Arctic Monkeys – AM

Alex Turner uses the Boss DM-1 Delay Machine in his pedalboard for live and recording sessions with Arctic Monkeys. The Pedal can first be seen around the recording and tour of the bands 3rd album, “Humbug,” after it was seen on both their 4th and 5th album tours but was dropped during the “Tranquility Base Hotel And Casino” in favor of an original Rolland Space Echo.

Pictured is Alex during a live show during the bands 5th tour in 2014. The Boss can be seen above his Fulltone Deja Vibe and next to his Coopersonic Valveslapper.

Alex Turner uses the Electro Harmonix XO Holy Grail Plus Variable Reverb Pedal on his pedalboard during the Arctic Monkey's 2009 - 2010 “Humbug” tour. The Pedal was first seen on his board at some point during the bands second tour as Alex added it to his board, then used it for the recording of their 3rd album. After this tour Turner removed the pedal from his board, the pedal is still seen sitting atop of his Magnatone 410 during the “Suck It and See” and “AM” tours, most likely always on.

The Electro Harmonix Holy Grail Teverb features spring, hall, and flerb reverbs. Also the pedal features a graceful room reverb and a multifunction control that lets you control decay, damping and modulation speed. Turner used reverb on most songs he records, as most artists do to creat ambiance and expand the sounds of his guitar tones.

Pictured, Alex Turner can be seen using the Holy Grail during a show during the “Humbug” tour. The pedal is seen above Alex’s Coopersonic Valveslapper distortion pedal and next to his Tubescreamer.

Alex Turner uses the Fulltone Mini DejaVibe Stereo Chorus Pedal that has been seen on his pedalboard since the Suck It and See tour/recording sessions, used also during the recording/tour of the “AM” era also. An example of how Turner uses this pedal is for songs such as “Knee Socks.”

Pictured is Alex Turner during a live show during Arctic Monkeys “Suck It and See” tour in 2011. The Fulltone can be seen under the Boss DM-1 Delay Machine on his board.

Maxon PT-999 Phase Tone is one of the newest editions to Alex Turner’s Pedal board during AM. Seen all the way on the left side of his board.

Alex Turner used the Cornell The First Fuzz pedal for the distinctive riffs and solos on the albums "Humbug," "Suck It and See," and "AM." This pedal was later replaced by the Wattson Super Fuzz for the "Everything You've Come to Expect" tour and was also seen on stage during the "Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino" tour, as evidenced by a user-uploaded photo on Pmtonline.

Alex Turner plays a 1962 Gretsch G6128T Duo Jet for live and recording sessions with Arctic Monkeys. Alex primarily uses the guitar live for the song “R U Mine?” as he recorded the song with the Gretsch to get a more gritty tone. The guitar was a gift from former girlfriend Arielle Vandenberg in 2011-2012, around the time he recorded the song, often dedicating the song to her at live shows. He has also used the guitar live for songs such as “Arabella” and “Mad Sounds” on a rare occasion. It is unknown what other songs he has recorded with the Duo Jet, it can be safe to say it was used during the “AM” recording sessions and the recording of the “R U Mine?” single in 2012.

Pictured is Alex Turner during the First show of Arctic Monkey’s “AM” tour at the Ventura Theater in May 2013 playing the vintage Gretsch.

Alex Turner can be seen playing his Gibson J-200 Standard Acoustic-Electric during this acoustic performance of “Do I Wanna Know” off of their 5th studio LP AM in mid 2014. The guitar has been seen with Arctic Monkeys since acoustic sessions off of their second album.

Jamie Cook, the rhythm guitarist from Arctic Monkeys, has the exact same guitar as him and Alex played them guitar during an acoustic session in 2007. Alex seems to favor Gibson acoustic guitars, as he is almost seen exclusively playing them with a few exceptions.

Alex Turner plays a Magnatone Custom 410 starting during the “Suck It and See” recording sessions onwards. Turner uses the 410 in combination with his Selmer Zodiac Twin 30 for the tour of that album as well as the recording and tour of Arctic Monkeys 5th studio album, “AM.”

In an interview with James Ford with Sound on Sound, long time Arctic Monkeys producer and bandmate of Alex's in The Last Shaddow Puppets, Ford explains how Turner used his Magnatone in junction with his Selmer Zodiac Twin 30. The Magnatone was used for Alex to get more vibrato and reverb tones. He would also get reverb out of his Selmer amplifier, considering Turner doesn’t use a reverb pedal after the “Humbug” era. The Tremolo on this amp to get the famous tone of “Do I Wanna Know?” along with the reverb from his Selmer, delay from his Boss DM-1 Delay Machine and overdrive from his Coopersonic Valveslapper used with his Vox Starstream XII 12 String.

