Recording
In 1982, ZZ Top convened at Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. Ardent had become the group's premier recording studio since 1973. Production was handled by the band's manager Bill Ham, while Terry Manning was responsible for most of the engineering. Recording occurred in Studio B and included an Auditronics mixing console that was a permanent fixture until 1985. Both Billy Gibbons and Manning took charge of the studio sessions to make an album with various electronic instruments. Despite the credits on the album, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard did not attend most of the sessions.
Billy Gibbons used a Dean Z electric guitar that had DiMarzio Super Distortion humbuckers. Manning recalled that the guitar was "very resonant", always on the verge of feedback, and difficult to keep in tune. He would often edit Gibbons' guitar parts to eliminate extra noise. Gibbons used a Legend Rock 'n' Roll combo amplifier, a 50-watt hybrid amp with a single 12-inch Celestion speaker. According to Manning, an AKG C414 B-ULS condenser microphone captured the amp and was placed about five inches from the speaker cone, slightly off-axis.
Read more about this topic: Eliminator (album)
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