Photo by Simone Cecchetti
āI thought it was about time I stopped helping other people with their careers and got on with mine,ā laughs Dave Kilminster about the motivation behind his 2007 debut album, Scarlet. After playing the role of uĢber-sideman to a list of rock royalty that includes John Wetton, Keith Emerson, and most notably Roger Waters, Kilminster stepped out on his own with a tight collection of tuneful originals. During a break from Watersā seemingly never-ending touring production of The Wall, Kilminster decided to revisit Scarlet. āWhen I finally got time to go back and look at it, I realized it deserved a lot more. So I went back in the studio and had a fiddle with it with a good friend of mine, Jamie Humphries, who is a great guitarist, and we ended up with The Directorās Cut.ā
Sonically, the original version was missing something. The drum sound didnāt match Kilminsterās vision, and that led him to strip away some unessential elements and make the album sound more focused. āIt was almost like there was a great sounding album underneath all this crap on top of it,ā says Kilminster. āWhen I took the recording to Jamie, he made the drums sound like they should have in the first place. Then I did a few extra vocal harmonies. We were rushed in those initial sessions and I wasnāt particularly confident about singing, but this time Jamie just told me to go for it.ā
The entire Scarlet experience gave Kilminster what ended up as a grad school education in following your creative muse and not settling for a lackluster sound in the final product. āYou learn a lot by just throwing yourself in the deep end and thatās what I did,ā recalls Kilminster. āEverything just took a little longer than I wanted it to.ā
But not everything about Scarlet was a total miss. Very early on in the process, after a day of jamming in preparation for a Keith Emerson tour, Kilminster decided to skip the traditional building-block method of recording an album and focus instead on capturing the trioās live feel. āI listened to that recording when I was going home and realized this is whatās missingāthree people playing together live.ā
That in-the-room-energy permeates The Directorās Cut, from the slinky funk-rock groove of āStaticā to the Zep-meets-power-pop feel of āLiar, Liar.ā The latter features some of the most fluid, shred-tastic soloing that Kilminster has ever done.
āIām not a big fan of effects on overdriven sounds. When I do the āComfortably Numbā solo with Roger, I put on this
chorus to try and make it sound a bit more like the record, and I always hate doing it,ā says Kilminster. Photo by
Ronald Santerre
Even though the production might have gotten a little out of hand, Kilminsterās guitar rig was about as simple as you can get. His main tools were a black ā74 Fender Telecaster and a limited edition Vox AC30.
āI wasnāt quite sure what we were going forāmaybe I was still in my Jeff Buckley phase, to be honest,ā says Kilminster. āLater when I went back, I decided that the clean bits werenāt clean enough and the overdriven bits werenāt heavy enough.ā
That desire for more dynamics led Kilminster to shun many effectsāespecially for his dirtier sounds. āIām not a big fan of effects on overdriven sounds. When I do the āComfortably Numbā solo with Roger, I put on this chorus to try and make it sound a bit more like the record and I always hate adding it.ā
Kilminsterās usual recipe for stellar tone involves a great guitar and a great amp. Even a delay doesnāt interest him. āThe first time I ever used a delay on a guitar solo was when I started playing with Roger. It wasnāt something I particularly wanted to do.ā
With the entire Scarlet experience behind him, Kilminster began working on his next solo album this past December, but the opportunity to participate in the ā12-12-12ā Hurricane Sandy benefit at Madison Square Garden conflicted with his recording dates. While preparing for his new solo project, Kilminster took some radical steps to reinvigorate his writing and playing.
āWhy is it that most guitarists write their best material in their early-to-mid 20s? I wonder if itās to do with the fact that you are still learning the instrument. Youāre still messing around and not really quite sure what you are doing and you stumble across these great sounding things. How could I unlearn the guitar quickly?ā
The notion of āunlearningā the guitar inspired Kilminster to explore an entirely new tuning. After a few tweaks of the tuning pegs, he landed on CāGāDā GāAāD, a tuning firmly in the DADGAD family, but with some added low-end thump.
