The triple-guitar-stoked Norwegian metalists forge Splid, inspired by a vibe-changing new vocalist, a more melodic approach, and monster sounds from the vault of heavy-duty gear—plus bongos—owned by producer/Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou.
Norwegian metal titans Kvelertak are a band in transition. They have a new frontman, Ivar Nikolaisen, who replaced founding vocalist Erlend Hjelvik, and Håvard Takle Ohr took over on drums from the departed Kjetil Gjermundrød. That’s created a new dynamic that has impacted their sound—particularly with Nikolaisen’s expanded range and melodic depth, which has let them experiment with things like more complex interlocking guitar and vocal lines, and anthemic hooks.
On the gear front, after almost a decade-long association with Orange amplifiers, Kvelertak took the plunge and embraced Kemper digital profilers, which solved multiple problems, especially when touring.
“The Kemper is easy to bring around. You have your same sound everywhere you go, you know what you’re getting, and it’s solid,” says guitarist Maciek Ofstad. “The reason we went for the Kemper is, you profile your own amp. I still have my Orange Thunderverb 50. It’s just in a computer now, which is strange, but you can’t hear the difference at all. I hate to say it, but the zeros and ones … they work.”
But some things haven’t changed. Kvelertak is still a triple-guitar threat, featuring Ofstad, Vidar Landa, and Bjarte Lund Rolland, plus bassist Marvin Nygaard. And their signature sound is still heavy-yet-singable metal. They also went back to GodCity Studio in Salem, Massachusetts, and reunited with producer and Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou to record their most recent album, Splid, after cutting their previous release, 2016’s Nattesferd, in Norway with Nick Terry.
Splid differs from its predecessor in that the guitar parts were layered one at a time, as opposed to being recorded live. “We were lucky,” Ofstad adds. “Our new drummer, Hårvard, had a week to record all the drums, but he was done in three days. That gave us a lot more time to mess around. We had the ability to try different things and experiment. When we do this stuff in the rehearsal space, you play your part and that’s it. But when you sit in the studio, you can play ball with Kurt and the other guys in the band, and try other things.”
Splid showcases Nikolaisen’s melodic abilities on tracks like “Tevling” and the power-pop-leaning “Uglas Hegemoni,” but despite that finesse, this is not a kinder, gentler, Kvelertak. The album still burns with their brand of riff-centric metal, especially on songs like the opener “Rogaland” and the almost proggy “Stevnemøte Med Satan.”
“We’re often very inspired by the bands we tour with,” Landa says, which helps explain the diversity of Kvelertak’s catalog. “I feel like every tour we’ve done, there’s always a new song after that tour that ends up on the album, which is inspired by the bands we toured with. You can clearly hear some Mastodon influences on this new album. On Nattesferd, we came back from a tour with Slayer and Anthrax, so on a song like “Berserkr,” for example, that was because we wanted a Slayer-type song after that tour. When you hear a band every night when you’re on tour, even if it’s not always something you aim to do, it just happens. There are so many different influences with Kvelertak, and it’s been like that from the start.”
Premier Guitar spoke with Ofstad and Landa as Kvelertak were getting ready to hit the road in support of Splid. We discussed their recent switch to Kemper digital profiling amps, their experiences recording with Ballou, the joys of rehearsing and writing with their new lead singer, and why it’s not anathema to add bongos to a heavy metal album.
When did you join the band?
Maciek Ofstad: I joined in 2009, and the band started in 2006. I didn’t join for the first demo, but things didn’t really start happening until they got a new drummer. Marvin played drums before that, and he can’t play drums.
Vidar Landa: I played bass in the beginning. I’ve always been a guitarist, but at the time I was done playing in bands. Marvin had these friends that he had met at school—Bjarte and Erlend—and they were starting a new band. Marvin was playing drums, and he said that I should play bass … do something different. After a while, we figured out that it was better to go back to the instruments that we actually play well.
How did you become a three-guitar band?
Ofstad: It was more of a cool thing than it was anything else. At least, that’s my perspective. Bjarte would say something different—that he wrote the songs to fit three guitars—and there is so much going on in there that it definitely helps being three. At one point we were four [laughs], but that was for a second. Then we figured out that that was a stupid idea, and we went back to three, which is still a lot of guitars.
What do you do to distinguish tones, so that you each stand out?
Landa: We didn’t really do too much about that before we started recording. We didn’t have any money, so we played the guitars and the amps we had.
Ofstad: That took a good while. Over the years, we definitely started to leave space and think about how this shit actually sounds [laughs]. I feel like from about 2014 or 2015, somewhere around there, we nailed who is where in the picture. But I don’t think you can ever get good enough. You have to experiment as you go. We’re in a good place guitar-wise right now.
TIDBIT: The band used producer Kurt Ballou’s extensive collection of amps, pedals, and guitars to cut their new album. “He has a lot of pedals that he’s built himself or modified,” says Vidar Landa.
You recently switched to Kemper profilers, why did you make the change?
Ofstad: We did a tour with Metallica, and when we did that tour, we had to be self-served with monitoring. We started using in-ear monitors, which was super weird, but after a while that was very nice, and we also had these Box of Doom isolation cabinets with us. We were carrying so much weight on tour that the bus company that we were using at the time didn’t want to bring the gear anymore. We were just too heavy. We were also flying around, doing these festivals in Europe. We’ve always rented the backline from whatever backline company the festival is using, but you don’t really ever know what you’re going to get, and every amp sounds kind of different. We tried out the Kemper thing to lose the weight—a Kemper weighs like six kilos [about 13 pounds], and you can have it in your backpack. We were very divided—we had very mixed feelings about playing a digital computer—but it works really well. It makes touring very easy. We all still prefer normal stuff, but for the road it’s a very simple setup.
Landa: I can’t really tell the difference, especially because we use much high gain. Kemper has become so good now that I can’t really tell if it’s the Kemper I am playing or my Rockerverb. I can still hear the difference on the cleaner tones, but on the high-gain stuff, the digital amps are getting pretty good.
