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The only concession for the shows in Europe is that the band are not going to be able to make as many Schecters with them due to the cost of transportation, although it certainly doesn't sound like they're going to be without. At the time of our interview, Eric was planning on taking 10 or 11, including three spare S1s for Tommy Victor to cope with the rough-as-hell style of his playing. Amp-wise, there may also be changes for the European leg, as they're going to be hiring it all in.
"I'm not totally sure what we're gonna use in Europe," says Eric. "Back here, we were using Crates and Al had a Marshall JTM. Those were great for him. Tommy was using a new transistor Crate — the VTX350H — and I think we're gonna get them over there for everybody, the way it sounds at least for Tommy and Al, but I think they're all gonna play on Crate over there. It's a really nice setup and they're good transistors. I just couldn't believe the sound they're getting for a transistor it's a really cool amp!"
As far as spares go, Eric plans to have spares of every cab and head just as he did in the US.
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Whilst Al Jorgensen doesn't use any effects other than what he can get out of his amp, Tommy Victor's pedalboard features a range of stomp boxes, including quite a few DigiTech products, which he is also endorsed by. He currently has a Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner, a Boss GE-7 equalizer, a DigiTech DigiDelay, a Dunlop Q95 Wah, a DigiTech Hyper Phase, a DigiTech Multi Chorus and an ISP Decimator pedal for noise reduction. Eric Gormley carries a complete spare pedal board in case they do encounter any problems.
"I'd try and work out if it's one single pedal and I may try and replace it that way," he says, "but the quickest way is to just unplug the pedalboard and plug the new one in as quick as you can just have it ready! That is usually the quickest way to do anything but I have never had that happen yet — everything's been going smooth, the equipment's been working great. I keep it up and that's my job — to make sure it doesn't happen. And it doesn't, so that's a plus!"
In addition to what's available on the pedalboard, on the song 'So What', Eric Gormley manually makes some changes to Tommy Victor's tone using effects built into the Crate head.
"On 'So What' I have to do a couple of little amp changes, changes to the settings on it," he says. "I turn the level down and put the reverb up on it and some levels go down you've got three different channels so I do those changes for him. There were a couple of other songs that I did changes on but we've got it down so that's the only song now, because when you start doing that kind of thing, it can become a problem and we try to eliminate any problems we can. So we keep the changes as minimal as possible but right now we're still having to change it for 'So What', which is the first song of our first encore."
Whilst Jourgensen again keeps things traditional by using a cable when he does play some guitar, Tommy Victor and Sin Quirin use EV's REV wireless system, which is another product that Eric Gormley can do nothing but wax lyrical about.
"Each guitar has its own pack," Eric says. "The REV wireless units are beautiful. They're usually $1500, I think, just for the unit, and like $800 for each pack, but EV give us all that. They're a great unit and I just love them — so user friendly with a clear signal, and they give us a real wide range of frequencies."