Dave Kilminster's Gear
Guitars
1974 Fender Telecaster, Suhr Custom āRoseā
Amps
Vox AC30 Limited Edition, Brunetti Mercury
Effects
Suhr Riot, Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble, Ernie Ball 6166 volume pedal, Eventide TimeFactor, Boss TU-3 chromatic tuner
Strings, Picks, and Accessories
DāAddario EXL110 .010-.046 strings, Dunlop Gator Grip 2.0 mm picks
āI just thought this was so exciting to come up with a tuning where I had no idea what I was doing,ā says Kilminster. The original idea was to use this new discovery for the main rhythm parts, but then move over to the comfortable surroundings of standard tuning for the solos, but Kilminster hasnāt yet made the final decision. āI could be totally shooting myself in the foot with this. Do I really want to relearn all my modes, scales, and arpeggio shapes?ā
With a summer European tour with Roger Waters on the books, Kilminster is hoping to not only finish a new solo album, but also pair up with master shredder Guthrie Govan for a duo album that will certainly grab the attention of guitar nerds on both sides of the Atlantic. āIāve actually written some tunes for that because I really, really, really want to do it,ā he says. āHopefully, if time permits, we could be in the studio around October. When we play together thereās this kind of ESP thing that happens and itās so much fun. It needs to get down on vinyl, or plastic, or whatever.ā
Voxās Valvenergy Tone Sculptor
I spent a day workshopping ideas in my studio using just the Vox Valvenergy Smooth Impact compressor and Tone Sculptor EQ, and a dash of amp tremolo and reverb to taste. In the process, I produced more arresting sounds than I had heard from my guitars in many days. There were radical direct-to-desk-style Jimmy Page/Beatles distortion tones, sun-sized, cosmic electric 12-string, Bakersfield twang that could burn through crude, and many other sweet and nasty colors. Most decent EQ and compressor combinations can achieve variations on all those themes. But the Smooth Impact and Tone Sculptor also reveal interesting personalities in unexpected places.
The individuality and energy in the Vox Valvenergy pedals is attributable, in part, to the Nutube vacuum tube used in the circuit. Though it looks little like a vacuum tube as most guitarists know them, the thin, wafer-like Nutube is, in fact, a real vacuum tube like those used in fluorescent displays. Fluorescent display tubes have limitations. A maximum operating voltage of around 40 volts means they arenāt useful for bigger power tube applications like a 6L6, which has an operating voltage of about 400 volts. But it can work quite well as a preamp tube in concert with an op amp power section, which is how the Nutube is used in the new Valvenergy pedals, as well as older Vox products like the Vox MV50 and Superbeetle amps.
Valvenergy Tone Sculptor
When you think about ācinematicā effects, you likely imagine big reverb or modulation sounds that create a vivid picture and feeling of space or motion. But narrow, hyper-focused EQ profiles can evoke very different and equally powerful images. Radical EQ settings can add aggression, claustrophobic intimacy, and stark, explosive dark-and-light contrasts more evocative of Hitchcockās Psycho than Ridley Scottās Blade Runner.
Any of these moods can be summoned from the Valvenergy Tone Sculptor. Six sliders cut or boost 10 dB frequency bands spanning 100 Hz to 5.6 kHz. A seventh slider cuts or boosts the master output by 12 dB. This platter of options might not sound like much. But you can use these seven controls together to very specific ends.
āRadical EQ settings can add aggression, near-claustrophobic intimacy, and stark, explosive dark-and-light contrasts.ā
For example, bumping the high-midrange and the master output produces narrow cocked-wah-like filter sounds with enough push to produce extra amp overdriveāeffectively turning the Tone Sculptor into a buzzy, almost fuzz-like filter effect. But unlike a wah, you can carefully scoop high end or add a spoonful of bass to blunt harsh frequencies or give the tone a bit more weight. You can also broaden the palette of an amp/guitar pairing. I matched a particularly trebly Jazzmaster bridge pickup with a very hot and toppy Vox AC15-flavored amp for this testāa recipe that can be spiky on the best days. But with the Tone Sculptor in the line, I could utilize the same sharp, fuzzy, and filtered Mick Ronson wah tones while shaving some of the most piercing frequencies.
EQ pedals exist on many points along the cost spectrum. And at $219, the Tone Sculptor lives on the high side of the affordable range. Does it offer something less expensive models canāt deliver? Well, for one thing, I found it relatively quiet, which is nice whether youāre shaping toppy high-contrast effects or performing more surgical adjustments. And the sliders feel nuanced and nicely tapered rather than like a dull axe with a few basic frequency notches. But in many situations I also liked the color imparted by the circuitāgenerated, presumably, by the Nutube. āColor,ā in audio terms, is a broad and subjective thing, and one should not necessarily expect the warm, tube-y glow of a vintage tube Pultec. Still, the Tone Sculptor has many forgiving, flattering qualitiesātypical of studio EQsāthat enable fine tuning and experimentation with more radical and creative applications of the effect.
Valvenergy Smooth Impact
As with the Tone Sculptor, the Smooth Impactās use of Nutube engenders certain expectations. Itās easy to surmise that because Smooth Impact has a vacuum tube in the circuit that it will behave like a little Teletronix LA-2A leveling amplifier. Thatās a big ask for a $219 stompbox. On the other hand, the Smooth Impact exhibits some appealing characteristics of studio tube compression. At lower compression levels, it works well as a thickening agentāadding mass without much additional noise. And at higher compression levels it can sound snappy, crisp, and tight without feeling like youāve bled every trace of overtone from your signal.
The Smooth Impactās controls arenāt totally atypical. But because it lacks some familiar features like variable attack and release, yet is more complicated than a 1-knob DynaComp, you have to trust your ear to navigate interactions among the controls. The most unfamiliar of these is the 3-way vintage/natural/sag toggle. The first two are defined by preset attack and release settings: Vintage is slow attack and long release, and natural is the opposite. The sag modeās compression is more like what you get from tube saturation, and itās useful for adding thickness and complexity to a thin amp tone at modest compression levels.
