If you're interested in comping Big Country's guitar tones, we're happy to provide you with the following summary of the set-ups of Stuart Adamson and Bruce Watson.
1. Stuart Adamson
- Rack mounted effects:
- a MXR M-129 Pitch Transposer - used by Adamson and Watson to achieve the guitar/bagpipe tones heard in the song "In a Big Country". The M-129 has four preset channels for chorus, octave up, octave down and octave fifths, along with rate and depth knobs. The first channel can be remotely activated using any suitable on/off pedal and, therefore, is likely the channel that Adamson and Watson relied upon during live performances; and
- a Korg SDD-2000 Digital Delay.
- Pedalboard:
- a MXR Stereo Flanger;
- an on/off pedal for MXR M-129 Pitch Transposer; and
- an A/B switch pedal for switching between his clean and distorted amplifiers.
- Amplifiers:
- two Fender Dual Showman heads - matched with a pair of Fender 2X12 speaker cabinets. One Showman was set for a clean sound, the other set for a distorted sound. Adamson was also known to have used a H&H V-S Musician 100-Watt head and a Fender Stage 185.
- Guitars - almost too many to count, but here are the most notable guitars used by Stuart Adamson:
- a Yamaha SG2000;
- an ESP Stratocaster copy;
- a Gibson Les Paul Standard;
- a Moon Telecaster copy; and
- a Levinson Blade guitar.
- Miscellaneous:
- an Ebow.
- Rack mounted effects:
- a MXR M-129 Pitch Transposer; and
- a Korg SDD-2000 Digital Delay.
- Pedalboard:
- a Boss DD-2 Digital Delay pedal;
- a Boss OC-2 Octaver pedal;
- a Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble pedal;
- a Boss TR-2 Tremolo pedal;
- a Boss LS-2 Line Selector pedal; and
- a Frontline Regulated Power Supply unit.
41 comments:
nice site! I added you to my blog roll, if thats ok?
lespaulplayerdoctor.wordpress.com
I recently contacted Bruce about his "bagpipe" sound and he confirmed that he and Stuart did in fact use the M-129. In fact, it was the only harmonizer either of them used during their careers, because as Bruce said, he never found anything else that "behaved properly" for the type of pitch shifting they did.
Bruce also confirmed that he and Stuart both used the optional rackmounted display that was available for the units, because the analog oscillators tended to wander in the heat and had to be retuned before every single show.
Despite the finicky nature of the unit, Bruce says he still uses the M-129 to this day in his rig.
Also meant to add that the optional display unit is the MXR M-131.
Back in the late 80's a mate of mine sold me "Stuart Adamson's old valve Marshall stack" supposedly 1969. Is this possible? Didn't have any reason to disbelieve him...
Hi.
I always thought Stuart played a Yamaha SG1000 rather then the 2000? He also played a Yamaha SF700 Superflighter whilst with the skids. I only ever saw him play live once and that was in 1978. Can someone tell me the guitar he's playing when performing "Save Me" at Dunfermline 1990 (see You Tube). Symetrical horns, tapered headstock with what appears to be a white tick/part oval in the makers name position (see around 3.50min). Neck has dot inlays. Body reddish with metal knobs. Also has tremelo bar. Thanks!
Hey Patrick and Tupperware
I think that sounds like Stuart's custom Jimmy Moon guitar. A Glasgow guitar maker.
Check out www.moonguitars.co.uk
Cheers
Jamie.
www.jamiemacleod.com
The MXR Pitch Transposer can have any of its 4 pre-sets (or bypass) selected remotely, and I believe Stuart's pedalboard had such a switch, as you could hear him scroll through his 4 pre-sets during the intro to The Storm. The switch capability, although it only has a 1/4" jack, works by momentarily connecting either a straight short or one of 4 varying resistors across it. I can't recall the resistor values, but anyone wanting to try this should be able to hook up a high-ish value pot and switch and work the values out by trial and error.
Hi,
I bought, from a music shop in Dunfermline, some 20 years ago a Blonde with gold parts Gibson ES-335 dot fret (it had 'Restored By Valdez' engraved on the truss rod cover). It came in a massive flight case with Big Country stenciled on it. The guy in the shop said it was ex Stuart Adamson. Anybody know if Stuart ever played or owned a Blonde Gibson ES-335.
