They have spent the last ten years on the road, living in the same space as each other; eating the same dodgy roadside food; drinking the same beer and Jack Daniels; sharing the same sad motel rooms and stale jokes and probably shagging the same-(well, we won't go into that!). When they record, they do it together too - which is all fine & dandy and 'captures the essence of the vibe, man' but is one major headfuck when it comes to getting enough separation between tracks on tape. You can hide their amplifiers in various broom cupboards and toilets around the building, but you have the problem of long leads and subsequent tonal degradation, and the potentially nuclear argument provoking scenario of everyone relying on a headphone monitor mix.
A better arrangement is to let them set up their cherished Fender Twins as normal with them all in the same room so they can thrust their pelvises around and get that honking great feedback they love, and try to create some semblance of separation using acoustic screens and well positioned mics. This is all well and good until you get to the bass, which is always way to loud Īcos it's got to compete with a MegaWatt of screaming Marshall stack and a drummer who expresses his frustration at having to periodically climb back into the primordial soup and try to grow gills by bashing ten shades of shit out of his cymbals. And bass gets everywhere - it's worse than sand at a beach. So, what y'do is shove the bass amp in a closet, and before the bass player's bottom lip starts quivering, quickly give him a small guitar combo and tell him(or her) to sit on it. Because it's a weedy guitar combo, it won't blanket everything in the studio with a layer of woolly bass, but the vibrations through the bum will be enough feedback to let him know what he's playing, et voila - one happy session. Great, eh?