If you’re not familiar with Louisiana sludge-metal legends Acid Bath, you might’ve been living in a cave for a while. That’s sort of fitting, because that’s the exact locale where PG’s Chris Kies met up with the band ahead of a recent gig at the Caverns in Grundy County, Tennessee. Guitarists Sammy Duet and Mike Sanchez, along with new bassist Shane Wesley, showed us how they’re conjuring their toxic tones these days in this new Rig Rundown. Check out the important bits below, and watch the whole video for more details on how they set their gear.
Sammy Duet is using this prototype ESP EX model, with color-shifting side bevels and Lollar Monolith pickups. He uses S.I.T. strings, .013–.060 gauge, for stability while tuned to C standard.
Marshall Madness
Duet likes these Marshall JCM2000 heads and matching 4x12 cabinets for their simplicity.
Sammy's New Slugger
From SPD100 designer Michael W Klein, "I was able to play through Sammy's rig onstage, which gave me a really good sense of what he was looking for. I think after that tour, he sent me one of his [Randall] VMax heads for repair and again to brainstorm on the performance he loved and didn’t love. A tour later, I brought him my personal amp that I designed and built years prior for him to give input on.
Those three experiences were extremely helpful, and the design time to prototype completion was about two years. I went all in, probably to an unhealthy degree. Praise Skeletor - he loved the prototype and took it on tour immediately. We spent the next two years torture testing, tweaking, and refining the design."
Under the Hood
From SPD100 designer Michael W Klein, "The amp is pretty unique, not really based on anything but definitely has various influences and inspiration throughout. It is definitely purpose-designed rather than based-on, if that makes any sense? There is a lot of attention to the tuning and taper of all controls, and I’m thrilled people that own one have noticed how unique but easy everything responds."
The tube complement is 4x12AX7, 4xKT77. I cut no corners in its construction, and it is meant to last a lifetime even in the most heinous situations. Every amp is built by me, by hand on turret/eyelet board just like my favorite amp builders of lore."
Brutal But Balanced
From SPD100 designer Michael W Klein, "As a builder, my effort to maintain the integrity of everything upstream from
the amplifier was a primary goal. Your guitars shouldn’t sound the same. Pickups will begin to make a hugendifference. Boosts that once felt identical should start to reveal their true character."
"While revealing, the SPD100 is intentionally forgiving, too."
"How can an amp be revealing AND forgiving? It’s not complicated – avoid over-saturation & over-compression, don’t get cutesy with excessive frequency trimming, and make the controls easy to dial and clear in their purpose."
"I hope the first chug you play brings a smile to your face."
Sammy Duet’s Pedalboard
Duet’s board currently boasts a Shure GLXD16+ tuner, Fortin Roach, a high-gain Morley wah pedal, Fortin Zuul, MWK Audio Design Spire, Xotic Effects SP Compressor, MWK Torture Rack, Strymon Cloudburst, and MWK Stull.
Choppin’ Wood
Sanchez plays this Woodrite V-style for now, but he’s collaborating with the company on a signature model that will feature a larger pickguard and tobacco-burst finish. Keep an eye out for that. This one, though, is loaded with custom high-output passive pickups designed by Jeff Richard.
Twin 2000s
Like Duet, Sanchez plays through a JCM2000 stack.
Mike Sanchez’s Pedalboard
Sanchez’s board carries a Dunlop Cry Baby, Boss TU-3, Shure GLXD16+ tuner, MWK Audio Design Lonely Ghost, Boss SY-1, and Death by Audio Moonbeam Phaser. A Boss ES-5 switching system helps navigate the changing.
Purple Pounder
Wesley uses a Sandberg Forty Eight bass, with a quilted maple top and Fishman Fluence pickups. He likes DR Strings Black Beauty coated string sets for their durability and dampening.
Split the Signal
Wesley’s signal from this Darkglass Microtubes 900 head runs both to an 8x10 cab onstage, and direct to front of house. The onstage cab mostly serves as a monitor.
Shane Wesley’s Pedalboard
Wesley’s tricked-out bass board carries lots of goodies. He has a Dunlop Justin Chancellor Signature Cry Baby, Shure GLXD16+ tuner, Origin Effects Cali76, Rupert Neve Designs preamp, Caveman Audio BP1 Bass Preamp, Citadel Electronics Dynazero, Darkglass ADAM, SFX Micro Thumpinator, Origin Effects BassRig Super Vintage, Universal Audio Astra and Del-Verb, and Tech 21 Q/Strip. A Strymon Zuma sends juice to them.