Do you profile your pedals, too, or do you travel with them separately?
Landa: You can, and I tried that. I simulated and recorded all my tones from my pedals, but I just found it so weird. Those knobs are so small, and that makes the board easier for traveling, but it just felt so weird onstage to not have my pedals. I use my pedals through the Kemper.
Ofstad: I still use pedals, too. I tried the built-in effects, and it works well, but I keep stomping on the wrong thing and changing presets. I fuck up so much, I need normal pedals.
You recorded your new album with Kurt Ballou, at his studio, GodCity. He recorded your first two albums, too, but didn’t record your previous release, Nattesferd. Why did you go back?
Ofstad: There are a lot of reasons. First, the songs we made fit Kurt’s sound really well. We wanted to work with Kurt again, and we wanted to have that sound. Also, going through all the changes we had internally with the band—changing the drummer and singer—to go to another studio is to add another uncertain thing. Is this going to work? Are we going to hit it off with this producer? Going to Kurt was safe. You know what you get, and what you get is really fucking good. Also, we missed Kurt. We missed his face [laughs].
How did you meet him?
Ofstad: We sent some demos to Kurt back in 2009. We made a list of who we wanted to work with, and said, “Let’s shoot Kurt Ballou an email.” We were definitely not expecting to get a response at all, but it was worth a try. He hit us up a couple days later. He wrote, “Fuck yeah; let’s do this,” and that was it.
Maciek Ofstad in his pre-Kemper days, slamming his 2000 Gibson SG in front of his Orange Rockerverb. His pedalboard includes an MXR Carbon Copy and EVH-90, a TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb, a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 Mosfet, and an Electro-Harmonix Micro POG, among other stomps. Photo by Tim Bugbee/Tinnitus Photography
How involved is he as a producer? Does he help with songwriting?
Landa: He brings a lot to the table, and he’s been pretty important in terms of how our sound got formed. He can probably be that kind of producer, but with us he doesn’t get too involved in the songwriting. When we did the first album, we did some rearrangements that he wanted to do, but most of the times we have finished songs. He is sort of like a sound producer and engineer, and our albums wouldn’t have sounded the same without him. He often suggest tempos, where to put more guitars, where to have less guitars, what type of sound would fit different parts, and he just has really good ideas.
Ofstad: He hears the demo and says things like, “We should use this guitar for this, or this should have this sound.” He’s really good at mapping out the sound aspect of things very quickly. It’s nice to have a dude that you 100 percent trust when it comes to guitar tone and effects. He also has some insane ideas like putting bongo drums here and there, and going wild sometimes, which is also cool.
He has a lot of analog gear. Did you record to tape?
Landa: No, we record digitally, to Pro Tools. On the first album, we recorded the drums to tape, but we only did that on the first album.
Do you bring your gear from Norway or use what’s in GodCity?
Landa: This time we didn’t bring anything. That’s also one of the main reasons we go to Kurt—because he has so much gear at his studio, and he knows his studio and that room so well. He has an arsenal of different amps, old and new ones, and we often spend a lot of time finding four main amps and sounds that we like that we put up. He has a lot of pedals that he’s built himself or modified. Same with the guitars. He has a lot of weird guitars that he put together himself that we use.
Ofstad: We flew over there with absolutely nothing. We learned that from the first time, when we flew in with cymbals, guitars, pedals, and ended up using none of it. He is stacked to the roof with endless amounts of awesome gear. We’re there for a reason: to work with him and his sound, and he gets that sound from all the shit he has in the studio. He has all these weird pedals that I’ve never seen before. He has monstrous guitars. Most of the solos on the album were recorded on this guitar with a Mustang body and a Dean neck. This hybrid, horrible, terrible-looking guitar, but it sounds insane.
Did you use pedals or amps that you would never use live?
Landa: A lot of those pedals are things he built himself, and those are kits you can buy from him and put together yourself. Most of the pedals that we used aren’t things that I actually have on my pedalboard.
When you record the guitar parts, do the three of you stand together and play together, or do you record one guitar at a time?
Ofstad: One guitar part at a time, this time. On Nattesferd we did everything live, but for this new album we were stacking tracks.
Landa: With Kurt, we record to a click. We do all the drums first. One of us is always playing with the drums just for a lead track, and then afterwards we start with the rhythm guitars. We record one guitar at a time. But for the last album, we were in a room together and did everything live. We’ve done both, and they are very different processes.
Guitars
Two Nik Huber Krautster IIs
Nik Huber Rietbergen
Amps
Orange Rockerverb 100 MKIII
Kemper Profiler Power Rack with internal 600-watt class-D power amp
Effects
Foxrox Octron
KMA Machines Astrospurt phaser
MXR Analog Chorus
MXR Custom Badass ’78 Distortion
T-Rex reverb
Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner
Strings and Picks
Any brand (.011–.048)
Dunlop Yellow .73 mm
Guitars
2000 Gibson SG
1990 Gibson Flying V
Amps
Orange Thunderverb 200
Orange Thunderverb 50
Kemper Profiler Power Rack with internal 600-watt class-D power amp
Effects
Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner
MXR Carbon Copy
MXR EVH-90 Phase 90
TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb
Fulltone Fulldrive 2 Mosfet
Electro Harmonix Micro POG
Dunlop Cry Baby GCB95 wah
MXR M109 6-Band Graphic EQ
Kemper Profile Remote Foot Controller
Strings and Picks
Ernie Ball Skinny Top Heavy Bottom (.010–.052)
Dunlop Yellow .73 mm
How does that change the sound of the album?
Landa: It’s hard to tell if it’s only layering the guitars and doing them one at a time that changes the sound, or if it’s the playing. The sound is tighter doing it the way we do it with Kurt, and you also have more time to play around with the sounds. When we did it live last time, we found a main sound that we liked and used the pedals that we normally use. The idea was that everything should be done live without too many overdubs, and to have more of the same vibe or feeling over the whole album. But Kurt will switch up both the rhythm guitar sounds and the lead guitar sounds for every song. I like both. I really enjoy recording with Kurt because we get these amazing guitar tones and it’s super fun to play around with those. At the same time, I feel that my playing is better and I enjoy it more when we record playing together, instead of hearing only one guitar and every single detail.
