CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
Butch Vig might be a drummer but, as the man who has captured the guitar magic of Kurt Cobain, Billy Corgan, Thurston Moore, Billie Joe Armstrong, Dave Grohl and many more players, he is perfectly placed to talk about how to get your own best performances on tape – and it all begins by asking yourself some overarching questions.
“The first thing I need to work out when recording guitar,” says Vig, “is what sort of tone we need: should it be a clean tone or thicker? Is it going to have effects on it? Is it a rhythm part, a lead part or a melodic part? Understanding that will help to dictate how the amp should sound and what guitar you should use. Then you have to figure out how the guitarist plays: are they a thrasher or a finesse player? Are they punkrock rudimentary? That can also dictate the kind of setup you want.”
A GOOD START
The potential destinations from that starting point are infinite. But you have to start somewhere and, for Vig, that jumping-off point comes with the familiarity of a long-time favourite amp.
“What you use will depend on the song but for, example, on the 5BID record, there are a lot of songs that have strummy acoustics blended in with electric
