In one of our funnest-ever RR shoots, the original Strapping Young Lad waxes giddy and witty explaining his signature axe, pickups, and all-digital setup.
Before his last show of 2017, Devin Townsend met with Premier Guitarās John Bohlinger backstage at Nashvilleās Marathon Music Works to go through his live setup. For a guy known for layering textures of tones and effects, Townsendās signal path is surprisingly streamlined.
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A rig meant to inspire! Thatās Jerry Garcia with his Doug Irwin-built Tiger guitar, in front of his Twin Reverb + McIntosh + JBL amp rig.
Three decades after the final Grateful Dead performance, Jerry Garciaās sound continues to cast a long shadow. Guitarists Jeff Mattson of Dark Star Orchestra, Tom Hamilton of JRAD, and Bella Rayne explain how they interpret Garciaās legacy musically and with their gear.
āI met Jerry Garcia once, in 1992, at the bar at the Ritz Carlton in New York,ā Dark Star Orchestra guitarist Jeff Mattson tells me over the phone. Nearly sixty-seven years old, Mattson is one of the longest-running members of the Grateful Dead tribute band scene, which encompasses hundreds of groups worldwide. The guitarist is old enough to have lived through most of the arc ofthe actual Grateful Deadās career. As a young teen, he first absorbed their music by borrowing their seminal records, American Beauty and Workingmanās Dead, brand new then, from his local library to spin on his turntable. Around that same moment, he started studying jazz guitar. Between 1973 and 1995, Mattson saw the Dead play live hundreds of times, formed the landmark jam bandZen Tricksters, and later stepped into theJerry Garcia lead guitarist role with the Dark Star Orchestra (DSO), one of the leading Dead tribute acts.
āAt the bar, I didnāt even tellGarcia I was a guitar player,ā Mattson explains. āI had just heard him play the new song āDays Betweenā and I told him how excited I was by it, and he told me he was excited too. It wasnāt that long of a conversation, but I got to shake his hand and tell him how much his music meant to me. Itās a very sweet memory.ā
The Grateful Deadās final studio album was 1989āsBuilt to Last, and that title was prophetic. From 1965 to 1995, the band combined psychedelic rock with folk, blues, country, jazz, and even touches of prog rock and funk, placing a premium on improvisation and pushing into their own unique musical spaces. Along the way, they earned a reputation that placed them among the greatest American bands in rock ānā roll historyāto many, the ultimate. Although no one member was more important than another, the heart and soul of the ensemble was Garcia. After his death in 1995, the surviving members retired the name the Grateful Dead.
āI think Jerry Garcia was the most creative guitarist of the 20th century because he had the widest ears and the sharpest instincts,ā opines historian, author, and official Grateful Dead biographer Dennis McNally, over the phone. āWhat we see after his death are the Deadheads coming to terms with his passing but indicating that itās the music that was most important to them. And who plays the music now becomes simply a matter of taste.ā
Dark Star Orchestra guitarist Jeff Mattson, seen here with Garciaās Alligator Stratocaster (yes, the real one).
Photo by Susana Millman
This year marks 30 years since Garciaās passing and 60 years since the band formed in the San Francisco Bay Area. Today, the guitaristās musical vocabulary and unique, personal tone manifests in new generations of players. Perhaps the most visible of these musicians is John Mayer, anointed as Garciaās āreplacementā in Dead and Co. But dozens of others, like Mattson, Tom Hamilton Jr., and a young new artist named Bella Rayne, strive to keep the Dead alive.
The first few Grateful Dead tribute bands began emerging in local dive bars by the late ā70s. More than mere cover bands, these groups devoted themselves entirely to playing the Dead. A few of these early groups eventually toured the country, playing in college towns, ski resorts, and small theatres across the United States. Mattson started one on Long Island, New York. He tells me, āThe first band I was in that played exclusively Grateful Dead was Wild Oats. It was 1977, and we played local bars. Then, in 1979, I joined a band called the Volunteers. We also played almost exclusively the Grateful Dead, and that was a much more professional outfitāwe had a good PA and lights and a truck, the whole nine yards.ā The Volunteers eventually morphed into the Zen Tricksters.
Garciaās death turbocharged the Dead tribute band landscape. Fanbases grew, and some bands reached the point where big-time agents booked them into blue-chip venues like Red Rocks and the Beacon Theatre. Summer festivals devoted to these bands evolved.
