The Signature Nevermind Sound: Kurt Cobain's Electro-Harmonix Small Clone | Nirvana Pedal History 4
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 มิ.ย. 2024
- Come as you are as we take a deep dive into one of the pedals that defines the sound of the early 90's. Looking into the history of the Electro-Harmonix Small Clone and Kurt Cobain's iconic usage of them.
Historical analysis of the pedal followed by head to head a comparison of an original vintage Small Clone vs 2 diffferent reissues.
HUGE shoutout to my great friend John (@dr_swampson on instagram) for sending me his vintage Small Clone to be used in this video
HISTORY:
0:00 - Intro
1:12 - Functions
1:28 - Release history
1:40 - How to tell apart an original vs a reissue
2:13 - Reticon SAD1024 chip vs MN3007 chip
3:26 - Kurt Cobain starts using the Small Clone
4:42 - Which chip did Kurt's have?
5:13 - Earnie Bailey's mods to Kurt's Small Clones
5:47 - Come As You Are studio sound
7:24 - Nevermind era vs In Utero era settings
DEMO:
7:43 - Demo intro/explanation
10:43 - Clean chords
13:16 - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Paramount 91)
14:32 - Rape Me (Paramount 91)
15:19 - Come As You Are (Melbourne 92)
16:47 - Come As You Are (Seattle 94)
18:15 - In Bloom (Seattle 94)
18:35 - Drain You (Seattle 94)
GEAR USED:
Khristore Paramount Vandalism Stratocaster
Khristore "Courtney" Telecaster
Fender Kurt Cobain Signature Mustang (modded to Skystang I replica)
Vintage 80's Electro-Harmonix Small Clone (original first run)
90's Electro-Harmonix Small Clone reissue
2010's Electro-Harmonix Small Clone reissue
Boss DS-2
Vintage Sansamp
Fender Twin Reverb
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I can’t wait to see if someone says that Kurt never used this pedal
uH hUh kUrT nEvEr UsEd ThAt PeDal BeCaUsE sOmE rAnDoM gUy ToLd mE oN A fOrUm BaCk In 2o05
@@PulseXP-yo8wu😜👍I sEeN It
The pedal used Kurt
Kurt never used this pedal :)
He Actually never used this pedal he used a Boss Compact Chorus pedal
This is one of the reasons why I’m getting this pedal for Christmas.
got one for sale....*ahem*
Dude how old are you? Just buy one.
How much? I’m interested seriously.
@@onecall975he could be a kid bro lol
Santa ain't bringing you chit.
My go-to chorus is my Boss CH-1 and I use it constantly but I still love the Small Clone and is definitely a huge part to Kurt’s sound, I remember my local guitar store had one of these awhile back and sounded great. It’s absolutely perfect for those classic Teen Spirit, Come As You Are, Drain You, In Bloom and Lithium tones and I’ll always love it, knocked it out of the park as always, Eric
Im not going to lie, this channel is solid at researching history and being really nice. Thanks man for doing this 🤝
Yeah, so informative without patronising 👍🏻
Definitely a great choice for my personal favorite Nirvana album. Also the 2010 reissues are what I would go with as it is affordable and gets the job done.
Just got to school and this drops!??! Gotta watch it on my break 🔥 keep up the good work Eric, can already tell this ones gonna be fantastic, hope I can learn more about my small clone too!!
Thank you so much! Hope you have a great day at school!
There's a Nirvana-related joke I could make here but someone smarter than me can mak-
WON'T YOU BELIEVE IT'S JUST YOUR LUCK
WON'T YOU BELIEVE IT'S JUST YOUR LUUUUUUUUCK
@NirvanaGuitars Thanks Eric!! You're my hero
thank you so much for all your content my man. Another great video that made my day.
I absolutely love this pedal and it’s on my board along with the DS2 -2. The detail you’ve gone into again is excellent, keep it going!
Fantastic video, this channels fast becoming a go to for me. The clone is my absolute favourite pedal of any kind, it’s a must have for me
Thank you so much for the kind words! Same here, I'll never have a pedalboard that doesn't have a small clone
Great Sounds Dude!
This video is a prime example why this is one of my fav channels
This video is awesome!!! Never knew how many differences there were.
Keep up The good work bro l love the content keep up the pedal history you are my favorite TH-camr.
Love the Pedal History! Wouldn’t mind getting into rack effects with that SPX-90!!! 🤘😬
God I can swear I love this pedal, its sound is so unique, I really want to get one
I love the small clone because it has such a lush tone
Yeahh I actually have one, and it sounds great!
