Alex Turner

Alex Turner uses a Fender Silverface Twin Reverb for performances with Arctic Monkeys. While not his main amplifier, the amp can be seen used sporadically throughout live concerts/shows as well as recording sessions. Alex also uses the amp during The Last Shadow Puppets second tour. During the bands “Humbug” era, John Ashton uses the amp for his guitar rig and during the “AM” era Tom Rowley uses the amp for his.

The Fender Silverface Twin Reverb is crystalline, versatile, and packed to the gills with punch. The loudest of the company's original line of amps, this model was designed with 6L6 tubes. The Twin's dual Normal/Vibrato channel design is outfitted with three-band EQs and Bright switches for compensation at higher volumes on each side and controls for speed/intensity/reverb. Stacked with headroom, this leviathan can handle the nastiest dirtboxes with the Master volume knob which is unique to the Silverface.

Pictured is Alex Turner during Arctic Monkeys performance at the 2012 Olympics in London, England while they performed a cover of The Beatles “Come Together” and “I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor.” Turner can be seen using his Silverface and his Fender Blackface Twin Reverb for a duel set up with both of them at different settings ran at the same time with his Les Paul.

In an April 2016 interview with Miles Kane and Alex Turner of Last Shadow Puppets, Alex Turner talks about recording demos for their album on a Tascam 388: "It’s the establishing shot! We had been demoing on my Tascam 388 eight-track recorder, working on some stuff on that, and then we just had to convince James Ford to do it again." Original source here.

"Mic-wise, when it came to recording Alex Turner’s vocals (and the backing vocals sung by Matt Helders), Abbiss moved between a Shure SM7 and a Neumann U67 and U87. “If Alex was doing a vocal live, we used the SM7, ‘cause it’s really good at rejecting spill from anything else. The U67 they’ve got there is good and middly sounding. Matt never did his BVs as part of the live takes, he concentrated on his drumming. The 87 was there for the BVs.”- Jim Abbiss, producer of "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor".

Used in the Arctic Monkeys - Cornerstone music video.

Alex Turner can be seen playing a Martin GT-75 Electric Guitar in the video of for Meeting Place.

The Shure SM57 Instrument/Vocal microphone is used to mic the Selmer Zodiac Twin 30 Amplifier that lead guitarist Alex Turner uses for his performances with the Arctic Monkeys.

"Mic-wise, when it came to recording Alex Turner’s vocals (and the backing vocals sung by Matt Helders), Abbiss moved between a Shure SM7 and a Neumann U67 and U87. “If Alex was doing a vocal live, we used the SM7, ‘cause it’s really good at rejecting spill from anything else. The U67 they’ve got there is good and middly sounding. Matt never did his BVs as part of the live takes, he concentrated on his drumming. The 87 was there for the BVs.”- Jim Abbiss, producer of "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor".

in this video you can see Alex using m1 pickup.

Alex Turner plays a Magnatone Custom 280 that replaced his long used Selmer Zodiac Twin 30 for live performances during Arctic Monkeys 6th tour of their “Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino” tour. Turner switched his amps on the bands UK tour of their 6th album in 2018 around the time of their Manchester and Sheffield shows. Alex uses this Magnatone for guitar, replacing his Selmer Zodiac that he has been using since the bands “Favourite Worst Nightmare” tour. Alex also uses a Dynacord Rex, this amp replaced his Fender Twin Reverb that he used to amplify his Wurlitzer 200.

Magnatone's top of the line amplifier of the late 1950's was the true stereo output amplifier called the 280. The 280 comes with two input channels each with "volume", "treble", and "bass" controls in a Baxandall tone stack arrangement. The inputs are mixed through the Stereo F.M.Vibrato. Turner’s tone during the “Tranquility Base Hotel And Casino” era is vastly different compared to previous years. Alex switched back to a single amplifier, formerly his Selmer and now this Magnatone. During the “AM” tour, alex used a Magnatone 480 with his Selmer for vibrato and reverb tones. This amp is the best of both worlds for what Alex seems to get out of his amps.

Pictured during the bands show in 2018 at Austin City Limits, the Magnatone 280 can be seen behind the keyboard next to Alex’s Gretsch Reverb Unit and Roland Space Echo.

Alex Turner used this vintage Dynacord Rex during Arctic Monkey’s Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino tour, replacing his Fender Twin Reverb to amplify his Wurlitizer 200A around halfway though the TBHC tour, some point near the Sheffield/Manchester shows. The Dynacord can be seen behind bassist Nick O’Malley next to Alex’s Gretsch amplifier and his Rolland Space Echo.

This Dynacord Rex amp was built in Germany. The Rex amp, produced between 1963 and 1968, was at that time the most luxurious combo that Dynacord produced. It’s a 35-40W RMS combo with a dual EL-34 power stage and a rather unusual speaker configuration consisting of a duet of a 10” and an 8” Isophon speaker.

This amp has a powerful clean sound with ample headroom, especially when played in the Phono setting that offers more gain, mids and low end. The tremolo effect sounds great and has a quite strong amplitude and cut. Because of an unusual design in the preamp the onset of overdrive at high volume is all but subtle. As soon as there’s no headroom left a sound similar to a ‘60s fuzz appears while the total volume drops slightly. This oddity can be overcome by using a pedal for drive tones. The Rex would serve great as an effect pedal platform.