āThe first band I was in that played exclusively Grateful Dead was Wild Oats. It was 1977, and we played local bars.ā āJeff Mattson
Dark Star Orchestra launched in 1997, and they do something particular, taking an individual show from somewhere out of Grateful Dead history and recreating that eveningās setlist. Itās musically and sonically challenging. They try to use era-specific gear, so on any given night, they may be playing through recreations of the Grateful Deadās backline from 1971 or 1981, for example. It all depends on the show they choose to present. Mattson joined DSO as its lead guitar player in 2009.
Something else significant happened after Jerry died: The remaining living members of the Grateful Dead and other musicians from Garciaās inner circle embraced the tribute scene, inviting musicians steeped in their music to step up and sit in with them. For Mattson, itās meant playing over the years with all the core members of the band, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart, plus former members Donna Jean Godchaux, who sang in the band from 1971 to 1979, and Tom Constanten, who played keyboards with the Dead from 1968 to 1970.
Tom Hamiltonās Lotto custom built had a Doug Irwin-inspired upper horn.
In the newest post-Garcia tribute bands, many guitar players arenāt old enough to have seen Garcia perform liveāor if they did, it was towards the end of his life and career. One of those guys sitting today at the top of the Garcia pyramid, along with Mattson, is Tom Hamilton Jr. Growing up in a musical family in Philadelphia, Hamilton saw Garcia play live only three times. Early on, he was influenced by Stevie Ray Vaughan, but Hamiltonās older brother, who was also a guitar player, loved the Dead and Garcia. āMy brother wanted to play like Jerry,ā he recalls, āso he roped me in because he needed me to play āBob Weirā and be his rhythm guitar sidekick.ā Eventually, Hamilton leaned more into the Jerry role himself. āThen I spent my entire twenties trying to develop my own voice as a songwriter and as a guitar player. And I did,ā Hamilton says. āAnd during that time, I met Joe Russo. He was not so much into the Dead then, but he knew I was.ā
A drummer from Brooklyn, by about 2006, Russo found himself collaborating on projects with members of Phish and Ween. That put him on the radar of Lesh and Weir, who invited Russo to be a part of their post-Dead project Furthur in 2009. (And on guitar, they chose DSO founding member John Kadlecik, opening that role up for Mattson.)
āWhen Joe played in Furthur, he got under the hood of the Grateful Deadās music and started to understand how special it was,ā Hamilton points out. āAfter Furthur wound down, we decided to form JRAD. We werenāt trying to do something academic, not some note-for-note recreation. We were coming at it through the pure joy of the songs, and the fact that the five of us in JRAD were improvisers ourselves.ā
āWe were coming at it through the pure joy of the songs, and the fact that the five of us in JRAD were improvisers ourselves.ā āTom Hamilton Jr.
Today, Joe Russoās Almost Dead (JRAD) is considered to be one of the premier Grateful Dead tribute bands. They formed in 2013, with Hamilton and Scott Metzger as the bandās guitar frontline, with Hamilton handling Garciaās vocal roles. Eventually, Hamilton, too, found himself jamming onstage with the ever-evolving Phil Lesh and Friends. That, of course, further enmeshed him in the scene, and in 2015, he started a band with Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann calledBilly and the Kids.
Now, thereās a new kid on the block, literally. Bella Rayne recently turned 18 and grew up in Mendocino, California. Her parents were into the Dead, but even they were too young to have really followed the original band around the country. At her age, they were big into Phish. By the pandemic, Bella started embracing the guitar out of boredom, woodshedding while social distancing in quarantine. She explains, āLike any other teen, I was bored out of my mind looking for anything to do.ā Rummaging through her garage, she came across her momās old Strat. āAt the time, I was really into ā90s Seattle grunge. I put new strings on the Strat, and then I tried to teach myself Pearl Jam songs, and I learned how to play them by watching YouTube videos. Then, I started posting videos of my journey online as I became more serious about it. I hit a point where I knew it would be my thing. The next thing I knew, one of the Bay Area Dead bands [China Dolls] reached out to me and asked me to sit in. I thought, āno way.āāMy parents are huge Deadheads,ā she continues. āThatās theirthing. I grew up with the Dead being pushed on me my whole life. But I ended up going, and itās just been this awesome spiral ever since.ā Bella calls her current Dead-related project Bella Rayne and Friends, and she, too, has been recognized not only by the new generation of Garcia players in the Dead tribute bands, but also by Melvin Seals, the Hammond organist who played for years in theJerry Garcia Band. āI was hired to just sit-in for a couple of numbers withMelvin and his JGB band,ā she recalls, āand we were having so much fun he said to me, āWhy donāt you just sit in for the whole second set.ā It was an amazing night.āBella Rayne with her Alligator-inspired Strat, with a JGB Cats Under the Starssticker on the body.
Photo by Sean Reiter
Jerry Garcia played many different guitars. But for those guitarists wanting to emulate Garciaās tone, the focus is on four instruments in particular. One is a1955 Fender Stratocaster known as āAlligator,ā which Garcia had heavily modified and began playing in 1971. The other three guitars were hand built in Northern California by luthier Doug Irwin: Wolf, Tiger, and Rosebud. Garcia introduced them in 1973, 1979, and 1989, respectively. Sometimes, in a jam-band version of being knighted by the Excalibur sword, a chosen member of this next generation of Dead players is handed one of Garciaās personal guitars to play onstage for a few songs or even an entire set.
Although they started their journeys at different times and in separate ways, Mattson, Hamilton, and Rayne all have āknighthoodā in common. Rayne remembers, āIn March of 2024, I was sitting in one night with anall-girl Dead tribute band called the China Dolls, and no one had told me that Jerryās actual 1955 Strat, Alligator, was there that evening. My friend [roots musician] Alex Jordan handed me the guitar unannounced. Itās something Iāll never forget.āWhatās it like to strap on one of Jerry Garciaās iconic instruments? Tom Hamilton recalls, āIt wasRed Rocks in 2017, and I played with Bob Weir, Melvin Seals, and JGB at a tribute show for Jerryās 75th birthday. I got to play both Wolf and Tiger that night. I was in my head with it for about one song, but then you sort of have a job to do. But I do recall that we were playing the song āDeal.ā I have a [DigiTech] Whammy pedal that has a two-octave pitch raise on it, real high gain that gives me a lot of sustain, and itās a trick I use that really peaks a jam. That night, while I am doing it, I had the thought of, āWow, I canāt believe I am doing this trick of mine on Garciaās guitar.ā Jerry would have thought what I was doing was the greatest thing in the world or the absolute worst, but either way, Iām cool with it!ā
āI was sitting in one night with an all-girl Dead tribute band called the China Dolls, and no one had told me that Jerryās actual 1955 Strat, Alligator, was there that evening. My friend [roots musician] Alex Jordan handed me the guitar unannounced. Itās something Iāll never forget.ā āBella Rayne
Jeff Mattson has played Alligator, Wolf, Garciaās Travis Bean 500, and his Martin D-28. He sums it up this way: āI used to have posters up in my childhood bedroom of Garcia playing his Alligator guitar. I would stare at those images all the time. And sowhen I got a chance to play it and plug it in, suddenly there were those distinctive tones. Those guitars of his all have a certain mojo. Itās so great to play those guitars that you have to stop in the moment and remind yourself to take a mental picture, so it doesnāt just fly by. Itās just a tremendous pleasure and an honor. I never imagined I would get to play four of Jerry Garciaās guitars.ā
With young people like Bella Rayne dedicating herself at the tender age of 18 to keeping the Deadās music going, it feels like what the band called their ālong strange tripā will keep rolling down the tracks and far over the horizon. āPeople will be listening to the Grateful Dead in one hundred years the same way they will be listening to John Coltrane, too,ā predicts McNally. āImprovisational music is like jumping off a cliff. Sometimes you fly, and sometimes you land on the rocks. When you take that risk, thereās an opportunity for magic to happen. And that will always appeal to a certain segment of people who donāt want predictability in the music they listen to. The Grateful Dead is for people who want complete craziness in their musicāsometimes leading to disaster and oftentimes leading to something wonderful. Itās music for people who want to be surprised.ā
Taylor Guitars, one of the worldās leading acoustic guitar brands, has teamed up with Sony Pictures Consumer Products and HBOĀ®to unveil a replica of the acoustic guitar featured in the award-winning HBO Original series The Last of Us, which is now streaming its second season on Max. This collaboration brings fans and musicians alike an exact replica of the guitar Joel gives Ellie in the critically acclaimed show.
Taylorās The Last of Us Replica 314c guitar is based on its best-selling 300 Series and features Taylorās most popular body style, the Grand Auditorium. Crafted with Taylorās hallmark playability, pro-level sound and refined workmanship, the guitar showcases a visual aesthetic that matches the guitar featured in the series.
For fans of the show, the guitarās most recognizable design element is a custom moth inlay at the third fret. The guitar also features a Tobacco Sunburst top finish and grained ivoroid accents, along with a satin-finish body and neck, creating a vintage, well-worn aesthetic that fits seamlessly into the gritty post-pandemic world Joel and Ellie inhabit.
