Andrew VanWyngarden

Andrew VanWyngarden uses a custom semi-hollowbody electric guitar crafted by Saint Blue Guitar Workshop. This specific model, the Andrew VanWyngarden Custom, is featured in a photo available on PhotoBucket.

In this 2008 pedalboard photo (which is his pedalboard because it looks almost identical to his 2010 one), the Boss DC-2 Dimension C can be seen.

The Minilogue can be seen on the top rack of Andrew's set up

In this article by Sound on Sound it says MGMT used this mic when recording their album Congratulations - "The whole signal chain was nice — an old Neumann U47 microphone going into nice preamps — so everything we did there, we could take with us somewhere else,”

Upon a simple search, you can see that Andrew performs live using a Les Paul in Heritage Cherry Sunburst quite often.

Andrew can be seen playing a Magnatone Tornado in this video.

This Guitar can be seen throughout the whole Memphis 2017 concert video. Good View of the guitar at 49:53 The version Andrew is using is a black top and back wth a white body. His one also has a black painted headstock

(The guitar is actually a Jerry Jones 3-pickup Shorthorn, early '90s. I know, because I am the person who sold him the guitar. -BG)

Andrew VanWyngarden frequently performs live with his Gibson L-5S Custom guitar, as highlighted in Patricia Elenie's "Third Thursdays" feature. This guitar has often sparked curiosity and inquiries about its specific model.

Simply, at the bottom of this crazy cool article is a list of gear the used on their self titled album, and the Machindrum is right down in there.

In this article by Sound on Sound it says MGMT used an SM57 saying : "We had to mic the drums with this Radio Shack mic on the kick and an SM57 on the snare. Then, in the end, on parts of 'Weekend Wars' and 'The Youth' on the record, some of the drum tracks were actually just that, run through preamps.”

Andrew VanWyngarden is seen playing a Gibson SG Standard in a user-uploaded photo.

"VanWyngarden sequenced basslines on the drum machines but also controlled a Moog Minimoog Voyager, which makes the synthesized cowbell sound at the start of the song."

Andrew uses what appears to be the Gibson Aaron Lewis Southern Jumbo. You can tell it apart from the Traditional or the Sheryl Crow Southern Jumbo by the inlays.The Aaron Lewis Southern Jumbo Standard’s fingerboard is inlaid with vintage-style pearloid parallelograms. On the hand-aged model, even the parallelograms have been distressed to reflect years of use.

In this photo, VanWyngarden is visible playing the white Fender Stratocaster.

You can see Andrew playing Marshall 1959 head in this video.

In this article it states Andre VanWyngarden from MGMT used an Elka Panther when recording the band's album Congratulations

MGMT used this amp when recording their album Congratulations as stated in this article published by Sound on Sound. "James bought that late in the process,” says VanWyngarden. "We were playing it through a [Fender] Super Reverb amp, and it's a unique sound that people haven't really used that much. We used the 'Clav' sound and it was really thick through a guitar amp. It's pretty responsive. The strings are plastic and pretty loose. It's kind of hard to figure out how to play but it's pretty cool.”

Used during the making of Congratulations, as stated in this March 2, 2010 Brain Magazine interview.

English transcript of the video

Andrew: Originally, we wanted him [Brian Eno] to produce that track called "Brian Eno". [laughs] That didn't happen. The song is just... I think he's heard it by now, I think Brian Eno has heard it. It wasn't supposed to be offensive, you know.

The whole time we were in the studio, we had a deck, one of the series of the Oblique Strategies and we were comin' up—Pete Kember, Sonic Boom, had a notebook that he was taking notes in—we came up with "Obtuse Strategies" of our own, kind of like a take on his, but they were pretty silly.

Alister [Interviewer]: Do you have an example of your own strategy?

Andrew: The first one we wrote down was "Go fuck yourself." Yeah. [laughs]

French transcript provided from the article

ALISTER : Il y a un autre musicien anglais qui vous intéresse c'est Brian Eno. Il y a une chanson sur l'album qui porte son nom… Est-ce que vous avez essayé de travailler avec lui ? Les paroles sont un peu ambiguës à son sujet (nda le texte est tout au plus ironique, brossant le portrait d‘un Eno excessivement gourouesque « Je vois bien qu‘il est souriant/Mais qu‘est-ce qu‘il sait ?» etc...)

ANDREW : Au début on voulait qu'il produise cette chanson… Mais finalement ça ne s'est pas fait… Je pense qu'il est blessé maintenant… Mais ce n'était pas censé être offensant.

ALISTER : Elle est un peu maligne quand même…

ANDREW : Oui un peu…On voulait juste que ça soit un moment un peu léger sur l'album. C'est une chanson marrante pour danser.

ALISTER : Est-ce que vous utilisez les « stratégies obliques » (nda jeu de cartes inventé par Brian Eno pour débloquer les crises d'inspiration artistique) ?

ANDREW : Oui. On avait ça en studio avec Sonic Boom. On a même nos propres stratégies qui s'appellent les « stratégies obtuses » qui sont assez ridicules (rires) …

ALISTER : Vous avez un exemple ?

ANDREW : La première qu'on a écrite dit Go Fuck Yourself (rires) … Mais on en a des meilleures…

Ils cherchent…

BEN : Je m'en rappelle plus…

ANDREW : C'est des blagues en fait

In this photo, VanWyngarden is visible with the typical green Airline Bighorn.

At the 1:29 mark of the video Andrew is shown playing the Korg Mono/Poly to write their hit song Electric Feel

In this live performance from Jimmy Kimmel you can see the Roland JDXI below the KORG Minilogue next to him.

In this photo of the home setup of VanWyngarden, the Technichs SL 1200 MKII turntable is visible.

In this 2008 pedalboard photo (which is his pedalboard because it looks almost identical to his 2010 one), the Malekko Chicklet reverb is visible.

Directly at the beginning of this live performance of "Electric Feel" by MGMT, VanWyngarden can be seen playing a Fender Pawn Shop Bass VI.

"Kember's aforementioned EMS Synthi A was also much in use. "We ended up using it for the screaming sound on 'Lady Dada's Nightmare',” says Goldwasser. "That was just me staying up on the last night that we were recording in Malibu, right before we packed everything up. I was just making the weirdest noises. He's had some work done on it, a couple of the kind of common modifications. It has a soft sync built in, so you can get the type of oscillator sync sounds the Cars used all the time. But it's like it gets halfway there but it needs to catch up with itself, and sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't, so it does this kind of throaty thing that sounds like a voice. So that's what that screaming thing is, this weird function of the soft sync.”

"We used it as a guitar pedal a couple of times,” adds VanWyngarden. "We had some wild late?night jam sessions. I had it one time with a Gretsch guitar with a Bigsby on it going through the Synthi and it just sounded like a dive?bomber. I was just doing it for hours, over and over.”"

In this photo, which partially shows VanWyngarden's pedalboard, the Boss GE-7 equalizer is visible by its knobs.

In this 2008 pedalboard photo (which is his pedalboard because it looks almost identical to his 2010 one), the Empress Tap Tremolo pedal is visible.

At the 1:50 minute mark of this video the Palmer DREI Triple Single Ended Amp head is shown behind Andrew

In this article it says Andrew VanWyngarden and MGMT used this digital guitar when recording their album Congratulations

In this 2008 pedalboard photo (which is his pedalboard because it looks almost identical to his 2010 one), the Analogman modded Ibanez Tube Screamer can be seen.