Queens of the Stone Age – Songs For The Deaf

Dan Druff (Guitar Tech) tells that one of the main pedals Josh used during SftD was the ZVex Super Hard On (00:24)

Used live during the Songs for the Deaf and Post Pop Depression tours. The former is documented by www.stonerrock.com's Queens of the Stone Age page and this July 6, 2004 eyewitness account from DIYstompboxes.com user Prive, while the latter is documented by a March 30, 2016 Instagram post by Sarah Lipstate of Homme's board from a show at Keller Auditorium.

stonerrock.com

[http://www.stonerrock.com/qotsa/Image/Pics/gear/joshbosstuner.jpg] [http://www.stonerrock.com/qotsa/Image/Pics/gear/joshbossoverdrive.jpg] [http://www.stonerrock.com/qotsa/Image/Pics/gear/bassmicro.jpg]

Josh Boss Tuner used in the Kyuss days. I guess he still use that. On the other pic, you can see a boss overdrive really clearly. Don't know the other one. Probably the boss tuner and a volume pedal. Josh was also spotted with an Electro Harmonix Bass Micro-synth. Travis sended that good peice of info too : "I was at the Troubadour show (the one on the SFTD DVD) and was standing right in front of Josh. His pedals for that show were an Ernie Ball volume pedal, on old beat up Boss SD-1, a Way Huge Aqua Puss (400ms analog delay - rare and expensive), and he had a Whirlwind Selector pedal covered in bright green tape with "BONUS" written over the A + B switch. (I think I also saw it on the Letterman performance)"

DIYstompboxes.com

He used a SD1 Boss always "on" in the QOTSA Argentinian shows, of course, Ampegs everywhere.

Saludos, Marcelo.

Lipstate

Ok, you guys freaked me out about posting Josh's pedalboard. But he said it was ok so here it is again: Josh Homme's pedalboard for the post pop depression tour with Iggy Pop!

An article about Boss SD-1 published in January 2023 Guitar World issue also talks about settings Homme used on the pedal. Both level and tone knobs were set to 10, while drive was set to 0.

Kosh has used the SD-1 with a vintage Ampeg amp with a distinctive midrange peak along with a Boss GE-7 graphic EQ to further boost 400Hz. This SD-1 setting adds sizzle and clarity to his thick-as-molasses midrange.

Josh Homme used both a Peavey Standard, a Musician and various other PA's on Songs for the Deaf and Lullabies to Paralyze. The latter can be seen in this photo from this July 2005 Sound on Sound article, while the former is mentioned by Eric Valentine in this September 14, 2019 "Making Records with Eric Valentine" video at 30:45. The amp is shown in an October 29, 2001 photo at 31:38. Two can be seen in live in this BBC still and in this June 23, 2017 Instagram post.

So then, there's the main guitar and this was sort of an interesting moment in the guitar recording on the project because we had been using a bunch of crazy stuff, you know? Josh was primarily into using bass amps for his guitars and so we used these Ampeg V-4Bs that he brought in. That's what was used when we were tracking the band, tracking the basics with the band. And then we took this trip to Black Market Music and we got a bunch of just crazy, shitty old transistor Peavey amps. So they're like these Peavey Musician amps and stuff like that. I have some pictures that I can show you of the amps that illustrate that. [shows October 29, 2001 photo] So this is one of the miking setups, this was after... There was a moment when we had to leave Barefoot and go to another studio called The Site (...) So, these pictures are from that part of the session. This miking setup was probably used for the overdub guitar that you're gonna hear on this song ["No One Knows"]. But this right here, this is the V-4B. This is another Ampeg amp, this is a VT-40... and you can see it peekin' through, this is one o' these shitty Peavey transistor amps that we bought at Black Market. You can see it better here. Yeah, this is that Peavey. This was sort of our favorite. We bough two or three of these Peavey heads and this one sort of did the best.

It is also said that he used a Standard on Son's Of Kyuss and Wretch.

A vintage three-switch V-4B was used for Songs for the Deaf, as mentioned by Eric Valentine in this September 14, 2019 "Making Records with Eric Valentine" video at 30:45. The amp is shown in an October 29, 2001 photo (pictured) at 31:38.

