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Musicians Hotline® ! What's happenin', folks!? Welcome to another edition of "Intense Guitar"! I've just returned from Winter NAMM, where I had a great time playing and demonstrating at the Spectraflex cable booth. I'd like to thank all my buddies who stopped by to say and/or do some playing, including Mark Tremonti (Alter Bridge), Nick Catanese (Black Label Society), Greg Howe, Nuno Bettencourt, Anthony Gomes and many others. It was a very special show. There are some very kool pics on my website of some of the guys who stopped by. Check it out at www.TOSHIISEDA.com. Most importantly, I'd like to thank Terry Dennis, David Russell and Bill Hoisington for having me play at the booth and getting me out there. Thanks, guys!
I know, I know. Everyone's wants to know if they guessed the "typo" in the last column to get the free RAMA 1 CD. Right? Well, read on and I'll tell by the end of the column. I'll tell you one thing, though, there were lots of guesses in the first week. Some of you were right on the mark, while others . . . well, let's just say I assume you just don't have a dictionary. :-)
Since I address questions every month from you, the readers, many of you wanted to know about my gear and especially why I switched from Monster cables to Spectraflex cables. So, that's what we'll discuss this month: my current "live" setup.
Starting with my guitars straight through the line, I exclusively use Carvin seven-strings. The models very from the 727 and 747 to custom designs. I've played (and own) just about every kind of seven-string, and in my opinion Carvin makes the best guitars out there. Without naming names, anyone who has followed my career knows of a few companies I've endorsed in the past. That being said, when I got together with the folks at Carvin to talk guitars, they'd given me a guitar to take home and check out. I took it home and remember thinking to myself, "I hope this endorsement deal works out, 'cause I am not giving this guitar back!" It was that great. Needless to say, it has worked out -- very well, I might add.
On my Carvin guitars I use original Floyd Rose tremolos. (Why go with a "licensed" one when you can have the original?) The guitars also sport DiMarzio pickups. DiMarzio is great because the company not only offers a variety of excellent-sounding pickups, but they also come in some awesome colors. I use Tone Zone 7's, Evolution 7's, Air Norton 7's, PAF 7's, Blaze and Custom pickups. They are the best. I also use DiMarzio Straplock straps on all my guitars. They come in kool colors too! :-)
All my guitars are strung with Ernie Ball Slinky strings. Gauges vary from .010-.056 to .011-.058, depending on the tuning I use. I really like these strings because they maintain their brightness while still staying warm in tone, and I never experience breakage. ("Good choice, Maynard!") My picks are custom Dunlop Tortex 1.14 mm in black with my name and logo on them.
Next? As I'm sure some of you know, I recently switched my cable endorsement from Monster Cable to Spectraflex. What can I say? I just think it's a much better sounding, working and looking cable. :-) They come in color braided cables, and we (my guitar tech and I) "color code" my entire setup. For example, if it's a yellow patch cable, we know it goes in the rack. If it's green, it goes to my pedalboard. My guitar line run is red, and the speaker cable is blue. I had used these cables years ago and would use them again from time to time, but I never had one go down (break) on me. The Monster stuff would. Besides, if they were good enough for my bro' Dimebag Darrell (R.I.P.), they're good enough for me. End of story!
Let's move on to the pedalboard. Here I'm using a few different things. Lately I've been in this "pedal kick" and using more stuff on the floor instead of rack-mounted stuff the way I have in the past. I use effects by my fellow columnist Robert Keeley, as well as by Morley, Digitech and Aphex. As for the Keeley stuff, I'm using the Keeley Compressor, Katana, Fuzz Head and a modified TS 808. Robert makes some awesome pedals, and I highly recommend a look at his stuff. You won't be disappointed! For my delay, reverb, chorus, flange and phaser effects, I use Digitech X Series pedals. I've been using them for a few years, and in my opinion they really hold up on the road and sound better than Boss effects. My wah, volume and "A-B-Y" pedals are all courtesy of Morley. I've been a Morley endorser and user for over 15 years. I guess that pretty much says it all, doesn't it? :-) Specifically, I use an A-B-Y box backwards (more or less). By that I mean I plug my guitars into the "outputs" of the A-B-Y box, and then that goes in a single line into my pedalboard. What this allows me to do is switch guitars via the A-B-Y box without unplugging my guitars. My guitar tech always has the next guitar change or a spare guitar on the "B" side of the box. Very kool.
