His phasers have included MXR Phase 90s, MXR Phase 100s, an Electro-Harmonix Bad Stone, a Maestro PS-1A and most importantly a Mu-Tron Bi-Phase, which Siamese Dream producer Butch Vig said “is one of the secrets to our secret sound … We run everything through it.” More recently Corgan has used boutique delays such as a Skreddy Echo and a Strymon El Capistan.
For modulation, Corgan has employed a myriad of phasers for subtle movement and lush psychedelic sweeping. In the studio, Billy paired the Big Muff with an MXR Distortion II for extra drive. Unlike other iterations of the Big Muff Pi, the V4/V5 Big Muffs used Operational Amplifiers instead of Transistors for a harsher distortion sound. The most important effect in Corgan’s career is undoubtedly the Electro-Harmonix late-70s Op-Amp Big Muff that he first used on Gish and most notably throughout Siamese Dream for the crushing walls of overdubbed fuzz guitar. Corgan has recorded and toured with Laneys, a Silverface Fender Bassman, Selmer amps, Orange amps and a 1964 Vox AC30.Ĭorgan’s affinity for the highly-produced ambitious rock albums of the 1970s lead him to experiment with an extensive arsenal of pedals and studio effects, but there a few key units that listeners will associate with his Pumpkins work. Corgan also used a Marshall JPM-1 preamp into an Alesis compressor with a Mesa Boogie head. The 1984 Marshall 100 watt JCM800 head with the EL-34 tubes swapped for KT88s, (the “Soul” head) matched with the Marshall 4x12 cab (the “Mars” cab) was the dominant amplifier sound on the Pumpkins’ first three albums, Gish, Siamese Dream, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Billy's AmpsĪfter Jimmy Chamberlin replaced the drum machine, Corgan replaced his Roland Jazz Chorus with a used Marshall JCM800 head and a Marshall 4x12 slant cab, which he found in a newspaper ad back in the days before Reverb. “The sound of the combo of the Bat Strat, the Big Muff, and Soul head with Mars cabinet is still unmistakable,” Corgan said. Since reviving the band name in 2005, Corgan has toured and recorded with a rotating lineup of musicians.īilly Corgan’s signature sound, as most listeners will recognize it, boils down to a simple formula: Marshall JCM800 head, a 4x12 Marshall cab, an Electro Harmonix V4 Op-Amp Big Muff Pi and a Fender Stratocaster. The band’s first run (minus an album without Chamberlin and Wretsky’s departure in 1999) ended where it began, with a farewell performance in Chicago, at Cabaret Metro in 2000. They were soon joined by bassist D’Arcy Wretzky and then drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. This has much to do with the gear they’ve used.īilly Corgan and guitarist James Iha first started playing music together in 1988 with a drum machine. Smashing Pumpkins founder, mastermind, and only constant member, Billy Corgan once described the sound of his band - then at the height of their commercial and visionary powers - as “psychedelic music by a heavy metal band from the 1920s.” While the nod to the ‘20s had more to do with the band’s penchant for art nouveau typefaces and the anachronistic aesthetic of the Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness artwork - rococo grandeur meets absinthe-induced collage art - the psychedelic metal band sound, with occasional forays into thematic prog rock, electronic music and goth-tinged dream pop, has consistently defined the Chicago band through their many incarnations.
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