Barrie Cadogan

In this Youtube video Barrie Cadogan can be seen using a grey Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face, around 0:33

When it came to laying down the guitar parts, Barrie turned to his black 1963 Gibson ES-345 that’s also seen plenty of action in his other role as guitarist in Primal Scream, with whom he’s performed since 2006. “First, I wanted to use my old ES-330, but it’s a little bit noisy. The ES-345 isn’t as noisy and it’s kind of similar, so I just went for that one. I always wanted a black Gibson.

“I was out with a friend and we said, ‘let’s go and have a look in Chandler’s.’ We were having a conversation about how we bothhad too many guitars and shouldn’t buy any more, and I walked in and saw this and I was like, ‘oh fuck! I always wanted a black Gibson.’

“Apparently, the guy who owned it before had it for about 30 years. The black refinish has worn away off the back of the neck and you can see the sunburst on the corner of the body, but it meant that the guitar was affordable. It’s a ’63, so it’s transitional, but the bridge pickup is a PAF.”

Screen Shot 2015-07-29 at 09.28.47

Barrie “just cranked up the treble” on his custom-built JPF Regent 25 combo and plugged the guitar straight in, sans effects. It was a fortuitous decision, as drummer/engineer Virgil Howe – son of Yes guitarist Steve – recalls: “It was lucky we didn’t put reverb on. We used a Lexicon plugin, it’s really good. Then they asked for less reverb on the guitar, so it was a good thing we’d recorded it dry and were able to give them a version with less reverb, otherwise we’d have had to re-record it. It was really lucky.”

Screen Shot 2015-07-29 at 09.33.54 Screen Shot 2015-07-29 at 09.29.12

The guitar sound was captured by a Sennheiser MD421-II microphone that Virgil likes because he can “get a lot more bass out of it,” and although he acknowledges that their studio approach wasn’t exactly scientific, the band have learned a thing or two about getting great guitar sounds: “We just stuck the mic up against the grille, there were no measurements going on,” Virgil reveals.

“No ambient mics, it was just straight in. At the time, we were just demoing, so we weren’t paying that much mind to it, but I suppose over the years we’ve found it’s important to record things as well as possible at all stages. If you record it well enough, there’s going to be a use for it down the line somewhere.

“It’s nice, it’s kind of an epitaph for this place – recording something that’s been used on something that’s gone global. It’s a nice way to wave goodbye to the eight or nine years that we’ve been here. I was here before I joined Little Barrie, so it’s been a long time. Barrie’s always said that the guitars sound good in here, there’s something about it. It’s a bit dead for drums, but we’ve found our way around that…”

Room for manoeuvre “It’s really good for guitars,” Barrie agrees. “You just get a lot of weight out of the guitar, without being muddy.

“We’ve found ways to create more of a room sound, sometimes by using reverbs to treat the master mix rather than the individual parts to create the illusion that you’re all in the same space. That’s what we’re trying to do sometimes; trying to get as much performance as we can into the recording and not have things sounding too separate or too fractured.”

When it came to recording bassist Lewis Wharton’s parts, the band again leaned on Barrie’s JPF amplifier. “Everything was the same,” Barrie remembers. “I might not even have changed the setting on the amp, we just left it.”

Recording bass through electric guitar amps is, of course, nothing new. However, it’s a studio trick that is often overlooked these days in favour of the massive bottom-end offered by modern bass rigs, which is something that Barrie laments: “Classic bass players from the past, like Carol Kaye, used to play through Fender Concert amps with 10-inch speakers. 12s are great for bass, too. A friend of ours from Nottingham plays that plectrum-style with flatwound strings, and he uses a Fender Twin a lot for recording.

“We’ve also used slapback echo on bass. There’s a lot of extra frequencies in modern recordings, which for some styles of music seems quite unnecessary.

“For dance music and stuff, you want all that super-low bass, it’s part of it, and people want to hear that and feel that when they’re in a club; but it’s like sometimes when we are on tour, you get to a gig and they’ve got all these sub speakers under the stage, and if you are a guitar band you don’t need all that super-low frequency.

“We’ve found that with mixing as well; taking a lot of the super-low frequencies out of kick drums, guitars and bass guitars, because they’re kind of irrelevant for the sort of music that we’re doing.”

Screen Shot 2015-07-29 at 09.36.16

Lo-fi fans It’s clear that Little Barrie are a band who aren’t afraid to use lo-fidelity equipment in pursuit of a sound that excites them. Given Barrie’s earlier comments about his four-track sounding better than GarageBand and the fact that the band routinely use a Tascam Porta 02 that was a £40 eBay score as a preamp on one of the mics when recording drums, we delve further into his love of tape.

“Cassette’s got a sound,” Barrie insists. “It’s different to one- or two-inch analogue multitrack tape, it’s got a thing of its own. I really love the cassette sound. It’s the old Keith Richards thing, the old Phillips cassette recorder on Street Fighting Man. When you haven’t got the luxury of lots of equipment, you try to find ways to create sounds that are more interesting.

