Tony McPhee

Listed among McPhee's P.A. equipment in the liner notes of Hogwash. It is also attested by pink fish media user Paraheadache in this March 12, 2019 forum reply.

Hogwash liner notes

10 Quad 303 Main amps.

pink fish media, March 12, 2019 reply by Paraheadache on "There's a Quad 405 near me - should I buy it or not please?" by beammeup (March 8, 2019)

Martyn Miles said:

I use a 405 as a PA amplifier.

At home a 303 is used in an audio system.

Tony Mcphee used one when touring solo I saw him at the Darlington arts centre way back.

Part of McPhee’s home studio “T.S. Studios”, as specified on pg. 29 of the November 1974 issue of Beat Instrumental.

[...] an Audio Design F400RS phasing unit and F700RS compressors from the same source; […]

In the November 1974 issue of Beat Instrumental, a Sequencer 256 is pictured among the gear in Tony McPhee's home studio on page 28; it is discussed briefly on page 29. An "EMS Sequencer" had been listed a few months prior in McPhee's profile for the WWA press kit for Solid. It also appears on page 24 of the March 1976 issue of Beast Instrumental.

WWA press kit for Solid (1974), profile for McPhee

INSTRUMENTS: Gibson SG, Fender Stratocaster, Zemaitis, Yamaha, Harmony Acoustics, H/H Amplification, ARP 2600 synthesizer and EMS Sequencer

Beat Instrumental, November 1974, "Home Studios: Tony McPhee" by Del Robinson, pg. 28-29 (pictured)

Tony's also very interested in electronic music: 'I want to build an electronic music studio', and he enthusiastically demonstrated some gear in his present set-up. It includes a couple of ARP2600 synthesisers, a rhythm sequencer ('I found this unit invaluable'), and frequency shifter, a Compact piano and a Mellotron.

'I'm a guitarist, not a keyboards player,' commented Tony modestly. 'Though I find I'm really beginning to get into synthesisers now. They're very creative instruments and it's very much up to the individual musician what he gets out of them. I prefer the ARPs - not everyone can get along with EMS units. I know people have criticised the ARP because you have to patch across it, but I don't find this a problem.'

Beat Instrumental, March 1976, "Tony McPhee: The Hogs Return" by Chris Simmons, pg. 24 (pictured)

In the November 1974 issue of Beat Instrumental, a MK1 Crumar Compac-Piano is pictured among the gear in Tony McPhee's home studio on page 28; it is discussed briefly on page 29. It also appears on page 24 of the March 1976 issue of Beast Instrumental.

Beat Instrumental, November 1974, "Home Studios: Tony McPhee" by Del Robinson, pgs. 28-29 (pictured)

Tony's also very interested in electronic music: 'I want to build an electronic music studio', and he enthusiastically demonstrated some gear in his present set-up. It includes a couple of ARP2600 synthesisers, a rhythm sequencer ('I found this unit invaluable'), and frequency shifter, a Compact piano and a Mellotron.

'I'm a guitarist, not a keyboards player,' commented Tony modestly. 'Though I find I'm really beginning to get into synthesisers now. They're very creative instruments and it's very much up to the individual musician what he gets out of them. I prefer the ARPs - not everyone can get along with EMS units. I know people have criticised the ARP because you have to patch across it, but I don't find this a problem.'

Tony's also got a Mellotron (although he doesn't use it much now - 'It takes too long to tune up on stage and we don't like to lose any impact at the start of a performance.'), and a Compact piano.

Beat Instrumental, March 1976, "Tony McPhee: The Hogs Return" by Chris Simmons, pg. 24 (pictured)

Acquired by McPhee sometime after the recording of Hogwash and used for The Two Sides of Tony (T.S.) McPhee and Solid. It is specified in a November 1974 Beat Instrumental interview and is corroborated by the following:

Sounds, May 5, 1973, "Mac’s Home Cooking: The Groundhogs" by Jerry Gilbert

Tony started building the studio in January, the centrepiece being an eight track console which he’d procured from the De Lane Lea studios in Kingsway. As a technician for whom nothing less than the right sound is sufficient, he made up his mind that Hogwash would be the last album the Groundhogs would record in London.

[...]

"Studios really piss me off so I wanted to get my own studio done because it was necessary", McPhee blandly pointed out. "It started off as a four-track and then became eight when I got this equipment."