In this video Alex plays "Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?" with this guitar in 2.27..

Alex Turner used a Hiwatt Studio/Stage 2x12 Combo during performances at different points thought Arctic Monkeys career. The amp, which Jamie Cook has the exact same model of, can be seen at different points though out their second tour, Favourite Worst Nightmare. While only being seen at that tour, it has been mentioned in an interview with Jim Abbiss during the recording of their first album, “Given the channel limitations, in terms of effects, Abbiss and Barny were working with only an Echoplex tape delay and mono plate reverb. “‘The other effects were all from ambient miking and the amazing spring reverb built into Alex’s Hiwatt amp. So that was it. And we were riding it live. It was really good fun. You basically just did a few performances and chose the one you thought was best.’” While not specifically mentioning the type of Hiwatt used, there is the assumption that he is referring to this model as Alex has been seen playing it.

Turner had not been seen using this amp again until Arctic Monkeys live performance at Maida Vale in 2018. The amp was likely hooked up to one of the pianos or keyboards used. In this picture we can see the Hiwatt Studio/Stage 2x12 Combo and a Selmer Zodiac Twin 30 next to each other amplifying keyboard and pianos. The Selmer is the same model Turner used for his Guitar set up and can be seen in this picture next to his Vox Starstream.

(Sound on Sound interview with Jim Abbiss) https://www.soundonsound.com/people/arctic-monkeys-i-bet-you-look-good-dancefloor

(Arctic Monkeys Live at Maida Vale in 2018) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aR7blaZOPa4

Turner can be seen in this photo with a Farfisa Combo Compact organ.

At 0:45 you can actually see the Beta 57, a mic that Alex used to use before the Humbug era.

Turner can be seen in this photo playing a Martin GT-70 guitar.

At 3:45 of this video, Turner can be seen playing a Gibson Vintage LG-2 3/4.

In this article by Sound on Sound producer James Ford stated : ""Quite a lot of the tracks that we did were literally Alex playing guitar and singing and then me playing piano or Bill Ryder?Jones [ex?the Coral] playing guitar. But all around the one mic, a C12, straight into the Pultec and then straight onto the mono half?inch machine.." when recording the Arctic Monkey's 2011 album Suck It and See

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/

Alex Turner can be seen using a Roland Space Echo RE-201 during this performance at Austin City Limits in 2018 as well as throughout their tour of Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino. Located under the Gretsch amplifier behind Alex. Before Turner added the Space echo into his setup, he used a Boss DM-1 Delay Machine for his delay signal and reverb from his Selmer or Magnatone amps. While likely still using reverb from those amps, he gets his delay from this Rolland. The Space Echo can first be seen used by Alex during the recording of Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino in Arctic Monkey’s film titled “Warp Speed Chic” seen in his set up during recording. Jamie Cook has been using a Space Echo since their Suck It and See era, noted by producer James Ford that Cook got his delay signals from the Rolland. Jamie has been seen using it during all mentioned tours, including AM.

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/

Rock guitarist Alex Turner uses the Dunlop DC-Brick Multi-Power Supply in his pedalboard from the first album up until the AM tour.

This is Miles Kane's Gibson. Alex can be seen playing the ES in the album notes for The Last Shadow Puppets - Everything You've Come to Expect. Alex also used it sporadically on the first Last Shadow Puppets tour.

"Mic-wise, when it came to recording Alex Turner’s vocals (and the backing vocals sung by Matt Helders), Abbiss moved between a Shure SM7 and a Neumann U67 and U87. “If Alex was doing a vocal live, we used the SM7, ‘cause it’s really good at rejecting spill from anything else. The U67 they’ve got there is good and middly sounding. Matt never did his BVs as part of the live takes, he concentrated on his drumming. The 87 was there for the BVs.”- Jim Abbiss, producer of "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor".

Alex Turner used this Selmer 30ss “Super Reverb” during the Favourite Worst Nightmare era. The amp can be seen pictured alongside Turner’s other Selmer, the Selmer Zodiac Twin 30, during the recording of “Teddy Picker” in their music video.

This is a 30 watt solid state amp, equipped with two 12" speakers. Two channels, with simple volume, bass and treble controls. Reverb fitted to second channel. Great for a clean 60's sound which Turner uses on songs such as “Florescent Adolescent” which is a great example of that clean, bitey British sounding tone that Selmer amps can achieve.

Alex Turner uses this strap in combination with multiple guitars including his Ovation Viper, Fender Jazzmaster and custom Warmoth Jazzmaster.

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.

In this video, Turner uses a double manual Vox Super Continental Organ. The model name can be seen on the top right of the organ at :06.

"There’s also a Sennheiser 421 in the back of each cabinet to give more energy for FOH," mentions Will Doyle, a sound engineer that knows about Alex Turner's equipment setup, in reference to the Sennheiser MD 421 Microphone.

In this "All Access: Mixing Arctic Monkeys" article from NewBay Media's connect2, Guitar tech Steve Bodie says "Everyone has Ultimate Ears UE7s and Shure PSM1000 in-ear systems."

Alex Turner used this tape machine when recording the Arctic Monkeys new album Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino