Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings: Hit in Your Soul
Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Bill Murphy
DAP-DIPPIN' IT, BUSHWICK STYLE
It wasn't easy converting Daptone's Troutman Street house into a tape-ready recording studio, complete with a soundproofed vocal booth. First, Gabe Roth had to completely rewire the building for the expected increase in power usage — a job that he and Sharon Jones actually undertook themselves. (No injuries were reported.) Next, a wall had to be taken out and the second floor jacked up (using a car jack, no less) to expand the studio's “live room” and create some space for the Hammond B3 organ. Finally, Roth and company used old tires stuffed with cast-off clothing to build a “floating” isolation booth that's completely separated from the rest of the house — thus allowing Jones to wail away to her heart's content at any hour of the night.
“After I moved into the space a few years ago,” Roth recalls, “Kenny Dope [Gonzales] chipped in and bought me this 1-inch 16-track TEAC tape machine as prepayment for something he wanted me to do for him. That's the first 16-track I ever got. I did a bunch of records on that — The Antibalas' Who Is This America? album, the Naturally record with Sharon and the Budos Band records. And then just recently, I finally got that Ampex 8-track. So I've been through a lot of tape machines.”
DAP-KING KINGDOM
Console, recording hardware
3M M23 ¼-inch tape machine
Ampex 440 8-track 1-inch tape machine
Otari MX-5050 8-track ½-inch and stereo ¼-inch tape machines
TEAC 85-16 16-track 1-inch tape machine (main recording)
Trident Series 65 24-input console
Select instruments and amplifiers
Ampeg Gemini G-12 guitar amp: “About 10
years ago, I was walking down the street
on my way to the studio,” Roth says, “and
as I passed a building that was being
demolished, I felt a bang against my leg.
They were gutting the building and one guy
was throwing all the garbage out the door
over the sidewalk to another guy on the
street who was tossing it into a dumpster. That
Gemini is what hit me in the leg on its way to
the dumpster. How's that for fate? Didn't even
need to repair it.”
Carvin bass circa 1970 (Gabe “Bosco Mann”
Roth) recorded direct
Epiphone Elitist Byrdland guitar (Binky Griptite)
Gibson ES-137 Custom with P94 pickups, Les Paul
guitars (Binky Griptite)
Hammond B3 organ with Leslie rotating speaker
Hohner D6 clavinet
Vintage Harmony and Silvertone guitars (Tommy
“TNT” Brenneck)
Vintage upright piano (make unknown)
Mics
Radio Shack condenser and dynamic microphones (for guitar amps)
RCA DX77 ribbon mic (used to track drums by placing on the floor to the side of the kick drum)
Røde NT1-A large-diaphragm condenser mic (for Jones' lead vocal)
Shure 513 ribbon mic (for tracking horns), SM55 Series mics (vintage)
Preamps, EQs, compressor, outboard effects
Aphex Aural Exciter 103A (Type C)
Filtek MK-3A EQs
Maestro Echoplex tape delay
Orban spring reverbs (2)
Purple Audio BIZ mic preamps
Stocktronics plate reverb
Tube-Tech LCA2B Stereo Compressor-Limiter, PE1C Program Equalizer
Studio monitors/speakers
JBL 4425s
Yamaha NS10s
Rear and front speakers from 1999 Toyota Camry (stock)
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