What sort of amps do you
prefer?
Onstage, I use a pair of Vox
AC30s for clean stuff, and for
dirty stuff I play some Splawn
amps—a Nitro and a Quick Rod
through Splawn 4x12 cabs loaded
with Eminence Greenback-type
speakers. I love Splawn amps.
They’re made at this small shop
in North Carolina and have a
great hot-rodded Marshall type
of sound. In the studio, I use an
amp I built myself. It’s basically a
Marshall and an AC30 all in one.
It sounds like a huge stack, but
it’s only 30 watts.
Photo by Joseph Guay
Can you tell us a little more
about the homemade amp—it
sounds intriguing.
I’ve actually built four of them
now. Basically, each one is a two-input
amp with one side being
pretty much a top-boost Vox
AC30, and the other side being
sort of a hot-rodded Marshall
with some preamp gain. The
hot-rodded side has a tube-buffered
effects loop and a Master
Volume. Both channels feed
into an AC30-style power section
with a few tweaks here and
there, but basically it’s a four-
EL84, cathode-biased power section
with no negative feedback.
It’s a 30-watt combo, but most
of the time I run it through a
4x12 Splawn cab. Component-wise,
I’ve used anything and
everything, but I tend to go with
carbon comp–type resistors on
certain parts of the circuit and
metal-film everywhere else. I’ve
used SoZo coupling caps for the
most part, but I’ve used Orange
Drops, too. As for tubes, I think
the JJ brand sounds best overall
for what my amps do.
Did you build everything
from scratch?
I did, except I had a guy weld
the chassis together for me. I
wanted the chassis to be unique,
so I couldn’t use off-the-shelf
parts. I basically took my drawing
to a local sheet-metal shop
and had it made, and then I
drilled all the holes myself and
had it powder-coated. I’m into
woodworking, so the cabinet
part was easy and fun for me.
I drilled and punched all the
turret-board stuff myself. And,
of course, I wired it up myself.
How do you get such consistently
killer dirty tones?
I find that when I use a distortion
pedal, it tends to thin out
the sound. I’m really just looking
for more sustain, so I’ll usually
step on a compressor before I step
on a distortion. To get a gritty
sound, I like to set my amps pretty
loud and filthy, and then back
off my guitar’s Volume control
to get something a little cleaner.
But occasionally—for instance,
on a song like “Fuzzy”—I do use
a Z.Vex fuzz pedal. To be honest,
I can’t remember which one, but
it’s a pretty cool pedal. It can get
crazy if you want it to, but I set it
up to be very ballsy and smooth
at the same time.
There are so many great guitar
moments on the record,
but the multilayered parts on
“Yours to Reap” really stand
out. How did you record that?
Everything was done with
regular guitars tuned a half-step
down. Some of them were
lowered to dropped C# tuning.
I used the P-90 MJ guitar for
every part except the solo, on
which I played my trusty black
MJ. The main part that opens
up the song and becomes the
sort of fake keyboard-pad sound
is this: four tracks of guitars,
each played with an EBow going
through a Whammy pedal set to
drop two octaves when I step on
it, through some delay and then
through my homemade amp.
The main little riff that comes
in eventually is done with my
Option 5 Destination Rotation
pedal through some delay and
then through my amp with a
fairly clean sound and the bass
rolled off a fair bit to make it a
little lo-fi—so that everything
around it sounds bigger. After
the vocal finishes, a little string-quartet
thing comes in and
that’s done with four guitars,
each played with an EBow
going through a Whammy
pedal. The solo was just the guitar
through the homemade amp
with a little delay.
Describe your general
approach to writing.
It’s nothing mind-blowing. It
almost always starts with me tinkering
around on whatever guitar
I have at hand, coming up with
a new riff or chord progression,
and singing along with a melody.
Later, as I’m lying in bed or
driving in my car, I might find
myself humming a familiar tune,
only to realize it’s one I recently
composed. If it sticks like that,
the song is generally a keeper. As
for lyrics, I’m not trying to blow
anyone’s mind—I’m just trying to
articulate exactly how I feel. That
can be tough, because so many of
my lyrics are intensely personal.
How does your classical training
factor into your music
these days?
I often find myself using hybrid
picking even when I don’t have
to, and I think that’s a technique
leftover from playing classical
guitar. Also, I still play classical
in order to keep my chops
up. I have a handful of pieces
that I first learned years ago—
things like Bach’s “Bourrée in E
minor” and “Ave Maria”—that
I’m still chipping away at. Talk
about music for music’s sake!
“Ave Maria” is a great one—the
chords are ridiculous. It really
expands your playing to work
through such beautiful chords—
the sort that you wouldn’t normally
think to play.