Blackouts for Bass
These active four and 5-string soapbars and on-board Tone Circuits were designed by Seymour Duncan for the aggressive bass tones of metal, classic metal, punk and heavy rock. SD says the Blackouts for Bass deliver the goods with less tweaking. The pickups use the popular Phase II over and are drop-in replacements for many basses. Comes with all necessary hardware including potentiometers on pre-wired harness, a battery clip and stereo jack. The Tone Circuit offers two focused bands of EQ dialed-in to the frequencies that metal players need, and it comes in in two versions: one with separate bass and treble knobs and one with a stacked, concentric bass/treble control. With both versions black anodized, knurled, dome-style knobs are included. MSRP:
Pickups, $146 each or $270 for the set
Tone Circuit, $79
SFX-10 Déjà Vu Tap Delay
The Déjà Vu is a combination of the popular analog Bucket Brigade delay units of the past and new digital repeats. One of the secrets is the D/A Blend (digital-analog) control. Turn it one way and the digital delays are crystal clear, and the other way is a pure analog Bucket Brigade. Other features include a Modualtion knob, a Tap Tempo Footswitch, and a Ratio mode which allows you to express the delay in five tempo subdivisions: half notes, dotted eight notes, quarter notes, triplets, and eighth notes. As with all Seymour Duncan stompboxes, the Déjà Vu offers full bypass switching, and a large range of sounds from the traditional, old-school delay tones to wild, sci-fi effects, says SD. MSRP: $349
SFX-09 Double Back Compressor
Simply put, a compressor makes quiet passages louder and loud passages quieter, but sometimes they can get in the way of your guitar's natural feel, which is why SD created the Double Back. The SFX-09 Double Back Compressor allows some of the uncompressed sound – specifically the initial “snap” of the string - to “double back” into the compressor output, thus helping to preserve the sensation of a string being plucked.
SD describes the Double Back as a a low noise, low distortion compressor-sustainer pedal with very wide-range compression, exceptional sustain, and simple, intuitive control of compressor dynamics. Additional features include a control knob that can adjust the compression ratio from 1:1 to over 20:1, and three special features that preserve the natural feel: the “Double Back” control, the three-position switchable frequency filter, and the "Attack" control. For more info, visit seymourduncan.com.
MSRP: $225
Hot Rails For Tele, Rhythm
Hot Rails is a single coil pickup replacement. Seymour Duncan has made them for the Strat and, up until now, for the bridge position of a Tele. SD says Hot Rails drive your amp harder because they are designed specially for classic rock, garage, punk, heavy rock, thrash, and all metal styles. SD says the new neck-sized version delivers a fat, full sound with incredible output, like all Hot Rails. The powerful ceramic magnet, two steel blades and over-wound coils all combine to provide a heavy, raw, distorted tone with incredible sustain. They come in black only, with an “old school" Rails look, and include four-conductor cable.
MSRP $114
Hot Stack Plus For Strat
For Stratocaster players, it’s the challenge of the ages: keep the tone, but ditch the annoying single coil hum. A few years ago, SD came out with the patented Classic Stack Plus pickup that addressed answered the call. But what about those players who want a Strat tone that’s bigger, beefier, ballsier, and brasher than vintage? For them, we are happy to announce the release of the Hot Stack Plus, the latest advancement in the quest for hum-free Strat tone. Like our Classic Stack Plus pickup, the Hot Stack Plus uses a top coil that is significantly larger than the bottom coil–it’s almost the same size as a traditional Strat pickup coil. This, together with the staggered, sand-cast, Alnico 5 pole pieces, and the custom wound, high-output coil, delivers a hot and thick Strat tone. Use a Hot Stack Plus in the bridge position together with two Classics in the neck and middle for a versatile setup that covers all tones from vintage to high-output. The top coil is shielded with a “flux transfer plate” which attracts hum and “injects” it into the much smaller bottom coil, whose sole purpose is to eliminate the hum. The top coil gets the tone. The bottom coil kills the hum. In addition to the unique design, we use a device seldom seen outside a physics laboratory called a Helmholtz coil, to calibrate each individual Hot Stack Plus pickup for maximum hum cancellation. The Helmholtz coil generates an extremely uniform magnetic field that allows our engineers to accurately simulate, on the test bench, the noise conditions found in a typical performance environment. This type of testing and calibration, in addition to the unique magnetic structure of the Hot Stack Plus system, allows it to achieve extraordinarily low levels of 60-cycle hum. The Hot Stack Plus works great with all of our stompboxes, especially the new SFX-11 Twin Tube Blue and SFX-10 Déjà vu Delay. For most Strat guitars, the Hot Stack Plus is a direct retrofit. The Stack Plus is .995” (25.27mm) tall, which makes it .175 (4.45mm) taller than a vintage pickup for Strat guitars. Each Stack Plus is built and tuned, by hand, in our Santa Barbara, California workshop and includes mounting hardware and detailed wiring instructions. Recommended for bridge position.
MSRP $110 
Triple Shot Switching Mountain Ring
For years, guitar modders have known the secrets of getting vastly different tones out of an electric guitar by changing the wiring of the humbucker pickups. Typically humbuckers are wired in “series,” for the “loud and proud” sound that most folks associate with these popular pickups. But there are additional tonal options available. For example, one can make a humbucker sound more like a single coil pickup by splitting off one the coils – some people call this “tapping a pickup.” Or, some arrange to have the pickup wired in “parallel,” which lowers the output, raises the resonant peak, and retains hum-cancelling. How is this electronic sleight of hand accomplished? Usually by mini-toggle switches, push-pull potentiometers, or “super” lever switches. All of these methods have disadvantages: either they offer limited switching options, or they require drilling holes in the top of your guitar. Seymour Duncan comes to the rescue with the Triple Shot switching mounting ring. This stealth device functions as a standard humbucker or Trembucker mounting ring, but it cleverly hides two small “rocker” switches that allow for a humbucker to be wired in series, parallel, or split – and when split, either coil can be active, it’s up to you. Now, you can make wiring changes without touching your knobs, pickup selector or toggle switches. Triple Shot is easy to install and works with any four-conductor Seymour Duncan humbucker – or just about any of our competitor’s pickups. Just connect the pickup’s leads to a small color coded circuit board which adheres to the inside cavity of your guitar and connect the circuit board to your ground and hot connection. That’s it. Triple Shot requires no permanent modification to your guitar.
