Premier Guitar's Chris Kies is on location in Cedar Rapids, IA, where he catches up with Papa Roach's Jerry Horton and Tobin Esperance. The guys discuss about condensing their rigs from arena-ready juggernaut stacks to carry-on-approved size. Horton talks about collaborating with Schecter on his signature Solo 6, and Tobin explains why picks aren't his thing.
Jerry Horton Gear
Guitars
Horton has rocked Schecter guitars for well over a decade. He's been one of the companies longest-running endorsees and has his own signature model that he uses almost exclusively during live shows. Horton's signature six-string is based on the company's singlecut Custom Solo 6 model with a few tweaks. He requested for his signature that they incorporate a TonePros AVT-II wraparound bridge and they took out the standard Seymour Duncan Custom Custom in the bridge for his preferred JB bridge pickup setup. And since he's been on the Carnival of Madness tour, his tech recently swapped out the standard 19:1-ratio Schecter locker tuners for Grovers. The graphics found on both of his signature models were co-designed with a hot-rod artist from Tennessee. The lone backup he has on this tour is an old Schecter Tempest. For strings, Horton uses Jim Dunlop Nickel Plated .013—.056 strings and custom Jim Dunlop Papa Roach-designed .88 Tortex picks
Amps and Effects
Horton—who once rocked a four-amp setup that included 3 different Marshall heads and a Vox AC30—scaled down his rig for an early 2013 gig in Russia and hasn't looked back. He now uses two Fractal Audio Axe-Fx II units for all his amp models and effects and relies on a lone expression pedal for wah sounds and controlling the amount of overdrive/dirt on certain patches like on the song "Hollywood Whore."
Tobin Esperance Gear
Basses
Master of the Roach's low-end, Esperance relies heavily on his custom Lakland 44-94 4-string models. At first glance, these look like standard production models, but Esperance simplified the control layout opting to get rid of the 3-band EQ for a passive sound—he always had it on 10 and he was turning the wrong knobs during dimly-lit shows—and giving the 44-94 a sleeker, more modern-metal look with all black hardware. He currently uses D'Addario .050—.120 strings and never really uses a pick onstage because he feels he can control the tone and sound of his rig best with his fingertips, how hard he plays and whether he plays near the neck for sub-sonic lows or near the bridge for cutting, ripping thumping.
Amps
Following Horton's reduction motif, Esperance is only bringing out two rackmounted Ampegs amps. His main stage head is a SVT-4 Pro and the backup is a BR5.
Effects
Esperance keeps a tidy house when it comes to his pedalboard, which only has three boxes on it--a Jim Dunlop 105Q Cry Baby Bass Wah, a Malekko B:Assmaster Harmonic Octave Distortion, and a Boss Tu-2 tuner. A Voodoo Lab Pedal Power2 juices his modest board.
I used to not care about using a compressor—unless I was in the studio and wanted to add a little zazz to a solo. The additional sustain and tightly focused mids that a compressor helped me achieve were inspiring. Eventually, I began to wonder if a compressor would help give my guitar the tone and response I typically enjoyed at louder stage volumes in smaller, quieter rooms. As I began hunting for a compressor for those gigs, I ran across the original, now discontinued, Origin Effects Cali76 Compact Deluxe. I was intrigued by its, um, origin.
The Cali76’s circuitry was inspired by the famed Urei 1176 outboard compressor, which has lived in the racks of some of the world’s finest studios and appeared on recordings by well, just about everyone. Although I was skeptical that so much squeeze-ability could fit in a 5 1/2" x 3" x 2" enclosure, the FET-based device proved to be a star—not only on my low-volume-gig board, but among many players in the world at large. Today, the Cali76 is recognized for getting about as close to a vintage rackmount 1176 as a stompbox gets.
Reduxed and Revamped
Over the years, the U.K.-made Cali76 has seen other iterations, but this new version is notably smaller—not nano- or mini-sized, but roughly the same size as a Boss pedal. The enclosure’s bedrock quality is the same as earlier Cali76s—a gleaming brick of brushed steel with six sturdy control dials that feels like it could be dropped from space and survive the impact. The controls remain dry, out, in, ratio, attack, and release. The dry function is crucial for tone hunters. It allows you to blend your guitar’s compressed and unprocessed signal—a technique often called parallel compression started at Motown for recording vocals that had a renaissance in New York City mix studios in the ’90s. There’s also a 9V DC input (sorry batteries, but you haven’t got the muscle or the room), a 200 mA draw, a solid and smooth on/off switch, and the usual mono in and out.
But the new, all-analog Cali76 FET Compressor also features a few important upgrades. The single flashing jewel light of previous models has been replaced with a 10-LED gain reduction meter, arranged in linear fashion, to present a more precise illustration of compression level as well as the duration and intensity of the gain reduction. There’s also a lot more headroom: The 9 volts flowing into the new pedal are increased internally to 24 volts, so you can let it rip while keeping your tone natural, responsive, and focused.
Side by Side
I thought it would be fun to place the Cali76 FET Compressor and its older sibling together in my pedal chain, after some overdrives and fuzzes, and before some delays and a trail-heavy reverb. Although both pedals functioned essentially the same, the more precise 10-LED meter was an immediate improvement over the flashing red (no compression), orange (activated compression), and yellow (heading toward maximum compression) colors of the single jewel light on my old Cali76 Compact Deluxe, which I’ve found confusing for its rapid changes of hue, as well as less-effective performance on colorfully lighted stages.
With its ability to internally step 9 volts up to 24, the extra headroom makes the new Cali76 FET sound much more organic and more like my guitar’s pure tone, and I even hear and feelimproved response to picking dynamics at low volume, which you don't always expect from a compressor. Tone is enhanced across the EQ spectrum. I heard richer mids and trebles and more sparkling presence than in my Compact Deluxe. I also heard more-singing sustain than with my older compressor engaged. It’s quite nice, but whether you prefer the potentially darker tone of the elder unit to the transparency of the new one is a matter of taste.
The rest of the control set still does exactly what you’d expect, and very well at that. The “in” dial increases the incoming signal and amount of compression, while the attack dial changes the setting from slow to fast by moving clockwise. Slow equals percussive and bright, while a fast attack time setting lets the compressor grab transients early on, making for a smooth, less percussive, and aurally soothing attack, which I prefer. Likewise, slower settings on the release dial provide more sustain. And the ratio control adjusts the amount of gain reduction on the compressed signal, ranging from a minimum ratio of 4:1 and a maximum of 20:1.
The Verdict
If you’ve never played with a studio compressor, you might experience a sharper learning curve with the Cali76 FET than with, say, a more affordable MXR Dyna Comp or Keeley 2-knob device. But if it fits your budget, it’s worth exploring the rich, complex, and essentially organic sounds that the new Cali76 FET Compressor can achieve.
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