“My friend John is a big muff expert” you have no idea how funny hearing that is being British, had me in stitches

This guy suprises me every time with his tone

That was really cool when you showed all his picking variations over the years. Great fun video!

Kurt changing how he plays lithium over the years is so cool, it’s why it’s my favorite song to play along to. My guess is he plays the chord open cause he has played it millions of times and it’s a bit more convenient to play that d5 open instead of on 5 7 7.

I love how in depth you go with these, please do more

Yay tone explication keep making these tone recreations

you did a pretty good job undoubtedbly, the clean sound in the intro is a true mistery and it is almost impossible to recrate, and this adds to the beautey of it.

Can you recreate you know your right

Man, this is my favorite nirvana song and imo there's a stunning work behind these original tones and you absolutely nailed it. I love how u explain every single detail in here, his guitars his picking techniques and even picking variations over the years. Man you're a beast at it I quickly become ur biggest fan cause I know the hard work behind these videos and I also love how much effort u put in every video, congrats man keep it up!!

Wow! Awesome job with your analysis and playin'.

this is so awesome. this is one of my favs from nevermind, and i love the tone

Super helpful man! Was trying to get the strumming down but every version I listened to it was different, good to know I was playing it right but he just had a different strum pattern each time lol.

3:05 - Hey it looks like you also got your own Skystang to bring with you for gigs! 🎸 That's so awesome!

This is amazingly accurate, keep up the good work👌👌👌

really appreciate the amount of research you put in these videos. especially enjoyed this one as lithium is my all time favourite nirvana song. just a fun fact on the side; if i remember correctly, butch said it was the only track on nevermind which they had to use a click track on during recording, as they were speeding up all the time.

EXCELLENT VIDEO AS ALWAYS MAN!! Thanks for the shout out, glad I was able to help with the Muff choices!

Favorite song tone wise! Thank you so much for this video!

Fantastic Job!!

It’s good to know I’m not the only person on the planet who chases after Kurt’s tone. I’ve watched your other videos and you and I have the exact same equipment. EVEN the vandalism strat with the 59 NECK that I cut up with a screwdriver and knife. Good job on the video!

Enjoy your weekend m’lord , another lovely video

great clean tone on bossa nova!!

thanks again bro. would be cool to see the setup of your own band as well ;)

How this guy only has 350 views I don’t know. This video Is amazing

Very interesting stuff man thanks. It’s so interesting to think what he actually was playing when he strummed those immortal notes.

Amazing videos man keep it up

That's a cool photo of your band!

Don’t stop making videos!!!! 🔥 love it 5:10

I love this tone it’s amazing

Я помню это шоу это в Paramount Theater Seattle в видеоклипе Lithium. 👍👍💪🎸🎸❤️

Great work!

If truth were told, I’m pretty sure Kurt didn’t care at all about any of this. That’s not to take away from what you do, I just think his approach was whatever came out came out. He was a punk rocker. Pretty cool that you’re able to recreate it though.

I love these tone recreations Eric I can’t wait to see/hear your work on the other songs. Maybe unplugged in The future. All you need is the pickup 😏

i think it’s the quintessential nirvana song because it’s kurts best chord progression/ melody intertwining, the way the melody and the chord progression is woven makes it kurts’ most poignant pop masterpiece, come as you are comes close but lithium is just a great song in the most traditional sense, it’s also his most original pop riff which is such an achievement to write a never used chord progression and apply it in a populist sense

I always thought the Lithium studio tone was the hardest to replicate, but you did it perfectly anyway. Do you have plans for In Utero tone recreations? I imagine that'd be much easier (and it's my favorite album) since it doesn't have much mixing to it, which I particularly think suits Nirvana much better than Nevermind's studio sound.

I am also a Big Muff obsessive. The only Russian Muffs available in 1991 would have been the Red Army Overdrive (they briefly changed the name for legal reasons) or maybe a Civil War -era muff. That is a really similar circuit to the “tall font” version that EHX cloned for the green reissues.

I remember reading and hearing about Nirvana before I listened to them - everyone was referring to them as some kind of punk band. But when I listened to Nevermind for the first time, for the most part I heard pop songs with really catchy melodies. Sure there’s distortion and heavy-hitting drums but ultimately they’re very carefully crafted pop songs (with the possible exceptions of songs like Territorial Pissings and Endless, Nameless).

I have a Big Muff Pi Pedal and I used it for Lithium. I dialled in the settings for the song and it sounded pretty accurate as to the recording.

0:37: as successful as Type O Negative. Because that's what Type O Negative was, according to Peter Steele " Black Sabbath drunkenly playing Beatles in a warehouse". Good demo and explanation!

Great video! I recently covered the song and really struggled to come close to the clean guitar tone. I tried many guitars, but I had no strat (and no middle single coil pickup) available at the time and it must be a strat as you showed.

