Big Black - Atomizer guitar tone

[Faldoe]

Is Albini using the percolator for that guitar sound in key

3:30ish

[Uncle Grandfather]

I'm terrible at name that pedal, but it sounds like it could be based on my experience with my Collins Interfax harmonic percolator.

[GardenoftheDead]

The harmonic percolator came into Albini's rig in the Shellac days.

Big Black tone was Tapco IVP Transistor Preamp, 12 string guitar and a copper guitar pick with whatever amp he could borrow. Mix of mic'd cabinet and DI signal on record.

[hatshirt]

i read he used a proco rat during the big black days

[manymanyhaha]

I've always loved that sound when they kick in. I am not even sure it's a guitar, you can hear his regular guitar sound playing with it. It might be a bass, maybe.

What GardenOfTheDead said is accurate, per Albini's own comments I think I have read elsewhere.

[Uncle Grandfather]

I can also get similar tones with my zvex machine.

[ThurberMingus]

Take UG's advice with a grain of salt. I'm pretty sure he is Steve Albino and he's trying to trick us into not getting his toans!

[antennafarm]

it may not have been a harmonic percolator, but i've gotten similarish tones with a telecaster, HP, and preamp distortion from a silverface princeton.

[John]

Take UG's advice with a grain of salt. I'm pretty sure he is Steve Albino and he's trying to trick us into not getting his toans!

Impossible. Albini can actually play guitar

[zeravla]

Take UG's advice with a grain of salt. I'm pretty sure he is Steve Albino and he's trying to trick us into not getting his toans!

Steve Albino - Steve Albini's albino brother and singer/guitarist of Big White

[ThurberMingus]

Autocorrect is the best! I realized that he was Stevie Albini when he was posting about his "all analog studio which now has a digital interface as well" (paraphrasing obv).

[Phengren Oswald]

While he doesn't give a date of usage, here we hear Steve relate a story of gifting
Pussy Galore with 3 Percolator clones.
Pussy Galore broke up in `91.
Shellac started in, what, `93/ 94?
So the Percolator was most likely in his possession in the late `80s.
I'm sure if somebody has a lot of time, they might be able to find the answer
here:
http://www.reddit.com/comments/td90c/i_ ... _anything/

[GardenoftheDead]

I personally don't hear harmonic perc in anything he does. I think it's primarily a live thing for albini.

[antennafarm]

i've read in a few places that it has to do with his particular cab setup. blackface bassman going into what is essentially a PA cabinet, so you're getting all sorts of freqs that you normally don't get out of the more frequency-controlled setup of guitar speakers.