Pictures of the band's gear during the MCIS tour

[Ram27]

found these, thought they were pretty cool

https://i.imgur.com/3yzQFIQ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/W9TAoKW.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/j1jxmqj.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Qdm6lq8.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/JPyyU2r.jpg

[he/she/it]

Here're a couple more from MCIS:

http://i.imgur.com/7IgEXAn.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/YofGNgr.jpg


And here're the Machina rigs:

Billy's Machina rig:

http://i.imgur.com/vqIdzK8.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Jy6eKS4.jpg

James' Machina rig:

http://i.imgur.com/Mgrt61W.jpg



Is there anyone who reads Japanese, who can translate what's said about the Machina rig configurations?

[Lt_Beans_McGood]

Originally Posted by noonoo

why does the bat strats headstock have tape over it

cheap ass billy replaced it with a Squier and didn't want anybody to know

[Ram27]

did he ever use that red and blue one? it looks ugly as hell

[ilikeplanets]

The star guitar! <3 that baby is perfect

[Corgan's Bluff]

Originally Posted by Ram27

found these, thought they were pretty cool


https://i.imgur.com/j1jxmqj.jpg

D'arcy was still very modest with her collection...

[teh b0lly!!1]

man james had nice fucking guitars

that black les paul custom gets me drooling every time

[Baffler_Meal]

Good post, Ram27. Thank you for sharing.

[Pizza Club]

Originally Posted by Ram27

did he ever use that red and blue one? it looks ugly as hell

I don't think I've ever seen this used that I can remember. What is it even?

[T&T]

Originally Posted by he/she/it

https://i.imgur.com/3yzQFIQ.jpg

the third guitar (from the left) is a backup of the bat strat
and the fourth guitar (from the left) is a back up of the blue strat
which is why they're never seen

the fifth guitar... no idea. never seen it either.

I've always found it curious how billy plays hard tail strats. he's written about it (anyone care to dig that up?)

[BurtSampson]

info about the star guitar

http://www.spfc.org/band/equipment.h...uipment_id=403

[jakobtheliar]

Originally Posted by Pizza Club

I don't think I've ever seen this used that I can remember. What is it even?

It's that peavey guitar he got from Eddie Van Halen. I think he used it on 1979. Pretty sure he used it on one TV appearance back in those days.

I believe he used those crate amps for his acoustic back in the machina tour. They're great amps. That was my practice amp for years.

[themadcaplaughs]

Originally Posted by Corgan's Bluff

D'arcy was still very modest with her collection...

I know for a fact the bass with the rats on it was Billy's. You can see pictures of it in the Zeitgeist album art. I believe the one all the way to the left (with starts on it) also belongs to Billy.

[Funbags]

Originally Posted by themadcaplaughs

I know for a fact the bass with the rats on it was Billy's. You can see pictures of it in the Zeitgeist album art. I believe the one all the way to the left (with starts on it) also belongs to Billy.

They also have active pickups by the looks of it!

[ilikeplanets]

Originally Posted by Corgan's Bluff

D'arcy was still very modest with her collection...

I think hers look the coolest though

[ilikeplanets]

Originally Posted by themadcaplaughs

I know for a fact the bass with the rats on it was Billy's. You can see pictures of it in the Zeitgeist album art. I believe the one all the way to the left (with starts on it) also belongs to Billy.

Oh if this is true then never mind

[crabshack]

Originally Posted by jakobtheliar

I believe he used those crate amps for his acoustic back in the machina tour. They're great amps. That was my practice amp for years.

Originally Posted by Dade

So in order to get that Machina acoustic "Try" sound you only need a Taylor 810 w/ a small Crate practice amp..nice

Acoustic? He used it for his heavy sound.

[crabshack]

For the Machina album he used small crate practice amps and ran the signal through the headphone jack to get the f'd up distorted sound. You can see these amps in the infamous rig picture from the Machina Tour. This a great article where Billy and co. talk about different sounds they got through out the different albums.

http://www.eqmag.com/article/signal-...e/oct-08/89167

[crabshack]

The goal was to take the digital lessons learned from Adore and apply them to a rock environment. How does one create the sound of a band playing on another planet? Through tape degradation, synth-like mechanized guitars, soaring pads and effects, heavily-processed vocals, and of course, big drums. Chamberlin returned with a custom-made Yamaha green maple kit, but Machina marked Corgan’s first real departure from his fleet of Fenders, instead using a Les Paul Junior reissue with P90 pickups that often ran through a Crate practice amp. An SIB Varidrive and a host of Moogerfooger pedals were also used to add to Corgan’s sonic repertoire. The hazy shimmer in big choruses for “Stand Inside Your Love” and “The Everlasting Gaze” is another trademark Machina sound.

