Le matos de george Lynch sur le dernier Lynch Mob "Smoke & Mirrors"
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The primary guitars used on the recording of the new Lynch Mob “Smoke And Mirrors” album were George’s original yellow Bengal tiger striped strat guitar and his ESP “Skulls & Snakes” guitar (affectionately named “Haji”). The yellow tiger guitar, which has weathered almost thirty years of live performances and touring has a severly checked (cracked) nitrocellulose finish on the body and is riddled with nicks and dings…character as most people would call it. The tiger’s body is a solid one-piece maple body and is super heavy to lift (total guitar weight is over 9 lbs.). It features a single humbucker which currently is one of the prototypes of the Lynch signature series Super V models made by Seymour Duncan. The Floyd Rose is mounted old-style; top mounted (non-recessed) and smoothly floats on the original wood screw pivot screws. There have been several necks mounted to this weighty beast over the past 30 yrs., the last one having been in use since 1984 and was a solid single-piece maple strat neck. That neck eventually twisted in 2005 and was retired to being a wall hanging in the office of ESP Guitar’s president, Matt Masciandaro. The current neck, fashioned by ESP in 2005, has a double hooked headstock and features a rosewood fretboard and Dunlop jumbo 6100 frets with a 17” flat radius.
The other primary guitar is a first edition Lynch signature series ESP “Skulls & Snakes” guitar that George named “Haji.” This guitar has a medium-weight alder body with the graphic artwork of the first Lynch Mob album cover to “Wicked Sensation” which was done by artist John Dismukes. Haji has two humbucker pickups in the neck and bridge position. The neck humbucker pickup is an ESP original and is a dual blade pickup in the shape of a single coil. The current bridge position pickup is a stock Duncan Screamin’ Demon pickup designed by George in 1990. This first edition version of this ESP model is dfferent than the current production version by featuring a strat-like headstock shape. The custom inlay on the fretboard is made of mother-of-pearl and mirrored glass.
Other guitars in the arsenal used in the “Smoke And Mirrors” sessions include the following:
-ESP 20th Anniversary Lynch Kamikaze (with mirrored glass inlays and killswitch);
-ESP/LTD VP-400 Baritone Viper with EMG pickups;
-ESP “George Paul” Les Paul inspired guitar (made as a gift by ESP and is a replica of a 1959) Sunburst Les Paul…the logo on the headstock looks like a Gibson logo but actually says “George”);
-ESP Lynch GL-56 (vintage derivative relic’d strat a la George);
-ESP Lynch Super V;
-ESP Vintage S + (vintage derivative relic’d strat);
-ESP 12-string Jaguar-shaped electric guitar;
-Linhof Telecaster;
-Fender 1959 Esquire (finish completely worn off and pickup petrified into the wood);
-Washburn Lynch signature series “Outlaw” acoustic electric guitar;
-Parker Fly acoustic electric guitar.
All electric guitars were tuned a half step down from concert pitch (Eb tuning) and are strung with Dean Markley Super V strings. When tuning at concert pitch, George always uses a straight .009-.042 gauge set. But while tuning lower, George opts for an odd string gauge combination for the Eb tuning. With his heavy use of vibrato in chords, George likes to use the lower three strings of a .009 gauge set while using the upper three strings of a .010 gauge set of strings. For the Lynch Mob “Smoke & Mirrors” sessions, all the electric guitars were strung with the gauges as follows (low to high): .042, .032, .024, .017, .013, .010.
The primary amp used in these recording sessions was George’s signature series Randall amp, the Lynch Box. There were three of them used and these were the core of the basic rig. Because of its interchangeable preamp modules, the three were used via an A/B/C amp switcher, the Lynch co-designed Morley Tripler. The Randall preamp modules, one in each of the three heads, were the Grail, the Brahma and the Mr. Scary. The Grail was used primarily because of its controllable gain which was still used to a minimum as it was used for a defined crunch in the rhythm tracking. The Lynch Box head containing the Brahma module was used in tandem with George’s original 1968 Marshall plexi-era 100-watt Super Lead amp head. Used together, those two amps sounded remarkably alike in many respects and they complemented each other very well. The Lynch Box head utilizing the Mr. Scary module was only used for solos and other over-tracking material.
Two Randall Lynch Box 4x12 speaker cabinets were used either as a single cabinet or in stereo using both at the same time. They are completely stock and contain the Eminence Super V speakers also co-designed by George.
Other amps and speakers used in the Smoke & Mirror sessions included:
-1968 Marshall Super Lead
-Soldano SLO-100
-WEM Dominator
-1965 Fender Super Reverb
-Roland JC-120
-Hiwatt SE-4123 4x12 (with original 50-watt Fane Speakers)
-early 70s Marshall basket weave 4x12
-mid-70s Marshall “Salt & Pepper” 4x12
Amp and speaker switching and combining was done via an Ampeg multiple amp and speaker console.
Effects were used very sparingly, only used to add texture to certain guitar tones, especially the clean electric tones. Overall, George brought his entire arsenal of effects pedals in 3 equipment cases. The most used were overdrive pedals, phasers, choruses, flangers and delays:
-Cusack Screamer V2
-Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer
-1974 DOD Overdrive 250
-Tone Freak Naked OD
-Voodoo Labs Analog Chorus
-1974 MXR Phase 90
-Electro Harmonix Frequency Analyzer
-Electro Harmonix Electric Mistress flanger
-MXR Flanger
-Fultone DejaVibe
-T-Rex Replica delay
-Boss DD-5 delay
-Maestro Echoplex
-1981 Boss GE-10 graphic equalizer
-Morley Lynch signature series Dragon Wah 2 (used in a notched position that could be pre-set and switched on).
One of the most interesting effects pedals used was the new Zoom G2G which is also a Lynch signature series product. It was used as a preamp and for it’s shimmering clean tones. There were some tones achieved with this pedal the rivaled the use of any of the other effects pedals altogether.
Picks of choice are the Dunlop Ultex .060’s and .073’s because of their exceptionally biting tone