You feed off the energy of the other players?
Landa: Sometimes when you sit playing one guitar, and you just listen to one guitar, you start hearing all these small … not mistakes, but noises or whatever, and then you play it until it’s perfect. We’re more picky—it’s almost like a robot was playing it, and I don’t like that. But when we play together—all three of us, or only two, or with the band—you listen to how it sounds together, instead of listening to one guitar. Sometimes there’s a certain vibe to not playing every single note the exact same way every time. That’s the main difference between the album we did where we recorded live and what we do with Kurt.
How loyal are you to the solos recorded on the album? Do you plan them out beforehand or do you improvise?
Ofstad: I always wait. I don’t think I’ve ever made a solo and then gone into the studio and just recorded it. I need to try different things out. I did myself a terrible disservice recording a bunch of solos with a Floyd Rose this time. We played a show yesterday, and I don’t own any guitars with a Floyd Rose system. I spent most of the day today trying to find one. I need a guitar that can dive bomb, but they’re so ugly—the dive bomb guitars are hideous—but I found out that Floyd Rose has an FRX surface-mount system that you can mount on an SG. You don’t have to drill holes. They have one in Norway, so I ordered that today.
Landa: A lot of the solos are made up in the studio. Depending on the song. Some of the more melodic songs often have a solo that goes over the lead part, or goes from the lead part and into a solo, and those are sometimes ready beforehand. A lot of the other stuff, like the thrash metal solos that Maciek does in the studio, are things that are made up in the studio. Then we have to relearn it when we get home to play live, because nobody remembers what was played and how it was played.
How do you put your songs together?
Ofstad: BJ (Bjarte), the pick-less guitarist, he is the main songwriter. Marvin lives in a different city, so we fly him in and spend five or six days in our rehearsal space. We either rehearse the songs that BJ brings—and those are always 99 percent done—or sometimes, if someone has a riff, we try that out. Maybe that works, and we try to build the song riff by riff. There are three of those songs on the album. The most recent single, “Fanden ta Dette Hull!,” was that kind of song, where we started out with that first riff on a Monday, and by Friday we had the whole song. Those are the two processes that we work with.
It’s probably hard to jam with such a large band.
Ofstad: It takes a lot of time, but it’s fun when it actually works. We can be stuck with a song for weeks or months and it doesn’t go anywhere. Suddenly, when it happens—someone has one different idea, and the ball gets rolling—the whole song fits. Those epiphanies are fun. Sometimes, when we sit in that rehearsal space, it’s like being in rehearsal jail, because it’s impossible to get anywhere. But you need those hours to grind and grind, and then suddenly it works.
Vidar Landa plays his Nik Huber Krautster II in close quarters with bassist Marvin Nygaard, who played drums in Kvelertak when the band began. Landa was the original bassist. “After a while, we figured out that it was better to go back to the instruments that we actually play well,” Landa says. Photo by Tim Bugbee/Tinnitus Photography
This is your first album with the new singer. How has that changed the band’s dynamic?
Landa: He brought a new energy into the rehearsal room, because he’s eager and stoked on doing this album. He’s always at rehearsals, even though he doesn’t play guitar and we’re not writing lyrics in the beginning, but he’s around and he has ideas. If there’s a riff or song that he likes, he pushes them through. That’s been very cool with this album, to have him engaged in the songwriting from the beginning.
Ofstad: It has to be very boring to be the singer in a process like that, because there is so much sitting around. But it is so cool to have him in the process. As soon as we have just the contours of a song—like this might happen—he’s already there writing stuff up and singing on it. That pumps us up. He also has a range that we didn’t have in the band before. This is the first time we wrote an album thinking about vocal melodies. We wanted to try different things, because Ivar has the ability to do it.
What are some examples?
Landa: There’s a song called “Tevling,” which starts off more like a power-rock ballad, where Ivar sings over guitar. To scream over that wouldn’t have sounded cool. So that song is something we probably couldn’t have done before. There’s also “Uglas hegemoni,” which has more of a punk or power-pop vibe to it, where he’s more singing than screaming. That is also something that we haven’t really done before, although we touched on it. You can hear the inspiration and riffs, but we haven’t taken it that far before.
You also mentioned that there are bongos on this record, which is unusual for a metal album.
Ofstad: Yeah, don’t underestimate the bongo, man.
Although new singer Ivar Nikolaisen has helped Kvelertak usher in a fresh approach, the band still reprises its earlier material in concert, including the big guitar stompdown “Offernatt” from their debut album, performed here at Germany’s Wacken Open Air metal festival in 2019.
The Smashing Pumpkins frontman balances a busy creative life working as a wrestling producer, café/tea company owner, and a collaborator on his forward-thinking, far-reaching line of signature guitars. Decades into his career, Corgan continues to evolve his songcraft and guitar sound for the modern era on the band’s latest, Aghori Mhori Mei.
“Form follows function,” explains Billy Corgan when asked about the evolution of his songwriting. These three words seem to serve as his creative dictum. “Early Pumpkins was more about playing in clubs and effecting a response from the live audience, because that’s where we could get attention."
When the Smashing Pumpkins formed in 1988, they were ripping in rock clubs with psychedelic-inspired sets that drew on ’60s-rock influences like Blue Cheer, Jimi Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin. But by 1992, after the breakout success of the previous year’s swirling alt-rock masterpiece, Gish, “Suddenly, we’re on a major label,” recalls Corgan. “Pearl Jam sold a gazillion records. Nirvana sold a gazillion records. Alice in Chains is selling a gazillion records. And somebody puts a finger up to my temple and says, ‘You better figure out how to write pop songs or you’re going to go back to working at a record store.’
“So, how do I translate this kind of hazy psychedelic vision into something that sounds like pop-rock radio? I’d better figure this out, and fast.” On 1993’s Siamese Dream, Corgan had obviously gone far beyond simply figuring out how to fit his vision into a radio-ready format; he’d pushed alternative rock to new heights, masterfully crafting hooks fit for the band’s unique, massive guitar-driven sound.