So then, there's the main guitar and this was sort of an interesting moment in the guitar recording on the project because we had been using a bunch of crazy stuff, you know? Josh was primarily into using bass amps for his guitars and so we used these Ampeg V-4Bs that he brought in. That's what was used when we were tracking the band, tracking the basics with the band. And then we took this trip to Black Market Music and we got a bunch of just crazy, shitty old transistor Peavey amps. So they're like these Peavey Musician amps and stuff like that. I have some pictures that I can show you of the amps that illustrate that. [shows October 29, 2001 photo] So this is one of the miking setups, this was after... There was a moment when we had to leave Barefoot and go to another studio called The Site (...) So, these pictures are from that part of the session. This miking setup was probably used for the overdub guitar that you're gonna hear on this song ["No One Knows"]. But this right here, this is the V-4B. This is another Ampeg amp, this is a VT-40... and you can see it peekin' through, this is one o' these shitty Peavey transistor amps that we bought.

Josh Homme has used three 1984 Ovation Ultra GP guitars throughout his music career. One of the them comes in the sunburst design (as seen in this picture), the other is in black, and the last one is red.

Used for the guitar on "The Pretender" and the drums on Songs for the Deaf, as stated by mix engineer Rich Costey in this March 2008 Sound on Sound interview and by producer Eric Valentine in this September 14, 2019 "Making Records with Eric Valentine" video at 24:29. The latter is specified in this November 13, 2020 equipment sale list for Barefoot Recording and pictured in a corresponding November 24, 2020 Instagram post.

Sound on Sound, March 2008, "Secrets Of The Mix Engineers: Rich Costey - The Foo Fighters: 'The Pretender'"

"In the case of 'The Pretender' I had a couple of Urei 1176 compressors on Dave's guitar, to pump them up a bit and make them sound more aggressive whilst barely compressing. I had the Gates Sta-Level compressor on the clean guitar in the intro, with quite a lot of compression and a very slow recovery, plus a 33609 with a very short recovery time on Chris' rhythm guitars, to beef them up a little bit. I worked hard to make the octave guitars in the last chorus stick out. I ended up EQ'ing them with the 550a, in addition to the console, to make them cut through this formidable army of rhythm guitars. The rest was just rides. The stereo phase and flange guitars used in the track already had those effects on them."

An image of the item can be found here.

One of Rich Costey's racks, containing an impressive array of classic and modern gear, including a Chandler EMI TGI2345 Curve Bender EQ; two Mercury EQ-Hi Program Equalizers; Thermionic Culture Vulture; an SPL Transient Designer that was used to lengthen the sound of the toms; an SPL De-esser that was applied to the vocal tracks; a Roger Mayer Model RM58, which compressed the background vocals; a pair of Universal Audio 1176 limiters, which Costey used to make Dave Grohl's guitars "more aggressive"; an EAR 822Q EQ; and a pair of EAR 660 Limiting Amplifiers that came into play for bus compression.

"Making Records with Eric Valentine", September 14, 2019

And there's an 1176. 1176s were blended for compression, I think for the entire drum kit.

Used for the snare on Songs for the Deaf, as stated by producer Eric Valentine in this September 14, 2019 "Making Records with Eric Valentine" video at 24:15.

Then I have distortion on the snare, that would've been my Tube Driver. [pictures a Chandler Tube Driver rackmount]

Used for the drums on Songs for the Deaf, as stated by producer Eric Valentine in this September 14, 2019 "Making Records with Eric Valentine" video at 19:16.

And so, I wanted to try and get away from having microphones right up on the toms and so I just had drum kit mics. So there was a mic that was sort of over on the left side that picked up the snare over here and the rack tom. There was this CMV 3, I don't know if you're familiar with those, with this old, you know, it's one of the very first condenser mics ever made by Neumann, and so that was in the middle of the kit and then I had another mic over here [on the right] so, these were C12As [gestures to left and right sides], I had the CMV 3 in the middle, and so here's the CMV 3. [plays isolated track, open another] There's the C12A on the left... [plays right C12A track] And so these three mics together would just give you, like, this stereo picture of the drum set that's really punchy and in your face because you're not in this big room, but the mics aren't, like, right up on the drums, you know, so for the toms, you know, the mics are a little further away. And then I had C-37As way up high in the room just capturing the ambience of the room.

Used as a room mic for the drums on Songs for the Deaf, as stated by producer Eric Valentine in this January 14, 2012 Rhythm interview and in this September 14, 2019 "Making Records with Eric Valentine" video at 19:16.

Rhythm, January 14, 2014, "Classic drum sounds: No One Knows"

Where exactly were the drums recorded for the track?

