JONH REIS de Drive Like Jehu, Rocket From The Crypt, Hot Snakes, Night Marchers, ...
SW@MI wrote:
Here are the beans,
In Hot Snakes I used 3 different guitars live.
Black Les Paul Pro . I don't have it here right now, but I think it's from 1979.
In the bridge I use a Rio Grande "bastard" P90 retro fitted to fit a humbucker slot.
In the neck is a Dan Electro pickup circa 1961 I believe.
I had this guitar hollowed out in the back to reduce weight.
I had 2 output jacks. One for each pick up. That way they work independently. In the past I would use a stereo chord into a stereo jack. No good. there was always bleed from one pickup into another. this caused weird phasing stuff that was counter productive to what I was hoping to achieve. so the 2 seperate jacks simplified things for the cromagnon mind and sounded better. I used this guitar alot in RFTC as well. I just used it with either a different pick up's (man, I tried just about everything) and without the 2 seperate jacks.
1980's Dragon Les Paul. The Vain guitar. Once owned by Dave Vain fron SF metal and Vain. Never heard them, until someone was nice enough to bring me a CD after the fact. James Hetfield identified this guitar at one of our shows as he knew Vain (and the guitar definitely stands out).
In the bridge I used the stock pick up that came with it. In the neck I used a DeArmond from the 60's. This guitar was hollwed out as well and has the same 2 outputs as the above guitar. I used this guitar alot in RFTC as well, but with a variety of different pickups and without the 2 outputs.
1964 Tele given to me by my favorite guitar player of all time Pen Rollings. It was once owned by Mac of Superchunk as well. Pen was/is heavy and had a EMG thrown in for the chugg factor. I put a Rio Grande "bastard" P90 in the bridge to replace it. In the neck is a newer lipstick by Kent Armstrong. I like this pickup OK but it is no where near as cool as the OG one in the other git. It has too much treeeeble and bass and not enough mids. Overall, this is the best sounding guitar that I own and it was used on every hot snakes record along with some other guitars as well.
as for amps. hot snakes live i used the same 2 marshall jcm 800 100w head that I have used for almost ever. Later period Pitchfork,DLJ, RFTC.
recently i used 2 2x12 cabinets. one with "lead" 80watt celestions, the other with "vintage" 30's. vintage 30's are actually higher wattage than 30 watts and are not vintage. a few years back they started making them in china. If you can get some gold ol usa ones you'll be minimally better off. mine are chinese and when I compare them to ND's usa one's his sound a hair better to my ears. I actually really dig the 80 watt celestions. low mids and darker high's. a good mix with the slightly scoopy vintage 30's (lotsa not too painful highs and without low rumble crap). I must say that I will probably never have any desire to hear another peice of shit Marshall cab with 75 watt celestions. probably the most unmusical speaker I have ever heard, which is why (unknowngly) Rick, ND, Gar, and myself never really backed the 1980's and beyond Marshall cabs that were pushed on to us dumb kids. ND ended up with a Hiwatt cab that had a great sound. Rick and myself used the Mesa cabs and Gar used a no name 2x12. This same cab still makes its' rounds and is what Rick used live in Hot Snakes along with his late 70's Marshall JMP 100watt head.
As for my Mesa 4x12 cab. I had it outfitted to meet my 2 amp setup in hot snakes. I split the speakers and turned it into a stereo setup. 2 jacks in the back each going to 2 speakers. this is the cabinet I used in every band I have been in, live and on record. I want to get rid of it actually. No more room. Anyone wanna buy it send me a message in my box. so you know, the cabinet has 4 75 watt celestions in it! those were the times, man.
on auto midnight I used the amps and speakers above with the tele/lipstick and the black Les Paul/p90. Some overdubs I used a 70's moserite stock.
on suicide invoice I used the same amps and guitars except I also borrowed some amps from O. He brought alot of cool Fender stuff. I used some of it, I don't even remember what. I also used Gar's no name 2x12 cabinet as well as a radio shack 1x12 cabinet. Other amps used were Traynor 100 watt 2x12 combo(viva canada), 1962 Fender Deluxe, ND's Hiwatt cab, just wahtever was lying around really. About this time we discovered something very special that I will choose not to share. An amp to end all amps that is hilariously rare. Now, whenever one pops up we all fight over it. Needless to say, I don't want to fight with more people than I have to. as for guitars, I also used DiPinto, Moserite, Gibson SG.
on audit I used primarily the black les Paul with a vox ac30 head out of a 1960's Marshall cab with 25 watt speakers(this gar belongs to the Paul waroff who owns Big Fish Studios). I loved this sound so much that I broke the bank and bought a 1967 vox ac30/ top boost head with matching 2x12 cab. This is what I used on our last SD and LA show. by far, the best piece of equipment I have ever owned. rick used my tele out of the same amp or a marshall out of one of the 4 or 5 cabs that we had at our disposal. I also used a 60's student model silvertone/harmony guitar on quite a few songs (Kreative Kontrol, PLenty For All). this guitar is Traci Haze's and is one of the coolest guitars I have played. It sounds great which lead me to try and duplicate this sound by dropping the same DeArmond pickup in the dragon les paul.The DeArmond pick ups are awesome. They make combining the two amps/pickups irrelevant since I feel that I get the clarity and attack of the lipstick with the susutain and midrange of the p90 from the one pickup.
if you saw me playing something different live with hot snakes it's because that gear was rented. when you rent, sometimes you get what you get and you just have to make the best out of it. turn lemons into pee.
Although I thought the crap that was available to us at the time was shit, things have definitely got way worse. not only is literally everything crap but quality gear is way expensive. Buy used! Stay away from new Marshall anything (I did hear the reissue jtm 45 plexi with big logo (1969?) and it was fucking awesome but 5k brand new.............PASS!
Hey if you write good songs all info becomes irrelevant. It doesn't matter.
There was this kid in my neighborhood that had the shittiest, most hurtin bike ever. It was a huffy "sante fe". he would to take it off the biggest jump we had and he would just blow everyone else away. he would do things on that bike that none of the rich kids on their redlines would dare attempt.