More than three decades later, Corgan hasn’t stopped evolving his artistry to fit the times. On the firm foundation of his extremely well-developed, instantly recognizable musical voice, he’s made his career one of the most interesting in rock music, branching out into unpredictable trajectories. In 2017, he launched a new career as a professional wrestling producer when he purchased the National Wrestling Alliance, the source of the limited TV series Billy Corgan’s Adventures in Carnyland.The Smashing Pumpkins - "Edin"
And he’s applied that knack for spectacle—a de facto pre-req for anyone in the pro wrestling biz—to the band’s social media presence. In January 2024, when guitarist Jeff Schroeder split with the Smashing Pumpkins, they turned to the internet for an open call. Not only did the band eventually find new-hire Kiki Wong, but they effectively got every guitarist on the internet dreaming about joining the Pumpkins.
Corgan has also found a creative outlet as a guitar conceptualist. His four signature Reverends—the Billy Corgan Signature, Terz, Z-One, and Drop Z—were created in collaboration with Joe Naylor, the company’s visionary builder. Taken together, these models go well beyond standard signature artist instruments protocols. Not content to just design his own dream guitar, Corgan is equally concerned with contributing to the guitar community. The Billy Corgan Signature and Z-One models are forward-thinking electric guitars well-outfitted with hip, futuristic aesthetics and custom pickups; the Terz and Drop Z break new ground in guitar design. The Terz is a 21 1/2"-scale model meant to be tuned one and a half steps up—G to G—and the Drop Z model, at 26 1/2" scale, is intended for D standard or lower tunings. In the case of these alt-tuned guitars, the instruments are specifically voiced for their tunings, with custom pickups.
“In that quiet solitude of just you and the guitar, this communication can happen that sort of expresses something about yourself that is surprising.”
With all this action—plus signature Yamaha acoustics and his Highland Park, Illinois, café, Madame Zuzu’s, which he owns with his wife, Chloé Mendel—Corgan must be dialing into a deep, super-focused state when working on music, because he’s been prolific. In 2023, the Pumpkins released the epic ATUM: A Rock Opera in Three Acts, the third part of the trilogy that began with the Pumpkins’ smash-hit Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadnessin 1995, followed by 2000’s Machina/The Machines of God. In 2024, the band released Aghori Mhori Mei. Pitched as a stripped-down guitar record, and exempt from the former’s grandiosity, the songs are often riff-centric guitar jams, full of dark, in-your-face tones. But that pitch might belie the album’s rich compositional complexity and intense emotional breadth. Corgan’s writing on Aghori exemplifies all the nuance and finesse of his broader work, as do the dynamic, thoughtful guitar arrangements and hard-hitting performances.
With so much going on, how does Corgan keep his artistic vision focused and in step with the times? How does he find time to tap into the creative essence that has made his music so special? What drives his process? The only way to find out is from Corgan himself.
The Smashing Pumpkins’ Aghori Mhori Mei was pitched as a more stripped-down guitar record, but don’t let that description, fitting as it may be in comparison with their recent work, belie its majesty.
The premise of Aghori was to be more of a stripped-down guitar record. How did you approach this album from a compositional perspective?
Corgan: The idea was to return to the early language of the band and see if it had a modern application. If you were making a movie, it would be akin to: We’re going to shoot this on VHS cameras and edit in an old analog bay and see if you can make something that a modern audience would actually enjoy and appreciate.
The way most rock records are made these days is “in the box,” which is Pro Tools or whatever people use. You can hear that the digital technology is very important to the way modern rock music, whether it’s metal or alternative, is made. It’s become the fifth band member—you know what I’m saying? They’re able to do things and effect changes and musically innovate in a way that you wouldn’t if you were just on a floor with the band playing in a circle, like we used to. So, for us, we could continue down this digital path, and I’m not that interested in gridding out my guitars.
When you go listen to a Pumpkins record, that’s live playing. That’s not all chopped up—99% of what you hear is literally from our hands and mouths—we’ll still fly in a chorus here and there. If you’re at a particular crossroads, do you continue to move forward and with technology as your ally? Or do you kind of go back and see if that old way still has something magical about it? That becomes sort of the existential debate of the record, both internally and publicly, which is: Is there a there, there?
But to clarify, this isn’t an analog recording.
Corgan: We record to Pro Tools. It’s using the technology of Pro Tools to make your records that we don’t do. I’m not trying to make a point. I’m saying using the technologies that are present to write your music or using it to do things that you can’t humanly do—that we don’t do.
Listen to your standard metal record. Everything is gridded to fuck: All the amps are in the box, all the drums are in the box, there’s not a missed note, everything’s tuned to fuck. You know what I mean? That’s modern metal, and I like it. It’s not like I turn up my nose at the thing, but that’s a way of making music for many people in 2024. We decided to try and go back and make a record the old-fashioned way, not to make some sort of analog point.
“There’s a certain loneliness in the way I play because I didn’t have anybody else to play guitar with.”
You write mostly on acoustic and piano. Where do the guitar arrangements come in?
Corgan: The fundamental process, going back to the beginning, is to create the basic track; the vocal then becomes the next most important thing, and then the icing on the cake is the guitar work over the top of that, basically to support and supplement the vocal and create more melodic interaction.
I got a lot of that from Queen and Boston and some Beatles—the idea that the guitar takes on a lead voice of its own that’s distinctive and almost becomes another lead singer in the band.
That stuff doesn’t show up literally until the last day working on the song. It’ll come off wrong, but we don’t spend a ton of time on it. And I don’t know what that means other than it seems to be like everything is done, and then you go, “Okay, time for the guitar work.” You’ll spend three hours, six hours just going through and trying stuff. Then it sort of just appears, and you go, “Oh, that sounds cool,” and you move on. It benefits from being fresh or feeling kind of like an emotional reaction.
