Re: What's the worst distortion you've heard?
I reckon kurt cobains studio tone was great (especially on Nevermind) but live (from the muddy banks of wiskah) tone is not so good although unplugged in new york had good tone.
well kurt actually had his moments...I'll break it down for you. remember that Wishkah is mainly just a few shows. and not really highlights. they had a friend of the bands compile it from a random and incomplete sample of Soundboard tapes. there are actually several songs from the same show. nothimg really special about them. Wishkah is kinda forced. Albeit the 12/30/93 HSB is pretty nice.
12/03/89 2-songs, 11/25/91 4-songs, 12/28/91 3-songs
Bleach Era: 3/87-12/89ish it was various short scale off-set waist POS guitars into a DS-1 and usually his beat-up mismatched tube twin RI.
you really cannot get a awful tone here. But it was usually the ****ty lefty guitars that ruined the sound. Here is a example of a late 1989 euro tour with the band TAD. Kurt had smashed everything he owned out of frustration. Someone from subpop flew in and got Kurt this extra awful guitar. Had he still had his univox mosrite copy he might have sounded pretty decent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_57_fqMA-E
Nevermind Era: 1/90-10/92ish With money from Geffen and Publishing coming in: Kurt buys a 1966 Fender Jaguar out of the LA recycler. It has double creme Dimarzios (PAFpro/SuperD). A 1969 Fender Mustang. Also a bunch of nameless strats. Still uses a DS-1 and adds the EHX smallclone. I'm not sure why but he buys a mesa .22 preamp and massive power amp and uses rented marshall 4x12's. The issue in my mind is when you have a great preamp. why use a ds-1? Maybe he thought his tone was based on it's sound? IDK?
most shows sound awesome. he leaves the clone on too much. my favorites are the 8/91 Euro festival shows and japanese shows of 2/92. Here is my favorite Something in the way from the last Japanese show 02/19/92. actually sounds pretty amazing. and it isnt even from the soundboard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkFd7Ar0VK4
In Utero Era: 11/92-03/01/94 The band sounds amazing on this tour. They add the germs pat smear on 2nd guitar. They have a state of the art sound crew. Kurt adds a Sans Amp, EHX polychorus and a DOD Grunge and Marshall Ministack as Jokes. He starts using modded Japanese 69 Mustang Reissues (JB's in the bridges!!!) and later gets a very unfinshed Jag-Stang from fender. which he actually does not like. MIM strats are shipped in exclusively for smashing duty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjtAxr7ilWg
Studio tones sound pretty awesome. except In Utero where Albini's production does not gel with alot of people.
Hope I could show you that There are some good live sounds.
-Brian
