Uploaded January 2025 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago

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In this video I go through the sound chain from the recording of the Nirvana track In Bloom from the Nevermind album. We're gonna compare a bunch of classic distortion pedals and see how close they get to the Boss DS-1 that Kurt used on this track. We're also gonna compare how a couple of mics sounds for this tone. Butch Vig used 4 mics when they recorded Nevermind; SM57, MD421, C414 and U87. We're playing through the rig as one of the two rigs that Kurt used for this track: 1965 Fender Bassman and a 1980s Marshall Cab with G12-75.

The Distortions (most of them..) are:
1983 Boss Distortion DS-1
1992 Proco Rat
1979 MXR Distortion +
201X Marshall Guv'nor 1 (Joe Simon Custom Shop)
202X J Rockett Archer (Centaur Klon)
202X JHS Morning Glory

The mics compared are: Shure SM57, Sennheiser MD421 and Beyer M160

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In bloom Isolated Guitar:
youtube.com/watch?v=PqvtPRF2Q1o

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References:


Nirvanas gear in the Nevermind Era:
macprovideo.com/article/audio-hardware/nirvana-s-gear-in-the-nevermind-era

Butch Vig: Nevermind the Garbage (Article in SOS)
soundonsound.com/people/butcvig-nevermind-garbage

Butch Vig on recording Nevermind: “Little did we know that Nirvana would be putting the nail in the coffin of hair metal”
uncut.co.uk/features/interviews/butch-vig-recording-nirvana-nevermind-131878

LiveNirvana.com
livenirvana.com/equipment/cleme/kurt2.php

Kurts Equipment.com
kurtsequipment.com

Aaron Rash’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@AaronRash

Nirvanaguitars YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@NirvanaGuitars