The Groundhogs – Black Diamond
The music gear and equipment used by the artists, producers, engineers, and more involved in the making of the 1976 album Black Diamond.
Music from Black Diamond
Artists on Black Diamond
Gear Used On Black Diamond
Explore the instruments, equipment, software, and production tools used in the making of The Groundhogs – Black Diamond (1976). Click more on each item to see exactly how it was used.
Studio Equipment used by Tony McPhee on Black Diamond
Avg price: $16.50
The first Cadac console ever made, which was designed for Morgan Studios before heading to Majestic Studios, was purchased by McPhee in 1973 after the recording of Hogwash. It was used for Solid, Crosscut Saw and Black Diamond.
Recorded on 3M 8 track with Cadac desk and Ampex stereo machine.
Beat Instrumental, November 1974, "Home Studios: Tony McPhee" by Del Robinson, pgs. 28-29 (pictured)
Tony certainly has plenty of opportunity to develop his engineering now. For a start, the centrepiece of the crowded control room is the Cadac 8-track desk, which he bought second-hand from Majestic Studios in Clapham. 'It can be converted very easily to 16.' This is the second desk Tony's installed in his home studio. 'I did a deal with De Lane Lea, before they became Kingsway Recorders, and bought about £5,500 worth of gear, which was the basis of a complete studio.
'I used the original desk to do my solo album, but it didn't have the advantage of pan pots, so when this one came up I decided to take it. I've ordered an Ampex 16-track recording machine which I should be getting very soon.'
Beat, March 1976, "Tony McPhee: The Hogs Return" by Chris Simmons, pg. 24 (pictured)
Rock's Backpages audio, "AUDIO: The Groundhogs' Tony McPhee (1997)" by John Tobler (@ 53:38)
Tony "T.S." McPhee: So, by that time, I'd got equipment, 'cause my idea was it's cheaper to buy the equipment. Then you can, from that point, you can have as many albums as you'd like. Yeah.
John Tobler: Yeah. You mean recording it?
McPhee: Recording from it, yeah.
Tobler: Okay.
McPhee: So I actually bought out De Lane Lea... a eight-track,
Tobler: Yeah.
McPhee: which is what we did Thank Christ and Split on.
Tobler: Oh.
McPhee: And other assorted bits and pieces. And so, from that point on, I did my own albums. We did— I did Solid out there. [...] and built out to a sixteen-track. So, Solid was eight-track and then, uh... yeah, Crosscut Saw and Black Diamond were both on sixteen.
www.philsbook.com, "Majestic Recording Studios"
There were some differences of opinion about Newells acoustic design and choice of equipment so engineer David Hadfield from Maximum Sound studios was brought in as a consultant. He convinced Collier to abandon Philip Newell's ides and that he should basically start again with the studio. Eddie Veale was commissioned to sort out the acoustics; Hadfield contacted Clive Green who had just set up the Cadac company about the possibility of supplying a console. Clive Green was about to deliver a new console to Morgan Studios to replace their original Cadac, one of the very first desks built by Clive Green.
So when the studio finally opened commercially it was equipped with the Cadac 16:8 (with 3 built in Pye compressors) and an 8-track Ampex tape machine.
[...]
Trident B
In April 1973 Majestic went 16 track installing a Trident B desk.
"Majestic studios in Clapham had a Trident B Range desk. It was one of the earliest B Ranges ( John Kongos had the first one in his studio in Mortlake, Saturn Sound in Worthing had the second one ( clad in blue formica..) My friend Dougal and I wired the console frame (for Majestic). When I went down there to do some sort of mod shortly after it was installed, the engineer was Roger Wilkinson - and he played me the 2-track of Jimmy Helms "I'm Gonna Make You an Offer You Can't Refuse" which had recently been recorded there, so that would make it 1973". Gwyn Mathias.
The Morgan Cadac desk was put up for sale and bought by Tony McPhee of The Groundhogs for his home studio.
Drum Sets used by Mick Cook on Black Diamond
Avg price: $225.00
A kit of Auto-Tunes can be seen in this footage of The Groundhogs performing "Your Love Keeps Me Alive" at the Marquee on October 28th, 1976. The kit is recognized in this March 13, 2023 Facebook post by Kyle Upton.
The drummer has a set of Auto Tunes.