PG’s Perry Bean caught up the Baltimore-based band and their techs to talk gear before All Time Low’s headlining show at Nashville’s Ascend Ampitheater.
Lead guitarist Jack Barakat’s main ride is this purple ESP Eclipse-II that has custom pumpkin inlays with Seymour Duncan pickups—a JB in the bridge and a Jazz in the neck—because he felt the standard active pickups ESP uses are too hot and distorted for the band’s sound. However, he bypassed all the electronics in the guitar and the bridge pickup goes straight to the output jack. He prefers to have his axes finished in matte because it helps him retain a solid grip up and down the guitar after starting to sweat during performances. (Oh, and he does like how it looks, too.) All of his guitars are strung up with Ernie Ball Beefy Slinkys .011–.054. He uses custom All Time Low-branded Jim Dunlop Tortex .73 mm picks.
Barakat waited a year to get this ESP Eclipse-II and at the end of the guitar’s first show he threw it 50 feet offstage to his guitar tech Mac Fraser who couldn’t complete the catch—Barakat admits to giving it a bad toss—and it snapped the headstock. Representing the band’s HQ, Barakat goes with the reverse color scheme to show support for his football squad—the Baltimore Ravens. Everything is set up the same on this one—Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge, a SD Jazz in the neck, and all the wiring is bypassed so the JB goes straight to the output.
Gettting in the spirit of Nashville favorite Ernest Tubb, Barakat Eclipse II has a message for the crowd.
You should be sensing a theme with Barakat’s guitars by now—here’s a third ESP Eclipse-II that has a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge, a SD Jazz in the neck, and all the wiring is bypassed so the JB goes straight to the output.
Here's another message from Barakat for the crowd.
The first guitar Barakat ever wanted was a Fender Tom DeLonge Signature Strat. He eventually tracked one down from fellow pop-punker Ian Grushka from New Found Glory. The Strat is still stock and features a single Seymour Duncan Invader in the bridge. (New Found Glory is the inspiration for All Time Low’s band name—they took it from a NFG lyric in “Head on Collision.”)
The band’s auxiliary live guitarist Bryan Donahue plays a guitar he built with his own company Venture Guitars that is a Jaguar-meets-Firebird axe constructed with an alder body, ebony fretboard, Gotoh hardware, and currently has a Seymour Duncan ’59 in the neck and a Pearly Gates in the bridge (with coil-tapping abilities).
The band tours nearly 300 days a year so to keep things running as efficient as possible Barakat uses a Kemper Profiler so he can quickly access all the band’s recorded tones and even shared settings given to him by Mark Hoppus of Blink 182. For his clean tone he’s using an AC30 model that’s miked with a Royer R121 ribbon microphone and for the more aggressive stuff the core tone is sampling from Barakat’s Budda Superdrive 30.
Like his 6-string counterpart, rhythm guitarist Alex Gaskarth is loyal to one type of axe, and in his case, it’s a Fender Classic Series ’72 Telecaster Deluxe that comes stock with Wide Range humbuckers. Just like Barakat, he plays Ernie Ball Beefy Slinkys .011–.054.
Here is another Fender Classic Series ’72 Telecaster Deluxe that gets used by Gaskarth.
This axe showed up literally while we were filming the Rig Rundown and it is a Chris Shiflett Telecaster Deluxe that is loaded with a pair of specially-voiced Chris Shiflett “CS” humbuckers with nickel covers.
The only non-Tele Deluxe—although still a T-style—is this Special Edition Custom Telecaster FMT HH that has a Seymour Duncan ’59 in the neck and a Pearly Gates in the bridge.
Bassist Alex Gaskarth falls in line with the guitarists and only uses one type of bass—a Fender American Standard Precision Bass that is strung up with Ernie Ball Power Slinky Bass .055–.110.
Here’s a custom American Standard P bass that has a bit of an identity crisis with its red-and-black, 50/50 color scheme.
As you guessed it, to keep things streamlined and hassle free for the road life, Gaskarth is using a Kemper Profiler, too. He only uses one setting—a clone of his Budda Superdrive 30 and to alter the tones or increase/decrease the gain, he just controls everything with the volume knobs on his guitar. As for bass amplification, Merrick uses an Avalon DI for his clean tone.
And for the heavier stuff, Merrick goes direct into a Darkglass Electronics Microtubes B7K Analog Bass Preamp.
Merrick is the only bandmember with a pedalboard and it only holds the essentials—a Radial ProDI, a Boss TU-2 Tuner, a Boss TU-3 Tuner, an Aguilar Agro Bass OD, and a T-Rex Fuel Tank powers everything.
Perry Bean cut his teeth touring and playing in punk rock and hardcore bands, before he got his start in film. He worked his way up from lowly production assistant to become a producer, art director, and most recently, a music video director nominated for ACM, CMT, and CMA awards. Being Premier Guitar's Chief Videographer was a perfect fit for him, combining his two favorite things—guitars and cameras. Perry doesn't have free time, but his massive dog Beef pays his rent by being Perry's intern.
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