Steve Genewick Picks a Go-To to Track Spinal Tap

Los Angeles, CA (November 18, 2025)—When Grammy Award-winning producer and engineer Steve Genewick got the call to work with producer and musical director CJ Vanston on Spinal Tap ll, he already knew what mic he was going to use on the guitars.

“The Royer R-121 has been my ‘go-to’ mic for capturing electric guitars since the late ’90s,” Genewick says. “Paired with a Shure SM57, I can capture just about any amp in a realistic way. This mic combination was my setup for all the guitar amps on the Spinal Tap album, The End Continues. Even with all the time and mic options I had available to me, the R-121/SM57 combo was the only one I ended up using. It just worked every time.”

He continues, “Both of Spinal Tap’s guitar players—David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnell—were miked with the R-121/SM57 combination. We ended up never changing this setup, and I used very little EQ or compression on the guitar amps. I could find every tone by simply balancing the two mics to a single track for each guitar part.”

Inside The Recording Sessions of Spinal Tap II, Part I

Genewick served as a recording engineer at Capitol Studios for 27 years, 20 of those years assisting legendary producer and engineer Al Schmitt. During their time at Capitol Studios, they worked with Diana Krall, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, George Benson, Chris Botti, Quincy Jones, Tommy LiPuma, Phil Ramone and countless others. These days, Genewick works mostly out of his personal mixing studio doing album projects as well as some TV shows, feature films, and video games.

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“I’ve been using Royer ribbon mics pretty much since they started making them,” Genewick says. “Royer’s president John Jennings has been a friend for many years, and as they developed new products, John would send them over to Al and me at Capitol to try out. We immediately fell in love with the mics, and they became a large part of our recordings. It’s not unusual for me to have multiple R-121s or R-122vs on a horn section as well as a stereo Royer SF-12 or SF-24 as a room mic on large sessions.”