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Listen to this song:

What type of equipment can make this sound? I have a Fender Mustang I and I can get a deep, distorted sound; but there is something else going on here!

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note that for large portions of that song, there are 2 guitars and a bass line which are all playing essentially the same thing. This gives it a wide stereo sound and lots of low band (especially with drop D tuning) even before you start talking about effects. – horatio Jun 26 '12 at 20:01
Is that what's going on in the intro? – user1477388 Jun 27 '12 at 12:31

1 Answer

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Here it sounds like a little bit of chorus and some deep distortion. And as per @horatio's comment, they do a fair bit of multitracking guitars which works like a chorus in fattening the sound.

Not sure which kit he is using on this track, but here's a list of the kit he uses:

First up, Kim likes Fender and Gibson guitars, having quite a range:

  • Guild S-100
  • Gibson Les Paul Custom Lite
  • Gibson Firebird
  • '57 Fender Telecaster
  • Gibson SG
  • Fender Jazzmaster
  • Guild S-300

And he uses a wide range of amps and Cabinets:

  • Mesa Electra Dyne amps (seen 2010)
  • Mesa vintage Tremo-Verb 2x12 combo amps (2010)
  • Mesa Boogie Stiletto 4x12" Slant cabinets (2010)
  • Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier
  • Peavey VTM 120's
  • Music Man HD130
  • Mesa Boogie 50-watt Mavericks
  • Fender Super
  • Orange Head
  • Fender Twin Reverb
  • Fender Vibro-Kings
  • Marshall Cabinets

But the core of his sound is down to the effects he uses:

  • MXR MC404 CAE Crybaby Dual Inductor Wah
  • Electro-Harmonix Micro POG
  • MXR Doubleshot Distortion
  • EHX XO Deluxe Memory Man
  • Hughes & Kettner Tube Rotoshpere (MK I)
  • MXR chorus
  • Colorsound wah
  • Jim Dunlop Rotovibe
  • Mu-Tron
  • Boss CE-2 Chorus pedal
  • Ibanez CS-9 chorus
  • DOD fx10 Bi-fet Preamp
  • DOD flangers
  • Mesa Switching pedals
  • T-Rex Reptile pedal

Information from Kim Thayil's Guitar Rig page on uberproaudio

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Thank you, there's a lot of stuff here. I tried adding a chorus to my combo amp + distortion but it just doesn't sound as rich! What would you do if you were trying to replicate that sound? – user1477388 Jun 27 '12 at 12:32
@user1477388 As Metallica's Enter Sandman, that's probably more than one guitar you are hearing with different settings. Same with Megadeth's I thought I knew it all. – percusse Jun 28 '12 at 0:20
From what I heard, the Guild S100 is his go-to around that time. I think the S100 is mostly a Gibson SG clone, so any suitably Gibson sounding guitar should do. – cadmium Jan 9 at 21:33

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