Jonathan Stout - "The Sheik of Araby" ala Charlie Christian - 1937 Gibson ES-150 and EH-185 amp
Video Description:
I was prepping for our annual Charlie Christian Birthday Concert (live stream available here) so I recorded myself jamming over two choruses of the "Sheik of Araby" in the style of Charlie Christian, who recorded the tune with the Benny Goodman Sextet in 1939, and was recorded playing it live with the band on the radio a couple times.
I'm playing my 1937 Gibson ES-150 and 1939 EH-185 amplifier, while the rhythm track was recorded using my 1939 Gibson L-5. Everything was recorded with an AEA R84A Active Ribbon Mic.
I've always felt one of the keys to Charlie's tone was the fact that the speaker was somewhat far from the microphone, which takes so much of the spiky high-end off, and the room sound makes it sound really massive. So different than putting an SM57 right up against the grill - it sure works for a lot of things, but not this kind of tone.
There's no fancy outboard preamps, just a humble Scarlett 2i2 3rd Gen into Logic. And there's no EQ, save for a HPF at 100hz, and the only effects are some vintage-style compression.
Again, you can check out the livestream of the whole show HERE.