6:53 you are really good at finger picking!

Thank you!

I always liked how he played it live over the studio version, tbph.

I like big muffs and I cannot lie.

Best Video ever

Awesome video! Would you ever consider recreating Kurt’s blue “Courtney” telecaster?

awesome!!!

Every time you do this you nail this! Btw, it's pronounced Pweeg (hard g sound), I only know that because of the skateboarder Lucas Puig

The fun part of a big muff is also how it was built. My friend builds quiet a few most notably has one to get the j mascis sound another to get the blue album weezer sound. About a decade ago I was with him and he brought out his collection of muffs they all sound different. The green muffs he had all were different in sound he had a few Black Russian muffs they we’re different too. So pin pointing the muff is hard unless you had the one he used. Trying different ones from say like a line 6 helix or the new muff pedal they make would be key to finding it even than tho you’ll probably be missing something.

Years ago when i dont even had pedals and a shitty amp and a strat,i put the middle position and two chord change later tought ..heyy thats lithium tone ...even with chorus, distorsion and others things,the basic tone that came out of your guitar Is so important and essential

2:21 Hey Eric, It sounds like Kurt used the Triangle Big Muff Pi for Lithium, and it also sounds like he used that on Breed as well, I asked jq what Big Muff was used on Breed and Lithium, and he told me himself that it could POSSIBLY be the Triangle Big Muff

i know this is a nirvana channel, but since you seem so good with recreating tone i would LOVE if you tried to redo eddie van halens epic guitar tone.

I’m early! Nice video

I’m addicted to your videos! Do you have any info on the first lithium music video that was never finished? I understand it was going to be a claymation type video similar to tools sober but before they did it.

Maravilhoso! Obrigado por esse vídeo!

I love big muffs

Nice video! Can you please tell me from what gig is the picture of Kurt with his guitar and his left hand on small clone and polychorus? Thanks!

The videos of how do you do + history are going to be essential because they complete the tone recreation. Great. For more muff options you have jhs muffuletta. It has (73 Rams Head, Triangle Muff, Pi V3, Russian Muff, Civil War, JHS Mode) in one. If you want al rat pedals in one you have jhs PackRat ( OG V1, White Face V3, Turbo V5, BRAT V6, Dirty V7, LA, Landgraff MO'D, Caroline, JHS Mode)

i'm so happy cause today i matched a tone, there in pro tools

Interesting info 🤔🤔 noice to know how this song was Made and what gear they used.

I will not claim to be a Nirvana gear expert. However, I remember watching an interview with Nirvana where Kurt specifically talks about using the Russian Tank steel Big Muff. It was a comedic moment as he talks about having to smash the button with his foot to get the overdrive to come on. That's my two cents and why I bought one when Big Muff reissued them.

I live the Russian big muff.still have mines from the 90s

I have a Big Muff that I never use, but I just can't bring myself to sell it. The quickest most effective way of talking myself out of selling it is plugging it in for a few minutes. It just sounds so huge. I just say to myself that it's time will come. Someday I will have the need to drop a title wave of sound on people heads, I will have the means to get it done. I also have an SPX90 I can probably sell. I needs some work though. Last time I plugged it in, smoke was coming out of the power button, so I quickly unplugged it. That was about a year ago. I asked some people about it and the leading theories are a transistor or something blew, or the electricity ignited some dust inside the unit.

Watching videos like these kinda makes me wish i kept my Fender, used to have a 2006 60th Anniversary strat but i sold it 12 years ago and switched to Ibanez since then but to this day still deeply regret selling that guitar goes for up to or over $1,000 now...

I appreciate your attention to nirvana details is like mine. Have you seen the nirvana UK tribute band? Similar interest to you

Great video! Just on Sunday i will be Playing nirvana song concert, do its a perfect, ill set the tone of the amplifier 😊

Could you recreate the tone of my fav song drain you btw nice tone on this song

I love the tone its very accurate but (and correct me if im wrong) but the 'Green Russian' Big Muff wasnt released until 1994 but an *incredibly* similar Big Muff, also made in Russia, known as the Civil War Big Muff was released in 1991. They sound practically identical and im fairly certain they are the same circuit so i wouldnt recommend trying to hunt one down as they are horrifically expensive but i thought it was something you might want to know, Nirvana gear wise.

