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How Does He Make His Guitar Sound Like That?

Rhett Shull

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Mike Gordon aka Mk.gee is one of my favorite new guitar players out there. He effortlessly blends familiar sounds and songwriting with modern DI guitar sounds and a totally unique distortion sound from an old tape deck that I've never seen a guitar player use live before. Mk.gee is truly original, and more people should know about what he's doing.

Mk.gee's new album "Two Star and The Dream Police"
Spotify: https: //open.spotify.com/album/6DlLdXBGCsSDPOV8R2pCl7

Apple Music: AppleMusic: mk-gee

Soundcloud: SoundCloud: mkgee

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Video Links:

Mk.gee - Candy (Live)
Mk.gee - Candy (Live)

Gear Check: Dijon's Touring Band
Gear Check: Dijon's Touring Band | Fretboa...

Mk.gee - Are You Looking Up
Mk.gee - Are You Looking Up (Live)

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20 Comments

@afi1971 2 years ago

He’s got that 90’s Zoom sound nailed.

@morganparkman9539 2 years ago

I am not kidding. I have tried to share MkGee with like 5 of my closest musician friends and not a single one has given it a second look. Which is killing me because it is melting my mind. The sound space he creates just draws you in.

@dvcoope5513 2 years ago

So glad to see Mk.Gee being recognized for his talent!

@thomasfroula9125 2 years ago

Saw this guy with Dijon before a Boy Genius concert. The sound was so loud and different it was hard to make heads or tails of it. It was otherworldly

@galensjp01 2 years ago

I think something to note here is that the Rainger FX pedal he’s using has a gate on it and distorts the reverb tail. When he digs in the gate opens as does all the distorted reverb tails. This, with the portastudio, is how it really can jump out of the mix suddenly and then come back down without getting all muddy (like you would with long no gated reverb tails)

@bjeff1981 2 years ago

I'm an old indie rocker. This is the first guitar based artist that has turned my head in a very long time. Songwriting and style...feels like the first time I heard Bon Iver. The jazz/soul thing with a lo-fi vibe...I can't believe this kid was finishing these songs at 25/26yo.

@williestyle35 2 years ago

4:02 when I first heard the tone, I could have sworn it was a take on something that I heard in the 1980's... After hearing this part, it certainly takes inspiration from the 80's.
Thanks Rhett

@desmondmyers 2 years ago

Great breakdown. Been a Mk Gee Stan since 2018 when Frank Ocean premiered his song “You” on his Blonded radio station

@kevinstar4621 1 year ago

the actual mk.gee tone breakdown for anyone who cares:
1. single coil pickup guitar in bridge position
2. daddario 7 string flat wound set for strings set to A standard for two star & the dream police album, and B/Bb standard for dijon's absolutely album
3. guitar into tascam portastudio 424, phaser(two star), rainger fx-reverb, boss dd 20 delay, mood mkII, Bf-2 flanger, hum debugger, into DI
4. for two star & the dream police: Roland vg-8ex with gk-2 pickup, on bowed pad patch for candy, dream police, Alesis live, and veryefx! for are you looking up live, and I want,
5. mix vg-8 signal, and portastudio signal together in parallel

@gabrielrodrigues5067 2 years ago

He's actually running a roland vg8ex before his pedalboard throughout most of his last album and that's what gives it that violin quality you're talking about. Mk.gee's been playing with a guy named andrew aged and he uses that a lot too (it's the lead sound after the 2nd chorus in "I want")

@joker57 2 years ago

Sounds like a sound Prince used to get, early 80s

@Alec_McCloskey 2 years ago

If this is “new” keep it coming. I’m over the “other new” Tim Henson random notes mixed with harmonics. I’m over people trying to flex. This tone is lush, dynamic, and I love it.

@Wisdomcreekguitars 2 years ago (edited)

The Ritchie Blackmore trick of using an old tape player as a preamp.

@dustinbeasley 2 years ago

In case anyone was wondering, its a Roland GK midi pickup ran into a Roland VG8 Guitar Synth processor. Patch used sounds like a nylon string guitar patch for "Are you looking up" and probably the "VeryEFX" patch for the tones from Candy and a few others. This is the lions share of the actual sound you are hearing. Its blended with the guitar, which is tuned Bb standard or something like that. Also, notice he is using flatwound strings....This is likely a 7 string flatwound baritone set with the high string omitted. Something along the lines of .065 - .015 gauge flatwound string set. Lots of things going on here that add to the sauce. The Tascam is almost inconsequential in my eyes. Its more a factor that he is going direct and not through an amp. Again, big chunk of what you're actually hearing is the midi pickup + Roland VG8 + very low string tuning.

@willemmoller6736 2 years ago

this guy is a major and unique talent, beautiful songs, voice and playing

@evergladesrhythm 2 years ago

Such a nostalgic sound, when you realize what it is!
I made lots of music on those things

@deaconddd 2 years ago

I also like Ruben Nielson’s tone in Unknown Mortal Orchestra which has a broken-y pre-amped chorus vibe as well.

@will_ashbless 2 years ago

Finding a unique tone in this day and age is as rare as finding buried treasure. For those of us who have played around with everything in existence (it seems), this is super cool, and worth building upon.

@leandropap 2 years ago

As soon as I heard it I knew it was a tape machine! It's a well known trick down here in Argentina, early rock players used an italian made unit called Geloso G-257, a tube powered tape recorder, for getting distorted tones, as equipment back then was nearly impossible to buy. The actual tone was fuzzier but you get the idea.