I remember being in a car circa 1975 or ’76 and “Killer Queen” by Queen was on the radio. You’re listening to a song, the song sounds cool, and there’s flange vocals, and I’m 10 years old, in the backseat. All of a sudden, that lead break comes in; it’s just fucking loud. It has that feeling of somebody stepping forward into a spotlight. It’s not a show-off thing. It’s the way it makes you feel. It’s like a lighter type of moment. We’ve always chased that feeling.
Billy Corgan's Gear
Corgan with his signature Yamaha LJ16BC in 2022.
Photo by Mike White
Guitars
- E standard: Billy Corgan Signature Reverend Z-One Black
- E backup: Billy Corgan Signature Reverend - Satin Purple Burst
- Eb standard: Billy Corgan Signature Reverend Z-One - Silver Freeze
- Eb backup: Billy Corgan Signature Reverend Z-One - Orchard Pink
- Eb standard: ’70s Gibson ES-335 walnut
- C# standard: Billy Corgan Signature Reverend Drop Z - Pearl White
- Prototype Gibson Firebird
- Billy Corgan Custom Signature Yamaha LJ16BC Black with Silver Star
- Billy Corgan Custom Signature Yamaha White with Black Star
Amps
- Ampete 444 Amplifier & Cabinet Switching System
- Korg DT-1 Rack Tuner
- Carstens Cathedral
- Orange Rockerverb MkIII
- Carstens Grace Billy Corgan Signature Head
- Laney Supergroup LA100SM
- Laney LA412 4x12 Black Country Custom
Pedals
- RJM Mastermind GT/22 MIDI Controller
- Lehle D.Loop
- Warm Audio Warmdrive
- MXR Phase 90
- Catalinbread Zero Point Tape Flanger
- Behringer Octave Divider
- Strymon Brigadier dBucket Delay
- EarthQuaker Devices Time Shadows II
- Custom Audio Electronics MC-403 power supply
Strings
- Ernie Ball Regular Slinky (.010–.046)
- Ernie Ball Power Slinky (.011–.048)
- Ernie Ball Not Even Slinky (.012–.052)
- Ernie Ball Earthwood Medium Light (.012–.054)
Guitar starts out for so many of us as this really personal thing that we spend all our time doing, and then as life gets more complicated, you just have less time. What is your relationship with the guitar like in 2024? Do you have a day-to-day relationship with guitar playing?
Corgan: I do not. I don’t really pick up the guitar much unless I’m working.
When you do pick up the guitar, is it with intent? Do the ideas come inspired by the guitar, inspired by something you play? Or are they up in your head, and then you’re grabbing a guitar to realize it?
Corgan: If I pick up a guitar, I’m looking to play something that surprises me. It’s whatever comes out. And sometimes you hit the wrong chord and go, “Oh, that’s interesting.” Or you find a new inversion or something that you never thought of before. You try to play a different scale run than you’ve played 10,000 times, always landing on the same note. It’s just looking for something just a little bit new. I find oftentimes, in that quiet solitude of just you and the guitar, this communication can happen that sort of expresses something about yourself that is surprising—an emotional feeling or a way of approach.
“You could say to me, ‘Hey, play me some Siamese-type thing that you would’ve done in ’92,’ and in five minutes, I could write you something that would sound like a song that would’ve been a Siamese song in ’92.”
The style of my guitar playing came out of taking care of my disabled brother when I was a teenager, so I was stuck inside a lot. To paint a simple visual, imagine being stuck inside on a summer’s day and watching people play outside through the window as you’re playing the guitar. That was my life for much of my teenage years, because I was in this position where I had to look after somebody who was not so much homebound, but it wasn’t like the type of child at his stage of development that you could take him in the backyard and let him run around. You kind of had to look after him. It often became easier to stick him in front of a television or let him take a nap while you’re practicing.
There’s a certain loneliness in the way I play because I didn’t have anybody else to play guitar with. I developed a style that had a kind of call-and-response aspect to it in the open strings and the drone playing, because it was a way to effect a larger conversation without somebody else in the room.
Then, when it was James [Iha] and I in the early days of the band, James would basically do different versions of what I was playing. That created an even bigger conversation that seemed to create almost like a third guitarist. You can hear that in the whistling harmonics in the background. That’s just two guitars playing, but you create a ghost effect. I’ve done a lot of guitar work in the studio where people would be visiting me, and they look at the speakers, “What’s that sound?” And I’m like, “That’s just two guitars.” They don’t believe me. I literally have to solo the two guitars and just show them. That’s the harmonic effect.
I still have that inner relationship with my playing, where I could just sit down and play and find something that sounds like a bit of a conversation.
The Reverend Billy Corgan Signature in the hands of the man himself alongside drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and guitarist James Iha.
Photo by Ken Settle
When you’re writing, picking up a guitar, looking for those things, like you said, are you still after the same feeling you had initially or has the feeling changed?
Corgan: I think it’s more trying to find something that seems to signify whatever’s happening at the moment. It’s a truthfulness. You could say to me, “Hey, play me some Siamese-type thing that you would’ve done in ’92,” and in five minutes, I could write you something that would sound like a song that would’ve been a Siamese song in ’92. I can dial in any era of the band or my writing at will, because they’re all based on methodologies and certain emotional templates. So, I’m trying to do that for today. What is the 2024 version of that that makes me feel something—anything at all?
There’s this other creative side to your work, which is your signature gear. You have four Reverend guitars, and they’re all very different from each other. You’ve created them with Joe Naylor. Can you tell me about that collaboration?
Corgan: Somehow, Joe is able to go back and listen to what I’m referencing, and then translate that into something that’s physically tangible and consistent.
I don’t think a gimmicky guitar serves anybody. My signature guitars need to be useful to anybody else doing their music, not just my kind of music. And I’m very proud of that. I think that’s what makes a great guitar—it has application to whoever picks it up. And a lot of credit to Reverend to be willing to take these chances that I’ve sort of set them off chasing.
The Reverend Billy Corgan Drop Z is specially voiced in feel and sound for D standard and lower tunings.