Ford states “Alex Turner's rig typically featured him playing his faithful Fender Bronco or occasionally a Gibson Les Paul through his crocodile‑skin Selmer Zodiac and '60s Magnatone amps. "Al does more rhythmy stuff, and for that it was just pretty straight, quite bright and punchy into the Selmer. We sometimes ran that and his old Magnatone at the same time. It has a really nice vibrato on it and reverb. So sometimes we'd mix those two signals together, but just onto the one track.” This explains how Alex got his tones for “Suck It and See” and “AM.”

Pictured is Turner’s Selmer Zodiac Twin 30 on the left and his Magnatone Custom 410 on the right. Here they are both are miked with Shure SM7s.

During the bands “Tranquility Base Hotel And Casino” tour, the Magnatone is used to amp the Synthesizer the band uses, located behind Jamie Cooks setup. While Alex doesn’t use this amp for guitar anymore, about midway though their 6th tour he switched his mentioned Selmer for another Magnatone, the 280.

(Sound on Sound, James Ford: Producing Arctic Monkeys) https://www.soundonsound.com/people/james-ford-producing-arctic-monkeys%3famp

The Fender Hot Rod Deluxe can be seen beneath the Vox AC30 when Arctic Monkeys performed reckless serenade in 2011. Typically Turner used the combination of his Selmer Zodiac Twin 30 and his Magnatone 410, but had went with the Vox and Fender for this performance on the Jay Leno Show. The Hot Rod can also seen on the studio in Arctic Monkeys feat. Richard Hawley - “You And I” music video

Most stuff plugged in was familiar: a vintage Selmer Truvoice and Magnatone Custom 410 for Turner and Cooks’ guitars, mainly, and a vintage Ampeg Portaflex for O’Malley’s P-bass. There was also Turners’ 12-string Vox guitar, on which he wrote the iconic riff from Do I Wanna Know?

However, memorable addition to the studio was Turner’s new Rickenbacker pedal steel amplifier, heard on No. 1 Party Anthem. Small and compact, it was christened “The New Black” – also known as the original album title.

https://happymag.tv/engineering-the-sound-arctic-monkeys-am/

in this video you can see Alex using m1 pickup.

Alex Turner uses his Steinway Vertegrand in his Los Angeles home’s extra bedroom he converted into a home studio, dubbed “Lunar Surface.” Turner stated in various interviews that this instrument that he received from Arctic Monkeys Manager, Ian McAndrew, for his 30th birthday and was the main inspiration for the bands 6th studio album, “Tranquility Base Hotel And Casino.”

A quote from an interview with Rolling Stone gives more context to Turner’s use of the Piano, “ Turner started writing the new album in 2016, up the hill in his home studio, sitting at a Steinway Vertegrand piano that his manager bought him as a birthday present. Turner, who’s long admired the stylistic shape-shiftings of John Lennon and David Bowie, wanted to do something that sounded nothing like the last Monkeys record – the platinum-certified AM, full of snaking guitar riffs and heavy grooves. Having never written on a piano before, he thought the Vertegrand might shake loose a new sound, and he was right: “The places my fingers would naturally fall on the piano” lent themselves, he says, to chords, progressions and “jazz turns” that “suggested to me this idea of a lounge-y character, which never would have occurred to me had I been playing a guitar. They reminded me of things my father used to play on the piano.” Other influences, he said, included Serge Gainsbourg’s Histoire de Melody Nelson, Dion’s Born to Be With You and the jazzy score that François de Roubaix composed for Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1967 post-gangster classic Le Samourai.”

There are many articles about how the bands 6th album came about, “Alex Turner never took to the piano as a kid. After a couple years of lessons, all he could really play was a jazzy vamp he’d improvise, more for comic relief than anything else. He certainly never embraced the instrument the way he later did the guitar - an immediate fixation when he got his first one as a teenager. But that all changed in early 2016, when a friend gave Turner a beautiful Steinway Vertegrand for his 30th birthday. “I arrived back off holiday and it was sitting there,” he says, gesturing toward the piano. “I just love that thing and I’d come and sit at it and while away me days in here. The addition of the piano to this room was definitely a huge part of the making of this album, because that suddenly became the centre of it.”

Continued, “You can hear what he means right from the outset: Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, Arctic Monkeys’ sixth studio album, opens with “Star Treatment,” an elegantly seductive musical monologue you just couldn’t put across the same way with a guitar. Listen and you can picture Turner sitting there - on a Hollywood hilltop, in a shockingly small room, all things considered, at the Steinway, Mexican beer and a guilty half-pack of smokes poised nearby, as the words begin to tumble out: “I just wanted to be one of The Strokes, now look at the mess you made me make / Hitchhiking with a monogrammed suitcase, miles away from any half-useful imaginary highway.”

