“It’s actually a beautiful lesson in what working in a studio’s all about,” he says. “The only amplifier in the entire premises was an Ampeg SVT bass amp, which would have been the last thing I ever thought of to use. It had 400 bloody watts and eight speakers!”
“Roger Nichols [sound engineer], looked at me and we were like “Mmm-hmm…” But we just shrugged our shoulders as pros would, and he said, Right, okay, start playing; I’ll keep my ears covered and find the sweet spot. And he did. The sound was basically the guitar, a cable, the amplifier, and one AKG-414 microphone placed where Roger thought it sounded the best. And hence the sound. But we had to really crank it up to 11.”
Although the Ampeg was less than ideal, the tone Elliott achieved with it is not a million miles away from that which he achieved on later Steely Dan records. What does he think are the real foundations of his sound?
