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lead guitar from “soon” by my bloody valentine | ToneDB

soon

my bloody valentine

lead guitar

75% ai confidence

Tone Profile

Dreamy and heavily layered shoegaze guitar tone with a sense of movement and swirling textures. Achieved through extensive use of tremolo, reverb, and potentially harmonizing effects to create a wall of sound.

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The Story

My Bloody Valentine's "Soon" features Kevin Shields using his characteristic Fender Jazzmaster through a Vox AC30, with heavy processing from a Yamaha SPX90 for reverse reverb and pitch-shifting effects. The track employs multiple layered guitar recordings with the ProCo RAT providing distortion, while the DigiTech Whammy adds pitch manipulation. The song was recorded at Eastcote Studios in London with Alan Moulder producing and features extensive layering techniques that became a hallmark of the shoegaze sound.

Production Credits

Producer: Alan Moulder

Engineer: Anjali Dutt

Recorded at: Eastcote Studio, London

Recreation Tips

  • Start with a clean Vox AC30 amp tone.
  • Use a Fender Jazzmaster and play chords with a lot of open strings.
  • Experiment with different combinations of tremolo, reverb, and pitch-shifting effects.
  • Layer multiple guitar tracks, each with slightly different effect settings.
  • Use a ProCo Rat for light overdrive.

Original Gear

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Substitutions & Recommendations

Squier Classic Vibe '60s JazzmasterShop on Reverb$400-$450

Alternative to: Fender Jazzmaster

Provides the essential Jazzmaster pickup character and tremolo arm for the warbling textures at a budget price point

Vox AC15C1Shop on Reverb$600-$700

Alternative to: Vox AC30

Delivers the classic Vox chime and natural tube compression that's essential for shoegaze tones in a more manageable format

ProCo RAT 2Shop on Reverb$70-$90

Alternative to: ProCo RAT

Same circuit as the original RAT used on the recording, providing the exact fuzzy distortion character

Eventide SpaceShop on Reverb$450-$500

Alternative to: Yamaha SPX90

Modern reverb pedal that includes reverse reverb algorithms and pitch shifting capabilities to recreate the SPX90's contributions

DigiTech Whammy 5Shop on Reverb$180-$220

Alternative to: DigiTech Whammy

Current production Whammy with the same pitch-shifting algorithms for those characteristic octave shifts and warbles

Eventide H9 MaxShop on Reverb$600-$650

Alternative to: Complete signal chain

Single pedal that can handle pitch shifting, reverse reverbs, and modulation effects to approximate multiple pieces of the original chain

Sources

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