The Model K or "Vertegrand" is an upright piano introduced in 1903 by Steinway & Sons. It is the oldest essentially unchanged upright piano design currently in mass production. Although production was interrupted from about 1939 until its reappearance in 1982, the structural design has remained essentially the same for well over a century.

Pictured is Alex playing his Vertegrand in 2016 in his Los Angeles home. The studio has been described, “The core ideas for Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino took root in LA in the early months of 2017, as Turner began recording demos in his modest home studio - which had been drummer Matt Helders’ bedroom when the lads first moved to LA in 2012, but has transformed into a kind of creative nerve centre. On one side of the room, there’s the Steinway, a drum set, a couple of vintage organs, a few guitars. On the other, a workspace littered with cardboard cutouts and Exacto blades - the result of countless hours Turner spent designing and constructing the elaborate architectural model you see on the cover of the album. “I don’t know what happened there,” the singer admits. “I got a bit obsessed.” He’s even started crafting a model of the stage design for Arctic Monkeys’ upcoming tour.”

https://strangedaysindeed9.tumblr.com/post/173095506060/arctic-monkeys-tranquility-base-hotel-casino

(Arctic Monkeys Start Over) https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/arctic-monkeys-start-over-628863/

In this article from recordin Arctic Monkeys "AM" it states "Not inclined to stop there, the group also went to the trouble of making some of their guitar sounds mimic keys. Doubled guitar lines are rampant on AM, often with the use of a Hohner guitaret of all things."

Located behind Tom Rowley, Alex switched up his amps on the TBHC tour and went back to a single amp set up. Turner has used a two amp set up since their second album, on their last two tours he used a Selmer Zodiac Twin 30 as his main amp and a Magnatone 410 as his secondary. On this the Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino tour Alex ditched the Magnatone and a large amount of his pedalboard. Replacing his tremolo and reverb from his Magnatone, Turner added this this vintage Gretsch Valco 6144 Reverb Unit. This unit is an early 60’s model, known for its tremolo and reverb.

The reverb is lush and splashy, with a different character than the Fender tanks produced in the 60s. The tank has one control for Reverb Intensity and a small three-way rotary switch to select the range of the reverb (Normal, Bass or Treble).

Arctic Monkeys are well known for their Reverb and Tremolo tones, especially on AM. A good example of how Alex most likely uses this amp is for “Do I Wanna Know” as there’s a subtle tremolo from both guitars tracked.

Turner can be seen operating a Foster 250 in this photo taken during the recording of Arctic Monkeys' album "AM".

In the YouTube video "Arctic Monkeys - Snap Out Of It (Fox Uninvited Guest)" by CFOXVideos, Matt Helders is seen using the LP Latin Percussion LP862215 Salsa Rawhide Maracas, featuring the Puerto Rican flag.

Matt Helders originally used a Zildjian A Crash/Ride in his earlier albums but then later changed to the slightly darker, Zildjian K Crash/Ride. This Crash Ride can be seen in music videos such as 'Arebella' and 'R U Mine', aswell as many live performances, particulary from the 'AM' era. Proof of this can be seen at 2:17 in the live performance of 'R U Mine' that is linked above.

Matt Helders can be seen using the AKG C414 as underhead mics for his cymbals on the bands tours for both "Suck It And See" and "AM" between the years 2011-2014.

The AKG C414 can be seen in this image attached taken from the Arctic Monkeys show at Firefly Music Festival in 2014.

Jamie Cook plays a Gibson Les Paul during recording and live sessions when playing in Arctic Monkeys. Jamie seems to be a fan of Gibson guitars, playing a ES-335 in every tour and also a SG for AM. This Les Paul was first seen during the “Teddy Picker” music video. The music video features mainly footage of Arctic Monkeys recording the song in a live take. The guitar was seen played by Cook during the tour as well.

Alex Turner, the lead singer and lead guitarist of the band, played Jamie’s Guitar during the recording of the bands fourth album, “Suck It and See.” In an interview with producer of the mentioned album James Ford, he stated “Alex Turner's rig typically featured him playing his faithful Fender Bronco... or occasionally a Gibson Les Paul... through his crocodile‑skin Selmer Zodiac and '60s Magnatone amps. "’Al does more rhythmy stuff, and for that it was just pretty straight, quite bright and punchy into the Selmer. We sometimes ran that and his old Magnatone at the same time. It has a really nice vibrato on it and reverb. So sometimes we'd mix those two signals together, but just onto the one track.’”