They’re all bold guitars, but especially the Terz and the Drop Z, which are built specifically for alternate tunings. What were you looking for when you came up with the idea of those instruments?
Corgan: The thing with the Terz, which is G to G as opposed to E to E—a step and a half higher—was in listening to guitarists like Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead and other guitar players of that generation, I noticed that the function of the guitar for many alternative guitar players was becoming more atmospheric and less elemental. I thought maybe they would like to have a higher tonal range to work in. Because, ultimately, in 2024 logic, you want to get the guitar away from the vocal. If you think of the classic Telecaster sound, well, if you’re playing in the key of G on a Telecaster, that sits exactly where the vocal is. It’s like the worst possible place for a guitar in the 21st century. But if you can increase the harmonic range of the guitar, it does sort of sit, elementally, a little higher.
I don’t think people have figured that out yet about that guitar. But I have a funny feeling that at some point somebody will, much like when Korn took the Steve Vai guitar and took it in a completely different direction and made a whole new genre of music with it. I think the Terz opens a player up to a different tonal range.
“I don’t think a gimmicky guitar serves anybody. My signature guitars need to be useful to anybody else doing their music, not just my kind of music.”
A lot of these modern alternative guitar players, they don’t play super complicated stuff. Whether they were inspired by Jonny from Radiohead or the guy from Coldplay, it’s more like a tweedle-y guitar, like twilight, vibey.... You look at their pedalboards; it’s a lot of reverbs and bucket delays and stuff like that. I get it.
On the Drop—on making Aghori, I found myself thinking a lot about Mick Mars’s guitar sound and where Mick’s guitar sat in Mötley Crüe. Early Mötley Crüe was basically a guitar tuned down a step. Something about the D range—you could do it on a normal guitar, but it gets a little sloppy with the tuning and certainly the intonation. So, I talked to Reverend about making a D-to-D guitar that doesn’t feel like a baritone guitar, that plays and feels very much like an E-to-E guitar, but gives you range. For a modern guitar player who wants to make music that ends up on the radio, the specificities of where that guitar needs to sit tonally and how it would be mixed is what I was thinking of.
So, these are instruments for the modern player who wants to make music that can reach people vis-à-vis what is the media these days—streaming or whatever. If you want to take an old guitar and tune it down to F and all that … I did all that crazy stuff, too. I wouldn’t discourage anybody from doing it. But these are specific instruments with a very specific purpose, primarily for recording.
On “Edin” [from Aghori Mhori Mei], well, that’s that guitar. I think in that song, it’s dropped, so the low string is a C. But you can hear how that guitar sits so forward in the track. That’s a credit to Joe making that guitar exactly what I wanted, and the pickups really doing their job with how it sits in the track.Corgan has an early memory of hearing Brian May’s lead break on “Killer Queen”: “It has that feeling of somebody stepping forward into a spotlight. It’s not a show-off thing. It’s the way it makes you feel. It’s like a lighter type of moment. We’ve always chased that feeling.”
I want to come back to how that affects your playing. You have these instruments that are now specifically voiced to your vision. When they get in your hands and you’re working on something, how do you exploit the sonics of those guitars? Maybe you wrote a song on acoustic, but now you have this instrument that you’ve helped ideate, and you can do stuff that your other guitars can’t. Where does that come in the creative process?
Corgan: I don’t think I have a romantic answer. For me, it’s more about recording accuracy or clarity. If you compare, let’s call it the “Mellon Collie ’95” guitar sound, where we were mostly a half-step down; it’s clear, but it’s very sludgy—a lot of midrange and not a lot of stuff above, say, 17k, because I was using those Lace Sensor pickups. Modern recording; everybody wants the guitar as far forward as you can get it.
These days, I’m mostly using these Carstens amps, which is a Chicago amp-maker, Brian Carstens. I used one amp that he made for me, the Grace, which he does sell, which is kind of a modern take on the Eddie Van Halen brown sound—a ton of gain, but clear. And then he has another amp called Empire, which is more for a metal player. I use that as well. And in some cases, I stack both amps on top of each other by reamping. He has another amp, called Cathedral, which is like a cross between a Fender Twin and a Hiwatt. Again, very clear.
“Modern recording; everybody wants the guitar as far forward as you can get it.”
The best way I can explain it, and this is my poor language-ing, but if I was to take a vintage Marshall plexi and a Les Paul, like a classic amazing guitar sound, and record the riff for “Edin,” and then I was to take my Reverend Drop Z run through a Carstens amp, and you listen to the two tracks, the modern stuff I’m using, the guitar is like six more feet forward in the track; the vintage stuff sounds kind of back there. You can hear it—a little gauzy, a little dark, and the modern stuff is right in your grill. It’s not harsh; it’s not overly midrange-y. It just sounds really good and present.
So that’s the key. Because I play so distinctively that I kind of sound like me whatever you put me through, my focus is more tonal and how it sits in the stereo field.
Are pedals just pragmatic means to achieve a tone? Or is there exploration involved there?
Corgan: Since Siamese Dream, where we famously used the op-amp Big Muff and EHX Micro Synth, and some MXR stuff, the main sound of the band is just crank through something. Going back to something my father told me many, many moons ago: guitar, chord, amp is the key. I worked in the studio with Tony Iommi. Those hands, a chord, an amp—and when he plays, God’s moving mountains. We get super granular when I’m in the studio; I might play a chord that’s no more than seven-feet long, anything so I can be as close to the amp as possible, so there’s the least amount of chord from the guitar to the amp.
It’s all about driving the amp and moving that air and moving those electrons in the tubes. That’s just the key for me. If there’s pedal work on any Pumpkins albums in the last 25 years, it’s for solos and little dinky things on the top. The main guitar sound is always pure power. We want as much pure power as possible.
YouTube It
The Smashing Pumpkins kick out “Sighommi” from Aghori Mhori Meilive on Kimmel with new-hire Kiki Wong joining Corgan and James Iha in the guitar section.
PRS unveils the Private Stock 40th Anniversary McCarty Dragon and PRS 40th Anniversary Custom 24. The Dragon features intricate inlay by Jeff Easley, while the Custom 24 boasts new PRS DMO pickups and classic design elements.
