Equipment and Recording Techniques used by Primus

by Christopher Preston, with additional info from Aaron, Winston Parker and Murray Inkster.


Brian's Equipment


Tim's equipment

3.1  Drums
     1.Pork Pie 14x18 gong bass
     2.Pork Pie 30x6 clear tube drum
     3.Pork Pie 15x6 clear tube drum
     4.Pork Pie 20x6 clear tube drum
     5.Pork Pie 8x8 tom
     6.Pork Pie 9x10 tom
     7.Pork Pie 10x12 tom
     8.Pork Pie 14x16 floor tom
     9.Pork Pie 18x22 large tom
    10.Ludwig 5.5x14 snare
    11.Pork Pie 20x20 bass drum (2)

3.2  Cymbals
     1.14" China
     2.6" EFX
     3.8" EFX
     4.Zildjian 13" hi hat (2)
     5.Zildjian 16" K Crash
     6.Zildjian 4" splash
     7.Zildjian 4" brilliant splash
     8.Zildjian 17" Rock crash
     9.Zildjian 18" Rock crash
    10.LP Ice Bells
    11.Impulse 20" ride
    12.Chow 10" gong
    13.Wuhan China 18"

3.3  Hardware
     1.Yamaha w/ Gibraltar Rack System
     2.Roc-n-Soc Throne
     3.Tama Strap Drive Bass Drum Pedal Heads by Remo
3.4  Sticks
     1.Vic Firth Big Ass sticks with Pro Mark Stick Wrap

3.5  Herb has switched from Pork Pie to Starclassic's with an amber
     laquer finish. Here's the Tales from the Punchbowl setup

     1.  20X16" gong drum
     2.  16x16 floor tom
     3.  (3)6" octobans
     4.  8x8" tom-tom
     5.  9x10" tom-tom
     6.  9x12" tom-tom
     7.  16x18" floor tom
     8.  14x22" gong drum
     9.  18x22" kick drum
     10. 8x14" Snare drum

3.6  Cymbals:
     1.  2 sets of 13"hi-hats
     2.  4 rock crashes
     3.  1 ride cymbal
     4.  6 assorted effects cymbals
     5.  3 Zil-Bels
     6.  1 Oriental china trash

Larry's Equipment

2.1 Larry's guitars
     1.Paul Reed Smith 24-fret Vintage- Yellow Maple Top (set-neck)
     2.Paul Reed Smith Custom 24-fret Walnut Top (set-neck)
     3.79' Fender Statocaster (Floyd Rose, bridge position Seymour Duncan
       Super Distortion pickup) 
     4.Gibson ES-125 
     5.Gibson ES-150-E (this and above are for "total feedback") 
     6.Paul Reed Smith McCarty ???
     7.Paul Reed Smith McCarty ???
     8.??The guitar Jimi Hendrix used for "All Along the Watchtower"??
     9.Van Epps 7-string
    10.Gibson 345 
    11.4 other '79 strats

2.2 Studio rig (Pork Soda)
     
   guitar                                /-----\   
      | _______    _______    ________   |  ___|_______________________                              
      \|Boss   |  |Boss   |  |Electro-|  | |ADA MP-1 pre-amp           |                                        
       |Digital|--|Digital|--|Harmonix|--/ |___________________________|                                
       |Delay  |  |Delay  |  |Big Muff|    |Yamaha SPX-900             |                   
       |_______|  |_______|  |________|    |___________________________|                            
                                               /\                                                                                      
                          /-------------------/  \-------\                                           
                __________|_________           __________|__________                  
               |  Marshall JCM-900  |         |                     |                                        
               |____________________|         | SWR 400w bass head  |                                               
   
               |  Marshall JCM-900  |         |                     |                                         
               |____________________|         |_____________________|                                          
                                                                                            
                         |                                |                                  
                         |                                |                                                                                             
         
              ___________|____________         ___________|__________                                  
             |                        |       |                      |        
             |                        |       |                      |              
             |                        |       |       Mesa 2x15      |         
             |      Marshall 4x12     |       |                      |              
             |                        |       |                      |          
             |                        |       |______________________|                                
             |                        |                                         
             |                        |     Place both cabinets under a                                    
             |                        |     tarp, aim mikes at the Marshall                                 
             |________________________|     with the Mesa at 180 degrees                                       
                     
                                            behind                                       
                                                                              
     Other effects sometimes used                                                           
     1.Octave Multiplexer 
     2.ADA Stereo Tapped Delay 
     3.Mu-Tron Bi-Phase
     4.Mu-Tron Phaser
     5.Mu-Tron Envelope
     6.Morley Rotating Wah
     7.Boss Dynamic Filter
     8.Systech Phase Shifter
     9.Ludwig Phase II Synthesizer
    10.Maestro Phase Shifter
    11.Maestro Rhythmn 'N Sound for Guitar
    12.Dunlop Cry-Baby wah   

2.3  Studio Rig (Tales From The Punchbowl)
     1.Marshall 50-watt half stack (2)
     2.Mesa Boogie 1/12 combo amp
     3.Ampeg Porta-flex
     4.Electro-Harmonix Hot Tubes
     5.Boss Metal Zone 
     X.And all the other pedals described in the "Pork Soda" Rig.