“I hope I’m not taking credit for somebody else’s work,” laughs Alan Moulder, “but I’m pretty sure I created it with a tape delay on a short, slappy guitar reverb going through an AMS Harmonizer. I think I ducked it with compression triggering off the drums.”

http://www.emusician.com/gear/1332/s...pumpkins/40242

[crabshack]

yea i remember him running stuff either into or out of little practice amps (peavey's?) to make everything extra nasty and over driven. IMO a great technique.

yea it was little 15 watt crate amps. crazy technique. At the arising tour he put them on top of his valvestates. There's a lot of pictures on the infinite-pictures site of the equipment lying around during machina recording, in the 'miscellaneous' section, and live arising pictures where you can see the amps as well.

[crabshack]

yet here's another link that says they were only used for monitoring

https://forum.guitar.com/complete-ri...umpkins-146235

probably a bit of difference between what happened live vs on record between 99 and 00

[crabshack]

https://forum.guitar.com/sites/forum...machinarig.jpg

From top to bottom in the racks on the left:

-(2) Crate GX-15R Combo Amps (just for monitoring)
-Furman Power Conditioner PL-Plus
-Lexicon MPX-G2
-Lexicon MPX-G2
-Digitech Valve FX
-Diezel VH-4 Head
-Diezel VH-4 Head
------------------------------------
Then from top to bottom in the middle rack:

-Furman Power Conditioner PL-8
-Alesis 3630 Compressor
-Alesis 3630 Compressor
-Digital Music Corp GCX FX switcher
-Digital Music Corp GCX FX switcher
-Wireless units? (not positive)
-Digitech Valve FX
-Digitech Valve FX
-Eventide Orville Harmonizer
-Digitech Valve FX
-Digitech Valve FX
-Eventide Orville Harmonizer
-Custom Matchless guitar preamp (used for clean sounds)
-Custom Matchless guitar preamp (used for clean sounds)
-Patchbay for interfacing with power amp rack
------------------------------------
Then from top to bottom in the far right rack:

-Furman Power Conditioner
-Mesa/Boogie Strategy 500 (KT88) Poweramp (for matchless pre)
-Mesa/Boogie Strategy 500 (KT88) Poweramp (for matchless pre)
-Mesa/Boogie Strategy 500 (KT88) Poweramp (presumably backup)
-Patchbay for interfacing with 2nd rack
------------------------------------

I'm almost positive this is how the gear is all wired. looks to me as though Billy's distorted sounds came from the two Diezel heads, each with it's own Lexicon MPX-G2. If I remember correctly, at this time period Billy's pedalboard was pretty small, so I would assume that the MPX-G2's were providing most stompbox style sounds, and there is the one Digitech Valve FX in that rack to presumably provide more "studio style" delay and chorus etc fx on his distorted sounds.

The other two racks seem to be dedicated to providing the clean guitar sounds with the two custom built Matchless preamps fed into the Mesa Strategy 500 power amps. Each Matchless preamp seems to have a compressor, a pair of Digitech Valve FX processors and an Eventide Harmonizer in their fx loops to provide the over-effected sound washes he was using at the time. There is also the pair of Digital Music Corp GCX effects switchers which, unless there were pedals in the back of the rack plugged into these, were probably used to switch between the multiple Valve FX and Eventide processors.

But I don't know though whether he was running his clean and distorted sounds both in stereo or if he was switching between the two heads (and two Matchless pre's) to get different sounds, or if there was just a complete backup of everything in his racks.

This is Billy's live rig during the Machina I/II-era Smashing Pumpkins. Really this is a pretty simple rig, it just looks so huge case he's got two of everything and runs multiple effects processors for his clean sounds. Ahh the advantage of having roadies

By the way, can anyone tell, is that a computer on the left or a big Uninterruptable Power Supply? I can't tell cause the pictures so washed out. The absence of a monitor, keyboard and mouse is suspicious. If it is a computer, I wonder what it was actually used for.

[crabshack]

and then this re: the crates

yeah, they are stage monitors for his acoustics, dig that

[crabshack]

from spfc

Used on some Machina recordings, and visible in a studio shot from Teargarden, with knob settings marked on a piece of yellow tape.

[crabshack]

So it looks like the recordings were made with the amps, and they were possibly used during Arising, but by the stadium sacred and profane shows they were relegated to monitors.

Maybe?

[FlamingGlobes]

I came here to see pictures of D'arcy's "gear" and am very disappointed.

[he/she/it]

I once read someone say on a guitar / music forum, who I think claimed to have heard it from a tech that was working in the studio, that Alan Moulder would sometimes sneakily mix-in a signal from a Crate practice amp, while recording MCIS. I read that many years ago, probably mid-2000s.

[PuzzledMuzzle]

Corgan playing the starry Ibanez - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aASaV9dJklg

[Ram27]

Cool vid, thanks for the link

Never seen that before. Corgan with the ugly Ibanez or Jimmy on such a small kit

[rawkstar]

http://www.spfc.org/band/equipment.h...uipment_id=403

He played it during the MCIS tour a bit (1979 only??). I've always liked that guitar.