So I replaced the nut with a Floyd Rose, which is a lot sturdier and more stable.
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The locking mechanism at the nut was basically just a couple of plates that clamped down, but they would snap off every time you put pressure on them. (There were) a few tweaks I came up with simply because some elements of the original design were weak. Cantrell replaced the original Schaller humbucker pickup with a Seymour Duncan JB, installed a Floyd Rose nut in place of the Leo Fender designed original, and modified the original Kahler tremelo system by countersinking the trem to keep the low E from dropping out. Unlike most Rampages, the blue dress is all maple – hard rock maple neck and maple body. “It was designed to blend the playability and high-end sound of a Strat with the darkness and full-bodied sound of a Les Paul.” “From the very first time I picked it up and played it, it just felt right to me,” he says. At the time, he was “working” at a music store named Arnold & Morgan Music – though his version of working was to “smoke pot and play guitars all day long.”
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Guitars 1985 G&L Rampage – the “blue dress” guitarĬantrell bought his famous G&L Rampage in 1984, shortly after moving to Dallas to get involved in the music scene there. In addition, drummer Sean Kinney and bassist Mike Starr were struggling with alcohol addiction. While singer Layne Staley had recently checked out of rehab, by the recording of the album he was back to using heroin.
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And then, we moved back into the studio and started recording. We had to try to get out of the town without getting hurt… and just kinda tripped out in the desert until things calmed down. LA tore itself apart protesting police brutality. The band ditched LA for the Joshua tree desert with Slayer vocalist Tom Araya for a couple days, returning to record the record once the riots had passed. In fact Cantrell was buying beer in a store when a man came in and started looting, and on his way back to the studio Cantrell got stuck in traffic and saw people being pulled out of their cars and beaten. The album was recorded to the backdrop of the LA riots which broke out the day the band started recording. Layne Staley performing with Alice in Chains at The Channel in Boston in 1992. At the time of Dirt, he had just finished recording Spinal Tap’s comeback album “Break Like The Wind”. Jerden’s past credits also span the Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa and David Byrne. Jerden’s discography as a producer, engineer and mixer is filled with huge records from that time – when he teamed up with the band to record Facelift he was just coming off recording Ritual de lo Habitual by Jane’s Addiction, and riding high on the success of Red Hot Chilli Peppers Mother’s Milk. Jerden had previously worked with the band on both their first album Facelift and the EP Sap. The album came at the height of the first wave of grunge, and launched a career that would span 30 years, several albums and more than it’s fair share of tragedy.ĭirt was recorded by Dave Jerden from April to July 1992 in three studios, Eldorado Recording Studio in Burbank, California, London Bridge Studio in Seattle, and One on One Studios in Los Angeles.
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Released in 1992, Dirt is Alice In Chains second record, a follow up to 1990s Facelift.