Eddies response?

"It's not bad. It's just a little too clean."

There is a lesson in that story somewhere.

numberthirty wrote: Sun Apr 27, 2025 2:00 am Related -

During the time when Van Halen were recording the band's first album, it turns out that Eddie thought that the amp sound on the first Montrose album was exactly what he wanted his guitar amp to sound like on the album.

Later on once the band was touring, they had to get a few Marshalls as a back up amp for the one Marshall that Eddie owned. Worked out that a friend of Eddie's had bought the very Marshall that Ronnie used to record the sound that Eddie was such a fan of.

He sells it to Eddie without even thinking to mention who had previously owned that Marshall.

Later on he sees Eddie in the grocery store, and asks if the amp wound up working out all right for Eddie.

Eddies response?

"It's not bad. It's just a little too clean."

There is a lesson in that story somewhere.

Heather told this story about someone calling the studio in the middle of the night. This isn't word for word but it's close.

She'd just gotten in bed after working super late, it's like 1AM. Steve of course answers the phone to her dismay.

He starts explaining what mics he was using etc. etc. on some session.
Then he says the name Kurt, and Heather realizes he's giving someone all the info about what stuff he used, and where he put the mics etc., on In Utero.

Goes on and on, tons of detail. Hour, hour and a half. Finally hangs up.

She's like first of all WTF why did you answer the phone at 1AM and second of all you're giving away all your secrets.

He says ah sorry it's easier just to deal with those whenever they come in. And don't worry about any secrets.
I can give them all the details they need, but they'll never be able to do it.

I think the Big Black guitar sounds are kind of like Raw Power in that people think they want to sound like that, but it's so so harsh...maybe not really.
Even if someone can get the basic tones...they ain't Steve--or Santiago, who was the meat in the sandwich.