Another striking effect on Wilsey's guitar, which was played

through a 1964 Fender Deluxe amp miked with a Shure SM57, is

a long, quarter-note, triplet delay that swells up at the end of
certain notes. To create it, his mono guitar track was sent to a TC
Electronic 2290 for pre-delay, then fed to an Eventide H3000
stereo Rich Chorus program. The effect is that the mono guitar hit
swells up into the delay, then spreads out into the stereo chorus
to create a kind of pad. Needham rode the effect up at each spot
by hand, then automated it and printed onto a track of the MCI.

James Wilsey, the guitarist for Chris Isaak, has apparently

been posting, and mentioned this about his guitar tone for
"Wicked Game":

As far as echo/reverb goes- I've always used the good old

spring reverb (and tremolo) in a twin, and a delay of some
kind...digital or analog- I favor a purple Maxon analog delay
these days....

One little 'trick' I use is to run the straight gtr signal thu the
reverb channel and the delay into the 'normal' channel.
Makes it easy to control the wet/dry balance with the
channel volumes, and you can turn down the highs on the
repeats if they're too bright. It seems to keep the straight
singal less 'mushy' with the echo as they are going thru
seperate pre amps.

For recording I would generally keep the gtr slightly dryer

than normal- to be able have more control in the mix. We
would add more delay and verb in the mix to spread it out in
stereo a bit.

Also- Hank B Marvin (and the Shadows) has been a big

influence in my sound and playing style- If you like this
sound, do yourself a favor and pick up a Shadows CD..."the
Shadows are GO!" is available in the US and is a good strting
point....

"Guitars are key to the song. Isaak himself played two acoustics:
one standard and one in a Nashville-style high-strung tuning he'd
picked up from Night Ranger's Jeff Watson. The haunting lead was
by Silvertone's guitarist at the time, James Calvin Wilsey; that,
too, was painstakingly crafted. Although Wilsey's melody had
been written and played with the live tracks, the version that
appears on the record was put together from numerous tracks
overdubbed over a period of a couple of weeks, then comped and
refined piece by piece.

One of the subtly cool sounds on the track is a MIDI'd string

sound triggered by the lead guitar.

When the song became popular there were two videos that
were played on MTV. One was a formulaic beautiful-girl-on-a-
beautiful--beach thing, but the second was simply a
performance video of the band in a studio. The cool thing
about it was that it showed that the downward bends were
done with the tuning keys . I always wondered how the heck
anyone could un-tune and re-tune on the fly like that and get
perfectly back in tune. The fact that it was, largely, a studio
trick explains it. I've also seen Herschel (Isaak's current
guitarist) do it with traditional string bends and he does a
great job, but it doesn't quite sound the same. I think that is
one of the all-time great guitar tone licks.

From the 9/91 issue of Guitar Player Magazine:

"(Jimmy) Wilsey (then the lead guitarist of Isaak's backup band,

Silvertone) has favored Strats...two interchangeable '62 reissues...and
a custom-shop made Strat with a silver-fleck paint job that he uses at
home and in the studio."
"He uses a basic, post-CBS, silverface Twin Reverb for live
performance...In the studio, Wilsey also uses a pre-CBS Deluxe
Reverb."
"As for effects, the guitarist once used only an Echoplex, an Ernie Ball
volume pedal, and the reverb and tremelo from his amp...the Echoplex
has been replaced by an Alesis Quadraverb...but he still relies heavily
on the Ernie Ball volume pedal, using it like a country
guitarist..."Wicked Game" just would not sound right without that
volume pedal.

That Mix thing was all wrong- I never used a deluxe and I don't think
Lace pickups were even available when we did that recording (it was
recorded in '88, released in '89, became a 'hit' in '91).

I always used the pickups that came with the guitar. Wicked Game
was done with a 62 RI. I always used a silverface twin w/ JBL's, and a
Roland delay and a little volume pedal for swells. The recordings were
none with the guitar a bit dry, and we'd add some stereo delay and
reverb in the mix.

(I would've been the lead player at the Pinkpop gig, Chris played
rhythm on a Gretsch)

Not sure about Hershels gear...

I think there was a 57 and maybe a big condenser mic, and we'd use a
blend of both. I don't recall anything special about that recording- we
were working on a dozen or so songs for the album at the time- all
using generally the same setup, which was the same gear I was using
live.

The sound itself isn't very complicated, clean amp w/ spring reverb,
some delay and a strat....There's a version without the vocal that's
around where you can hear the track better-

No tremolo on that track... Worked the 'talent lever' quite a bit

though...