Mike Stern's equipment

[Jim Hale ext 2613]

Does anybody know what equipment Mike Stern uses. Things like
amplifiers, effects, how he has his rig configured. Thanks in advance.

Jim Hale
FPS Computing
3601 SW Murray Blvd.
Beaverton, OR 97005
Phone: (503) 641-3151 ext. 2613
Internet: fal...@shipit.celerity.uucp or ji...@cs.pdx.edu
UUCP: tektronix!fpssun!falcao or ucsd!celerity!falcao

[Paul Owen Lorence]

When last I saw Mike Stern, his setup was pretty basic.

He almost always likes to use two cabinets; the signal is bi-channeled
for even more of a chorus sound. Last time I saw him, one of these was a
beat-up old Yamaha cabinet. (2x12's)
He also used stock Boss effects, all stuck in that nifty carrying case.
Again, I'm not sure on this, but it went something like:

distortion --> analog chorus --> digital chorus --> digital delay -->
compression --> power supply/footswitch

Whatever the correct order, I know he had both the analog and the
digital chorus pedals. Interesting.

Oh, if you were wondering, all of his solos went like this:

1) Play real fast for a while with a clean, wet sound. Then, at the
right moment, jump on the distortion and 2) play real fast for a while
with a dirty, wet sound. If there's still enough time, jump on the long
delay and, 3) make screaming noises that come back at you one second
later.

Options: start at step 2.

I'm not blasting him, here, really. Mike Stern is my favorite electric
jazz guitarist. (He's also a really nice guy. I talked with him for
about 20 minutes after the show in mid-July.) It's just that now it
doesn't seem to be a Mike Stern solo to me unless the above formula
happens. Hell, knowing what to expect and still getting floored by him
every time is great. (If you don't know what I mean, check out his work
on Bob Berg's "Short Stories" and "Cycles.")

Sure, I can think of solos where this doesn't happen and still a good
solo is produced (like "Suspone" from the second Brecker album, any
slower song from Stern or Berg's solo works, etc...), but I might just
be opening up the floor for discussion on exactly "what to expect from
certain artists in jazz." For example, what's so bad with seeing that
Mike Brecker appears on a guest shot on, say, a Hiram Bullock album,
and then getting a classic Michael Brecker solo? Is this just shlock for
Brecker? Is is the way he makes his money, leaving his experimental
stuff for his solo works? Is it just the development and expression of
his "voice?" If this is true, is that why some people panned his second
solo album? Is this why Pat Metheny still hasn't done that album of
standards?

I don't know the answers to these questions, I was just thinking.

Anyhow, for those of you still listening, the local Pittsburgh paper
leaked last week that Brecker is scheduled here for the "fall." I'll be
there.

-Paul

[Geoffrey I. Cox]

When I saw Mike Stern (about a year ago) he was playing a Fender
Telecaster. I don't know if the setup was stock but it appeared to be
a vintage Tele. His signal was going through a rack from which I
recognized a Yamaha SPX-90. I think the display read setting #54.
Those units can do a whole lot of different effects so I'm not sure
what he used it for. He sounded like he had some chorus or
compression on his sound.

____ ||||| ___________________________________________________________________
>--{o.o}--> Geoff Cox | ARPA => gc...@andrew.cmu.edu
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[Tom Pohorsky]

In article <kZ3SgYu00...@andrew.cmu.edu> pl...@andrew.cmu.edu (Paul Owen Lorence) writes:
>Oh, if you were wondering, all of his solos went like this:
>1) Play real fast for a while with a clean, wet sound. Then, at the
>right moment, jump on the distortion and 2) play real fast for a while
>with a dirty, wet sound. If there's still enough time, jump on the long
>delay and, 3) make screaming noises that come back at you one second
>later.

I'm a big Stern fan too, and have noticed this trend, which for him is
a pretty workable formula. Some N'Yorkers say that he very often plays
standards sets in some club in Soho (Sorry, artist loft not included :-).
Anyone familiar with these gigs ? Does he take the same full speed ahead
approach to Autumn Leaves ?

inquiring fans ...

--
ames!vsi1!tomp to...@vicom.com

[Geoffrey I. Cox]

I had the pleasure of seeing Mike Stern once in the mentioned club.
It's called the 55 Bar (located on 55 Christopher St. in the Village).
An amazing show. Stern was quite able to burn bebop solos on all of
the songs he did. I think he did Autumn Leaves at that gig.

[william horne]

In article <1989Sep14.0...@vicom.com> to...@vicom.COM (Tom Pohorsky) writes:
>In article <kZ3SgYu00...@andrew.cmu.edu> pl...@andrew.cmu.edu (Paul Owen Lorence) writes:
>a pretty workable formula. Some N'Yorkers say that he very often plays
>standards sets in some club in Soho (Sorry, artist loft not included :-).

^^^^
Greenwich Village

>Anyone familiar with these gigs ? Does he take the same full speed ahead
>approach to Autumn Leaves ?

Yeah! 55 Christopher St. Bar, every Mon and Wed (I think).
Its a great deal too: $8 to get in which includes 2 drinks!! You
CANT beat that in NY.
I've only seen him there once, but he's typical MS (fast licks,
etc..) I don't remember him doing Autumn Leaves though.
By the way, the night I saw him, I had to stand outside for
two hours in 14 degree weather.

-bill

[d.h...@htecho.com]

Mike's gear is very specific to his sound. There is contradicting blending of bad sounds and good sounds to his rig. His sound is like a food recipe that includes candy bars and caviar. It's a guitar rig paradox. If you don't copy him exactly you wont sound anything like him.

So rather than lay out his rig I will give you the recipe.

First his sound is 15% "wow." Wow is a singing component that you get when you play 2 amps at the same time. Not only is he playing 2 amps but mixing, phasing and pitch shifting which exaggerates the wow. More on that later.

So if, you don't play 2 amps (and cabs or combo) you won't get the wow and will never get the sound.

His playing sounds like chorus (and a lot of people reference chorus) but it is not. If you were to dial his sound out (the opposite of dialing in), or if you exaggerated his effects you would hear a "Hammond Organ" type sound. When you are listening to him play it's hard to hear. But if you blow out the effect he uses (SPX90) by increasing the parameters, you hear a clear organ.

In a weird way he's playing a cheesey organ from the 80's and brilliant clean/blues guitar at the same time (with delay). In the mix it's mind blowing. To hear it live would change your life. He's able to pull in the body sustain and presence of an organ with the heart and precision of warm tube blues and jazz.

So if you want his sound you have to get the organ side, which is created from the Yamaha SPX90 bank 23 (warning it's bank 29 on the SPX900) which is a pitch shift. Meaning it takes the guitar signal and splits it into 3 lines pitch shift left - center - and pitch shift right - with a millisecond delay. These shifts are very small - 100th's of a semitone. And he plays them out a solid state Yamaha G100 with 2x 12's

And then he pairs with an amp dedicated for purist clean jazz/blues like a Fender twin. A snobby, unforgiving perfect guitar sound. The kind you really have to know how to play to play.

To get his sound is a commitment, because you need a big chunk of 80' 90's cheese (which requires an SPX and dedicated Amp- then you have to neutralize that nastiness with a whole lot of real guitar sound. An amp set up for monster tone and response. If you don't get it just right - you sound like a one man Vegas lounge guy playing out a Casio - or you just sound like a normal jazz guy.