To make things a little tighter but "bigger" sounding, I use an Aphex Aural Exciter. Since I'm going through a lot of pedals, this unit really keeps things punchy and tight. That's particularly true when playing a seven-string guitar, where the low end can get rather muddy if you don't pay attention to it.
I'm still using a few of my Eventide units on the tail end of the line. I use my trusty H3000 D/SX, a GTR 4000 and an Eclipse for some things that only an Eventide can conjure up.
As for amps, I'd been using a few Carvin Legacy units, and they're some great-sounding amps. My bro' Steve Vai had one sent to me a few years back, and immediately I thought it was a wonderful amp. Steve and the folks at Carvin did a fantastic job designing it. However, there were a few extra things that I wanted the amp to have, like MIDI, a master volume and a third "more distorted" channel for solos. They remedied this by coming out with the V3. To put it mildly, in my opinion this amp smokes just about everything out there on the commercial market and will give Mesa/Boogie's Triple Rectifier and Peavey's XXX a real run for their money. I'm running three heads and three Carvin Legacy 4X12 cabinets. The two outside cabs run "wet" (with effects), while the middle 4X12 cab runs dry (no effects). Running multiple heads, I really needed the capabilities of MIDI so the heads could all "talk" to each other. I also needed the amps to "talk" to my rack-mounted Eventide effects. All the amps are wired up with Spectraflex speaker cable. That would also be in blue. :-)
While performing at the Spectraflex booth in Anaheim, California, I used a fantastic new pedal/preamp called the "Demonizer," by a wonderful new company called Damage Control. They also make a more old school, Claptonesque pedal called "the Womanizer." These all tube preamps are seriously kool. You should really go and check out any of the numerous boxes they make. I'm giving you a heads-up on what I think is going to be the "big thing" in the guitar community. Check it out!
Lastly, I mike everything with Audix D Series microphones. Yes, that's how anal I get with my tone. If you're gonna do it, you might as well go all the way! :-) I usually use a D3 on the inside cab while using two D4's on the outside cabinets. When I talk to the audience I also make sure it's an Audix OM 6 on the stand. I use Spectraflex cables on all the mikes, too. They're color-coded purple.
Alrighty, that about does it. I hope this has answered some of your questions. Next month we'll get back into some playing, so make sure your chops are up! Before I leave you, I'd really like to say "thank you" to the following people and companies: Wayne Farr and everyone at Aphex; Cliff Castle, Phil Garfinkel and everyone @ Audix; Mark Kiesel, Jeff Kiesel, Bob Chini and all at Carvin; Lucian Tu and all the guys at Damage Control; Paul Muniz and Digitech; Larry DiMarzio, Steve Blucher and everyone at DiMarzio; Jim Dunlop, Jasmin Dunlop Powell, Jimmy Dunlop, Scott Uchida, Bob Cedro and all at Dunlop; Sterling Ball, Derek Brooks and everybody at Ernie Ball; Floyd Rose, Adam Reiver, Randy Fuchs and all at Floyd Rose; Robert Keeley and all the techies at Keeley Electronics; Randy Wright, Bill Wenzloff and everyone at Morley; David Russell, Terry Dennis, Bill Hoisington and Spectraflex. "Thank you!" (Hope I didn't forget anyone!)
Now remember, you can always get-a-hold of me @ Toshi@TOSHIISEDA.com or intseguitr@aol.com . I always love hearing from readers about potential topics. So, welcome.
And oh yeah, the winner of the "typo" giveaway is . . . Scott Myers of Peoria, IL! Congrats, Scott! Until next month, as always, "Who Dares Wins!"
www.TOSHIISEDA.com
(c) 2005 Toshi Iseda!
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