Bohlinger finally gets to meet one of his favorite guitarists, Nathaniel Murphy of Chicago Music Exchange fame. The two talk about their approach to the instrument, decode why guitar arrangements are puzzles, unravel Nathaniel's journey from futbol coach to busker to ace instrumentalist, all before Murphy humbly asks for a simple gig as a rhythm guiitarist in your band. Of course the duo share a couple of tasty jams, too.
Back in February, PG’s Perry Bean headed over to Nashville’s Cannery Hall to catch up with his longtime friends in the Tennessee mathcore outfit the Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza. Before their gig, guitarists Layne Meylain, Josh Travis, and Eric Berngruber, along with bassist Mike Butler, took Bean through the Kiesel-and-Quad-Cortex-powered guts of their audio acrobatics. Check out some highlights below, and watch the full Rig Rundown for more.
Layne Meylain asked Kiesel to ship him this wicked 7-string Kira model, which is loaded with Kiesel pickups—a Lithium and Nail Bomb. He uses a custom set of Stringjoys, .010-.074 gauge.
Purple Pain
This 8-string Kiesel, with a walnut neck and swamp ash body, was initially a loaner, but Meylain found a way to hang onto the guitar. If the company ever comes to retrieve the instrument, he’s willing to pay for it.
Green Giant
This 8-string was custom-built by Jeff Kiesel, and features a multi-scale, green-stained fretboard, and neck-through-body construction.
Layne Meylain’s Amp and Effects Rig
Meylain and his bandmates run Neural Quad Cortex units onstage, but the main sounds are from an amp and cab he captured with his Fractal Axe-Fx unit. He relies on the Quad Cortex's in-house effects, though, and prefers its interface. A Laney LFR-212 cabinet moves some air onstage.
A Real Looker
Josh Travis never had a guitar this gorgeous before. He runs this 8-string Kiesel with Dunlop 72-8 gauge string set, and most of his axes are loaded with either Kiesel Lithium or Thorium pickups.
Woody
Travis also brought this darker-finish Kiesel, with plenty of natural wood grain showing through, along for this run.
High-5-String
Butler primarily plays this Kiesel A2 5-string bass, which features fanned frets, active pickups, and .065–.105 gauge strings.
Mike Butler’s Bass Rig
While Butler is getting used to the Quad Cortex, he runs a Darkglass Micro Tubes X900 preamp and matching 410 cabinet.
Berngruber’s Balaguer
Newest member Eric Berngruber is endorsed by Balaguer Guitars, and the red 7-string in the middle here, loaded with Fishman active pickups, is his primary weapon. The Kiesel and Ibanez flanking it are on hand for certain tunes, and Berngruber, too, runs a Quad Cortex.
During a recent visit to the Twin Cities, John Bohlinger & the PG video squad stopped by Stevie's Guitars — a relatively new store to the area — that is jam packed with vintage gems from Fender and Gibson, custom, one-off builds, badass boutique beauties. All these remarkable instruments and cool pieces of gear are looked over and maintained by an enthusiastic, attentive, knowledgable crew of guitar lovers.
Upon resurrecting the long-lost Dual Op-Amp Big Muff 2 circuit with Josh Scott of JHS Pedals, Electro-Harmonix recognized that the pedal would be an instant favorite of low-end lovers and went to work “bassifying” the pedal. Enter the low-end optimized Bass Big Muff Pi 2 with features selected for full spectrum fuzz tones of all flavors.
The Bass Big Muff Pi 2 features the original’s pushed mid grunt and classic singing sustain any Big Muff lover would feel at home with. The bass version now includes a clean BLEND knob and Bass Boost for extended tone performance with Bass Guitar or any player looking for extra clarity and low-end. The typical VOL/TONE/SUSTAIN knobs set overall output volume, treble/bass eq balance, and distortion respectively. BLEND sets the overall wet/dry mix to dial in the perfect balance of fuzzy chaos and solid fundaments from your clean tone. The BASS BOOST switch adds even more low-end to your signal for booming bass tone even at higher TONE knob settings.
Additionally, the pedal features a silent true bypass footswitch with Latching/Momentary Action. Click the footswitch for normal latching functionality or press and hold the footswitch of a momentary burst of fuzz.