Great vid as always, i love your vids like can you upload 2 a week or something lol
Always a nice day when NirvanaGuitars uploads. Keep up the good work!
The 90s reissue just has a distinctively deeper chorus sound to my ear, even compared to vintage 80s pedal, 2010s gets close enough to matching the rest.
As always, Awesome video and thank you for presenting the information the way you do! Very Cool! The small clone is definitely my favorite chorus pedal, and there are some very subtle differences between the three. But, I wouldn’t say, at least for me, that it’s enough to justify shelling out the big bucks to get a vintage pedal. I have one from The 2010s,, and it sounds just as good as the other two.
Well well… my favourite notification of the day! 😍 keep up the good work!
That seriously means so much thank you!
mr nirvana guitars could you do more videos about alternative budget friendly nirvana gear like you did with the sans amp
Great video, man! Was just about to go to bed but when I saw this and ended up trying to keep myself up just to finish it. AHAHAHAHA! I remember I got mine after only a month of owning a BOSS CE-5 because of how different they sounded. Been using it ever since.
Hey Eric, I wanted to thank you for your recommendation you gave me about the SD-JB pickups. I'm also trying to create a pedal board for my favorite pedals and while watching this I remembered that I saw a Neo-Clone and a Nano-Clone on amazon. They both seem to be compact remakes of the Small Clone and cheaper options. Right now I'm not sure if i want to blow $100 on the Small clone so I was wondering if you had a recommendation for an alternative. It's also strange how the Neo-Clone has the depth switch but the Nano only has a rate knob. (Keep up the pedal history vids. It's very cool to see the stories behind the equipment)
I believe that the massive sound on the studio version of “Come as You Are” is due to multiple tracks and additional rack effects.
The mixer Andy Wallace LOVES Yamaha spx90 symphonic modulation ensemble preset on like all the albums he's done
love u and love ur channel xx
Regarding Come As You Are sound reproduction. Listen to original Butch Vig mix. You will hear only the Small Clone, and the difference it is pretty noticeable. Many people claim Small Clone is in Lithium intro, but that is the SPX90. Andy Wallace used it to widen Krists bass as well.
Definitely agree, CAYA Devonshire mix at least to me does sound like the 80s Small Clone is the only thing being used there. Also in Territorial P the og mix sounds vastly different than what we had in the released version, just guitar and distortion without post-production effects. Devonshire mixes are as raw and unpolished as we ever gonna get for Nevermind.
Hi Eric! Cool video, I have a couple of ideas for your next videos.. Since the topic of Telecasters was recently touched upon, Kurt had another one with two humbuckers, sunburst color, from 1993. And he also had an In Utero-era guitar that he used for recording, an Ibanez Les Paul, it would be cool to see them in your videos.
Awesome video, I play the teen spirit solo the other way towards the middle of the neck, and finally learned it the way you play it thanks to this video,both ways sound on point to me, do you know the other way as well or just the awesome way you play it? Anyway great video, I need to get me a small clone🎸👍
After I blew up my Electro-Harmonix Poly Chorus in a fit of sonic glory. (Pay attention to the overload LED) this was the perfect cheaper replacement, LOVED IT. 100%
I have one that looks and feels old, lots of scratches, has the reissue knob, old power jack, dim red LED, butttt says MADE IN USA.
After years and years of using boss super chorus & ce5's the small clone just blew me away. Perfect for post punk & gothic rock, sounds epic & easy to set.
I have one pedal, a 1970's Morley Phaser because Dead Kennedy's. I don't really know if eastbay used one, but my friend Ralph played lead for Jello in Guantanamo and he used one for DK songs. Damnit, going down an Eastbay Ray rabbit hole...
I'm a church player, so I've really never had a need for pedals and just play straight through. I will tell you that a Dirty Fingers pickup will just about blow the speakers when the soundboard isn't ready. 😂
Love the channel, keep it coming!!
Love this video, just a humble shout out to the EHX Neo Clone as it's a Small Clone in the nano package.
Just as good as any Small Clone to get those watery Kurt tones.
Great video! Being a Nirvana fan myself, I picked up one of these a few years ago. It's a cool pedal, but I prefer the Boss flanger (BF-3).
there we go
It sucks to this day i still don’t have a small clone chorus but hopefully I,ll get one soon or someday.
But nice to see a video on it.
I would absolutely love to see a full cover of the Come As You Are from the Melbourne Show it sounds so good.
