Facing a mandatory shelter-in-place ordinance to limit the spread of COVID-19, PG enacted a hybrid approach to filming and producing Rig Rundowns. This is the 17th video in that format, and we stand behind the final product.
Nick Perri has always appeared out of place. He first flew against modern trends and embraced loud-and-proud ’70s rock—even looking the part—with the creation of his band Silvertide. The band sprang to life in the early 2000s, and when most teens his age were listening to Limp Bizkit or Eminem, Perri was bowing to the guitar heroes of his parents’ generation—Page, Hendrix, Gilmour. While the Philly-based teens of Silvertide only released an EP (2002’s American Excess) and one LP (2004’s Show and Tell), they earned major rock-radio airtime with “Blue Jeans” and were handpicked to open for legends Aerosmith, Van Halen, Velvet Revolver, and Mötley Crüe.
Continuing to carry the arena-rock-filling, full-stack-screaming, guitar-hero torch in the face of the garage-rock revolution of the mid 2000s, Perri found work backing Perry Farrell, Matt Sorum (drummer for Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver), collaborating with his pop-star sister Christina Perri, and filling in as lead guitarist for Shinedown. Additional pursuits included producing a Transformers compilation, putting music to TV commercials, and writing the score for Gibson’s The Process series. No matter the project or musical context, he was always loyal to the guitar. And now, with his solo debut 20 years in the making, Nick Perri is being loyal to himself.
Nick Perri & the Underground Thieves reconnects the lead guitarist/vocalist with Silvertide bassist Brian Weaver. Other Philly friends in the group include singers/songwriters Anthony and Michael Montesano, keyboardist Justin DiFebbo, and drummer Zil Fessler. The group’s debut LP, Sun Via, has some obvious nods to Are YouExperienced and Zeppelin II, but some surprising stunners include the sparse, psychedelic spaghetti western “Let You Know,” and the somber, synthy swirl of “Fall.” All 10 tracks honor Nick’s growth as a musician, vision as an artist, and the instrument that still inspires him today.
Before releasing the brand-new album, Sun Via (out now), Perri virtually welcomed PG’s Chris Kies into his Philly-based jam space. The positive retro rocker explains overhauling holy-grail reissues, returning to the altar of Jim Marshall and the JTM45, and reducing his pedalboard to expand his creativity.
Nick’s love affair with ’birds goes all the way back to the early aughts when he was laying down greasy, groovin’ lead guitar with Silvertide. During the Rundown, he namechecks one of the Firebird forefathers—Johnny Winter—as the inspiration for his connection with the Gibson offset. This particular model is the commemorative 1976 Gibson Bicentennial Firebird featuring the classic reverse-body shape, a natural finish, and the iconic logo on the pickguard is colored red, white, and blue. (The typical bird emblazons are red.)
However, aside from the woods and pickguard, everything else on the guitar has been upgraded or changed. Prior to owning the Firebird, the stock pickups had already been swapped out for a set of custom-wound Tyson Tone mini-humbuckers that are voiced for a vintage-PAF sound. (As you’ll see in the coming slides, this pickup choice was serendipitous as Perri almost exclusively uses Tyson Tone products.) Other mods seen on this one, and most of his guitars, are a Pigtail bridge/tailpiece and period-correct 500k Sprague capacitors. He claims to play in standard tuning 99 percent of the time and rocks GHS Boomers (.010–.046). (If he wanders down to E-flat or drop-D tunings, he’ll go with .011–.050 Boomers.) And because he’s an attention-to-detail tone chaser, he goes with Lava Retro Coil cables.
As the Silvertide machine started to pick up steam, Nick landed this beauty—brand new in 2002—a Gibson Custom Shop 1957 Les Paul Custom Reissue that he calls “Bella.” Its silver hardware has caused some Gibson geeks to falsely claim that it’s an original 1968 model, but he removed the standard (period-correct) reissue hardware after making the purchase. Bella has a set of unpotted Tyson Tone Precious & Grace PAFs and has been in Perri’s stable for nearly two decades because of its focused midrange, which pairs well with his bright Marshall JMP reissues. By his recollection, this guitar was probably used on a third of his new album, Sun Via, and a great recorded example of it can be heard in “Let You Know.”
Here is “Duck,” which is a 2018 Gibson Custom Historic ’59 Les Paul Standard that played a pivotal role in forming the guitar tones within Sun Via.
Impressing his classic-rock adoration onto his young daughter, Perri let her name this 2019 Gibson Custom 1964 SG Standard Reissue after her favorite Cream song, which happens to be “Cat’s Squirrel” off their debut album Fresh Cream. It also has the Tyson Tone Precious & Grace PAFs, Sprague caps, Pigtail bridge, and he ditched the original Vibrola tailpiece for a Bigsby B7 because he didn’t like the shallow break angle off the bridge.
For acoustic, Perri’s current fave is this 2019 Gibson Hummingbird he calls “Colitas” from the Eagles lyric in “Hotel California.” Alterations include changing the saddle, bridge pins, and nut all to bone.
This custom creation was handbuilt by Robert Mondell out of New Jersey and Nick has coined this Mosrite-esque model “Hanzo,” aka “the sword of tone” after the swordsmith (Hattori Hanzō) in the Kill Bill saga. This wave-riding surfer is all mahogany and comes to life with the Tyson Tone Dogear P90 57 Wraptail Vintage Wind pickups. This one likes to live in a tuned-down world and is generally set up in D.
Perri made an influential friend during the early days of Silvertide who guided him through the vintage-guitar world and helped him land on his go-to amp rig for some time: a ’71 Marshall Super Lead and a ’71 Marshall Major. And while he’s deviated from the gold-and-black formula (including using a 12W Fender Pro Junior modded with a 10" Celestion Greenback speaker often on Sun Via), Cream’s “Sleepy Time Time” floored him so much that he settled on (currently) being a Gibson-into-a-Marshall player.
For Sun Via livestreams and drive-in shows with the Struts, Perri’s been plugging into these two non-master-volume tolex twins—first reissue 1989 Marshall JTM45 2245 (top) and a 2000s 2245THWhandwired reissue (bottom). (Not pictured: To make sure the tubes are always cooking no matter the venue, he uses a Dr. Z Brake-Lite for attenuation purposes.)
Perri is a staunch Celestion Greenback supporter, especially blasting out Marshall tones, but after having a taste test with a 4x12 holding Celestion Alnico Blues, he had a “total spiritual experience … something magical happens with the compression and midrange from that amp and those speakers.” So, now his Marshall 1960 cab uses them.
“This is probably my favorite piece of gear in the entire world,” admits Perri, when he points to this 1965 Fender 6G15 Reverb Unit. “I got hip to this through my friend Erick Coleman, aka “Tonechaser”—it changed my entire life.”
Perri’s pedal paradise starts with an original Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face. From there, the signal hits a Texadelphia Germanium Booster into Sir Henry Uni-Vibe. After that, the signal runs through a Metropoulos Supa-Boost that goes out into a Peterson StroboStomp HD. For time-bending needs and modulation madness, Perri has a pair of stomps at the end of his chain—a Maxon AD999 Analog Delay and a Hamstead Soundworks Signature Analogue Tremolo.
Special thanks to Derek Brad for additional video footage.
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Chris Kies has degrees in Journalism and History from the University of Iowa and has been with PG dating back to his days as an intern in 2007. He's now the multimedia manager maintaining the website and social media accounts, coordinating Rig Rundown shoots (also hosting and/or filming them) and occasionally writing an artist feature. Other than that, he spends time with his pitbull and enjoys non-guitar-related hobbies. Follow him on Instagram & Twitter.
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