Les's Equipment

Les has switched from his 2 Mesa 2x15" to 2 +Ampeg 4x10" and 4 single
15" pro cabinets. He also has a Whamola, the one string upright he
beats with a drum +stick.
1.1  Basses
     1. Carl Thompson fretted 4 string.  Includes a  black Kahler tremolo.
     2. Carl Thompson fretless 6 string.  Nicknamed the "Rainbow bass", It
        has a 36 inch scale.  The body contains strips of walnut, curly 
        maple, padauk, purple heart, ebony and cocobolo.  The strings are 
        threaded through the back of this rear extension - near where the
        strap pin is.  They're stretched over a one-piece, hand-made wooden 
        bridge and anchored by Schaller tuning machines.  The basic part of
        the neck is made of quartersawn hardrock maple.  The center of the 
        fingerboard is Indian ebony, with 1/8-inch-wide strips of padauk,
        cocobolo and ebony on either side.  The serial number, which is the
        day the bass was finished, and also Carl Thompson's bithday, is 	 
        2-5-91. Les got this just in time to record "Sailing the Seas Of
        Cheese".  It has a single active EMG mode 45P. 
     3. Carl Thompson 4 string fretted.  It's the same as his other Carl        
        Thompson 4 string, except without the tremolo, and it's maple.  He
        uses it as a backup for the above 4- string.
     4. Fender fretted 4 string Jazz bass in white. As seen on the Sausage
        "Riddles..." video
     5. Kay acousic upright, which he bought for $300 in a pawn shop.
     6. Eko beatle bass, which he bought from some store which acquired all
        of Eko's stock.
     7. Tune 6 string fretless, which he used before he got his Carl 	 
        Thompson.  It can be seen in "Bill and Ted's bogus Journey", and at
        the '91 Roskilde Festival. 
     8. Carl Thompson fretted 6 string, which Les bought toward the end of
        Pork Soda.  Thompson claims it is the first fretless six string made.
        In 1992-93, Carl added frets and sold it to Les Claypool.
        Carl Thompson had it sitting around his house, and Les asked
        him to put a real light gauge of strings on it.  Carl Thompson didn't 
        like it because the neck was so thin.  The "C" string is unwound like
        a guitar's.  The body is maple, and it was made in 1978.
     9. Dan Maloney 4 string fretted bass banjo. It was made by Les's
        high school friend.
    10. Dan Maloney electric stand-up.  It's actually made by Zeta systems,
        and retails for $5295 according to the '95-'96 Guitar and Bass        
        buyer's guide.
    11. Rickenbacker 4001 (White) which was given to Les by Alex Lifeson, when 
        they were sitting in Alex's house drunk.
    12. Five string upright bass made by Ned Steinberger.
    13. 4-String fretted bolt on with a 1/8 layer of Madagascar Ebony
        covering the whole bass. It has 24 frets, 2 pickups, 36" scale, and a
        black Kahler tremelo bar.
    14. An Ashobry bass, which is essentially a small 18.5" scale
        fretless bass with Silicon strings. It is supposed to sound
        just like an amplified upright.

1.2  Studio Rig (Pork Soda)
     1. ADA MB-1 bass preamp 
     2. Meyers EQ 
     3. Alesis Micro Limiter 
     4. ADA Stereo Tapped Delay 
     5. Systech Harmonic Energizer 
     6. Alesis ADAT recorder (4)

1.3  Live Rig
     - ADA MB-1 Bass MIDI Pre-amp
     - ADA MP-2 Guitar MIDI Pre-amp (Modified by ADA's Todd Langer)
     - Digital Music MIDI Ground Control footpedal 
     - Mesa/Boogie Bass 400 Plus power amp 
     - Mesa/Boogie 2x15 cabinet (2)

1.4  Pickups
     - DC pickups with the EMG-BTC systems

Recording Techniques

4.1  Tales From The Punchbowl
     - For the drumset, Les put an AKG C1000 next to a sliding glass
       door for the cymbal.  Another 18 or so Shure SM57s, Neumann
       U87s and Realistic PZMs went for Herb's drumset.
     - The signals from everybody's rigs were sent into a Mackie 32-8
       tracking console, a Mackie 24-8 return console, and then 3
       master Alesis ADATs with an Alesis BRC controller.
     - For sound shaping, Les uses 6 Alesis MicroLimiters, 3 MicroVerb
       IIs, 2 MicroGates and a MicroVerb III.  Also used are a Beringer SNR
       202 two-channel de-noiser, then a Summit audio DCL-200 duel
       compression limiter for warmth.  They're centered around a
       Tascam PB32P patch bay.
     - For monitoring, an Onkyo Integra R1 home sterio amplifier is
       used, then 2 KEF K Series 120 speakers and a pair of Quart 190
       Speaker.
     - In the billiard room, for monitoring Larry's playing, is a
       couple of Frazier loudspeakers from the '70s that came with the
       house.

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