PG’s Perry Bean and Black Mountain’s Stephen McBean chat about McBean’s Hiwatt-and-Fender amp setup, his favorite Gibson solidbodies, and his funky home-painted stomps before the band’s June 18, 2016, gig at Mercy Lounge in Nashville.
Stephen McBean’s No. 1 guitar is this 1978 Gibson Les Paul Standard loaded with Sheptone Heartbreaker pickups. He strings it with D’Addario .010 sets.
McBean’s main guitar on his last album was this Squier J Mascis Jazzmaster loaded with Seymour Duncan Antiquity I pickups and strung with D’Addario .010s.
When Black Mountain plays older tunes in Eb, McBean goes with his Gibson SG ’61 Reissue with a Lollar P-90 bridge pickup. To keep the strings taut in this tuning, McBean uses D’Addario .011s.
For acoustic numbers, McBean relies on this Gibson Gospel dreadnought, which has a Fishman pickup and a finish that became gloriously cracked during a previous tour through frigid Canadian climes.
McBean uses a dual-amp rig that combines an early silverface Fender Super Reverb and a 1981 Hiwatt DR504 head driving a Marshall 4x12. He also brings a 1973 Marshall Super Bass 100 head along as a backup and switches it out with the Hiwatt every now and then. The cab McBean pairs with his 50-watt Hiwatt and ’73 Super Bass is an ’80s Marshall 1960 with Celestion 70 speakers.
McBean uses a Boss TU-2 tuner to keep his 6-strings copacetic, and relies on a handful of dayglow-painted pedals to conjure tones that range from sublime to weird and angry. His pedalboard includes a Robert Keeley Neutrino envelope filter, an Electro-Harmonix Octave Multiplexer, an ’80s DOD Phasor, a Fulltone SoulBender fuzz, a Union Tube & Transistor Swindle overdrive, a Vox V848 Clyde McCoy wah, a TC Electronic Ditto looper, a Framptone Amp Switcher, a Fulltone Supa-Trem, and a six-button, $80 loop-switcher of unknown make.
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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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