Cheers
Kind of hard to say Bruce Watson was 'co-lead'. He typically played simple repetitive parts, with Stuart playing a lot of rhythm and most leads--especially live when they did the guitars differently, allowing for soloing etc.
Also, in retrospect it looks like he must have dominated their songwriting, since the post-Stuart production has been rather scant.
In reply to "anonymous" I was the guy who sold you that Blonde 335, the story Stuart gave me was that he had swapped a red Gibson LP STD for it in the Valdez store on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood.
I don't know if Stuart recorded anything with that guitar but I do know he never used it live. We were lucky to have had many of Stuart & Bruce's guitars & amps traded in over the years.
Coincidentally, shortly after I sold you that guitar I moved to the US and ended up working directly across the street from the Valdez location.
Hope this helps
Clive
Stuart Adamson was the guy who made me switch from keys to guitar, its a real shame that this is the only site I've been able to find that can help if you want to emulate his sounds, some interesting reading too, cheers Jonny Guitar Chester UK
Anonymous said...
Hi,
I bought, from a music shop in Dunfermline, some 20 years ago a Blonde with gold parts Gibson ES-335 dot fret (it had 'Restored By Valdez' engraved on the truss rod cover). It came in a massive flight case with Big Country stenciled on it. The guy in the shop said it was ex Stuart Adamson. Anybody know if Stuart ever played or owned a Blonde Gibson ES-335.
Cheers
June 23, 2011 12:43 PM
Yes Stuart owned and played that very guitar~heres a link showing it:http://youtu.be/gkx4I9hl_tc
This blog is fantastic; what you show us is very interesting and is really good written. It’s just great!!
Extremely informative. I wanted to thank you for this excellent post.
Hi guys
I bought a NAD amplifier in Dunfermline that was said to have been owned by Stuart.
Can anyone verify that ?
Paul
Hello I know this is an old thread but very interesting so here it goes. Does anybody know what settings to use to mimic that bagpipe sound on a pitch shifter or harmonizing pedal? Thank you in advance.
Efrain
Dallas Texas
hey Anonymous Efrain, Dallas Texas. I doubt you will see this, but the original case for your guitar, if you still have it, is currently for sale on ebay UK
Does anyone know where the green SG2000 went? I'd be very interested in buying it.
Wow I didn't know that used to all that equipment to make the bagpipes sound. Guess it'll be a long time before I will ever play like Stuart. I that it was just an e-bow.
If anyone happens to see this, did they use just amplifier distortion? I don't see any stand alone distortion pedals in their line up.
In 'In A Big Country' how did they achieve the distortion during the 'come up screaming' part at the beginning of of the song then again during the break at approximately 2:40?
It's interesting to read the info on Stewart's gear here, but at the same time I'm very surprised on how much is left out and even a little misleading. I'm an American who's never been to the UK, and unfortunately I never got to see Big Country live but was a huge fan of Big Country during the '80s and loved Stewart's sound. I certainly don't know everything about Stewart's setup through the years, but I can give you a lot more additional info than what is here in terms of his gear from 1983 - 1990+, as well as straightening some things out, so if you're interested than read on.
First of all, Stewart, like many of the up and coming artistic UK/Irhish guitarists of the time (U2 The Edge, Charlie Burchill, etc) where not using pedal boards. Pedal boards were becoming passe, and the new thing was rack systems often utilizing MIDI, where more powerful FX could be utilized, and controlled more easily. Pedal boards didn't became popular again until the early '90s. Stewart controlled his effects and amps via a switching system and one switching board, nice and clean. That doesn't mean he didn't use pedals, it's just that they were tucked away out of sight to be switched on and off via his switching system just like Bruce. Unfortunately because of this, we don't know what kind of distortion pedal/s he was using. I cannot believe his distortion was coming from the amp since he was using two Fender Stage 185 amps. These amps were solid state single speaker amps which have very nice clean tone but their distortion circuit was not very good. As for Stewart using Fender Showman heads and cabinets, that is absolutely not true. If he ever used these, it was probably in his Skids days and/or in the studio because on stage he always used two Fender Stage 185 amps and nothing else as far as amps where concerned from 1983 to 87. This also makes sense because this is what most progressive UK guitarists where doing at the time - using very clean solid state amps (usually the Roland JC-120) and putting hard distortion pedals through them. Even Edge of U2 who's noted for his Vox AC30 was using a JC-120 as part of his sound in the early years.