Just did that recently!
th-cam.com/video/O6xclqRxBEI/w-d-xo.html
can you do a vid on kurts first mustang (the one with the vinyl pickguard)
What did he use for the intro to Breed in the studio ? Sounds so grumble I always loved his tone on that song
Love the vids dude
Is it crazy for me to say that I like the 90s reissue tone more than the vintage 80s pedal. It just sounds more full to me and more watery sounding
Maybe one day you could get into how you fixed your Small Clone! It would be cool for those interested in electronics/pedal building/mods! 🤘😬
Is the Yamaha xpx90 the chorus My bloody Valentine used for shoegaze? Awesome 👍
Hey dude, this isn't to due with the video but I have the isolated stems for an alternate take of lithium. Should I upload them somewhere? They are the closest thing possible to the isolated lithium guitar because they are from the exact same session.
the songs you played on the clean chords section are old age and been a son?(I LOVE HOW OLD AGE SOUNDS WITH CHORUS)
According to Earnie Bailey, Kurt likely had both vintage versions of the Small Clone since he had 2 vintage Small Clones.
In some cases, the Mini Chorus pedal had either the MN3007 chip or the SAD chip and vice versa for the Full Chorus no matter the year as I’ve seen based on listings from Reverb.
I suppose EHX used whatever they had.
Asked this a while ago, nice to see this out.
That Tele sounds great through that pedal
Eric!!!!!! Another banger! Always gonna see your new videos
Thank you so much for the continued support! Really means a lot 😃
Of course! Your the best. It’s my dream to have a Nirvana set up! The closest I have is a DS-2 and of course, a Small Clone🤭
@@MichaelsMusic193 We all gotta start somewhere my friend, at one point all I had was my first Squier Strat and a Small Clone!
@@NirvanaGuitars Yes! We got to do a Nirvana jam! That would be my dream
@@NirvanaGuitars For your next vid, you should do Vandalism Strat and K Strat comparison! 🎸🎸
In the demos, when you kick in distortion, is it before or after the chorus effect? Thanks.
Always doubt it because in other videos it seems he uses first chorus but on kurt photos is first dist
Love this tone keep it up!!!❤
yes PLEASE skyrocket the price and demand for this pedal. its been sitting in my control room for YEARS taunting me
I bought a good few cheap chorus pedals but nothing sounded right. Eventually i got the small clone and it was amazing for nirvana. Apparently its really easy to swap the chip in the new ones to make ut sound the same as originals. Theres videos on here how to do it
the later reissue sound different to make it sound like a early one theres a couple of minor component changes plus you can swop the depth switch for a potentiometer so you have control of it
Hey you can also use impulse response pedals too, just isolate the guitar intro to come as you are, run it through voxengo deconvolver, put it in your IR Pedal, then BOOM!
Biyang Ch-8 Chorus is a very nice option on a budget , it use the now hard to get MN3007 . ( it it's easy to nail each era sound as it 3 knobs spread , tone and speed ) Due to the huge price increases in EHX pedals , the Biyang is a no brainer , they do pop up on Ebay now and then . Just a heads up .
I ran a small clone for about 7/8 years, eventually the switches go out, they generation energy and it doesnt release until the pedal turns on and it makes a loud pop and its very annoying, i went thru 2 of them and after the 2nd acted up i switched to the mxr analog chorus it sounds almost identical and it doesnt aggravate me when playing so anybody considering one, think of that.
I think he probably did have both chips. EH would use any parts they could get their hands on in the older days of production so thats why some had different parts. My Small clone has the MN and i had to search out my vintage Big Muff for the Pumpkins sound.
The 2010 version would it be same as if I walked in to a music store today at purchased one sound wise or was there another update since 2010
I don’t like the 90s one it sounds flat but I could definitely be happy with the 210s one because the 80s one is the king thanks dude.
I bought my first two basses and later my first guitar from Rick (shoutout to Johnny too) at Guitar Maniacs.
IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS!! I am loving these pedal history! Keep it up eric! Also can you make a video about Kurt Cobains MXR Distortion?
Please make sunburst strat
How to tell exterior wise between 90's vs 2010 or later if looking online
Is the 80’s pedal broken? Why the rate knob on it is turned further than the last mark? I actually like it and wondering if it’s designed purposely
try this put the distortion pedals first and the modulation pedals after if you put the pedals in that order it gives it a more nirvana tone
I like the 90’s one the best but all sounded great.
It's out of character for Kurt to have used any pedal other than the Big Muff or some early 70's fuzz. But he used the Sans Amp simulator which was cutting edge modern technology of the early 90's. He didn't use chorus effects in the traditional subtle approach of trying to replicate the Boston/Van Halen sound but he used it in a exaggerated noisy way
The more I hear the 90’s and 2010 Small Clone, it sounds refined but quieter compared to the vintage 80’s Small Clone… Really, it stands out a mile for the Nirvana sound… 💜
There are extremely subtle differences. I like the vintage one the best, it does sound so close to the original tone. I bet it's not cheap on the vintage used market....