Here is my 10 or maybe 50 cents based length. I think the NYC Big Muff gets really close to the Lithium sound so it is and was a widely available pedal to use. However, I do agree that a russian big muff was most likely used on the album, especially after knowing what Vig said. The timeline supports the availability of the russians and the sound on the album (yeah I know there was multitracking so kinda guessing here but listening with my ear) was thumpier with smoothness layered over the grit of the muff. This sounds very much like the russians to me. And to be more specific, the "civil war" and "tall font" green russians, were often bassier/thumpier and smoother than the "bubble font" greens and black russians. The Tall Font green supposedly was a rehoused Civil War which was also very similar to the Red Army Overdrive and I think the Civil War and the Red Army would have been available at the time of Nevermind, and I am not sure the greens or blacks were out, yet. All could sound very similar, but the civil war and tall font green had the smoother, thumpy, and bassier sound more forward than the others. Red Army was very very close to a Civil War but not as quite as bassy, but could have been used too, as when I hear Lithium, I feel like I hear that bass forward sound and a layer of smoothness over the rearward grit from this era and it's never harsh sounding. I have or have had bubble fonts, tall fonts, and civil wars. I recently played my Stomp Under Foot, "SUF", Civil War (based on the EHX Civil War and Tall Font green), SUF Green Russian (based on bubble font green), and EHX NYC and Op-Amp. After playing them back to back to back to back for Lithium, the Civil War seems by far the closest to the sound to my ears. The furthest one was the OP-Amp. Stomp Under Foot built by Matt Pasquerella is in my opinion the very best at recreating the best examples of all of the many versions of muff's from the Electro Harmonix muff era. Check his stuff out. I don't believe EHX makes a Civil War version, today. Also, the Kit-Rae website is VERY INFORMATIVE and INVALUABLE for Muff history.

can you build a replica of the destroyed black strat at the studio while recording nevermind

I would love to see you do a incesticide album tone video, with your new epiphone !

May I ask what a Strat neck cost you? I’d really like to find one with a rosewood fingerboard and vintage frets. Seems like 85% of Fenders have medium jumbo frets these days.

I'm 43 years old listening Nirvana for ages but for the first time seeing that photo 1:00

in a matter of replacement guitars, it was possibly he used one of the other two strats he had before recording nevermind his white strat or his black strat with tune o Matic or with the jaguar

could i use a reverb pedal for the chorus sound it sounds like reverb almost

Hey man you should try a few things I’m no pro so just trust me here 1. Play it on you jag I’m trying to figure out if it’s on the bridge or if it’s on the middle position. 2 try using 7.5 treb, 10 mid and 5 bass (my settings I use on my bass man) love to see it!

One thing no one talks about that might seem insignificant but isn't is what kind of pick did he like to use because there are so many diff types and thicknesses for example i like a thin and flexible nylon pick at .46mm

Ithomiid is kind of fire 🔥🔥

I would love to see you try to recreate the tone of the outtake track "Old Age"

Hi , Does Frank from the FEEDERZ know about those sticker reprints ? You should reach out to him he's a great guy !

I have an old black les paul with double creme pickups, thinking about putting that sticker on it lmao

I thought Kurt used EHX Small Close, for the chorus tones on Nevermind.

Hey man, can you do a tone recreation for Drain You? Sounds like you can do it justice! Great video.

Big ups for gassing up the Russian big muff. I don't know much about big muffs either, but it seemed like the right choice here as it's easily the darkest and most saturated of the muffs.

Which neck pickup were you using? I"m assuming one of the single coils

I think if it is indistinguishable which model he used, it really doesn't matter.

Would be interesting to no all the gear he used!

could you recreate the tone for i hate myself and i want to die?

I honestly love the vandalism but I realized the guitars kurt smashed that he might have liked the tone from had an angled hambucker

Excuse me, do you know where you can buy Polychorus? I can't find it anywhere, and if I do, it's at a huge price..

Even I search Nirvana/KC guitar tech I come up with the Earnie Bailey but there is actually someone more visible around Kurt a fat guy changing his gear, controlling sound board etc. İs that guy alive, what's his name?

He talked about liking his single coils and showed an example, but in that example he was using his bridge / middle pickup? Hard to see if it's just bridge or bridge and middle though.

Super 👍👍👍👍👍👍

İs there anyone among us who owns korg toneworks ax1500g and want to share settings for Nirvana tone?

Kurt was an incredible songwriter, but he struggled to play the guitar "properly", so he would often opt to play things in an easier form, so as to not make a major mistake playing a clean tone guitar part, especially in instances where there were no vocals like the beginning of Lithium. I think Kurt probably didn't want to miss his mark sliding from B to D since it was a bit longer of a slide to try and nail properly while standing, not looking at the guitar neck, and in a live setting.

My friend John is a Big Muff expert

Also, at the year of the recording of nevermind, sovtek and Russian big muffs didn't exist yet

Did you disconnect the tone knob

Still requesting Chicago ballroom

Quintessential Nirvana song? What are people smoking? Nevermind, great video as always! 😀 PS: let me pick a quintessential Nirvana song too, lol, let's see, i say School or On A Plain, so fight me 🤪😜

How about this idea for a guitar sticker: “Innovate, don’t imitate” Maybe you could even sell it to thousands of rock guitar players if it becomes a trend😄