Editing Grunge (section)

=== Electric guitar ===
[[File:MikeMcCready2013.JPG|thumb|right|alt=A male electric guitar player, Mike McCready, onstage with an electric guitar plugged into a guitar amplifier.|[[Pearl Jam]] guitarist [[Mike McCready]]]]
Grunge guitarists like [[Kurt Cobain]] often used "offset" guitars like the Fender Jaguar, Fender Jazzmaster, or Mustang. They used primarily offset guitars because at the time they were unpopular enough to offer a new image as opposed to more frequently seen Gibson Les Pauls or Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster used by mainstream pop & rock bands. Being unpopular when grunge started, offset guitars also offered excellent value for money.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://guitar.com/guides/essential-guide/best-grunge-bands-gear-players-guitars/ | title=The Guitarist's Guide to Grunge: Essential bands, gear and players }}</ref>  
Grunge is generally characterized by a sludgy [[electric guitar]] sound with a thick middle register and rolled-off treble tone and a high level of [[Distortion (music)|distortion]] and fuzz, typically created with small 1970s-style [[effects unit|stompbox]] pedals, with some guitarists chaining several fuzz pedals together and plugging them into a [[tube amplifier]] and speaker cabinet.<ref name="gibson.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/grunge-guitar-0426-2011.aspx |title=Serve the Servants: Unlocking the Secrets of Grunge Guitar |website=Gibson.com |date=April 26, 2011 |access-date=April 1, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160331190319/http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/grunge-guitar-0426-2011.aspx |archive-date=March 31, 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Grunge guitarists use very loud [[Marshall Amplification|Marshall]] guitar amplifiers<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/plug-it-in-the-top-pedals-named-after-musical-genres/|title=PLUG IT IN: The Top Pedals Named After Musical Genres|date=September 3, 2013|access-date=January 18, 2018}}</ref> and some used powerful [[Mesa-Boogie]] amplifiers, including Kurt Cobain and Dave Grohl (the latter in early, grunge-oriented [[Foo Fighters]] songs).<ref name="Bloomer">{{cite web |url= https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/blog/2015/04/10/what-the-heck-top-10-essential-grunge-guitar-gear/|title=What the Heck: Top 10 Essential 'Grunge' Guitar Gear |last=Bloomer |first= Richard|date= April 10, 2015|website=pmtonline.co|publisher= Professional Music Technology |access-date= March 1, 2017}}</ref> Grunge has been called the rock genre with the most "lugubrious sound"; the use of heavy distortion and loud amps has been compared to a massive "buildup of sonic fog".<ref>Moody, Fred. ''Seattle and the Demons of Ambition: A Love Story.''</ref> or even dismissed as "noise" by one critic.<ref>Whitehead, John W. '' Grasping for the Wind: The Search for Meaning in the 20th century''. 2001. p. 171</ref> As with metal and punk, a key part of grunge's sound is very distorted [[power chord]]s played on the electric guitar.<ref name="Felix-Jager, Steven 2017. p. 135">Felix-Jager, Steven. ''With God on Our Side: Towards a Transformational Theology of Rock and Roll''. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2017. p. 135</ref>

