10 thoughts on “Gear on album Sailing to Philadelphia”

1. I updated the line about acoustic guitar on Long Highway.
   According to GF, “it’s a high strung flat-top acoustic played by RB”

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2. Hi,

   a few weeks ago I found an interview with Mark in which he said that he used the 59′ ES 335 through a Fender Bassman on ‘Baloney Again’.

   Best Regards

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   1. Hi,

      In 2001, MK told for a Brazilian magazine ‘Cover Guitarra’ the guitars and amps used on the STP album.
      http://www.myspace.com/ladymarystuart/photos/8799856#{%22ImageId%22%3A8799856}
      Baloney Again is really a ES-335 plugged on a Fender Bassman.

      And What It Is was recorded with the Schecter.

      The man explains (Free translation from what i can remember)
      “… What It Is was recorded with my 80,s Schecter (red one). Nowdays i dislike short scales guitars, but i used the Schecter because the sound really match the song…”

      Cheers for all!

      Reply

      1. Thanks for the infos, both Wizzard adn Arthur 🙂

         I added the fender bassamn for Baloney, I had alreday mentionned the ES-335 (I didn’t know the year, so I added it)
         I’ve changed the guitar on What it is :
         I already had read that it was the schecter, but I was never sure about that. It looks strange to me : at this time Marks wasn’t into shecter anymore, he was more into his vintage 61, but well if he said so…

         BTW, remember that Mark’s quotes aren’t always accurate : in an itw he said that the Trawlerman song was played on the 54 strat, and we know it’obviously the LP, so sometimes, even the man himself can be wrong…so how can we be 100% sure ?

         I think that sometimes in studio, they try different sounds, different guitars, on differents takes. So myabe the final mix isn’t the one he remember some months later ?
         Maybe is there a Trawlerman take with the 54 strat, and so it’s the reason why he chose to play the song on this guitar on tour. who knows ?

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         1. Hi there,

            Just remember that ‘Sailing to Philadelphia album’ was recorded in two parts.
            One in 1998 (http://www.guyfletcher.co.uk/index.php/diary/2001_STP_Album_Diary) and the rest from 2000. Possibly ‘What It Is’ is from the 90s (just because the use of that Schecter)

            Cheers from Brazil!

3. Is it just the sound of the guitar on Trawlerman which suggests the LP? I have a Strat with Fender ’54 pickups and a LP with Duncan ’59s and you can actually get both to sound really close to that track. I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually was the Strat, just with a little more dirt than he usually plays them with. It’s not a million miles away from that Strat sound on “The Last Laugh”. He certainly played it cleaner on tour, but there’s a good semi-dirty take with what sounds like the 54 Strat on the One Take Radio Sessions version. Roll some tone off that one and maybe a bit more dirt and you’d be right in the album territory sound-wise.

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4. I wrote the LP because Guy Fletcher and Chuck Ainlay provided the info.
   But of course you can get dirt tone with a strat

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5. Hi guys, I’m struggling to find info on amps used by MK on my favourites, namely Junkie Doll, Speedway at Nazareth, So Far From the Clyde (other album)… the ones that best match the LP in the studio, basically. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were all the Bassman cranked up and possibly with a Hot Cake drive… (I read about the JTM-45, how reliable is this? I haven’t heard MK mention this amp, and the Bassman is what it is based on). Thanks!

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6. Thank you so much for this fantastic collection of information!

   I just would like to mention that the link of Guy Fletcher’s site about the studio diary is broken, but you can find it on the Wayback machine:

   https://web.archive.org/web/20150703082500/http://www.guyfletcher.co.uk/index.php/2014mkrecording/2014StudioDiary1

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7. Hi all! Long time since I have posted in MK-Guitar (years ago) but I was watching again some videos on YouTube from STP tour this summer and I realized that at least in some gigs from that tour (as Nimes, Barcelona and Madrid), Mark had 3 different amps/cabs behind him which look like a Fender Brown Vibroverb, Marshall 4×12 cab (for the Soldano SLO 100) and a VOX AC30 (you can see them in this Nimes video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFYJKbdQ93Y at minute 1:49)

   So I am curious about Mark using a VOX AC30 on that tour. Any idea about which songs were player through that VOX AC30. Looking into the set lists of those concerts, guitars used and sounds on the different songs, I would say Mark could be using the VOX AC30 for this Fender Telecaster blonde 54 on Prairie wedding, but I have no info about it.

   Mark used a lot a VOX AC15 during the recording of the Shangri-La album, but not much before that as far as I now. Even when he talked and demoed about Hank Marvin/Shadows sound in some videos (for instance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y74zwHM1p9I) or playing live more recently “Marvin alike clean sounds”, he seemed to prefer his brown Vibrolux or ToneKing Imperial.

   Would appreciate to get your inputs/thoughts on this. Mark’s guitar sounds from 78/79, from his solo albums Golden Heart, Sailing to Philadelphia, The Ragpicker’s Dream and Shangri-la (and the corresponding solo tours) and from his gigs with Notting Hillbillies between 1997 and 1999 are the ones I really like.

   Thanks!

   Eduard

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