Instrumental Set-Ups
The following is a combination of information taken from an article in Bass Player magazine and from persoanl experience, both provided by Chad TeBrink.
Greg Edwards played a silver Wal 4 string bass, tuned drop D, which started out as a fretless. After a while Edwards decided it was too much trouble to play, as he wasn't really using the fretless sounds very much, so he had frets added.
Edwards also had a Musicman Stingray as a backup, which he rarely used. His rack included a Ampeg SVT head, as well as a Lexicon Vortex, and a Digital Music Corp. GCX switcher. For effects he used a Meastro Overdrive (for lighter overdrive), a ProCo Rat (his main distorted sound), an ElectroHarmonix Big Muff Pi (for the really grindy distorted stuff), as well as a Dunlop TS-1 Stereo Tremelo. In addition, Edwards used a Boss Graphic Bass EQ to keep the low end when using distortion.
Edwards also played through an old SVT 8x10 cab, which is unique as it has David Eden Speakers, rather than the stock Ampeg speakers.
"Planet Rock"
by Tim Kenneally
Guitar Player, May 1997
"People who hear our stuff say that there's a 'Failure chord,' but when I look at the songs, I don't really see it," muses Ken Andrews, guitarist and vocalist for Los Angeles quartet Failure. "There are a lot of triad-type chords going on in our songs, but I think it's mostly a sensibility that's coming through."
Whatever its origin, the Failure sensibility comes through loud and clear on Fantastic Planet (Slash/Reprise), the follow-up to 1994's Magnified. Blending watery, Mu-Tron-mutated arpeggios, crystalline harmonic riffs and interstellar crunch, Planet boasts a sound as otherworldly as its title. Appropriately, Andrews describes the band's guitar craft --which relies heavily on the tag-team collaboration between himself and bassist/guitarist Greg Edwards-- in celestial terms.
"The way we work generates this nebulous feeling about who actually did what," offers Andrews. "With this record especially, I'd take on the role of producer and guide Greg in a direction while he'd play the actual part." New guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen, who brings his '70s-vintage Les Paul Classic to the mix, reins in their cloudy concoctions in concert. "He basically does everything," Andrews laughs. "It's made my life so much easier live." Planet was written, rehearsed and recorded a song at a time over a seven-month period. Ken alternated between the heft of his Eb-tuned '76 Les Paul Standard and his more pristine-toned late-model Tele[caster], also lowered a half-step. While he wasn't averse to adding sweeteners such as the sampled feedback loop in "Saturday Savior," Andrews emphasizes that he tried to "keep down the number of doubles and rhythm tracks." Instead, he derived the album's space-age textures and high-gain atmospherics by frequently reconfiguring his live rig --a Marshall JMP preamp, Mesa/Boogie stereo power amp, Marshall cab, Fender Twin, and a "standard collection" of Boss and vintage pedals-- and by exploiting the sonic potential of the rented house that served as their studio.
"There was one bathroom that was really good for guitar," Andrews enthuses. "It was linoleum, but for some reason a Marshall cabinet just blew up in there --man, that bathroom still haunts me."