Whereas metal guitarists' overdriven sound generally comes from a combination of overdriven amplifiers and distortion pedals, grunge guitarists typically got all of their "dirty" sound from overdrive and fuzz pedals, with the amp just used to make the sound louder.<ref name="Bloomer" /> Grunge guitarists tended to use the [[Fender Twin Reverb]] and the [[Fender Champion 100]] combo amps (Cobain used both of these amps).<ref name="Bloomer" /> The use of [[Effects unit|pedals]] by grunge guitarists was a move away from the expensive, studio-grade [[rackmount]] [[effects unit]]s used in other rock genres. The positive way that grunge bands viewed stompbox pedals can be seen in [[Mudhoney]]'s use of the name of two overdrive pedals, the [[Univox Super-Fuzz]] and the [[Big Muff]], in the title of their debut EP ''[[Superfuzz Bigmuff]]''.<ref name="Shepherd 2012. p. 23">Shepherd, John and Horn, David. ''Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World Volume 8: Genres: North America''. A&C Black, 2012. p. 23</ref> In the song "Mudride", the band's guitars were said to have "growled malevolently" through its "Cro-magnon slog".<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/62q4/ |title = Mudhoney Superfuzz Bigmuff Review (Archived) |author = Chick, Stevie |date =2009 | website = BBC.co.uk |publisher =BBC|access-date = March 15, 2017}}</ref>
[[File:Boss turbopedal used.jpg|thumb|left|alt=A small effect unit pedal, painted in orange paint that is scuffed from heavy use.|The relatively affordable, widely available [[Boss Corporation|Boss]] DS-2 distortion pedal was one of the key effects (including the related [[Boss DS-1|DS-1]]) that created the growling, overdriven guitar sound in grunge.]]
Other key pedals used by grunge bands included four brands of distortion pedals (the [[Big Muff]], [[DOD Electronics|DOD]], and [[Boss DS-1|Boss DS-2]] and [[Boss DS-1]] distortion pedals) and the [[Small Clone]] [[chorus effect]], used by Kurt Cobain on "[[Come as You Are (Nirvana song)|Come As You Are]]" and by the [[Screaming Trees]] on "[[Nearly Lost You]]".<ref name="Bloomer" /> The DS-1 (later DS-2) distortion pedal played a key role in Cobain's switching from quiet to loud and back to quiet approach to songwriting.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/03/what-makes-an-electric-guitar-sound-like-an-electric-guitar/386441/|title=What Makes an Electric Guitar Sound Like an Electric Guitar |last=Jackson |first=Robert |date=March 4, 2015 |website=theatlantic.com/ |publisher=The Atlantic |access-date=May 20, 2017 }}</ref> The use of small pedals by grunge guitarists helped to start off the revival of interest in boutique, hand-soldered, 1970s-style analog pedals.<ref name="gibson.com" /> The other effect that grunge guitarists used was one of the most low-tech effects devices, the [[wah-wah pedal]]. Both "[Kim] [[Kim Thayil|Thayil]] and [[Alice in Chains]]' [[Jerry Cantrell]] ... were great advocates of the wah wah pedal."<ref name="gibson.com" /> Wah was also used by the Screaming Trees, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and [[Dinosaur Jr]].<ref name="Bloomer" />

Grunge guitarists played loud, with Kurt Cobain's early guitar sound coming from an unusual set-up of four 800 watt [[PA system]] [[power amplifier]]s.<ref name="gibson.com" /> [[Audio feedback|Guitar feedback]] effects, in which a highly amplified electric guitar is held in front of its speaker, were used to create high-pitched, sustained sounds that are not possible with regular guitar technique. Grunge guitarists were influenced by the raw, primitive sound of punk, and they favored "... energy and lack of finesse over technique and precision"; key guitar influences included the [[Sex Pistols]], [[the Dead Boys]], [[Celtic Frost]], [[King's X]], [[Voivod (band)|Voivod]], [[Neil Young]]<ref>Wilkes, David. "Neil Young: Heart of Grunge?" ''[[New York Times]]'': 1. December 6, 1992. ProQuest. Web. October 5, 2015</ref> (''[[Rust Never Sleeps]]'', side two), [[The Replacements (band)|the Replacements]], [[Hüsker Dü]], [[Black Flag (band)|Black Flag]], and [[Melvins|the Melvins]].<ref name="Prown 1997. p. 242-243">Prown, Pete and Newquist, Harvey P. ''Legends of Rock Guitar: The Essential Reference of Rock's Greatest Guitarists''. Hal Leonard Corporation, 1997. p. 242-243</ref> Grunge guitarists often [[downtuned guitar|downtuned]] their instruments for a lower, heavier sound.<ref name="gibson.com" /> [[Soundgarden]]'s guitarist, [[Kim Thayil]], did not use a regular [[guitar amplifier]]; instead, he used a [[Bass amplifier|bass combo amp]] equipped with a 15-inch speaker as he played low riffs, and the bass amp gave him a deeper tone.<ref name="gibson.com" />