Now for Steward's rack setup from 1983 - 1984. His rack was composed of two MXR-129 Pitch Transposer (one black, one blue, one with a switching module and one without), two Delta Lab delay units (don't know the models), and finally one Drawmer duel noise gate. Two Fender Stage 185 amps. The distortion pedals are unknown. I also believed Stewart used some kind of compressor pedal. Bruce's had the exact same rack system as Stewart's minus one MXR-129. Bruce used one 2x12 Music Man amp for clean, and a Marshall head and cab for distortion. Don't know what model amps.
Stewart's rack setup from 1985-87 - was the same thing except that he swapped the Delta Lab delays for two Korg SDD-2000s, added another switching module to the other MXR-129, added an Alesis Midiverb III, and added a guitar synth (Roland model I believe). The synth was probably only added for their work on the "Restless Natives" sound track and not for live performance. He also either changed the grill cloths on his two fender Stage amps to black ones with Big Country logos on them, or changed the amps entirely with newer models of Fender stage amps that happen to have black faces instead of the silver. Bruce's rack became basically identical to Steward's at this time minus the synth. Also Bruce now had identical amps to Steward's for a more uniformed look on stage.
Stewart's rack from 1988 into the '90s - Stewart either retired his whole rack or sold it and had an entire new one built. I know this because I talked to the guy who built it for him. This is what the rack system was composed of: one Mesa Boogie quad preamp, one Mesa Boogie stereo power amp (don't remember the model) one Furman voltage regulator, one DBX compressor (mono), one DBX dual noise gate, one Eventide H3000 Harmonizer, one TC Electronics 2290 Delay, one Lexicon LXP-1, and LXP-5 FX units, one Rane MPE MIDI programable EQ, one Rane three channel mixer, one Bradshaw switching system, and two 2x12 Mesa Boogie cabs (don't know what type of speakers, but believe they were standard).
Enjoy!
Just wanted to correct myself on something, the amps that Stewart used around 1985ish to -88ish, were absolutely different amps than the ones he had before. I thought that it was possible he just had his two Fender Stage 185 amps customized for aethetic reasons, but that is not the case. He replaced these two amps with two later versions of the same type of amp, hens black grill cloths instead of silver. The reason why I know this is because in addition to having a black face instead of silver, they also had graphic EQs built into them around 5 bands I would say, and the older silver face amps didn't have this feature.
Also, one important note I forgot to mention as I'm just going by memory is that in addition to Stewart's hidden distorion/s pedals and probably compressor pedal was no doubt also an EQ pedal. There is absolutely no way he would be able to produce his very distinct honky mid dominate tone with just amp eqing. At least not with that type of amp. You need something much more precise...probably a TC Electronic parametric pedal. I hope that someone else can add to puzzle no matter how small just to get a better whole picture of what Stewart was using and how.
Okay, here's an update: after a little research I've cleared up what were Stewart's amps from 1983 to 1988. As I stated before, from 1983 and possibly before, to 1985 or '86, Stewart was using two Fender Stage 185 solid state 1x12 combo amps which had very nice clean sounds. After this some time in 1985 to '86 he swapped both those amps for two Fender Showman blackface 1x12 combos, also solid state, however these were hand wired and desigened by Paul Rivera and had even better clean tone and 5 band graphic EQ. As stated before Bruce also made this swap for two of these Showman amps on stage. Again, Stewart never used amp heads of any kind, at least not in concert, unless maybe with the Skids. Only Bruce used an amp head and it was a Marshell during the early years.
Also, one other little clear up, Stewart and Bruce both had one Delta Labs delay in their rack from '83 - '84, not two, before switching to the two Korg SDD-2000 delays.
