From Guitar World · · 1m 10s
J Mascis ditches perfect tone for vintage gear
Dinosaur Jr.'s guitarist swapped high-end amps for 1980s equipment to escape the trap of flawless guitar sounds.
In brief
Dinosaur Jr.'s guitarist swapped high-end amps for 1980s equipment to escape the trap of flawless guitar sounds. Sometimes the best creative choice is deliberately choosing worse gear to break free from perfectionism. Originally reported by Guitar World.
Mascis got tired of perfect tone
The Dinosaur Jr. guitarist owned high-end amps including Pete Townshend's Who's Next setup, but felt trapped by the flawless sound they produced.
“I just got sick of having this perfect guitar sound.”
He hunted for worse equipment
Mascis deliberately sought out inferior-sounding gear, digging up a Marshall amp from the band's 1987 album You're Living All Over Me and a 1970s Mesa Boogie Mark I.
“It doesn't have to be so great and everything. It'll sound fine.”
The goal was creative regression
Mascis wanted to recapture the mindset of his early days when he lacked resources and knowledge, not to recreate the exact original sound.
“I was trying to go back to, like, when I didn't have the opportunity to do that and I didn't know any better.”
The experiment didn't quite work
Despite using vintage amps, the new recordings sounded different because the original albums were cut to tape, the guitars were different, and microphones had changed.
“It just doesn't sound the same. It doesn't really matter.”
Mascis wasn't precious about it
The guitarist accepted the experiment's imperfect results, viewing the process as interesting rather than a failure to achieve authenticity.
“I wasn't precious about it. I just thought it would be interesting.”
The essence
Sometimes the best creative choice is deliberately choosing worse gear to break free from perfectionism.
