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

soon

my bloody valentine

lead guitar

AI generatedv1.0

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.

Gear

Fender Jazzmasterinstrument
ReverbSweetwater
Vox AC30amp
ReverbSweetwater
Shure SM57microphone
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Yamaha SPX90processing
Reverb$210Sweetwater
DigiTech Whammyprocessing
ReverbSweetwater
ProCo Ratprocessing
ReverbSweetwater

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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

Signal Chain

Instrument: Fender Jazzmaster

Amp: Vox AC30

Microphone: Shure SM57

Processing: Yamaha SPX90, DigiTech Whammy, ProCo Rat

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

  • Fender Jazzmaster(guitar)
  • Vox AC30(amp)
  • Shure SM57(mic)
  • Yamaha SPX90(pedal)
  • DigiTech Whammy(pedal)
  • ProCo Rat(pedal)

Substitutions & Recommendations

Squier Classic Vibe '60s Jazzmaster$400-$450

Alternative to: Fender Jazzmaster

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

ReverbSweetwater
Vox AC15C1$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

ReverbSweetwater
ProCo RAT 2$70-$90

Alternative to: ProCo RAT

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

ReverbSweetwater
Eventide Space$450-$500

Alternative to: Yamaha SPX90

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

ReverbSweetwater
DigiTech Whammy 5$180-$220

Alternative to: DigiTech Whammy

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

ReverbSweetwater
Eventide H9 Max$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

ReverbSweetwater

Sources

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