Robert Smith's main guitar on Wish was his Gibson Chat Atkins Semi-Acoustic. He also used Fender 6 String Bass (used on "Trust") although he said he erased these because they were too obvious.
Porl and Smith used a Gibson ES-335 which was used to record the solo on "Friday I'm In Love". Porl also used a Gibson Les Paul.
A lot of the "Chorus" sound on album is just heavily detuned guitars however he did use a Boss C1-Chorus (usually set with the left knob at 10 o'clock and the right at 2 o'clock)
He used a Boss DD-3 Digital Delay for the Delays (usually all knobs set to 12 o'clock expect for the Mode knob set at 800 milliseconds) and a noise gate pedal to cut off the delay.
Peavey Musician Mark III Head through a 4x12. When paired with his Fender 6 String Bass he dials the mid to zero, cranks up the treble all the way, then put the bass and presence at halfway.
For every album they do, Robert takes a bunch of songs that have elements he's inspired by. For Wish he listened to "Mesmerize" by Chapterhouse and "Human by the Human League.
They usually recorded demos separately at home then bring them together in the studio. They never finalized anything on demos instead they prefer to get together in the studio to improvise and fine tune.
They start off by laying down the bass and drums, coming up with tons of instrumentals for Robert to write lyrics too. Porl rarely uses more than 2 guitar tracks but Robert is a fan of layering it up.
Porl likes using a lot of mics, miking it up from different rooms to get a distant sound. You can hear this on "Apart".
They start off by laying down the bass and drums, coming up with tons of instrumentals for Robert to write lyrics too. Porl rarely uses more than 2 guitar tracks but Robert is a fan of layering it up.Friday I'm In Love" was recorded in D major, but Smith was messing with the vari-speed and forgot to turn it off, accidentally speeding it up a quarter notch somewhere between D and E flat.
While on the topic of key, Smith doesn't like his high-E to be in perfect tune so he often detunes it. He also frequently messes with the speed of the tape to detune certain parts
Gibson Chat Atkins Semi-Acoustic
Fender 6 String Bass
Gibson ES-335
Gibson Les Paul
Peavey Musician Mark III Head through a 4x12