Спасибо огромное, очень помогло. Я сколько раз слушал в магазине всегда звук был другой, а всё дело в издании, хочу Electro-Harmonix Small Clone 80 г.
Would it not have been more accurate to compare the 80's Small Clone with the same settings for the 94 songs? depth switch up and much slower rate?? or is it just an error with the on screen graphic?
Demo format is explained at 7:43. First part the pedals are set exactly the same, second half is the Nirvana demo where I set each of them to be as close to Kurt’s sound as possible
he added the chorus because he was into new wave. its that simple. all the new wave bands in the 80s used chorus.
Look into my Pedal-Baum! 🤘🤣
Do The 1969 Competition Mustang Guitar Review Next
are those actually some of his guitars ?
2010❤❤
I feel better about potentially getting a 90’s or 00’s reissue after seeing this - the sound is super subtle but I feel like the 90’s and 00’s reissues are just as big sounding as the 80’s issue. Thanks so much Eric! Keep it up!
Are there any other Nirvana Strats except the k strat,Vstrat and VMA strat?
Yes, many more!
@@NirvanaGuitars yippie
If you were going to die, what will you do with the guitars, pedals, amps, and ect?
Damn the 80s one sounded so much better its insane! It has more of a flanger tone to it, whereas the other two have more of a vibrato flavour.
10:49 Old Age
Maybe Kurt was trying to sound like post-punk or The Cure?
Wow
i like your speaking voice
Regarding the reasoning for Kurt buying a chorus pedal...it might have to do with him having said he always imagined Nirvana as a 4 piece when Pat joined the band. I would find it likely that, while crafting the songs that would make up Nevermind post-Jason, Kurt might've felt like he needed something to try and fill out the sound without trying his luck with a whole other person again. This would logically lead someone to a chorus pedal which, technically, works as a doubler effect on guitar. He used it on solos, light verses, sections where he might've felt the guitar on it's own sounded a bit thin. Obviously this is just a theory, but as someone who has previously played in a 4 piece that downgraded to a 3 piece, my first instinct at the time was to look for pedals to help fill out the sound.
Cool vid! I don't hear much of a difference between any of them honestly
I just opened my own Small Clone to inspect what chip is inside. I bought mine 2nd hand from a music store in Tokyo, Japan with a Kyoritsu Co. exclusive Japanese distributor sticker. Mine has a "MN3007 M5D". I'm not sure if this is different from the picture you showed with an M65. I don't know which year my pedal was made since it's 2nd hand but it's definitely a reissue and I bought it back in 2016.
Sweet! Does yours sound similar to one of Eric’s in this video?
@@chasee3797 Mine is close to his 80's Seattle 94 sound but a bit more warmer and fuller. But it could be because I use a Kurt Cobain Jaguar with ghs boomers thin/thick strings which I've heard Kurt used at some point
Ugh, kurt obviously never used the small clone you made all of this up!
0:11 yo thats so funny the pic of the sansamp you used im pretty sure is from the listing i just bought lmao
wow what are the chances 😂 you're gonna love the sansamp!
@@NirvanaGuitars i now own it and i love it! But the day it arrived it stopped working :( so I’m gonna have to get a tech to fix it.
Well I just found out my old small clone is a 90s one
I dunno,I like the 80s one...All sound good.
Boss DS1 Is Cool
hello!
👋
Overall prefer the sound of the 2010's pedal, it keeps more of the bottom end compared to the 90's and holds up more with distortion. The 80's sounded thin and compressed in comparison to me.
90s and 2010s models sound fairly similar, but the 80s version doesn't seem to have nearly as much "warble" as the other two.
To me the 80s one sounds the most like his tone
Question is which chip version was used on nevermind?
As discussed in the video, the exact unit used on Nevermind is presumed to have been stolen so we'll probably never know for sure. Earnie has said that Kurt had Small Clones with both chips
@@NirvanaGuitars from my tests I believe it was the reticon. But I would still love to know the answer.
i love you man
Sending love back! ❤️
eric eric eric, you should totally do a full tone analysis and cover of anorexorcist from with the lights out. (kaos radio 5/6/1987) i love the crunchy roughness of that version, also thanks for the dope video. love the pedal history vids 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤
Not Eric but I’m pretty sure he used a Fender Champ (silverface) with a Univox Superfuzz, and a Univox Hi-Flier (phase 3).
Would love to tackle that one, Anorexorcist is a top 5 song for me!
@@NirvanaGuitars HELL YEAHH