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Many of you have written to steelydan.com asking about WB's guitar tone and gear.
The reprint below is taken from Guitar Player Magazine's article on WB,
and may answer some of your questions.
Reeling In The Gear

REPRINTED FROM GUITAR PLAYER
By Darrin Fox
April 2000

"In general, guitar gear sounds seriously good these days," says Becker. "It's a lot easier for me to get sounds now than it used to be." With the exception of rhythm parts - which were recorded direct - the tones on Two Against Nature were forged with a variety of amp/cabinet combinations. Bogner, Top Hat, and Bruno heads pushed various 4x12, 2x12, and 1x12 Celestian-loaded cabinets, and Becker also used a Mesa/Boogie Maverick combo. For direct tones, Becker played through a Mesa/Boogie Studio Preamp and a Boss SE-50 multi-effector routed through high-end Massenburg preamps and compressors.

On Nature, Becker relied on several Sadowsky solidbodies - each sporting two DiMarzio single-coils and a Sadowsky bridge humbucker. "The Sadowskys play and sound great, stay in tune, and are very versatile," he says. "In the old days my guitars were set up horribly! I used to play Denny Dias' Tele with the PAF pickups because it was set up so well. I did the solo on "Black Friday" [Katy Lied] with that guitar through an Ampeg v4 amp."

On the road, Becker uses a Bogner Ecstasy head plugged into a Celestion-loaded Bogner 4x12 cab, and a Mesa/Boogie Maverick 2x21 combo. His Bob Bradshaw-designed rack houses a Mesa/Boogie Triaxis preamp. Drawmer compressors, a Lexicon PCM80, and two Roland SE-70s.

Walter Becker and Sadowsky Solidbody
used for the PBS and VH-1 tapings

Photo: Frank Ockenfeld

| BACK TO TWO AGAINST NATURE |


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