"The drums were recorded in a small isolation booth. It was roughly 8'x12' but not exactly a rectangular shape and the ceiling was quite tall (16'). It was very dead acoustically. It has curtains and cork on the walls and carpet on the floor. The idea was to have a room sound that still sounded very tight, focused, punchy and kind of claustrophobic. I used a pair of Sony C37A microphones for room mics. They were positioned up high - maybe about 12' up. I would just move them around in the room until they both sounded balanced between the kick and the snare and were roughly equal distances from the snare drum."

"Making Records with Eric Valentine", September 14, 2019

And so, I wanted to try and get away from having microphones right up on the toms and so I just had drum kit mics. So there was a mic that was sort of over on the left side that picked up the snare over here and the rack tom. There was this CMV 3, I don't know if you're familiar with those, with this old, you know, it's one of the very first condenser mics ever made by Neumann, and so that was in the middle of the kit and then I had another mic over here [on the right] so, these were C12As [gestures to left and right sides], I had the CMV 3 in the middle, and so here's the CMV 3. [plays isolated track, open another] There's the C12A on the left... [plays right C12A track] And so these three mics together would just give you, like, this stereo picture of the drum set that's really punchy and in your face because you're not in this big room, but the mics aren't, like, right up on the drums, you know, so for the toms, you know, the mics are a little further away. And then I had C-37As way up high in the room just capturing the ambience of the room.

Used for the drums on Songs for the Deaf, as stated by producer Eric Valentine in this September 14, 2019 "Making Records with Eric Valentine" video at 19:16.

And so, I wanted to try and get away from having microphones right up on the toms and so I just had drum kit mics. So there was a mic that was sort of over on the left side that picked up the snare over here and the rack tom. There was this CMV 3, I don't know if you're familiar with those, with this old, you know, it's one of the very first condenser mics ever made by Neumann, and so that was in the middle of the kit and then I had another mic over here [on the right] so, these were C12As [gestures to left and right sides], I had the CMV 3 in the middle, and so here's the CMV 3. [plays isolated track, open another] There's the C12A on the left... [plays right C12A track] And so these three mics together would just give you, like, this stereo picture of the drum set that's really punchy and in your face because you're not in this big room, but the mics aren't, like, right up on the drums, you know, so for the toms, you know, the mics are a little further away. And then I had C-37As way up high in the room just capturing the ambience of the room.

Nick's #1 Bass during the Songs for the Deaf era, he spray-painted the headstock black and added a black pickgaurd, seymour duncan 1/4 pound pickups, and a badass II bridge.

Used for bass on Songs for the Deaf, as stated by producer Eric Valentine in this September 14, 2019 "Making Records with Eric Valentine" video at 29:02.

And then, there's this track. And so this amp is a Peavey Decade and it's an amp about this big. It's a tiny little Peavey solid state practice amp. (...) And it has a really cool little saturation knob in there, or distortion knob, and so it would get cool distortion and you could have it at really low volume and I ended up putting a Coles 4038 right up on it and a Cole 4038 normally would not be able to handle low end at all. Like, if you put it in front of a bass amp with any reasonable amount of volume, it would just totally probably rip the ribbon in half. But this thing, you would set it super super quiet, just whisper quiet with this Coles 4038 up on it and it got the most incredible low end. [plays audio track] And it ended up being the majority of the bass sound for the record. It's an amazing sound. [laughs] Tiny little amp, this big. But ultimately, it's a blend of all these.

Used for bass on Songs for the Deaf, as stated by producer Eric Valentine in this September 14, 2019 "Making Records with Eric Valentine" video at 29:02.

And then, there's this track. And so this amp is a Peavey Decade and it's an amp about this big. It's a tiny little Peavey solid state practice amp. (...) And it has a really cool little saturation knob in there, or distortion knob, and so it would get cool distortion and you could have it at really low volume and I ended up putting a Coles 4038 right up on it and a Cole 4038 normally would not be able to handle low end at all. Like, if you put it in front of a bass amp with any reasonable amount of volume, it would just totally probably rip the ribbon in half. But this thing, you would set it super super quiet, just whisper quiet with this Coles 4038 up on it and it got the most incredible low end. [plays audio track] And it ended up being the majority of the bass sound for the record. It's an amazing sound. [laughs] Tiny little amp, this big. But ultimately, it's a blend of all these.

Troy used a black Gibson Les Paul Standard for songs on the Songs for the Deaf Tour (2002-2004).

Troy Van Leeuwen used this gibson ES-175 heavily during "Song for the deaf" era. You can see this guitar on "No one knows" music video.