This website is not endorced by Wipers or Greg Sage!

no photos are mine.

Wipers were an 80s punk rock band from Portland, Oregon fronted by my personal favorite guitarist of all time- Greg Sage. Most people who will read this are most likely familliar with the story. to quote the Official Wipers Website "The Wipers formed in late 1978. Greg Sage said that the idea for the name came from when he worked at a movie theater that had a long hallway of glass that looked over the city of Portland, Oregon. One of his jobs was to clean the glass that would get cloudy from people waiting to enter the theaters. When wiping the glass with a large squeegee, the view of the city would become crystal clear. A “crystal clear view” was the idea he wanted to put into music. The Wipers and Greg Sage went on to record 12 albums and several EP’s. Greg’s original idea was to never tour or do interviews, to be mysterious and let listeners have their own ideas. This original idea was not as possible as he hoped, due to the demands of working in the music industry. Even though staying independent throughout his career there were certain rules in the music world he could not bend. Greg would go on to build some of the equipment used to record the albums creating their distinct sound." I plan on documenting their sound to the best of my ability in order of release.

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BETTER OFF DEAD EP (1979)

The first EP (Better Off Dead) will be hard to accurately estimate the equiptment Greg Sage used, as it's hard to find accurate information of even their most accessible material. I recently came across a photo of him with a lefty Fender Stratocaster, from (what I assume) 1963, I'm guessing this for the simple reason that Greg is well known amongst fans to be a huge fan of Jimi Hendrix (Greg is right handed but learned lefty because of his admoration for Jimi), and this would be the same model as the sunburst Stratocaster that Hendrix used, although made for left handed players, as apposed to right handed, as Hendrix would have. I have 0 clue when this was taken, although it would be safe to guess it was while he was still the guitarist for the late American NWA Wrestler Beauregarde, I personally think he may have used this guitar or his Gibson SG for the recording of Better Off Dead. Greg has said the original tapes- which later became the demos for 'Is This Real?'- were recorded on a 4-track. In a old interview with TapeOp (you gotta use the wayback machine, cause I guess noone cares about preservation anymore), he's qouted as saying "Yeah. I think the first tape machine I had was a four track Tascam and a small eight channel mixing board." One can assume he most likely used the same thing to record Better Off Dead. I assume this was a Tascam 70-4 (as it'd be era accurate) and any 8-band EQ system will work. (he was very non-descriptive on the EQ board) for amplification (judging by the picture) was either an old Marshall cab or his trusty Ampeg Gemini I(get used to hearing about this brand of amplifiers) Greg is known for his distain for Marshalls (I don't blame him) so I'd guess he used the Ampeg. He most likely used 1960’s tube “Telefunken ELA M 251 E” condenser microphones for the guitar and vocals. (source). This EP is more grainy than their other stuff. The same idea here applies to the 'Is This Real?' demos that they recorded before the studio edition.

(Above) Greg Sage with a stratocaster

(Above) Tascam 70-4

(Above) Better Off Dead 7-inch linernotes.

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Is This Real? LP (1980)/Alien Boy EP(1980)

This entry may be the easiest, as it is well documented (...for Greg Sage standards, at least). Greg Sage used his '69 Gibson SG (source on the year "Greg Sage With 1969 Gibson SG") with Soapbar P-90s running into a MXR Distortion +, running into an Ampeg Gemini I. After this, theres some guess work. I would try to reach out to Bob Stoutenberg (the guy who recorded it) and ask, although I can't find any way to contact him and I'm not sure if he's alive anymore. I have reached out directly to Greg Sage to ask questions. I think he used the same Telefunken ELA M251 E mics to record the album, and I assume he used them quite often for recording as they're great microphones. I would guess it was recorded on a 16 track tape recorder.

Alien Boy was originally outtakes for 'Is This Real?'. This Tone is a bit more echo-y, although I think this EP was produced better and the echo was standard tape echo that happens accidentally or the built in tube echo that the Gemini I has.

(Above) Greg Sage (Guitar) and Sam Henry (Drums) where you can see Sages MXR Dist+

(Above) Liner notes for 'Is This Real?'

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Youth Of America LP (1981)

Oh, boy. This one has to be the most interesting one.

Introduction to this LP:

Youth of America was the Wipers second full length LP, although

The most likely scenario is that he had the same equipment as he did on Is This Real? An Ampeg Gemini I, a Gibson SG with P-90's and an MXR Distortion+. BUT!!! This album is the introduction of his ever-trusty Tape delay: the Maestro Echoplex. Now this box, let me tell you, is incredible. The sounds this little thing makes is the best delay I have ever heard. According to one post onreddit "Greg had several of these and besides the Distortion+ it was the only "effect" he ever used. It is, with no doubt, the key to his guitar sound and style. Without it, he would be missing his natural "huge" solo sound and his ambient guitar playing would be at a miss. His Echoplexes were early solid-state models that he modified to accomidate a footswitch." I will verify this if Greg would be so kind as to reply to my email. But in the meantime, I can say with confidence he used a tape delay. You can get similar sounds with a Demonfx Tape Echo at a much lower price. The giant sound in the title track of Youth of America is caused by the tape echo. No other delay would sound similar. Not analog, and for sure not digital. The production of the official release is very mid-range heavy, it was recorded at an in home studio.

