Sounds

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Too Much (John Verity) – Thanks to John Verity for this sample from the track ‘Too Much – Much Too Soon’. John is using a Fret King Black Label Corona ‘JV’ Guitar with custom wound vintage voiced single coil pickups into the Blackbird. This is going into an 18 Watt VTR/Verity head driving a cab fitted with 2 x 10″ and 1 x 12″ Tayden loudspeakers.

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Blackbird Clean Channel (John Verity) – John Verity ‘noodling’ around putting the Blackbird through its paces. John is using a Fret King Black Label Corona ‘JV’ Guitar with custom wound vintage voiced single coil pickups into the Blackbird. This is going into an 18 Watt VTR/Verity head driving a cab fitted with 2 x 10″ and 1 x 12″ Tayden loudspeakers.

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Blackbird Clean Channel (John Verity) – A bit more from John.

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Blackbird Overdrive Channel (John Verity) – And some more.

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The Bird Takes Flight (Scott Rabinowitz) – Special thanks to Scott Rabinowitz for recording this demo. All guitars were recorded through the Effectrode Blackbird SR-71 pedal into an Emery Sound Microbaby amplifier using a Shure SM57 to Logic via a Metric Halo ULN-8 using its stock mic pres. Guitars are as follows: Telecaster panned hard left using the classic channel gain at around noon into a Mr. Black Eterna reverb pedal for a touch of reverb. PRS Custom 24 panned hard right using the creamy channel with gain around 2 o’clock into a Mr. Black reverb pedal. During the quieter measures a PRS Custom 24 was used panned around 10 o’clock using the green/clean channel of the Blackbird and a touch of reverb from the Mr. Black Eterna pedal. Lead guitar was the PRS Custom 24 on the classic channel of the Blackbird with gain set around 2 o’clock and panned right at roughly 1 o’clock into a Providence Chrono Delay and Mr. Black Eterna pedal. Bass is recorded direct with a little compression. Drums are from Spectrasonics Stylus RMX. Synthesizers are Spectrasonics Omnisphere. The only processing on the demo is with Slate Digital VCC (Virtual Console Collection) on each channel plus master bus along with T-RackS Black 76 compressor plugin along with the Slate Digital VTM (Virtual Tape Machine).

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Blackbird demo 2 (Scott Rabinowitz) – The signal chain for guitars was as follows; guitar panned hard left was a Telecaster through the clean channel of the Blackbird SR-71 into a Moogerfooger MF-108m Clusterflux through a Mr. Black Eterna reverb pedal with a Violet Design The Globe Vintage condenser microphone. The guitar panned hard right was a PRS Custom 24 through the clean channel of the Blackbird SR-71 pedal into the Mr. Black Eterna reverb pedal with a Violet Design The Globe Vintage condenser microphone. The solo guitar on the first half of the demo is the PRS Custom 24 into the clean channel of the Blackbird SR-71 into a Moogerfoooger MF-104m delay pedal and the Mr. Black Eterna reverb pedal and Violet Design The Globe Vintage condenser microphone. The second solo that begins halfway through the demo is the Creamy Channel of the Blackbird SR-71 with volume at 3 o’clock and gain at 2 o’clock through the Moogerfooger MF-104m and Mr. Black Eterna reverb with a Shure SM57 microphone. Finally, all guitars were recorded running everything into my Emery Sound Microbaby amplifier through a Metric Halo ULN-8 using its stock mic pres to Logic. Very little processing in Logic was used. Special thanks to Scott Rabinowitz for recording this demo.

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Watchtower – Recorded from the speaker emulator output using the lead channel to create rhythm and lead lines. Reverb was added using Mixcraft’s standard VST plugin.

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Take Five (Dave Brubeck) – Fender Jazzmaster direct into the Blackbird. The Blackbird clean channel is used for the first part and then the overdrice channel is engaged – ‘Classic’ mode and the Gain knob is fully clockwise. Sound sample made by Dan Steenson.

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Whole Lotta Love (Jimmy Page) – Using ‘Classic’ mode on the Blackbird with ‘Gain’ knob set at 12 o’clock. Sound sample made by Dan Steenson.

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Acoustic guitar fingerpicking – Showing off the Blackbird’s softer side. Using a Crafter acoustic guitar (piezo direct – no microphones were used to make this sample!) – clean channel, Volume at 3 o’clock, Bass at 9 o’clock, Middle at 10 o’clock, Treble at 12 o’clock. Sound sample made by Dan Steenson.

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Bad to the Bone (George Thorogood) – Fender Jazzmaster (humbucker) direct into the Blackbird. The Blackbird is in ‘Creamy’ mode and the Gain knob is at 12 o’clock. Sound sample made by Dan Steenson.

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Streamline (System on a Down) – Fender Jazzmaster. Overdrive channel, ‘Creamy’ mode, Volume at 4 o’clock, Bass at 10 o’clock, Middle at 8 o’clock, Treble at 12 o’clock, Gain at 10 o’clock. Clean channel, Volume at 3 o’clock, Bass at 9 o’clock, Middle at 10 o’clock, Treble at 12 o’clock. Sound sample made by Dan Steenson.

Recorded Direct

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Whole Lotta Love (Jimmy Page) – Using ‘Creamy’ mode on the Blackbird with ‘Gain’ knob set at 11 o’clock. I added a lot amount of ‘Treble’ and backed off the ‘Middle’ to about half way to get a more aggressive, edgy drive sound. This sound sample is recorded direct from Blackbird’s Jensen C12N speaker emulation output – no amp or mic. I added a quite a lot of reverb using a standard VST plug-in on Mixcraft to get close the original Led Zep sound. PC-2A tube compressor is used on the bass guitar and recorded direct.

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Problem Child (Angus Young) – Using ‘Classic’ mode on the Blackbird produces predominantly even order harmonics (asymmetric clipping) for a robust and musical distortion sound. This sound sample is recorded direct from Blackbird’s Jensen C12N speaker emulation output – no amp or mic! I added a little reverb using a standard VST plug-in on Mixcraft.

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I Think I’m Going Bald (Alex Lifeson) – Using ‘Creamy’ mode to produces a mixture of even and odd harmonics (symmetric clipping) for a thicker, richer drive tone. Again this is recorded direct from the speaker emulation output.

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Working Man (Alex Lifeson) – While I’m in the mood for RUSH here’s a demo of ‘Working Man’, again using ‘Creamy’ mode.

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Kid Gloves (Alex Lifeson) – Okay, just one more RUSH cover and I’ll get to doing the bluesy stuff next. The Blackbird is in ‘Classic’ mode with the ‘Drive’ knob set low at about 10 o’clock and the ‘Bias’ switch is in the center position (12AU7 biasing), which is hot biasing the 12AX7 tube for a softer, warmer drive tone.

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Metal Rhythm (Joe Caruso) – Thanks to Joe Caruso for this sample.

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Alright Now (Free) – Recorded from the speaker emulator output in ‘Classic’ mode for mild asymmetric clipping distortion.

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Clean fingerstyle – Recorded from the speaker emulator output using the clean channel on the Blackbird.