Here’s a few shots of Westland Studios, Dublin, with some of Deep South’s best sounding Gitboxes hanging around in their new, temporary housing, on the wall of one of Dublin’s most historic and largest studio complexes. You can view some more pictures I took in the studio at the DS Facebook profiles and on the Westland Studios Facebook too. There will also be more DSvintage / Westland Studio collaborations coming soon… so I’ll keep you posted.

I past some time, (in an after hours lock-in), cranking some dirty old guitars through tubes and 4×12′s, with my old buddy Alwyn Walker – who now manages Westland and continues to produce and engineer all sorts of bands and artists from there. Westland has witnessed many great artists since it opened its doors in 1976. Some of the world’s most renowned musicians have worked on stuff at Westland, including U2, Thin Lizzy, Bob Dylan and Massive Attack to name but a few.

The Live Room is massive and has plenty of options, using sliding glass doors enable the creation of amp rooms and boothes, if you want it to be a little less massive. The control room is dominated by the SSL, the studios main feature and a big part of the Westland sound. Its a piece of 80′s history. When things were made to last. EQ & Dynamics on every channel, along with the classic SSL Bus Compressor deliver that unmistakable studio sound that is unattainable with software, laptops and computers alone.

I also loved the sound of the Baldwin Grand, the second best piano I have ever heard and thats only cause I got to hear the Grand that used to be in the Hit Factory when I was in New York. This baldwin has got a lovely strong tone and plenty of punch beef. Very cool  Hammond and Leslie setup too and a funky Philicorda and something called a Fun Machine hahaha.

Few nice bits of outboard, Urei 1176, AMS Delay & Reverb and Avalon Comp / EQ. Old Skool Otari 2Inch Tape… NICE. Pro Tools HD 10 and your usual Neumann‘s, AKG’s and all sorts of Amps’s and Noise boxes that you can play around with.

If anyone is interested in recording or booking the studio, please get in contact with Alwyn at +353 87 9668333 and he will be happy to give you all the details and a tour or just email westlandstudios@gmail.com.

I brought some of my favourite sounding guitars from the store – the Kapa Challenger, The Sillvertone Amp in Case, my killer Jesus Saves Custom and old Norma, which Alwyn fell in love with after a single note. Norma might become a permanent fixture on the wall at Westland.

We were using an Orange Dark Terror Alwyn had in for review and his lovely sounding old Marshall 4×12. The guitars sounded great with everything cranked; Kapa delivering the hottest signal known to man, Jesus delivering his signature killer bite and Norma delivering that savage, snappy response.

It was great to hear the stuff through a nice big cab, in a nicely treated room where the guitars really feel at home and become powerful tools to create really original sounding records. Thats what these guitars are all about. Hanging round studios delivering unique and original tones that make the end user sound different than the now regular, new buy, or overpriced Strat’s and Les Paul’s.

Tags: 1176, akg, alwyn walker, amek, amp in case, ams, avalon, baldwin, baldwin fun machine, bassman, Bob Dylan, bus compressor, control room, deep south vintage, dublin, fender, grand pianp, hammond organ, hofner, jesus, kapa, lexicon, live room, magennis place, marshall, massive attack, mesa boogie, neumann, neve, norma, ns10, orange dark terror, peavy, philicorda, philips, pierce street, queens, silvertone, ssl, studer, studio, Thin Lizzy, U2, urei, westland

The guitars of the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s, their designs, innovation and features are a cut above the rest. It was the Guitar’s heyday and a highpoint in guitar manufacturing. The time and the music created a huge market where a lot of large small and tiny music manufacturers could survive for a short period of time.

There was a lot of cool guitars and yeah there were lots of nice Fenders, Gretsches and Gibsons and they are the guitars that everyone remembers but the “Coolest” guitars, the most innovative guitars, the guitars that pushed design and feature boundries – well they were the Silvertones, the Danelectros, the Kays and Harmonys, the Hofners and all the other weird and wonderful small Japanese, American and European guitars.

They might have borrowed a few ideas from the big boys of guitar design and building but they in turn had their ideas adopted by the bigger companies when their ideas or designs were ahead of the game. Their affordable price enabled a generation to create a golden era of music, like cheap synths and drum machines enabled andother golden era of innovation and like the computers and software of today are doing as we speak.

These guitars are now collectable in their own right, especially as all the Fender and Gibson prices rise and rise these guitars are still relatively cheap in the collector’s guitar market for what they deliver. It’s the sound of the instruments, the pickups and the amps. It’s also the sound of the records we love and its the sound of the records, the kit and the instruments – it’s what we will always remember and connect with. The first time u play a guitar like this or any decent vintage kit – you will get it – you will make the connection. You will always remember the sound of it cause its what you have always been listening to and trying to emulate.

Tags: 50's, 60's, 70's, acoustic, airline, america, american, amplifier, bands, barcelona, beck, berlin, blues, brooklyn, classic, collector, cork, danelectro, deep south vintage, design, ds vintage, dublin, electric, electronic, england, europe, fender, france, germany, gibson, gigs, gretsch, guild, guitar, guitarist, harmony, hofner, hollow-body, humbucker, import, ireland, jack white, japenese, josh homme, kay, les paul, lipstick pickup, liverpool, london, manchester, martin, new york city, nyc, paris, queens of the stone age, rare, recording, rock, scan, scan's guitars, scotland, silvertone, single-coil, soid-body, spain, strat, supro, teisco, telecaster, the white stripes, uk, vintage, wales

We Are You…

We are passionate about writing playing and recording great music. We love the processes and tools used in the past and the present to produce great music. We feel that all music is recapitulation and a reinterpretation of what has gone before, that the only thing that changes is the perspective of the creators and the knowledge that a good tool will always hold its value and can enable someone to paint a picture relative and fresh in its time .

We Want To…

Offer budding or experienced musicians and producers killer vintage guitars and basses to start with and in the mean time great we will be hunting down and finding vintage amps, synths, effects and recording gear. We want to import quality kit mainly from the US and Europe for re-sale in Ireland, the UK and Mainland Europe.

Tags: 50′s, 60′s, 70′s, acoustic, airline, america, american, amplifier, bands, barcelona, beck, berlin, blues, brooklyn, classic, collector, cork, danelectro, deep south vintage, design, ds vintage, dublin, electric, electronic, england, europe, fender, france, germany, gibson, gigs, gretsch, guild, guitar, guitarist, harmony, hofner, hollow-body, humbucker, import, ireland, jack white, japenese, josh homme, kay, les paul, lipstick pickup, liverpool, london, manchester, martin, new york city, nyc, paris, queens of the stone age, rare, recording, rock, scan, scan’s guitars, scotland, silvertone, single-coil, soid-body, spain, strat, supro, teisco, telecaster, the white stripes, uk, vintage, wales