PRS Private Stock 40th Anniversary McCarty Dragon
The PRS Private Stock 40th Anniversary McCarty Dragon is the tenth Dragon since the first of its kind was introduced back in 1992. The Dragon art was drawn by Jeff Easley, a fantasy artist famous for many Dungeons & Dragons rulebook covers, and recreated as inlay by the team at Aulson Inlay. The Dragon comprises more than 200 pieces of inlay in an array of materials, including Blue Pacific Opal, Brown Scale Juma, and Gold, Black, White, and Brown Mother of Pearl. The inlay extends onto the truss rod cover and visually leaps off the pale moon ebony fretboard. The Private Stock Eagle inlaid on the headstock is made from Black with Gold Web and outlined in Gold Mother of Pearl. Only 165 Private Stock 40th Anniversary Dragon models will be made.
“When I was a teenager, I had a dream about a guitar with a dragon inlaid down the neck. That dream has since become an important part of our history. For our 40th anniversary, we have chosen a McCarty model as the foundation of the Dragon, which is only fitting considering the original 1992 Dragon was the beginning of what would became the McCarty model. I’m proud to bring these two, now-historic, PRS designs together,” said PRS Guitars Founder & Managing General Partner, Paul Reed Smith.
PRS 40th Anniversary Custom 24
Limited to 400 pieces worldwide, this special edition features both new appointments and traditional design features. Debuting on these guitars are the all-new PRS DMO (Dynamic, Musical, Open) Treble and Bass pickups. Paul Reed Smith and the PRS New Products Engineering Team spec’d these new pickups based on years of hands-on research into coveted vintage pickup models and advancements in signal analyzation and “tuning” technology. PRS DMO pickups have a “wide open” sound with vocal character, meaning they deliver clear, pleasant-sounding tones across a wide range of frequencies (bass to treble) in each pickup.
PRS 40th Anniversary Custom 24 design specifications include an artist grade maple top with a retro violin top carve, PRS “Old School” birds with outlines and PRS “Pre-Factory” headstock eagle, all of which pay homage to early PRS guitars. Other classic Custom 24 appointments include the PRS Gen III patented tremolo, PRS Phase III locking tuners with wing buttons, and PRS Signature 10-46 strings. This limited edition also features a ziricote fretboard and headstock veneer and comes with a hand-signed 40th Anniversary certificate.
Beyond these initial announcements, PRS Guitars is planning a year full of new product introductions starting in January. Stay tuned to see new gear and 40th Anniversary limited-edition guitars throughout the year.
For more information, please visit prsguitars.com.
PRS Private Stock 40th Anniversary Dragon Electric Guitar - Burnt Chestnut
PS 40th Anni McCarty Dragon, Brnt ChsntAdd a splash of motion and mystery to a flat amp with this simple, streamlined, vintage-flavored tremolo and reverb stomp.
Simplicity and utility. Lively spring reverb simulation. Smart, spacious control layout. Nicely dovetailed modulation and reverb tones.
Can’t use harmonic tremolo or vibrato with spring reverb simulation.
$229
Keeley Zoma Stereo Reverb And Tremolo
keeley.com
There are days I plug into myFender Vibrolux, play an E minor chord with a little vibrato arm flourish, and ask, “What more could I ever need?” The simple, elegant perfection of Fender’s reverb and tremolo formula is so foundational, essential, and flat-out delicious to the senses that it gave rise to a class of pedals that consolidate the essence of that recipe.
The most famous of these is probably theStrymon Flint, a tool widely adopted by touring players that deal with changing backlines and players that make do with simpler amplifiers. While the Flint is an industry standard of sorts, at almost 350 bucks it’s also a serious investment. Less expensive alternatives include Fender’s own Tre-Verb (which uses a design and layout strikingly similar to the Flint) as well as Keeley’s excellent U.S.-made Hydra Stereo Tremolo and Reverb and their simpler, less-expensive Verb o Trem, which lacks independent switches for the two effects. But for players that like a more spacious control layout and independent reverb and tremolo switches—and are willing to sacrifice a few options to save about $120—Keeley’s new Zoma might be the most enticing Flint alternative out there.
Form Leads to Function
The Zoma is built into the same enclosure and uses the same control layout as theI Get Around rotary simulator and California Girls 12-string simulator Keeley built in collaboration with JHS Pedals and Benson Amps to honor the Beach Boys. Though destined to annoy space-economy fetishists, the Zoma’s dimensions should be little problem for those who keep their pedal effects to a minimum. The larger enclosure also offers lots of upside in the form of the spacious control layout, which facilitates fast adjustments on the fly. The sizable RCA-style knobs, particularly the big reverb level control, make adjustments with your toe easy. The blue Fender-style jewel lamp—which also blinks at the tremolo’s rate—is situated between the already well-spaced reverb and tremolo bypass switches to ensure that even the klutziest performer can avoid pressing one or both accidentally.
“The plate reverb leaves more space for the beautiful, liquid modulations from the harmonic tremolo and vibrato.”
A small 3-way toggle nestled safely among the three knobs moves between the Zoma’s three basic modes and voices: spring reverb with sine wave tremolo (the black-panel Fender formula), a plate-style reverb with brown-panel Fender-style harmonic tremolo, and plate-style reverb with more Magnatone-like pitch vibrato. The single toggle means you can’t combine different tremolo types with different reverb types as you can with the Flint. But by pressing and holding the reverb/alt switch, you can orient the tremolo after the reverb in black-panel Fender style or place the tremolo before the reverb for a thicker, blurrier tone. You can also change the reverb decay level, reverb tone, or the tremolo output level in alt mode.