Hi Firefox....Stuart did use amp heads in concert with Big Country (1983) he used one of his HH v-s Musicman combo's and 2 HH v-s Musicman heads (prolly 2 for outside gigs and 1 for inside gigs) then as time went on he used the Fender Stage 185's and so on....as goes for Bruce he used a Marshall Head and cab in 1983 then added a Fender Stage 185 to his rig soon after
Phil
I was a huge fan and being a guitarist I was keen to know about what gear Big Country were using, and how it was set up - here’s what I took away from gigs, videos and interviews:
Until mid / late 1983:
Stuart used an HH VS Musician combo, normally through a separate VS head sat on top. In front was his MXR pitch transposer and a Roland RE291 Space Echo. Importantly, the effects were before the amp not through the echo send/return, which means the delay and chorus sounds are distorted. Clean/dirty sounds were via the valve sound footswitch. The MXR presets were tuned to octave down (-12), octave up (+12) 5th up (+7) and detune (+ or - 0.2).
Bruce had a late 70’s 50 watt Master Volume Marshall half stack, and same effects. Not sure what he did for clean/dirty with that amp though.
*Roland RE201. Sorry, typing on a train...
You can see/hear the setup above on YouTube clips - No 73, first Tube appearance, Sefton Park, Whistle Test are goood examples.
Stuart then moved to a pair of Fender Showman 1x12” solid state combos (I don’t recall seeing anything about Stage 185’s), while Bruce stick with his Marshall, but paired with a Musicman combo for cleans.
Check the later Tube appearance to see that setup.
He eventually moved to a pair of Showman combos too.
At some point in 86 maybe, the front grilles were painted and a Seer eagle added. Live in New York shows the painted grilles.
They eventually moved on to lots of other stuff, like Mesa Boogie, 5150 etc and I kind of lost touch then.
Racks next...
Racks were based on Korg SDD3000 delays, and the MXR Pitch Transposers.
The SDD3000 has a simple bypass/programme up/programme down selection capability, and of course the MXR has its 4 presets plus bypass, so I believe 8 of Stuart’s footswitch pedalboard buttons were dedicated to those functions, alongside AB switching for his clean/dirty Fender combos.
Bruce also had an MXR Flanger/Doubler and a Yamaha R1000 reverb. Both also had a Psionics NG4 quad noise gate, although possibly not right at the inception of the racks.
Later, the SDD3000’s were replaced by SDD2000’s (which can be switched via midi), Drawmer fares replaced the NG4’s and Alesis Midiverb II’s were also added. Bruce also talked of using a Yamaha SPX90.
Their foot switch boards were built by Les King, their stage tech.
As noted before, for Stuart at least the effects were in front of the Fender combos. Not sure about Bruce as I recall him saying he preferred guitar to amp and effects round the back.
I suspect when they were using the Mesa amps etc later, the effects moved to the loop rather than up front as everything sounds cleaner on later live shows.
*Drawmer gates
The green guitar is currently owned by a Big Country fan. The black Moon guitar hangs in a Hard Rock Cafe. Stuart’s daughter has the Levinson I believe. The big mystery is the yellow ESP, no one seems to know of it’s location.
When You write: "The MXR presets were tuned to octave down (-12), octave up (+12) 5th up (+7) and detune (+ or - 0.2)." Are those 4 different presets? Or is this the setting of one preset (though that may be impossible?
Reason I ask is that I want to use my BOSS PS-6 Harmonizer to nail the tone BC used.
The MXR has four controls, and each one can be set to anything from an octave below to an octave above. You can then choose which of the four presets you want - one at a time - remotely or by touching the control knob itself.
Your Boss unit should be able to give you any of the four sounds, but you’d have to adjust it every time you went from one interval to another.
What sound in particular are you trying to recreate? Name the track and guitar part.
I have a list of tracks I created BC Rocksmith songs for, in this list are classics like "Harvest Home", "Fields Of Fire", "Restless Natives", "Look Away", "One Great Thing", "I Walk The Hill", "Remembrance Day", "Wonderland", ...
Just have a look here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/l7fnkua8e0sz85h/AAA7vKIfPhi7JYnFYHTosQZUa?dl=0
Hi Tommie, good info. Lets stick with one sound...the ending of "Remembrance Day" or the middle mini solo in "Restless Natives" which is basically the same type of bagpipe sound. What would be the pitch shifter settings for that sound?
Does anyone have any knowledge as to what Stuart used the MXR Flanger for? Also I understand the showman heads had a built in tremolo did Stuart ever use that effect?
Many thanks in advance. :)
Im absolutely certain Stuart would referr to himself as a Scottish guitarist, and not a UK guitarist.
And it was Stuart not Stewart lol
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