Sonic Youth Gossip - What songs did Sonic Youth use the MXR Blue Box effect on?

Sonic Youth Gossip (http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/index.php)

- Sonic Gossip (http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/forumdisplay.php?f=3)

- - What songs did Sonic Youth use the MXR Blue Box effect on? (http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/showthread.php?t=74225)

What songs did Sonic Youth use the MXR Blue Box effect on?

I noticed the pedal can be had for cheap, and I wanted a new toy, but all the demos I hear just sound like Atari games.

Does anyone know?

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trks...box& _sacat=0

i think it's the one in karen koltrane... also in anagrama... might be wrong...

anagrama & female mechanic for sure...by thurston...he uses it all over 'a thousand leaves'..i think they all had one in their chain at a certain point.

i wouldn't buy one again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hypertonic

It's a 8-bit-ish fuzz/2 octave down pedal that doesn't track notes perfectly (supposed to be part of it's charm) however that can be fixed a bit by clipping a capacitor inside the box. But it does have great tones occasionally. It's really random and jumpy, but in a good noisy way.

Good question on tracking down specific sounds/tracks though. I never seem to hear it totally jump out, but I would probably guess it's just mixed down a bit. It does usually seem to have a pretty strong character. I would also imagine its been used in plenty noise-breakdown-freakouts. Just guesses though...

I would try maybe looking at the equipment pages and matching the pedal-board setups to albums, etc... I remember seeing the blue box in several setups over the years.

IMO, that mod still doesn't make the pedal track notes any better it just makes the fuzz less aparant and increases some volume. Be careful of this mod because it works with units made up 'til about the early 2000's, i had a newer unit and tried the mod and it just made the pedal "non-functioning". i think MXR/Dunlop changed the circuitry slightly at some point.

I still have my blue box as I pulled it out of my chain about 6 or so years ago, because i found that it messed up (in a bad way) the input sustain level signal of my guitars, it took me awhile to pinpoint that it was actually the blue box being the culprit and it cuts sustain while engaged and off! didn't want to try to make it "true-bypass" in that small enclosure to cure this issue or add a compressor/sustainer to my chain... so i just put this pedal in my noise loop chain for awhile but now has found a place in my storage bin of effects. I wonder if vintage units (from the 70's w/o the LED) do this also, I heard they sound much better.

I agree with Chris... the blue box is pretty much a one trick pony, great for noise loops though and running contact mics into them. I prefer the Boss Octave, I had the older OC-2 and it was cool after fuzz/distortion/overdrive effects... but i don't use octave down effects anymore.

btw, I love the hendrix octave fuzz combined with another fuzz/distortion/overdrive i create these huge Godzilla-like roars, and it has a weird great "gate" like effect when subtlely attacking the guitar strings.

think Pages solo on Fool in the Rain. I really like MXR.

buy a vintage one if you can. Non LED

I was sold at "A Thousand Leaves" and "Anagrama" but gave up after reading about tone suck and signal level.

I love my ProCo Rats, and the Poly Chorus, but I can't seem to find any fun toys that I'd actually use other than those. I bought a phaser in 2001 because I thought it was weird, but I really can't think of any effects other than reverb and distortion to use that don't sound cheesy.

the blue box is good for dinosaur sounds and such, i find it needs a strong fuzzbox ahead of it in the chain to sustain it and give it some power. i ended up sticking it in my bass rig instead. blue box bass is actually pretty sweet...

i imagine the vintage blue box is what SY use, and that probably makes all the difference (in this case)...

Thanks for everybody's expertise. Chris, you've been around for a long time. I remember you from the alt.nirvana message board from 1996. Such a wealth of information. Jesus!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Lawrence

The bass player in my band was using my blue box for a long time, i agree it sounds quite good w/ bass guitar and with a good fuzz distortion ahead of it because even with the gain cranked there is a volume level loss from bypass from the blue box alone. I think Lee still uses his, not sure about Kim... Thurston yanked his out of his chain a few years ago it looks like. I don't think they have vintage ones because i see they had LEDs, yet they could've been modded to true-bypass which would cure the sustain being clipped off issue.