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Over The Edge LP (1983)

This sound is quite complex. At this point and time Greg Stopped using Distortion stomp boxes in live settings, although within this album you can hear 2 different and distinct tones. The high and low gain tones. On Zenorecords Greg Sage had said "Vacuum Tube Distortion Box, This doesn’t look like much, but back in the day this was the only stomp box chassis I could find large enough to put a high voltage power supply in it to power a tube. This design uses a single tube with a distortion circuit. It has a variable distortion control, tone controls and a output volume control, along with a bright switch, and a stomp bypass switch." He started using tube distortion. Now I think this 'Distortion' sounds more like fuzz. Almost like a heavier Jimi Hendrix. The most comparable would be Germanium fuzz. I think he used a fuzz pedal as the basis for it and added a tube in place of the original transistor.

(Above) The tube distortion Greg Sage made.

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Wipers Tour '84 (1985)

This is one of two Wipers live show tones I will be talking about. I think the short span of 84-86 is some of the most interesting in Wipers history, as they managed to break up shortly after releasing Over The Edge, release a live album (originally cassette only in 1984) from the tour of Over The Edge, Greg made a solo album almost immediately after the release of this live album and got back together and then release another album, all of which are some of his best work.

Greg used marshals on tour usually, at this time he most likely would have used one (probably a 1960a) with his homemade preamp. There were no pedals used on this other than his Echoplex, from what I can tell.

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Straight Ahead LP (1985) (Solo Album)

After Wipers disbanded for the first time, Greg started writing songs on his acoustic guitar (an acoustic Ventura guitar with an electric pickup). Greg is qouted as saying: "After I recorded Over The Edge, I had $5,000 invested into that record. The record company went bankrupt, so they took the money and started a new label. We got screwed and I had no way of paying back the debt, so that was the end of The Wipers. I was out in the Mohave desert and I wrote a bunch of songs on the acoustic guitar, I fixed a tape recorder for somebody. An eight track recorder, so I got to use it for a month as a fee for fixing it, I guess. I just recorded those songs." Now I've looked high and low for this Ventura acoustic guitar with an electric pickup, and I'd assume it was a Ventura V-14 made in japan, recorded into a tape recorder and bassed on random guess I'll assume it was a Tascam 48 Reel to Reel. The amp sounds like a Randal of some kind but I'd assume It's just the Ampeg Gemini I.

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Land Of The Lost LP (1986)

This is where it gets difficult. Up to now I've tried my hardest to be as accurate as I possibly could, I plan on continuing this pattern, although from here until Gregs second solo album, placing their sound is hard. This tone is beefier than the tone on Over The Edge, whether it be due to production or the amp, I'm unsure, I'd assume its the amp and perchance an Ampeg Gemini VT-22. The tone is different enough to imply at least a set of new tubes in his Gemini I. And at risk of sounding like an obsessed mega weirdo (I recognize the irony of saying this on this page) theres a new energy here. This is one of their more dynamic albums, especially of their eairlier career. They start their album with a huge chunck of Romeo-esq songs that are high energy, Half of this album would fit perfectly in Over The Edge, the other would fit in The Circle. But the energy here reminds me of when I get new equipment. I just have a hunch that he started using a new amplifier, even though I HATE speculating these things, every part of me is telling me that I'm right.

He's still using the Maestro Echoplex and tube distortion at this point.

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Follow Blind LP (1987)

Greg Sage has said this is his favorite album, I don't blame him honestly. In terms of crunchy-ish cleans this might be one of my favorite tones ever. According to Extramusic "Sage's own favorite in his oeuvre, according to a story Rolling Stone did in 2020 on the reissue of "Is This Real?", is " Follow Blind ," released in 1987. By that point, the music had already found its equilibrium: the guitar still sounded like a cutting torch, but Sage's relatively high voice was now channeling itself, stretching out words like strudel dough, in a calm flow from which melancholy increasingly flowed.' which, calling a voice 'like strudel dough' might just be the most German way to describe a voice.

This album sounds like he went back to the Gemini I for the cleans. and it sounds like he ran the distortion at a low gain stage into the echoplex going into the VT-22. It sounds like pedal stacking, in the signal chain I'd assume it went Tube Distortion/fuzz, MXR Distortion +, Echoplex. He also started playing with guitar layering. You can hear clean guitar under most guitar parts and you can also hear the layering on songs like 'Losers Town' It's a common misconception that he never layered guitars, and this album proves it. He barely did it in any other album but the intro to 'Losers Town' would be unnessisarily difficult to play without layers, even for Greg Sage standards. If attempting to replicate this tone, aim for more lowend in your tone. with cleans, (on the Gemini I) Start with Treble on bright and the Bass at around where 6-7 would be on a numbered dial. For distortion use simialar settings on the Gemini VT-22, just don't put anything on bright.

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The Circle LP (1988)

This is my second favorite tone from Sage. It's ripping, gritty and moody. This tone is very distinct from their other albums, it almost sounds like a zipper, and I believe this is the start of my favorite amplifiers reign within the Wipers, the 1966 Ampeg Portiflex Fliptop B-12X. If you've been checking some of the links I've put in, you'll notice Greg hailed this as his favorite Amp. Source.