“We’ve got a little amp that’s covered in paint, a little transistor thing; it’s great with fuzzboxes. It’s a Peavey amp that someone’s used as a painting stool while they were decorating. But with fuzzboxes it’s really dry, like a buzzsaw.

“We’ve even done bass through it. You can end up with absolute paralysis in the studio – you can EQ your guitar in an infinite number of ways. But if you think, ‘all we’ve got is this’, you start to work within that and you start to think, ‘well how much can we get out of this?’ Rather than, ‘let’s try plugin number 72’, you know?”

So how does it feel for the band, knowing that the recording they made within limitations in a small North London studio is now, thanks to the limitless viral potential of the internet, being appreciated worldwide? “It’s mad seeing all the little clips of people playing it on YouTube,” Barrie smiles.

“There’s even a big guy with a shaved head on the ukulele. It’s quite mad thinking there are people all around the world playing it.

We’ve had that with some of our other songs as well. There’s lots of people playing Surf Hell because it was on Rocksmith, the computer game.

“There was a guy from Minnesota with a cigarette in his mouth, and a tiny Japanese girl playing it on bass – the bass looked massive. I had a go on it on Rocksmith and I got a really low score because apparently I wasn’t playing it right!”

Visit Little Barrie’s official website for more.

Comments

0 comments

Tags: Interviews Related

Share1

DIY Workshop: Rift Amp Modifications Part 1

Test Pilots: Fender DeVille vs Bassbreaker

Interview: Johnny Marr – The melodic genius speaks to G&B

Orange Rocker 15 & 32 Review

Newsletter Sign-Up

Email address Subscribe

Repost montysguitars with repostappThank you theguitarmagazine for the kind words in the latest instalment of Guitar Classics You guys rock This editions a killer Who doesnt love a redstrat This fabulous fender is part of a stack of vintage guitar gear up for grabs at the next Gardiner Houlgate guitarauctions on March knowyourtone vintagefender candyapplered Heres another one for gibsunday featuring the excellent orangeamplifiers Rocker For plenty more where this came from subscribe to youtubecomtheguitarmagazine knowyourtone gibson orangeamps guitarvideo Happy gibsunday heres bernardbutlerofficial rocking out with an ES and lazyjprojects Jgibson es bernardbutler lazyj knowyourtone Coming soon from the makers of GB infopacked pages of guitar geek heaven knowyourtone guitar guitarmagazine Does your gibsonguitar LesPaul need tweaking Click the link in our profile for killer mods upgrades and tone tips knowyourtone guitar guitarandbassmagazine lespaulcustom gibsonlespaul gibson Repost chrisvinnicombe with repostappIts a tough job etc tworock stratocaster pardon Repost novoguitars with repostappGreat shot of a Sonic Blue Serus J from our good friends at theguitarmagazine sonicblue novoguitars dennisfano masterybridge Show us your pedal boards for a chance to be featured in Guitar Bass magazine using the hashtag readerboards This one belongs to Luke Wassell of OfKingsAndCaptains The March issue of GB is out now Including legendary instruments that changed rock history Read more via the link in our bio guitarandbass guitar tonefordays

I primarily used my cherry-red, ’62 Gibson ES-330. But there were a lot of guitars lying around Edwyn’s studio, and I’d randomly grab one of them for a small part here and there. For amps, I used a Traynor Studio Mate, a Gretsch Chet Atkins, and a Fender ’69 Vibralux 2x10. All of the amps were chosen for their unique sounds. I loved the Traynor’s weird, dry sound—it sounded much like the ’59 reissue Fender Bassman that I play live. The mics were mostly old Neumanns—although the odd [Shure] SM57 was used, as well. We varied the mic placement to capture the sound we wanted: in front, in back, sometimes close, sometimes far.

“I had a Les Paul TV Special for a while, a single-cut one. It was good, but then a friend of mine in the States told me about this guitar [the black Alnico-pickup Custom] and he knew who had it. We would sit around just talking about records and guitar sounds we liked and things like that. He helped me find that guitar and check it out.” How original is it? “Someone had put up a T-Top humbucker in the bridge, so it had been routed out and it was a refinished body and stuff. But it meant it was reachable, because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to afford it. But it had loads of potential. I managed to get hold of it, then took it to Gordon and Rob at Knight Guitars. They refilled the bridge pickup cavity [to fit a P-90] and put a repro pickup in there for a bit. Friends I knew from guitar circles helped me get other bits. Knight Guitars refretted it as well and did a cool job on that, and there were even some original caps – maybe bumblebee caps – in the case in a shitty state. But Gordon managed to get them working again and put them back in. “And then the guitar was up and running again and it was as it should be. However, later on I decided to get a Bigsby on it because I thought, ‘Well, it’s refinished and I use Bigsby a lot.’ I’d Bigsby’d all my other guitars, so then he found me the Bigsby. And then Martin Kelly said, ‘I’ve got an old P-90 I bought in a garage sale in America for $2. Do you want that?’ So then I had an original pickup. It was a Les Paul Junior one, so I had to change the plate and then the guys at Vintage said, ‘Do you want a cover? I’ve got the original cover.’ So they helped me get it a bit more original.