Another section of the same interview with Ford, he mentions “A new sonic development for Arctic Monkeys on Suck It And See are the saturated Electro‑Harmonix Big Muff‑styled lead breaks that feature throughout — played mostly by Turner, but also by Jamie Cook. ‘It isn't a Big Muff actually,’ Ford points out. ‘But we were trying to get that Les Paul neck-pickup sound. They've got quite a few of those weird, boutiquey fuzz pedals that give you that warm, creamy fuzz, so we used that for the solos mainly. There was one called the Coopersonic Valve Slapper that we used quite a lot.’”

This interview mentions the use of Jamie’s Les Paul, as Turner was seen using the Gibson throughout that tour. Their next Album, AM, also features Alex playing this guitar. Seen throughout their live shows and pictures of the recording of the album.

The image shown shows Jamie playing the Les Paul during the Tranquility Base Hotel And Casino tour, as Alex stopped playing it in favor of sticking with his Fender Jazzmaster. Jamie started playing the Gibson again for only a handful of songs, sticking with his ES-335 as his primary guitar for a majority of the setlist.

Jamie Cook uses a Roland Space Echo RE-201 during the recording of “Suck It and See” onward for live shows and recording of albums other albums. The Space Echo can be seen in “Warp Speed Chic,” the recording of the bands 6th album, “Tranquility Base Hotel And Casino” and their 5th album, “AM.”

In an interview with James Ford about the recording of “Suck It and See,” Ford gives insight on why and how Jamie’s set up incorporates the Rolland. “Cook's guitar setup revolves around a '60s Simms Watts rig and custom‑built Rosewell Bluesman, though for the Sound City sessions, he also borrowed engineer James Brown's Audio Kitchen Big Chopper amp. For more ambient sounds, he'd plug into various toys, including a WEM Copicat or Roland Space Echo, Electro‑Harmonix Holiest Grail reverb pedal and Fulltone Deja Vibe stereo phase/chorus.” These extra “Toys” expanded Cook’s sound in various different ways not seen on Arctic Monkey’s previous albums.

Ford continues, "Cookie does either the spacey, watery, roomy sounds,” says Ford, "which were vibrato and reverb and a bit of echo. Or he does the kind of heavy, single‑note type of stuff. We used the Audio Kitchen for his heavier stuff — it had a Vox AC30 sort of vibe, but with a bit more presence and clarity. His live take would be close‑miked, and then we'd bring the amp into the room and maybe double it with a distant mic, Jimi Hendrix‑style, from the other side of the room.”

In the interview shows a picture of Jamie’s set up of the Space Echo along with a WEM Copicat. Pictured is Jamie’s set up during the “Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino” tour in 2018 & 2019. The Space Echo is seen behind Jamie, on top of his Hiwatt Stage/Studio 2x12 Combo amplifier.

(Sound on Sound, James Ford: Producing Arctic Monkeys) https://www.soundonsound.com/people/james-ford-producing-arctic-monkeys

Tom Rowley has a Boss TU-2 on his pedalboard during the Arctic Monkeys tour for the bands 5th album, “AM.” Rowley was not a part of the recording process of this album, like he was for Arctic Monkeys 6th album, so these pedals are likely his choice to replicate the third guitar that Alex Turner and Jamie Cook recorded during the recording of the album.

The Boss TU-2 is an essential pedal for any player, regardless of what type of music you are playing. Pictured is Tom’s set up during the “AM” tour. His set up includes various pedals run though Alex’s Fender Twin Reverb for his guitar tones and Jamie’s Rolland JC-120 for the keyboard and synthesizer.

Tom Rowley plays a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 on his pedalboard during the Arctic Monkeys tour for the bands 5th album, “AM.” Rowley was not a part of the recording sessions of this album, like he was for Arctic Monkeys 6th album, so his pedalboard try’s to replicate the third guitar that Alex Turner and Jamie Cook tracked during the recording of the album.

Housed in a powder coated Blue 16ga. steel enclosure, the dual-channel Full-Drive 2 Mosfet has two channels. The first channel is the Overdrive Mode, capable of clean boost or non-compressed overdrive or choose light to medium softer overdrives all while retaining which ever guitar he plays original tone. The Tone knob is a very effective presence control that can smooth out or add upper harmonics. The second channel is the "Boost Mode" with its own separate distortion control for medium to higher gains.

Pictured is Tom’s set up during the “AM” tour. His set up includes various pedals run though Alex’s Fender Twin Reverb for his guitar tones and Jamie’s Rolland JC-120 for the keyboard and synthesizer.

Nick O'Malley used the Rickenbacker 3000 for some songs of AM and in the "Teddy Picker" music videos.