Custom 24 - getting Nirvana sound

[greyhatninja]

Hey all,

Was hoping I could get some pointers. I have a custom 24 with the TCI 85/15 humbuckers. I also have a Boss DS-2 pedal and I’m trying to get a sound that is somewhat close to Nirvana- smells like teen spirit. I also have a silver sky but trying to figure out which of the two guitars to start from to get a closeish sound. Any tips on which if thise two guitars to start from, pickup position and tone knob recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I’m nee to learning guitar and after learning cowboy chords on acoustic I’m trying to start to learn other songs on electric and wanting to try to get closer to the real sounds. My amp is an Orange Super Crush 100 that has a clean and dirty channel.

 

[Black Plaid]

It depends on how discerning your ears are.

The only real way to get that sound is to have Butch Vig engineer your recording.

I believe Kirt's rig was the pedal into a Mesa Studio Preamp, which is the equivalent of a Mark IIC+.

Your best bet is to set the DS mostly clean, but pretty high level to drive the Orange with a pretty mid-focused heavy distortion and then put a graphic EQ pedal into the amp's loop (after all drive) and do the classic mid-scoop V pattern.

For the "clean" tone ... I have no idea.

Remember, a lot of what you are hearing isn't just the guitar sound, but how it interacts with the Bass, Drums and vocals. Add to that the doubled guitar parts, and the overall compressed final mix, and it's pretty hard to actually know what the guitars would sound like in isolation without the original raw "Stems" of the instrument.

 

[László]

Black Plaid is right on.

FYI, Waves makes a plugin designed with Butch Vig - it's intended for vocals, but it might give you an idea of the kinds of things Vig thinks about as a producer, and who knows, it might work for electric guitar as well.

Lots of gear that works for vocals happens to mate well with electric guitar in the right circumstances, because both are midrange-centric.

Cobain was a Fender player; Strats, Jaguar, and some Mustangs. If you set your CU24 up to get close to Strat sounds, you should be good to go; if it has coil splits or taps or whatever the heck PRS does with the switches, try them!

What/how you play is more important than the gear you use.