| Just on the heels of completing Lynch/Pilson's "Wicked Underground" album, George stayed at work on a new Lynch Mob album. In fact, he never left Henson Recording Studios! The album, named "REvolution" is a reworking of previous Lynch compositions, just "stripped and rebuilt." Production on this album began in the summer of 2002 with Dave Reed at the engineering helm and Ron Rutledge acting as executive producer which means he had to smoke a big cigar and talk on the phone a lot. Though much of George's gear remained at the studio from the previous L/P recording, George brought in a few more pieces.
The Bogner Uberschall's tubes hadn't cooled since the recording of "Wicked Underground" when George fired it up again for this Mob record. George used that amp along with the Diezel VH4 on the rhythm tracks. As George describes: "All of the guitars on that record were recorded pretty straight forward and without a lot of overdubs or effects. There are two rhythm tracks on all of the songs, one done with a Bogner Uberschall and the other with a Diesel VH4. Both are really nice amps and very similar in tone." Both of these amps are suited for super high-gain application but what makes them different is the Ubershcall's catering to low-tuned and aggressively played guitars.
All the rhythm guitar tracks are tuned low, at C# and at B. For this, the guitars of choice were baritone 27" scale-length guitars. "I started playing with 27 ½" scale baritone a few years ago. I love low tuning, but it's very difficult to migrate the kind of lead tone and playing I'm known for into that type of environment. I have an ESP Viper VB-300 which had EMG 81s in it for awhile but which now has Duncan “Screamin Demons”
. I also have a beautiful green flame ESP baritone, which I call my "Green Manalishi," that sounds great too. That is the prototype for my newest signature model ESP," said George. "For the solos, I used the Bogner Uberschall and a Marshall 30th Anniversary head," George continues. The Marshall 40th Anniversary head (model 6100) was the precursor to the current production Marshall JCM2000 TSL100 Triple Super Lead. Produced in 1992, only a limited number of these were produced with a blue vinyl tolex and brass Marshall logo. The power amp section has a dampening control to customize the quality of the distortion. This too went through the Bogner Ubershcall cabinet. To feel comfortable soloing on these newly recorded songs, George used the original yellow tigerstriped strat that was sweetened by an MXR Phase 90 pedal.
The Groove Tubes Single combo amp provided the clean tones heard on "Revolution." "For my clean and jangly tones, I used a GT Single. It's a small 1X12" combo that you can swap the tubes out in. I used everything from the EL84 to KT88's. It's an awesome sounding amp, and I have to thank Aspen Pitman for coming up with that one.," said George. The Groove Tubes “Single” was conceived to be a 45-watt, "no-frills" amp with straight forward controls. The gain on this puppy ranges from clean to crunchy blues tone. It is also self-biasing and interchangeable to fit any kind of power tube you put in it.
On hand for easy fix-it's later in the sessions was a Line 6 POD-XT, the next generation version of the POD for direct recording. Used sparingly and present from time to time were an original Electro Harmonix Big Muff and the Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive. Other than those, there was absolutly no other sound coloration effects except for a chorus pedal,a flanger, a digital delay, a fender spring reverb unit, an old tube echoplex, a sustainiac, an eventide 3000 ultra harmonizer, a violin bow, a digi tech Whammy pedal, a boss heavy metal pedal, a 1200 LB Leslie rotating speaker system, a Buddha wha, a Line 6 modulation pedal, a battery powered toy guitar from Kee Bee toys at the mall, a Vee fex “Seek Wha” pedal with midi, a legendary tones Time Machine, a talk box, an E-bow, a dallas-arbitor fuzz face, a tychobrea Octavia, a Stanley 18 volt power drill, a fulltone dega vibe, a theramin and a Kick ass attitude!. As George said earlier, everything was recorded straight forward with no effects.
AS GEORGE SO MODESTLY STATES, “ I REALLY HAVE NO NEED FOR EFFECTS. I FEEL SORRY FOR SO CALLED GUITAR PLAYERS LIKE JIMI HENDIX AND OTHER POSERS LIKE HIM WHO COULDN’T PLAY THEIR WAY OUT OF A PAPER BAG IF THEY WEREN’T CONSTANTLY STEPPING ON SOME FUZZY BOX. I’M NOT LIKE THAT. I CAN ACTUALY CREATE OR MIMIC THE SOUNDS OF OTHER EFFECTS AND EVEN NATURE BY JUST MANIPULATING THE STRINGS OF THE GUITAR WITH VARIOUS APPENDAGES ON MY BODY. I CONSTANTLY AMAZE MYSELF AS WELL AS OTHERS”.
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