Pipelines and Sines
You’d have to be pretty nitpicky to take issue with Zoma’s likeness to real spring reverb. The pings and clicks that follow transients in the Zoma’s spring simulation are particularly authentic compared to the Vibrolux and Fender Reverb tank I used for comparison. And given the possible variation that exists among vintage Fender reverb units, thanks to age, wear, and component value drift, the Zoma’s output falls well within the realm of “accurate.” The primary difference I heard in the Fenders was a little extra harmonic thickness and ghostliness in the decay at the highest reverb levels—but that was at pretty high volume and in isolation. Would you hear it with a bass and drums filling out that harmonic picture? Maybe. Would it spoil the evening of paying customers out to stomp to your instrumental surf combo? I kinda doubt it. And if the Zoma spring is ever-so-slightly less thick than the real deal, it’s still easy to excite and add splash to those harmonics—or make them more subdued—with the Zoma’s alt-mode reverb tone control, which you’re only going to find elsewhere on an outboard Fender Reverb unit. The plate reverb settings are a little more vaporous, diffuse, and lack the post-transient attack you hear at advanced spring settings. But they leave more space for dynamics—most importantly the beautiful, liquid modulations from the harmonic tremolo and vibrato that accompany them.
The harmonic tremolo is especially pretty and adds lovely dimension to lazy chord melodies. The vibrato is excellent, too—throbbing and wobbly without being overpowering at its most intense levels and capable of adding dreamy drift at subdued settings. The sine wave tremolo, by the way, is a great match for the spring reverb. There are bolder, bossier tremolos out there, but it’s a close match for the optical tremolo in most mid-1960s Fender combos, which are not always wildly forceful themselves.
The Verdict
The Zoma can be a very transformative pedal—adding splashes of surfy energy to a Marshall or big-amp presence to a Fender Champ. In terms of utility and approachability, about the only thing that rivals the Zoma is an amp with onboard tremolo and reverb. But even with the real thing you’ll probably lack the pretty harmonic tremolo, the vibrato, and the plate reverb options that extend the Zoma’s color palette. Do I wish I could mix the vibrato and harmonic tremolo with the spring reverb? After a few hours of getting used to the characteristics of each, I do. But it wouldn’t be a deal breaker if I was going to use this pedal in performance or in a recording session where I could also take advantage of the stereo capabilities. The Zoma is a mood machine par excellence that’s also a breeze to use.
Lerxst Launches Grace, a Limited-Edition Alex Lifeson Signature Guitar
Alex Lifeson and Lerxst announce the launch of Grace, the latest edition of his signature guitar series created in partnership with Godin Guitars. Grace is a modern reimagining of the Hentor Sportcaster guitars.
Grace is a modern reimagining of the iconic Hentor Sportcaster guitars played throughout the recording and touring behind Rush’s Grace Under Pressure album, evolving Alex’s original concept with the latest in high quality hardware and modern craftsmanship to create an instrument primed for the next generation of tone seekers. Grace is available now as a limited edition of 200 for MAP $3,999.
Arriving at the next stop of the tone journey
By 1984, Alex Lifeson had thoroughly come into his own as a player in terms of sound, style, and skill. After spending the previous decade cutting his teeth on a variety of stock instruments from major manufacturers, he had dedicated himself to the Hentor Sportscaster platform. These guitars gave him the critical mix of playability and tonal versatility required for his rapidly evolving sonic sensibility – which was increasingly making use of delay and modulation effects alongside his clean and overdriven sounds. During the recording and touring behind Grace Under Pressure, Alex’s main Sportscaster was an eye-catching red model with a mirror pickguard which has served as the inspiration for the Grace guitar.
Like Limelight, Grace takes advantage of state-of-art hardware choices and modern craftsmanship to present a 21st century take on the Sportscaster concept. High-quality body wood is matched with re-tuned pickups and electronics for an exceptionally built, versatile instrument that excels in any genre. “Working with Alex to craft and refine these signature instruments has been an amazing opportunity to push the boundaries of what we believe a modern, versatile instrument should be capable of,” said Godin Guitars President and CEO Simon Godin. “Grace represents the latest evolution of our collaboration and – befitting the album that it is named after – is a testament to what can be achieved when brilliant creative minds come together in pursuit of musical excellence.”
The body electric
Grace has a contoured swamp ash body for premium comfort and a maple neck with 12” radius ebony fretboard and medium stainless-steel frets for fast and intuitive playability. Like the original it has an HSS pickup configuration for maximum versatility, and the pickups have been custom wound by Mojotone to Alex’s specifications to ensure balanced performance in all pickup positions. Players have a choice of the classic Floyd Rose tremolo system or a Vega Trem with 18:1 locking tuners for superior tremolo performance with rock solid tuning stability.
“We were blown away by the positive feedback we got from the release of Limelight earlier this year and knew that we wanted to do another one,” said Lifeson. “With Grace, we wanted to pay tribute to the 40th Anniversary of Grace Under Pressure by building off of my favorite guitar from that period and – much like Limelight – evolving the concept to create an instrument with a sound and playability that would speak to modern players.”
“It’s a beautiful instrument that suits many different styles of playing,” he continued, “and the mirrored pickguard comes in handy for late night sessions when you need, um, to check, ah, your hair or something.”
GRACE Specifications
- Body: Swamp Ash
- Bridge: Vega Trem (052608) or Original Floyd Rose (made in Germany 052592)
- Pickups: 1x Mojotone Lerxst Humbucker and 2x Mojotone Lerxst Single Coils
- Pickguard: Mirror
- Color: Red Sector A
- Controls: 1x Tone, 1x Volume, 3-way toggle Switch
- Neck Wood: Maple
- Scale Length: 25.5” (647.7 mm)
- Fingerboard: Ebony
- Fingerboard Radius: 12" (304.8 mm)
- Finish: High Gloss
- Frets: Medium Stainless Steel
- Number of Frets: 22
- Machine Head Ratio: 18:1 staggered locking keys *on Vega Trem model only
- Nut Type: Graphtech *on Vega trem model only
- Made In Canada
- MAP: $3,999 USD
Additionally, Alex Lifeson has partnered with music gear marketplace Reverb to offer a limited number of signed copies of his famed solo album Victor via The Official Lerxst Reverb Shop, which will also have a limited number of Grace Guitars available for sale.
For more information, please visit lerxstamps.com.