Alice in Chains – Facelift

"in case anyone is interested, i got an email from Evan Sheeley from bass northwest in Seattle, he worked with alice in chains on facelift and dirt. He says " I did work with Mike Starr and Alice In Chains on their first two studio albums. The tone you hear was from a Spector NS-2 bass, Ampeg SVT-II amp head, SVT-810E cabinet and on the Dirt album I also used an ART SGX Nightbass in addition to the miked up cabinet and direct box.

Right from the guy who was there!"

"in case anyone is interested, i got an email from Evan Sheeley from bass northwest in Seattle, he worked with alice in chains on facelift and dirt. He says " I did work with Mike Starr and Alice In Chains on their first two studio albums. The tone you hear was from a Spector NS-2 bass, Ampeg SVT-II amp head, SVT-810E cabinet and on the Dirt album I also used an ART SGX Nightbass in addition to the miked up cabinet and direct box.

Right from the guy who was there!"

Mike Starr used the Washburn B-70RS bass during early live performances and on the initial EPs from the "Facelift" era. This is evidenced by a user-uploaded photo.

In a user-uploaded photo, it is shown that Mike Starr used a Kramer Ferrington Acoustic Bass to double-track on Alice in Chains' "Facelift" and "Dirt" albums.

Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell gets his signature grunge tone by using a Bogner Fish amplifier. “I’ve used them pretty much from the beginning,” Cantrell explains in this Premier Guitar video at (0:24). “The first couple records that we did, Facelift and Dirt, was basically a Marshall modified by Bogner, and then of course, I started picking up some of his amp stuff because I liked the mods that he was doing, so used the Fish for many years, and we still use that. William’s using that right now in combination with a couple of other things, and I’ve been kind of toying around with it.”

Used on the first two Alice in Chains albums, Facelift (1990) and Dirt (1992). The amp was modified by Reinhold Bogner, who later worked closed with Jerry on most of his amps.

Used on every Alice in Chains record up to at least 2009, as stated in this June 1998 Guitar World interview and in this December 2009 Guitar World interview.

Guitar World, June 1998, "Jerry Cantrell Unchained" by Mac Weingarten

GW: Tell me about the gear you used to record the album.

Cantrell: A lot of it was the same stuff I used with Alice. The Peavey 5150 head that Eddie Van Halen gave to me, a lot of Marshalls, some Fenders, Soldanos – a bunch of different amps. We just switched it up based on what the song called for. We used a lot of old Rat pedals, and an Electro-Harmonix distortion on 'Jesus Hands'. We also used some vintage crappy mikes on a bunch of stuff. [Producer] Toby Wright used this mic he bought for $20 at a pawn shop on 'Keep The Light On'.

GW: How about guitars?

Cantrell: Pretty much the same guitars I used on the Alice records: the G&L Rampage, the '52 Goldtop Les Paul, some old Strats and Teles. I bought Nancy Wilson's Les Paul Jr. and used that a lot on the record. I've got a new Fifties-era Les Paul that Gibson sent me that I really like a lot. On certain songs, I mixed up the guitars. Like on Dickeye, I had the Goldtop on the left channel, and the white Les Paul reissue on the right.

Guitar World, December 2009, "Jerry Cantrell: Facelift)" by Andy Aledort (published online on January 5, 2010)

G&L Rampage guitars have shaped the sound of every Alice in Chains record. Now the once-discontinued model returns as a Jerry Cantrell signature guitar, complete with a spruced-up feature set.

As the creator of such crushing grunge rock masterpieces as “Man in the Box,” “We Die Young,” “Would?” and “Them Bones,” Alice in Chains guitarist/singer/songwriter Jerry Cantrell is well-known for his distinctive sound and playing style. Part of that signature tone originates from his unique choice of ax: his 1985 G&L Rampage. But the journey that led Cantrell to this particular guitar was circuitous.

[...]

Cantrell discovered a burgeoning hard rock/metal scene in Dallas and, especially, in Houston, where his favorite club, Cardy’s, featured early incarnations of Pantera. The guitarist soon landed a job at Arnold & Morgan Music, a store in Dallas. “We could just smoke pot and play guitars all day long,” Cantrell says. “It was a really great job for a 19-year-old kid.”

One of his buddies at the shop had a Rampage, and Cantrell fell in love with it right away. “From the very first time I picked it up and played it, it just felt right to me,” he says. “It was designed to blend the playability and high-end sound of a Strat with the darkness and full-bodied sound of a Les Paul.” Though some Rampage guitars were built with bodies of ash or poplar, “my Rampage is an all-maple guitar,” Cantrell says. “The neck is hard rock maple, and the body is maple, too. Also, it has one pickup with one volume knob. I’ve never had the need for a lot of knobs or switches, so the design has suited my needs perfectly.”

Cantrell’s primary Rampage is tuned to what he calls “standard Alice in Chains tuning”: standard tuning one half step down (Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb). A second Rampage that he purchased shortly after he acquired the first is in drop D tuning down one half step (Db Ab Db Gb Bb Eb).

On the new AIC album, Black Gives Way to Blue, Jerry combines the Rampages with his other main ax: the infamous white Les Paul with burn marks all over the front. “I had a lot of fun with a torch for a couple of days,” Jerry says with a laugh, “burning a design into the face of that white Les Paul. For just about all of the Alice in Chains records, my guitar sound has been a combination of that Les Paul with the G&L.”

[...]

Cantrell fans will be happy to learn that the guitarist has teamed with G&L to create a Jerry Cantrell Signature Rampage. Cantrell says, “The signature model will feature a few tweaks I came up with simply because some elements of the original design were weak. The locking mechanism at the nut was basically just a couple of plates that clamped down, but they would snap off every time you put pressure on them. So I replaced the nut with a Floyd Rose, which is a lot sturdier and more stable.”

He also modified the pickup, replacing the original Schaller pickup with a Seymour Duncan Jeff Beck model. “In addition,” Cantrell says, “the guitar came stock with a Kahler tremolo system, and the low E string would fall out of the saddle when you pushed the tremolo bar all the way down. The solution was to countersink the tremolo, which put more tension on the strings and kept the E string sitting securely in the saddle.” While many guitar players have shown a preference for Floyd Rose trems, “that never really worked for me because I’m a very heavy-handed rhythm player,” Cantrell says. “Whenever I’d mute with a Floyd, I’d always push down too hard and inadvertently raise the pitch of the strings. That doesn’t happen with the Kahler.”

One of the most striking elements of Cantrell’s Rampage guitars is his custom artwork, which includes two stickers bearing the word “rock.” Cantrell says, “Some of the Cantrell Signature guitars will be released looking like mine did when I first bought it, and a limited run will be weathered to look as close as possible to the way mine look now.”

As you can probably guess, Cantrell remains as dedicated as ever to his original Rampage guitars. “I’ve bought plenty of other Rampages over the years, but the original two are still my favorites,” he says. “They are heard on every record that I’ve ever done, and they are the guitars that I play the most.”

In this photo, Sean Kinney is seen, during the facelift era, using a Pearl Brass Free Floating 6.5”x14” Snare Drum.