Though the vintage and natural modes certainly have a different feel, they donāt always sound worlds apart. And like the sag mode, the thing they have in common is the way they enrich lifeless amp output at low to medium compression, with a bit of grind from the tube gain and a little extra makeup gain from the output. At the most aggressive settings, the tube gain can get a little crispy. And really crushing the compression can flatline your tone without adding much in the way of extra sustain. These are limitations common to many compressors with similar features. But unless I was chasing very ultra-snappy Prince and Nile Rodgers fast-funk caricatures, I enjoyed the Smooth Impact most in its in-between ranges, where mass, mild, harmonious drive, and low noise showcase the pedalās sometimes studio-like personality.
Bossā firstWaza Tube Amp Expander, built with an integrated power amp that enables boosted signal as well as attenuated sounds, was and remains the OXās main competition. Both products have copious merits but, at $1,299 (Boss) and $1,499 (Universal Audio), each is expensive. And while both units are relatively compact, they arenāt gear most folks casually toss in a backpack on the way out the door. The new Waza Tube Expander Core, however, just might be. And though it sacrifices some refinements for smaller size, its much-more accessible price and strong, streamlined fundamental capabilities make it a load-box alternative that could sway skeptics.
Micro Manager
The TAE Core is around 7 1/2" wide, just over 7 " long, and fewer than 4 " tall, including the rubber feet. Thatās about half the width of an original TAE or OX. The practical upside of this size reduction is obvious and will probably compel a lot of players to use the unit in situations in which theyād leave a full-size TAE at home. The streamlined design is another source of comfort. With just five knobs on its face, the TAE Core has fewer controls and is easier to use than many stompboxes. In fact, the most complicated part of integrating the TAE Core to your rig might be downloading the necessary drivers and related apps.
Connectivity is straightforward, though there are some limitations. You can use TAE Core wirelessly with an iOS or Windows tablet or smartphone, as long as you have the BT-DUAL adaptor (which is not included and sets you back around 40 bucks). However, while desktop computers recognize the TAE Core as a Bluetooth-enabled device, you cannot use the unit wirelessly with those machines. Instead, you have to connect the TAE Core via USB. In a perfectly ordered world, thatās not a big problem. But if you use the TAE Core in a small studioāwhere one less cable is one less headacheāor you prefer to interface with the TAE Core app on a desktop where you can toggle fast and easily between large, multi-track sessions and the app, the inability to work wirelessly on a desktop can be a distraction. The upside is that the TAE Core app itself is, functionally and visually, almost identical in mobile and desktop versions, enabling you to select and drag and drop virtual microphones into position, add delay, reverb, compression, and EQ effects, choose various cabinets with different speaker configurations and sizes, and introduce new rigs and impulse responses to a tone recipe in a flash. And though the TAE Core app lacks some of the photorealistic panache and configuration options in the OX app, the TAE Coreās app is just as intuitive.Less Is More
One nice thing about the TAE Coreās more approachable $699 price is that you donāt have to feel too bad on nights that you āunderutilizeā the unit and employ it as an attenuator alone. In this role, the TAE Core excels. Even significantly attenuated sounds retain the color and essence of the source tone. Like any attenuator-type device, you will sacrifice touch sensitivity and dynamics at a certain volume level, yielding a sense of disconnection between fingers, gut, guitar, and amp. But if youāre tracking ābigā sounds in a small space, you can generate massive-sounding ones without interfacing with an amp modeler and flat-response monitors, which is a joy in my book. And again, thereās the TAE Coreās ability to āexpandā as well as attenuate, which means you can use the TAE Coreās 30-watt onboard power amp to amplify the signal from, say, a 5-watt Fender Champion 600 with a 6" speaker, route it to a 2x12, 4x12, or virtual equivalent in the app, and leave your bandmate with the Twin Reverb and bad attitude utterly perplexed.
The Verdict
Opting for the simpler, thriftier TAE Core requires a few sacrifices. Power users that grew accustomed to the original TAEās super-tunable āresonance-Zā and āpresence-Zā controls, which aped signal-chain impedance relationships with sharp precision, will have to make do with the simpler but still very effective stack and combo options and the āair feel levelā spatial ambience control.The DC power jack is less robust. It features only MIDI-in rather than MIDI-in/-through/-out jacks, and, significantly, 70 watts less power in the onboard power amp. But from my perspective, the Core is no less āprofessionalā in terms of what it can achieve on a stage or in a studio of any size. Its more modest feature set and dimensions are, in my estimation, utility enhancements as much as limitations. If greater power and MIDI connectivity are essentials, then the extra 600 bones for the original TAE will be worth the price. For many of us, though, the mix of value, operational efficiencies, and the less-encumbered path to sound creation built into the TAE Core will represent a welcome sweet spot that makes dabbling in this very useful technology an appealing, practical proposition.