This acoustic-only model features a solid Sitka spruce top and solid sapele back and sides, delivering a clear, warm, balanced voice with appealing midrange presence ā an ideal sonic tool for storytelling through song. Additional appointments include grained ivoroid body binding, grained ivoroid fretboard inlays that include the moth and large dot position markers, and a custom double-ring rosette also in grained ivoroid. The Grand Auditorium body features a Venetian cutaway for easy access to upper-register notes. Each guitar comes with a Taylor-built deluxe hardshell case to ensure safe transport, whether across the country or across the quarantine zone.
Built for the Journey Ahead
āThe Last of Us is a story of resilience, connection and finding beauty amid harsh realities ā themes that resonate with the emotional expression a Taylor guitar offers players,ā says Tim OāBrien, Vice President of Marketing at Taylor Guitars. āWeāre honored to collaborate with HBO and Sony Pictures Consumer Products to bring this iconic instrument to fans and players alike.ā
Availability and Ordering
The Taylor x The Last of Us Replica guitar is available for purchase now via TaylorGuitars.comand select authorized Taylor dealers. Orders are built on demand in Taylorās Southern California factory, with an expected delivery time of 6ā10 weeks. Due to the nature of this release, quantities are limited.
Whether youāre a musician, collector or a devoted fan of the series, this guitar offers a one-of-a kind connection to the legacy of Joel, Ellie and the enduring spirit of survival.
At its core is GTRSā upgraded G151 intelligent system, offering 128 onboard effects, MNRS amp and cab sims, and even 17 guitar emulationsāexclusive to this model. Everything is controlled via the eye-catching Super Knob, which changes color to match your preset, as well as through the Bluetooth-connectible GTRS app.
GTRSā W902 features select tonewoods and construction: an alder body, poplar burl top, and a sleek bolt-on 5-piece neck made from roasted flame maple and rosewood, with satin natural finish and a rosewood fingerboard. The fanned fret design features 24 white copper frets and a stainless zero fret. A pair of GTRS Alnico V pickups and an HL-II bridge deliver a resonant tone, made particularly versatile thanks to the 5-way tone switch and tone knob.
The W902 offers a truly innovative choice for tech-savvy guitarists. Its features include a wireless transmitter, OTG recording, an 80-second looper, metronomes, and a drum machine, the app-supported guitar boasts up to 12 hours of playtime on a single charge (9 hours with the wireless transmitter in use).
The W902 is an upgraded version of the original W900 Intelligent Guitar, and the W902 most notably features an upgraded GTRS Intelligent Processor System, the G151, which even offers upgrades over the GTRS SL810's recently announced G150 system. The G151 system comes with a staggering 128 effects pre-installed, along with 10 of both MOOER's in-house MNRS amp and cabinet simulation profiles. Exclusive to the W902, the G151 system even includes 17 guitar simulation effects, allowing guitarists to emulate the tonal resonance of some of their favorite guitars.
To activate and browse through presets within the G151 system, which can be connected via Bluetooth 5.0, guitarists can use the guitar's Super Knob, which lights up in different LED colors depending on which preset is activated. Of course, users are able to get stuck into and edit the effects chains of presets through the GTRS app, enabling them to craft their own favorites through their mobile device. The guitar still functions without the G151 system; the Super Knob just needs to be turned off, and the W902 is usable as a regular electric guitar.
Within the GTRS app, there is even an 80-second looper, 10 metronomes, and 40 drum machine grooves built in, providing users with an all-in-one suite for guitar practice and composition. This is especially the case when combined with the W902's OTG-recording support, enabling on-the-go recording without the need for a hardware recording setup.
The W902 comes bundled with a GTRS Deluxe gig bag, three guitar wrenches, a USB 3.0 cable for charging, and a user manual. The guitar even contains a wireless transmitter and an integrated 4000mAh Li-ion battery, providing up to 12 hours of continuous use (9 hours with the transmitter in use), allowing users to enjoy the G151 system through headphones or an amplifier.
Guitarists who want to experiment further with the W902ās technology can connect the intelligent system to the GTRS GWF4 wireless footswitch, which is ideal for switching between presets in live scenarios when control through a mobile device isn't practical.
