Steve Albini

One of the main pedals on Steve Albini's board, he can be shown discussing and using the Harmonic Percolator in this video. Did I also forget to mention that this pedal f**king rules?

This was Steve's main guitar during the later days of Big Black/Early Rapeman, before switching to Travis Bean. Little is known about the origins of this guitar, other than it was made (probably) custom for him in an Evanston guitar store (Flynn Guitars). He smashed it in Big Black's final show, and had it replaced with an identical guitar before Rapeman began. Rumors have it that Kurt Cobain had some of the broken pieces from the show. The replacement now resides in the studio, and was last used in Big Black's 2006 reunion show.

Steve can be seen with a Travis Bean TB500 at 0:42 in this video, and in this photo.

"Steve Albini - Producer/Engineer: Steve frequently uses a ZVEX Super Hard On when recording albums"

Used as a backup guitar to Steve's main Travis Bean guitar. Used mainly with Shellac.

Also seen in this picture, Steve has used this amp since the inception of Schellac. It is now enclosed in a road ready box, as seen here.

"When I first got the 606 I carried it around and listened to it like a walkman, and over the course of a day I would gradually build and re-build a rhythm until it was satisfying to listen to on its own."

video recorded at Electrical Audio, Steve Albini's studio, mic shown at 2:39

Can be seen in use with a Hiwatt cab at the 3:47 mark.

Steve can be seen using his Veleno throughout this performance. It now stays in his studio (As can be seen here and in this Failure documentary at the 8:00 mark).

On the Facebook page dedicated to the Intersound IVP, Steve Albini is shown using the 1970s Intersound IVP live. Additionally, the bassist from Shellac provides insights into how they utilized it during studio recordings.

video recorded at Electrical Audio, Steve Albini's studio, item shown at 8:56

One of Steve's two main guitars during both Big Black and Rapeman. Features a brass pickguard, no middle pickup, two Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders (that are wired out of phase), an alembic stratoblaster, Warmouth tele neck (currently, it had a logoless strat neck originally), Mighty Mite hardware, and what looks like a volume pot with no knob on it. Originally acquired by trading a 'Mosrite the Ventures' guitar for it. He regrets this decision.

Pictured here , here. , here and here

He talk about it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ecYSv832cA

We also have the Quantec XRS XL, which for my money is the best digital reverb ever.

In this picture you can slightly see the pick he is holding. It is metal and he is also known for using metal picks with notches out on the tip.

I think a couple of things matter most. Hot single-coil pickups (SD Quarter-pounder Tele/strat, Travis Bean/EGC, P90s), mild preamp distortion and very little midrange.

video recorded at Electrical Audio, Steve Albini's studio, mic shown at 3:10

video recorded at Electrical Audio, Steve Albini's studio, item shown at 4:10

video recorded at Electrical Audio, Steve Albini's studio, item shown at 4:01

video recorded at Electrical Audio, Steve Albini's studio, item shown at 3:20

Steve Albini can be seen playing through a Marshall 1960A 4x12 Cabinet in this photo.

Can be seen in use with an Orange Tiny Terror at the 3:47 mark.

Steve Albini utilized a Shure SM7 while recording The Breeders' "Title TK" album.

"Vocal was probably the same mic we'd been using for the rest of the record, probably a Shure SM7 through a John Hardy mic amp. Recorded to GP9 on a Studer A820. Kim was really fond of the sound of a slightly-overloaded cassette dub of the rough mix, so for the final mix we aligned a 1/4-inch 2-track machine for a slight overload (+6>500nWb/m on Agfa PEM408 for technical readers) then copied that to the 1/2-inch master."

video recorded at Electrical Audio, Steve Albini's studio, item shown around 9:21

At 3:13 in the video, the camera focuses on Steve’s main console (the Neotek Elite designed by Craig Conley) at the Electrical Audio studio.

video recorded at Electrical Audio, Steve Albini's studio, item shown at 8:53

video recorded at Electrical Audio, Steve Albini's studio, item shown around 10:16

Steve Albini utilized a John Hardy M1 Microphone Preamplifier while recording The Breeders' "Title TK" album.

I love that song. There's something real and broken about her singing there that reminds me of some people I know who've done a bunch of shit they regret. Vocal was probably the same mic we'd been using for the rest of the record, probably a Shure SM7 through a John Hardy mic amp. Recorded to GP9 on a Studer A820. Kim was really fond of the sound of a slightly-overloaded cassette dub of the rough mix, so for the final mix we aligned a 1/4-inch 2-track machine for a slight overload (+6>500nWb/m on Agfa PEM408 for technical readers) then copied that to the 1/2-inch master.

video recorded at Electrical Audio, Steve Albini's studio, item shown at 3:52

video recorded at Electrical Audio, Steve Albini's studio, item shown at 8:56