You just have to check the detail ; "Guitarist, Barrie Cadogan demonstrates the sounds and features of the JPF Regent Combo Valve Amp and has a bit of a noodle with his custom built Philippe Dubreuille Guitar."

“I was looking for something a little less powerful than my Bassman, but I still wanted 12-inch speakers and something near 25 watts, so we came up with this. “It’s got KT66 tubes in like the early Marshalls did,” Barrie explains. “I prefer their sound to EL34s – they’re a bit more like that 1965 or 1966 sound rather than Led Zeppelin. It’s a little clearer and not as grunty.”

In this Youtube video, Barrie Cadogan can be seen stepping on a Sola Sound Tone Bender III at 1:14

Barrie Cadogan showcases his use of a custom-built Fender Esquire on Instagram, expressing gratitude to those who contributed to its creation.

I primarily used my cherry-red, ’62 Gibson ES-330. But there were a lot of guitars lying around Edwyn’s studio, and I’d randomly grab one of them for a small part here and there. For amps, I used a Traynor Studio Mate, a Gretsch Chet Atkins, and a Fender ’69 Vibralux 2x10. All of the amps were chosen for their unique sounds. I loved the Traynor’s weird, dry sound—it sounded much like the ’59 reissue Fender Bassman that I play live. The mics were mostly old Neumanns—although the odd [Shure] SM57 was used, as well. We varied the mic placement to capture the sound we wanted: in front, in back, sometimes close, sometimes far.

Losing it . . . Love this guitar tho. Cheapest one I ever bought. 1960’s Silvertone Silhouette. Sounds ace (but not in my hands today). Once played much better by a real hero. Can’t crank the amps in isolation so got a little help from an old friend.

In this video, we can see Barrie Cadogan playing his Epiphone Casino.

“I tried to get a bit of a feel for it and just buckled down with GarageBand, trying to thrash out things and record as much as I could,” Barrie continues. “If I’m just doing stuff on my own, I prefer to use a Tascam Porta 07 four-track cassette recorder because it sounds better, but just for treating it like a sketchbook and doing stuff really quickly, GarageBand’s alright, you know? It might not always sound great because I don’t have a proper setup.

"It has a great tone. Really cool for blues, R&B, jump blues, rockabilly, jazz even - Anything really... I think it would work really well with flat wound strings too."

On this instagram post, Barrie Cadigan plays his Kay Red Devil.

“I tried to get a bit of a feel for it and just buckled down with GarageBand, trying to thrash out things and record as much as I could,” Barrie continues. “If I’m just doing stuff on my own, I prefer to use a Tascam Porta 07 four-track cassette recorder because it sounds better, but just for treating it like a sketchbook and doing stuff really quickly, GarageBand’s alright, you know? It might not always sound great because I don’t have a proper setup.

Barrie Cadogan plays "Yeah We Know You" solo.

He uses a 60s Framus Strato deluxe (Model no.: 5/168-54) with 3 pickups

In a photo on this Daily Mail article, Cadogan can be seen playing a Jerry Jones Electric Sitar.

Squier 40th Anniversary Vintage Edition Jazzmaster is seen in this post.

The Super is in the back, the description also confirms he uses a Super.

In the YouTube video titled "The Best Rhythm Guitar I’ve Heard In Ages (ft. Barrie Cadogan)," Barrie Cadogan is clearly seen playing a Gretsch G6128T-57 Duo Jet with Bigsby. This video, authored by Paul Davids, provides visual proof of Cadogan using this specific guitar model.

In this YouTube video, Barrie Cadogan is playing a 2022 Squier 40th Anniversary Jazzmaster through a Fender Champion 600 reissue amp.

In the YouTube video titled "Barrie Cadogan plays his 1962 Gibson ES-330," Barrie Cadogan is seen using a Vox Vintage Coil Cable. This video is provided by Guitar and showcases Barrie at Gibson HQ in London.

In the video titled "Little Barrie & Malcolm Catto – Full Performance (Live on KEXP)," Barrie Cadogan is seen playing a Gibson Custom 1957 Les Paul Reissue VOS Goldtop, which is equipped with P-90 pickups and a Bigsby vibrato. This performance was recorded live at ESMA in Rennes, France, during Trans Musicales 2025 and is available on KEXP's YouTube channel.

In a photo from Barrie Cadogan's gig in Groningen, Netherlands, in December last year, a Boss TU-3W Chromatic Tuner is visible on his pedalboard.

Here is the photo from the Groningen, Netherlands gig in December last year — you can see a Strymon Deco in it.

In a photo taken during Barrie Cadogan's gig in Groningen, Netherlands, in December last year, an Echo Fix EF-P2 Spring Reverb is visible on his pedalboard, confirming his use of this specific gear.

Barrie Cadogan uses the Fredric Effects Classic Super Unpleasant Companion, as evidenced by the pedalboard image provided.

A photo from Barrie Cadogan's gig in Groningen, Netherlands, in December last year clearly shows the use of a Fredric Effects West Germany Vintage Tremolo on his pedalboard.