GTRS W902 Guitar construction features:
- Alder Body, 5-Piece Selected Roasted Flame Maple and Rosewood Neck with Satin Natural Finish (C-Shape)
- Bolt-on neck, 25-1/2" scale length, with dual action steel truss rod
- Rosewood fingerboard, 12ā radius, 24 white copper (0 fret stainless) fanned frets
- Built-in wireless transmitter
- Super Knob, Volume Control Knob, and Tone Knob, 3-way tone-selection switch
- GLB-P1 Li-ion Battery (4000mAh, up to 12 hours of continuous use, 9 hours with the wireless transmitter in use)
- USB port for charging and OTG recording
- GTRS Deluxe gig bag, 3 guitar wrenches
GTRS G151 Intelligent Guitar System features:
- GTRS G151 Intelligent Processing System (and GTRS App)
- 128 effects, 10 MNRS amp (GNR) and cabinet (GIR) simulation models
- 17 guitar simulations
- 80-second looper, 40 drum machine grooves, 10 metronomes
- Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity
- GTRS GWF4 wireless footswitch support (sold separately)
The GTRS W902 is now available worldwide. For more information visit www.gtrs.tech.
Detail of Tedās 1997 National resonator tricone.
What instruments should you bring to an acoustic performance? These days, with sonic innovations and the shifting definition of just what an acoustic performance is, anything goes.
I believe it was Shakespeare who wrote: āTo unplug, or not to unplug, that is the question. Whether ātis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of acoustic purists, or to take thy electric guitar in hand to navigate the sea of solo performing.ā
Four-hundred-and-twenty-four years later, many of us still sometimes face the dilemma of good William when it comes to playing solo gigs. In a stripped-down setting, where itās just us and our songs, do we opt to play an acoustic instrument, which might seem more fittingāor at least more common, in the folksinger/troubadour traditionāor do we bring a comfy electric for accompaniment?
For me, and likely many of you, it depends. If Iām playing one or two songs in a coffeehouse-like atmosphere, Iām likely to bring an acoustic. But if Iām doing a quick solo pop up, say, as a buffer between bands in a rock room, Iām bringing my electric. And when Iām doing a solo concert, where Iāll be stretching out for at least an hour, itās a hybrid rig. Iāll bring my battered old Guild D25C, a National tricone resonator, and my faithful Zuzu electric with coil-splitting, and likely my gig pedalboard, or at least a digital delay. And each guitar is in a different tuning. Be prepared, as the Boy Scouts motto states. (For the record, I never made it past Webelos.)
My point is, the definition of the āacousticā or ācoffeehouseā performance has changed. Sure, there are still a few Alan Lomax types out there who will complain that an electric guitar or band is too loud, but they are the last vestiges of the folk police. And, well, acoustic guitar amplification is so good these days that Iāve been at shows where each strum of a flattop box has threatened to take my head off. My band Coyote Motel even plays Nashvilleās hallowed songwriter room the Bluebird CafĆ© as a fully electric five-piece. Whatās key, besides a smart, flexible sound engineer, is controlling volume, and with a Cali76 compressor or an MXR Duke of Tone, I can get the drive and sustain I need at a low level.
āMy point is, the definition of the āacousticā or ācoffeehouseā performance has changed.ā
So, today I think the instruments that are right for āacousticā gigs are whatever makes you happiest. Left to my own devices, I like my Guild for songs that have a strong basis in folk or country writing, my National for blues and slide, and my electric for whenever I feel like adding a little sonic sauce or showing off a bit, since I have a fluid fingerpicking hand that can add some flash to accompaniment and solos. Itās really a matter of what instrument or instruments make you most comfortable because we should all be happy and comfortable onstageāwhether that stage is in an arena or theater, a club or coffeehouse, or a church basement.
At this point, with instruments like Fenderās Acoustasonic line, or piezo-equipped models from Godin, PRS, and others, and the innovative L.R. Baggs AEG-1, itās worth considering just what exactly makes a guitar acoustic. Is it sound? In which case thereās a wide-open playing field. Or is it a variation on the classic open-bodied instrument that uses a soundhole to move air? And if we arrive at the same end, do the means matter? There is excellent craftsmanship available today throughout the entire guitar spectrum, including foreign-built models, so maybe we can finally put the concerns of Shakespeare to rest and accept that āacousticā has simply come to mean ālow volume.ā
Another reason Iām thinking out loud about this is because this is our annual acoustic issue. And so weāre featuring Jason Isbell, on the heels of his solo acoustic album, a piece on how acoustic guitars do their work authored by none other than Lloyd Baggs, and Andy Fairweather Low, whose new solo albumāand illustrious careerāincludes exceptional acoustic performances. If youāre not familiar with his work, and you are, even if you donāt know it, he was the gent sitting next to Clapton for the historic 1992 Unplugged concertāand lots more. There are also reviews of new instruments from Taylor, Martin, and Godin that fit the classic acoustic profile, so dig in, and to heck with the slings and arrows!