Beat Instrumental, November 1974, "Home Studios: Tony McPhee" by Del Robinson, pgs. 28

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.'

At the moment Tony's using the 3M eight-track machine he acquired from De Lane Lea, linked up to the 'garage' by remote control. He also has a Revox which he uses mostly as an effects machine — 'I've got a Varipitch as well and I can use them for automatic double tracking and phasing. I can take a signal out from the guide head of the eight-track machine, pass it through the Revox and mix it in with the playback head. I can then use it for phasing, editing, or playing echo — it's a very handy thing, especially on an eight-track machine, when you can't afford to use just one track for double tracking.'

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.

Although the model is unspecified, it can be deduced from the following:

1. The M23 was released in 1966.
2. In the November 1967 issue of Beat Instrumental, it is reported on page 14 that "DE LANE LEA have an eight track machine on order and hope to have it in operation before January."
3. The sixteen-track prototype of the eight-track-capable M56 was not unveiled until the 35th Audio Engineering Society (AES) Convention in October 1968, as attested by engineer C. Dale Manquen's paper for the event.
4. The June 1969 issue of Beat Instrumental quotes De Lane Lea's chief engineer, Barry Ainsworth, on page 24 saying "The equipment we have here consists of an 8-track machine, made by the 3-M company, and a new type of amplifier, our own design, half the size of the normal. We also have 4- and 2-track Ampex machines as well as mono."
5. The March 1970 issue of Beat Instrumental reports on page 23: "Equipment at Kingsway includes an 18-channel 8-track console, custom-built by Sound Techniques, which was also responsible for the electronics of the 8-track tape machine, which has a 3M deck. In addition, there are Ampex four-track, two-track and mono machines and an EMI mono."
6. The May 1970 issue of Beat Instrumental reports on page 12: "At De Lane Lea's Kingsway studios, the Groundhogs were putting finishing touches to their album".
7. In its preview of the 1972 Association of Professional Recording Studios (APRS) exhibition, it is reported on page 49 of the July 1972 issue of Studio Sound that "3M will feature a 16 track version of the new M79 designed by their Mincom division." This shows that the eight-track-capable M79 was still new at this time, thus postdating De Lane Lea’s 1967 order.
8. On page 328 of Recording the Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albums (2006) by Kevin Ryan & Brian Kehew, while discussing the recording of "It's All Too Much" at De Lane Lea in late May 1967, it is stated parenthetically that "DeLane Lea would later acquire a 3M 8-track , the same model chosen by EMI". According to Brian Gibson (here, here and here) and Ken Scott, the eight-track 3M tape machine at EMI was an M23.

Featured in this June 14, 2015 Facebook post.

This is from a book called 'Electronic music & musique concrete by F.C.Judd I've had for years, tried to make the ring modulator but despite going to every electronic shop in Lisle Street in Soho I couldn't find a suitable transformer!

An M67 appears atop McPhee's ARP 2600 in three photos from The Groundhogs' August 26, 1973 performance at the Kendal Pop Festival: this one by Derek Copeland and two by John Dennis (here and here).

McPhee's EMS Pitch to Voltage Converter is known from two Beat Instrumental articles: an interview in the November 1974 issue and his review of the ARP Avatar in the May 1978 issue. McPhee expresses dissatisfaction with the unit in the latter.

Beat Instrumental, November 1974, "Home Studios: Tony McPhee" by Del Robinson, pg. 29

JBL 4310s are used for playback – 'they seemed to be the best small-sized speaker I could use, and I'm limited by space'; an Ampex stereo machine for mix-down, fitted with Dolby noise reduction units; Astronic graphic equalisers; two HH 50-watt amps; an Audio Design F400RS phasing unit and F700RS compressors from the same source; an AKG echo unit; and a pitch to voltage converter, all of which makes for a pretty crowded 'spare room'!

Beat Instrumental, May 1978, "Instrument Review 6: ARP Avatar Guitar Synthesizer" by Tony McPhee, pg. 31

At the time there was a machine made by EMS called a pitch -to -voltage converter which should have done the trick; you just plugged an instrument into it, it scanned the pitch of the note you were playing, and it gave out the correct voltages to operate the synth. Unfortunately the guitar note is so rich in harmonics and transients that the converter flew about all over the place trying to find something steady to latch on to. So, somewhat disillusioned by what I thought would be the answer, I looked for another way.