Genesis Abacab equipment

Abacab was Genesis' eleventh studio album, released in September 1981 on Charisma Records.

This album was part of a "rethink" of Genesis' approach, basing their songwriting more on group-written songs through jams and improvisations. They started doing so on Duke, but this time there are three individually-written songs - one from each member - and the rest are written by the group (with each member taking turns with the lyrics). While writing the album, their Fisher Lane Farm Studio was undergoing building work, so they stayed in the cottage on the premises to do so. Once the building work was complete in March 1981, recording began in earnest with engineer Hugh Padgham, whom Phil Collins worked with on Peter Gabriel's third album and his debut album Face Value by that point.

Phil Collins
Drums:
 * Premier 717 Elite Black custom kit

Cymbals:
 * Zildjian & possibly Paiste

Misc.
 * Roland TR-808 drum machine

Tony Banks
Keyboards & Synthesizers
 * ARP Quadra
 * Moog Polymoog 203a
 * Sequential Circuits Prophet-5
 * Sequential Circuits Prophet-10
 * Roland VP-330 Vocoder Plus
 * Yamaha CS-80
 * Yamaha CP-70 electric grand
 * unknown acoustic grand piano ("No Reply At All") (possibly Steinway?)

Effects:
 * Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble - on CP-70
 * Colorsound Tonebender Fuzz fuzz boxes
 * MXR MX-134 Stereo Chorus
 * MXR MX-107 Phase 100
 * MXR Distortion?

''Note: It was long rumoured that an EDP Wasp synthesizer was used on this album. The origins of this are unclear, especially as it has hardly been mentioned in interviews. However, a fan who was fortunate to ask Tony Banks about the EDP Wasp in the early 2000's confirmed Tony had "never heard of such an instrument". Hence its exclusion from this list.''

Mike Rutherford
Guitars:
 * Gibson SG Melody Maker (likely)
 * Shergold double neck (assumed)
 * Ibanez Artist 2622 (assumed)
 * Fender Stratocaster

Basses
 * Shergold bass (assumed) - part of double neck
 * Alembic Series I

Amplification:
 * Yamaha G100 212

Effects more effects to be identified
 * MXR MX-117 Flanger pedal
 * MXR MX-113 Digital Delay (Moog Taurus)

Other:
 * ARP Avatar guitar synthesizer
 * Roland GR-500 guitar synthesizer /w GS-500 controller
 * Moog Taurus I
 * Moog String Filter

Microphones

 * Beyerdynamic
 * Shure
 * Sennheiser
 * PZM

Sundry equipment

 * AMEK M2000A mixingconsole
 * Studer A80 24-track tape machine
 * Studer A80 2-track tape machine
 * EMT Echo Plate
 * UREI monitors powered by Crown amps