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Premier Guitar’s Perry Bean swooped into Nashville’s Cannery Ballroom to check out the gnarly, pawnshop gear used by FIDLAR’s Brandon Schwartzel, Zac Carper, and Elvis Kuehn (above right). The three punkers detail how they scored their eclectic setups with tales of undervalued exchange rates, birthday presents, and even buying a vintage Fender tube head for an unbelievable price.
Bassist Brandon Schwartzel has always been a Fender bass man. On this tour, Fender helped him out and provided him with two Mustang Bass PJ models. As for the carving on the body’s top, that was Brandon’s handiwork with a Dremel tool. They all use D'Addario NYXL strings and light or medium Planet Waves 7DYL3-10 DuraGrip Guitar picks.
Originally a solid-state dude (he played Sunn), Brandon Schwartzel upgraded his tone with this beefy Fender Super Bassman.
Brandon Schwartzel has a handful of noisemakers that include an EarthQuaker Devices Afterneath (for the pysch-jam parts), a custom one-off Creepy Fingers (Brad from Fu-Manchu’s company) pedal that says ‘Fidlar Brandon’ and acts like a bass distortion, an Electro-Harmonix Bass Big Muff, an EHX Bass Micro Synth, and a Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner.
The gearhead of the bunch, Elvis Kuehn, travels with two Fender Jazzmasters. His onstage go-to on this run is actually his brother’s Fender (drummer Max Kuehn) but he currently prefers it because it’s setup with higher action.
Elvis Kuehn’s own Fender Jazzmaster has been relegated for backup duties during the fall 2018 tour.
When the tour started, Elvis was playing through a Traynor tube head, but shortly into the tour it crapped the bed and he’s be rocking his backup ever since—a Music Man HD-130 Reverb.
Elvis Kuehn’s stomp station is rich with fuzz and distortion. Things start with the Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner, and the coloration starts with the Klon KTR, Fulltone OCD, Death By Audio Fuzz War, Third Man Bumble Fuzz, Malekko Spring, Catlinbread Belle Epoch, Strymon El Capistan, Malekko Chorus, T-Rex Effects Tremster, and a ZVEX Super Duper.
Zac Carper was at Old Style Guitars a while back and was looking for a lightweight guitar to help with his ailing back. This black number was hiding in the corner and covered in dust with a $75 price tag. He’s played it all over the FIDLAR albums and onstage, but only recently found out that it’s single volume knob (that actually says tone’) is a push-pull knob that splits the humbucker. Radical, dude!
Zac Carper’s backup is this 1982 MIJ Telecaster (the first year of production models by way of Japan). It was a gift from his uncle who was deported from Hawaii and couldn’t take it with him.
One of Zac Carper’s homeboys was hurting for cash and didn’t know what he had when he sold this 1966 Fender Bassman to him. (His pal said the amp wouldn’t turn on, but the culprit was a bad solder connection on the transformer and it’s been cooking ever since.)
This is a Rig Rundown first: Zac Carper has the first, true-to-form “pedalboard” as he co-opted this Rick and Morty skatedeck into his touring board. It holds a Boss PS-5 Super Shifter, Electro-Harmonix Memory Boy, EarthQuaker Devices Talons, EHX Micro POG, and a Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner.
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Perry 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. Premier Guitar 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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