Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse)

Mark Linkous was a singer, songwriter and musician, best known for his work with Sparklehorse. Under the Sparklehorse moniker Linkous released five albums including Dark Night of the Soul, a collaboration with Danger Mouse, officially released in July 2010, four months after his death in March 2010. Linkous was also known for his collaborations with artists such as PJ Harvey, David Lynch, Radiohead, Black Francis, Julian Casablancas, Nina Persson, Daniel Johnston, Danger Mouse, Tom Waits, and Sage Francis.

Guitars

Throughout his career Linkous, for the most part used a mix of Epiphone, Gibson and Stratocaster style guitars.

In a January 1998 interview with Musician magazine, Linkous provided a walk through off his home studio set up he’d dubbed ‘Static King’. In the article the guitars listed in his home studio were:

1960 Gibson ES-33O
late-Seventies Gibson ES 335
Fender Squier Strat
Gibson Southerner acoustic

Live he was also seen playing:

Epiphone Zephyr Blues Deluxe
Epiphone Casinos
Harmony Rocket H53

One of his more recognized guitars was the Red ‘Woody Woodpecker’ Stratocaster. At times mistaken for a Fender Stratocaster, it was actually a Strat copy, most commonly thought to be Harmony H80T. The main noticeable difference being the head stock which had a slight point to it rather than the rounded end you see on real Fender models.

In the early years he was also seen playing a Rickenbacker 330 with the band Dancing Hoods. on MTV’s “Cutting Edge” from 1987.

Rickenbacker 330. Mark Linkous with the Dancing Hoods on MTV’s “Cutting Edge”, 1987.

Amplifiers

While Linkous was primarily seen playing through Vox AC30’s live, in the studio he also used a bunch of less common amplifiers.

In the 1998 interview with Musician magazine, Linkous spoke about his Gibson Vanguard with a belt driven echo unit mounted on the back.

That amp belonged to a preacher; I got it at an auction that a guy had in his trailer. The echo unit’s called the Adineko Memory System, made by a company called Tel-Ray Electronics. You can put your finger on the wheel and manually slow down the echo-sounds beautiful. I told a buddy at a music store about it, and he’d heard of them, and he told me that I
should never open up this round metal canister that’s attached to it because there’s some sort of toxic material inside.
“Home Studio, Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous”, Musician Magazine, January 1998

Other amplifiers he had in his studio featured in the article were:

Ampeg Reverberocket
Ampeg Gemini lV-a
Searc Silvertone 2×12, and a
Boss Mascot MA-1 (used mainly for vocals).

Effects Pedals

Throughout his career Linkous used a range of effects pedals including: