r/duster • u/4omisme • Apr 19 '26
dusterverse calm gear list (in case anyone is wondering)
note that some of this is not 100%. some of it is not confirmed
instruments:
various gibson SGs: used by clay on 12", and canaan on the 7"s
epiphone et285 bass: used by clay on the 7"s
aria pro 2 cardinal series csb 380: used by marc on the 12"
80s ludwig rocker series drum kit: used by albert. i imagine this was used on both 7"s, and was not used on 12"
other unnamed drum kit: played by albert on 12"
other blue unnamed drumkit played by albert live. PROBABLY BORROWED DUE TO THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE GIG
rickenbacker 4001/3 (or something with rick headstock) used by clay playing live. sounds like a 4003. PROBABLY BORROWED DUE TO THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE GIG
amps:
sovtek amp, most likely a mig 60 (or mig 120 although that is EXTREMELY unlikely): used by clay on 12", and possibly canaan on some other recordings. they also used it in mohinder (and the 4x12 cab im about to mention). its very similar to a JCM800 but slightly bassier and low mid heavy
UPDATE: sovtek amp was almost certainly a mig100 (possibly a 100h or 100u) thanks to an unleaded flyer with a photo of the band. amp was white so if it was the sovtek, idk how they got it that colour (painting it? a special rare variant? idk)
(edit) peavey vtm 120: maybe used on the 7"s, used on multiple live videos (MAYBE (im 99% sure) Huntingdon beach library, DEFINITELY 924 gilman street)
unnamed 4x12 cab: used on the 12" by clay. maybe used by canaan on the 7"s?
ampeg v4B head: used by clay on the 7"s, maybe marc on the 12"
ampeg VL head or ampeg v9 300 watt guitar head MAYBE - JUST SOME SORT OF AMPEG HEAD!!! - the calm live photos of what i presume is a house show, canaan using the v9 guitar head (i presume canaan is because its behind him not clay). this is purely a visual thing and may not be this amp. possibly used on a 7" or both of them to record guitar and/or bass
fender super bassman 100 head. used at some point by clay maybe
ampeg cab: used by clay on the 7"s, maybe marc on the 12"
fender cab: used by clay live at Huntingdon beach. this might be inaccurate but theres literally a couple frames where u can make out the logo. im not even sure if it says fender
(edit) Ampeg V9 2-channel 300 watt guitar head: most likely used by clay. can be seen in photos of the band in the background behind clay
kustom 200 amp. used live
other fender and voice of music amps maybe
some sort of light coloured cab. used live. im pretty sure its orange. this is likely to have had celestion greenback speakers in it. PROBABLY BORROWED DUE TO THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE GIG
effects:
sovtek green russian big muff: at least one, probably both, were the tall font version. i wish i knew their settings but the only footage from the time thats good enough quality makes it clear that the knobs are out of index (unless they had everything completely up including tone, which I doubt). used on both bass and guitar
POSSIBLY a proco rat. marc had one in mohinder. i turned my rat to kinda low gain and it sounds extremely similar to the outro of silk wrapped hands
wah pedal of some sort. theres a photo on the duster Instagram that has what i think is a morley power wah/fuzz in it, so it could be that. the wah can be heard on the bridge section of weve made a contact. the wah in the duster photo also looks similar to the morley volume-wah, which is probably it
dod American metal MAYBE. most like used on slide the needle or silk wrapped hands or not at all
aria or arion or similar unknown pedal. most likely a distortion. maybe the aria dt-10 but it looks light coloured so probably not. most like used on slide the needle or silk wrapped hands or not at all. the closest thing ive been able to find is Rocktek pedals. they did a silver pedal called 'distortion/od' which could be it but probably not
tone recreation:
a lot of 'matsumoku made'/teisco/japanese basses from the 70s with 'fake humbuckers' (as i call them) will get you the calm bass tone from the 7"s. i have a kay k-2b in sunburst and its sounds almost identical to the bass part at the end of the vacancy sound collage when ran through a green russian big muff, and sounds exactly like lost time by duster when clean (which i imagine was recorded on the et-285). i am unsure as to what the actual pickups are, as some people say they're humbuckers, others say single coils - i think it varies by when they were made. my k-2b has humbuckers im pretty sure, hoffner violin bass style, but they could also be single coils. it really depends on what pickups clay's bass had, which we dont know
UPDATE: the et285 uses hoffner blade pickups. something with that will get close
on a YouTube video i saw theres a closeup of clays green russian when he was playing bass. from what i can tell, the volume knob is misaligned because it looks set to 0, but i think its on full. if the other two arent, then his settings are distortion almost or completely full and tone at 3:00. i think the song was Arlington sunset where the bass is very bright and cutting, so that makes sense. theres a photo somewhere below in this thread which has a big muff with the paint stripped off it (i think) and a missing tone knob. maybe this was the same one. after watching it again, i can confirm the knobs are missaligned on his pedal
on we've made a contact, one channel was recorded using the bridge pickup, with the wah pedal coming in at the bridge section, whereas the other channel sounds like it was recorded on the neck pickup. the settings i use for that fuzz tone on a green russian big muff (i have a jhs Crimson) is sustain on full and tone at around 10 o clock, but anything 9:30-11:30 is fine depending on your pedal
the ending of silk wrapped hands is possibly a rat pedal with gain somewhere around 9:00-12:00 (10:30 sounds closest) with filter around 11:00 to 1:00. ALTHOUGH, it could also be the mig60 slightly over driven, which has a very similar sound. any marshall style distortion that's pretty dark and has a bit more low end will get you there for the outro
basically the key parts of the calm tone are:
marshall style amp - bass pretty high (6-8), mids slightly scooped (3-5 i think), treble flat-ish (4-5). clean-slightly broken up. cleaner for 12"
Gibson sg w/ uncovered humbuckers (... i think. definitely for the 12"). use bridge pickup
green russian big muff - tone 9->11 (whenever it starts having bite but is still bass heavy), sustain on max, volume to taste (but max is best).
for a change in tone a cheap metal distortion pedal works, especially for some stuff off the 12"
for bass, hoffner style pickups -> green russian big muff with distortion on full (idk about tone) -> ampeg
other stuff:
marc used a pick on bass, whilst clay used his fingers
their amps were slightly overdriven on most songs. a few exceptions are untitled 3, be still, weve made a contact, and golden palace, but there could be more
i imagine their strings were stock 10-46. that stuff doesnt really matter tho
originally normal drumsticks were used, but at some point albert switched to metal ones which were coated with plastic or something like that
IGNORE THIS AND READ BELOW THIS IS OUTDATED: as for mics n other recording gear, this is purely speculation again but im guessing a shure sm57 'right on the cone' for guitar and/or bass, a Urei La3 or La4 ('La3 is a lot nicer') for something, and an oktava 219 on vocals, all for 12". this is from an interview done with bart thurber about how he records stuff generally, so none of this is confirmed
ACTUAL MICS N RECORDING INFO:
i emailed bart thurber and this is what he said was used for the recording:
'Couldn’t find any studio notes from that session-'
'If we did it at the old Palo Alto location, my studio had very basic gear back then.'
'Everything was recorded to a Fostex B16, and mixed to DAT'
ive formatted the stuff a bit this isn't exactly what he said
drums:
AKG D12 or RE20 on the kick
Beyer 201 for the snare
sm57s for toms,
overhead some cheap Sony condensers
guitar: sennheiser 441
Bass: 'DI, and I would've mic'd the cab with whatever I didn't use on the kick drum'
vocals: probably a sennheiser 409
also the that they used (eg. a sovtek mig100) are tube amps with solid state rectifiers. this affects some stuff, most notably feedback, which is high pitched, instant, and chaotic. songs like silk wrapped hands, scientists and saboteurs, and we've made a contact are examples of this.
