It’s A Wrap

After his year-long project comes to a close, Jamie Dickson shares the tone lessons – and more – from completing his first acoustic album

Though the bulk of the album was recorded with a Martin Custom 000-14, this extraordinary Musser dreadnought brought the final track of the album to life with its endlessly sustaining, piano-like voice

Regular readers may recall that around March of last year I began recording an album of acoustic fingerstyle pieces inspired by John Renbourn, John Martyn and 70s folk guitar at large. Chris Turpin, of the acclaimed roots-rock band Ida Mae, agreed to produce the record and, working around his busy touring schedule, we completed the sessions throughout the course of a year.

Thanks to his excellent contacts, plus a few old friends of mine, we were able to get some amazing musicians onto the record, including bassist Nick Pini (Laura Marling, Tom Jones), vocalist Bethia Beadman (Courtney Love/eponymous solo work), fiddle player Aaron Catlow (Sheelanagig/Kit Hawes) and Stephanie Jean Ward, Chris’s musical partner in crime in Ida Mae, on flute and piano.

“Accept that you are a real artist, as entitled as any other to make a record, who has a clear vision of what they want to achieve”

From all these wonderful ingredients a finished album emerged that added just a touch of Glastonbury mysticism to its British folk influences and, happily, I can place hand on heart and say I’m very proud of it. And so, in this final report about the recording process, I’d like to pass on a few lessons I learned along the way, for whatever they may be worth. I hope they may be of some use to you if you should decide to make a record, too.

1. You Don’t Have To Do Everything

The first big lesson was the value of working with a professional producer in a well-equipped studio. I’m not going to knock the home recording approach; it works really well for a lot of people. But I felt I was able to do so much more than I could have imagined by working under Chris’s guidance in his studio. He has years of experience making records, great ears and carefully chosen vintage studio gear. Also, his skills in managing the engineering side of the recording process allowed me to focus solely on playing as well as I could and making good creative choices.

For example, Chris put up a variety of vintage and modern mics at first to see which would best capture the sound we were after. In the end, a high-end Neumann U 47 clone called a FLEA47 did most of the heavy lifting. But Chris’s knowledge and well-equipped studio gave me great options to choose from before we settled on a preferred approach. No, a producer’s time doesn’t come for free – but find the right one and it will help your album flourish and grow well beyond what you first imagined it could be.

2. Work With The Best Musicians

I recommend moving heaven and earth to get top-notch musicians to play on your record. Ask around for who’s considered seriously good in your area and pay what they’re worth to have them do a session. Even musicians in fairly high-profile acts are sometimes happy to do a session on the side for fair pay, especially if they like the vibe of your project. Their input will really raise the overall quality of your record, and if they’re really good they may suggest doing things with the arrangement you hadn’t even thought of but that fit perfectly.

3. Embrace The Unexpected

I went into the studio expecting to use my Martin 000-14 for everything, as I was so familiar with it and very happy with how it sounded. Yet by the end of the process, the album also featured a Beard Deco Phonic with birch back and sides, a National Resonator, a 1957 Martin 0-18, plus a beautiful hand-built acoustic by Don Musser kindly loaned by Vintage ‘n’ Rare Guitars in Bath. While I did, in fact, use my 000-14 for the bulk of the album’s songs, which were mostly in DADGAD, I didn’t really want to mess with it too much by retuning it to standard and back again when necessary. Producer Chris had wisely brought out a few of his own guitars and that’s how I got to try the Deco Phonic and decide it sounded perfect for all the standard stuff. The National, meanwhile, added a kind of clanky charisma to one track, while the vintage 0-18 brought a kind of woody midrange twang that helped another track stand out.

Trying a few different things usually yields a bit of welcome light and shade and, in so doing, you might just be surprised how a guitar you never used before becomes central to a whole recording.

4. Coated Strings Are Your Friend

Mainly one for the acoustic guitarists, this, but if you want your recording to be free of those intrusive squeaks and squoinks that sound like sneakers on a basketball court, I seriously recommend using coated strings. My album was recorded with an Elixir Nanoweb 12 to 53 gauge set on the Martin and (I think) on the Beard Deco Phonic as well. To my ears, these smooth off some of the sharpest treble frequencies and also help your fingers glide over the strings. Not all coated strings are the same – some coat only the wrap wire not the core, while others sheath the whole string – but whatever the pros and cons, there’s a very strong case for using coated strings in the studio.

Curt Mangan’s coated sets are also very good in my experience, but there’s a wealth of coated sets to choose from including D’Addario’s XS set and Rotosound’s Nexus range. Try a few and see which works best for you.

5. Take The Work Seriously

This project showed me the importance of taking the recording and yourself, in an artistic sense, seriously. I don’t mean you should be an unpleasable perfectionist or, God forbid, a prima donna – but simply accept that you are a real artist, as entitled as any other to make a record, who has a clear vision of what they want to achieve. If you have a sound in your head you really want to bring into the world, dig deep for it. Go the extra mile to get it recorded just as you envisioned it. No-one else is going to make the record you have in your heart and mind; you are uniquely qualified to do it. So rehearse the material to a sharp edge before you even set foot in the studio – be fully ready. Then, when the moment comes, you can deliver a fluent, expressive performance full of drama and grace.

I could go on, but I don’t want to bore you! I’ll only add that getting album cover art done professionally felt like a good move, even though it was another expense to factor in. And if you’re thinking of selling or sharing your record via digital platforms such as iTunes and Spotify, I highly recommend using a one-stop digital distribution service such as DistroKid. For a few quid a year they’ll publish your work to all the major digital marketplaces in one go after you’ve given them all the relevant files, art and info – a great labour saver.

Thanks for listening to the story of my little album and I hope it may have inspired you to consider making a record yourself, if you haven’t already. And if you should feel like listening to Withershinsnow that it’s finished, I could ask for no finer reward.