Since the completion of Good As Gone, I’ve taken a step back from the Archipelago catalogue and concluded there’s a significant number of songs pre-Have Here that simply never found a proper home or had been otherwise haphazardly scattered around several EPs and informal releases over the years which, though making some sense chronologically, just seemed a bit unfocused and arbitrarily organized.  So at the risk of George Lucas-ing myself, I pulled out the original tapes and files to put together a remastered collection of personal and fan favorites in the hopes of offering something a little more sensible and representative of this project’s trajectory over the years, especially for new fans.  And here you have it:

Good As Gear

Dear audio nerds,

Since I tend to get a lot of questions about how and what I use to record in an 8’ x 5’ bedroom, I decided to compile a list of the gear and instruments that helped me produce Good As Gone.  This list could also be labeled “Pretty Much Everything Peter Owns”, aside from some books and clothes (and the upright piano and electric organ, which were also not recorded in my bedroom).

Guitars:

Fender American Telecaster, ‘81 Squire Japanese Stratocaster, Danelectro Baritone, Rosetti lap steel, Washburn acoustic steel string, Squire P-Bass

(sometimes played with a slide, Ebow, violin bow, etc.)

Amps:

Fender Hot Rod Deluxe

Ampeg Rocket Bass

Effect Pedals:

Boss CS-3 Compressor (modified), volume pedal, Fulltone Fulldrive 2, Boss TR-2 Tremolo, MXR Carbon Copy Analog Delay, Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb

Additional instruments:

Korg SQ-2 keyboard, Alesis SR-16 sampler, electric organ, upright piano, acoustic nylon string guitar, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, melodica, harmonica, glockenspiel, trumpet (performed by Alex Billig), tambourine, jingle bells, various drums and cymbals

Recording Signal Path:

Shure SM58 microphones

Behringer Ultragain Pro tube preamp

M-Audio Fast Track Ultra USB audio interface

Ableton Live software

Additional Gear:

Tascam 424 Portastudio Cassette 4-Track, BSR EQ-1 Frequency Equalizer, Line 6 Delay Modeler, Univox EC-80A Echo Chamber, Roger Linn Adrenalinn, Proco Rat, Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi, Boss BF-2 Flanger, Boss RC-20 Loop Station, EAD Audio MH310 headphones