MSRP: $69 set 
SFX-11 Twin Tube Blue
The new SFX-11 Twin Tube Blue is the perfect stompbox for the no-compromise blues player. You know the type. They have to have the best tone possible and they’ll spend any amount of money to get it. Fortunately, this boutique quality “secret weapon” pedal won’t break the bank. Like the Twin Tube Classic and Twin Tube Mayhem, the Twin Tube Blue is a high-quality, two-channel, guitar preamp. However, this one is voiced for the blues. We’re talking modern blues, Chicago blues, Texas blues, and classic rock. Unlike its Twin Tube brethren, it features a duet of premium, mil-spec, subminiature, USA-made Phillips-Sylvania® 6111 dual triode tubes. These tubes are voiced similar to a familiar 12AU7. Speaking of tubes, too often, inexpensive tube gear runs in “starved plate mode,” where the tubes function like clipping diodes and do not actually amplify. The Twin Tube Blue’s high-plate voltage and 100% vacuum tube signal path allows the tubes to operate at their fullest potential and provide maximum dynamic range. The means you get the most gain and all the smooth, bluesy tone you expect from a high-quality tube preamp. Two channels provide versatility. The Rhythm channel offers up sparkly chords and bright and punchy leads. The Lead channel starts with familiar Texas blues and goes all the way to the heaviest blues tones you’ll ever need. The Twin Tube Blue is true bypass and features a heavy duty chassis and a fully encapsulated toroidal transformer for quiet operation.
MSRP: $325
For more info, visit seymourduncan.com.
LR Baggs Session DI Acoustic Guitar Preamp / DI
Inspired by the LR Baggs Handcrafted Video Sessions and our experience in some of Nashville’s great studios, the Session Acoustic DI brings our signature studio sound to your live rig. The Session DI enhances your acoustic pickup and imparts the rich sonic character that you’d expect from an experienced audio engineer using some of the world’s finest studio gear. We’ve captured this studio magic and put it into a compact, easy-to-use DI that will transform your live sound.
For the first time in the band’s history, the Dawes lineup for Oh Brother consisted of just Griffin and Taylor Goldsmith (left and right).
Goldsmith’s lyrics spoke to me the loudest, with lines like “Well, you can judge the whole world on the sparkle that you think it lacks / Yes, you can stare into the abyss, but it’s starin’ right back” (a casual Nietzsche paraphrase); and “Oh, the snowfall this time of year / It’s not what Birmingham is used to / I get the feeling that I brought it here / And now I’m taking it away.” The way his words painted a portrait of the sincere, sentimental man behind them, along with his cozy, unassuming guitar work and the band’s four-part harmonies, had me hooked.
Nothing Is Wrong and Stories Don’t End came next, and I happily gobbled up more folksy fodder in tracks like “If I Wanted,” “Most People,” and “From a Window Seat.” But 2015’s All Your Favorite Bands, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Folk Albumschart, didn’t land with me, and by the time 2016’s We’re All Gonna Die was released, it was clear that Goldsmith had shifted thematically in his writing. A friend drew a thoughtful Warren Zevon comparison to the single, “When the Tequila Runs Out”—a commentary on vapid, conceited, American-socialite party culture—but it still didn’t really do it for me. I fell off the Dawes train a bit, and became somewhat oblivious to their three full-lengths that followed.
Oh Brotheris Goldsmith’s latest addition to the Dawes songbook, and I’m grateful to say that it’s brought me back. After having done some catching up, I’d posit that it’s the second work in the third act, or fall season, of his songwriting—where 2022’s Misadventures of Doomscrollercracked open the door, Oh Brother swings it wide. And it doesn’t have much more than Dawes’ meat and potatoes, per se, in common with acts one or two. Some moodiness has stayed—as well as societal disgruntlement and the arrangement elements that first had me intoxicated. But then there’s the 7/4 section in the middle of “Front Row Seat”; the gently unwinding, quiet, intimate jazz-club feel of “Surprise!”; the experimentally percussive, soft-spoken “Enough Already”; and the unexpected, dare I say, Danny Elfman-esque harmonic twists and turns in the closing track, “Hilarity Ensues.”
The main engine behind Dawes, the Goldsmith brothers are both native “Angelinos,” having been born and raised in the L.A. area. Taylor is still proud to call the city his home.
Photo by Jon Chu
“I have this working hypothesis that who you are as a songwriter through the years is pretty close to who you are in a dinner conversation,” Goldsmith tells me in an interview, as I ask him about that thematic shift. “When I was 23, if I was invited to dinner with grownups [laughs], or just friends or whatever, and they say, ‘How you doin’, Taylor?’ I probably wouldn’t think twice to be like, ‘I’m not that good. There’s this girl, and … I don’t know where things are at—can I share this with you? Is that okay?’ I would just go in in a way that’s fairly indiscreet! And I’m grateful to that version of me, especially as a writer, because that’s what I wanted to hear, so that’s what I was making at the time.
“But then as I got older, it became, ‘Oh, maybe that’s not an appropriate way to answer the question of how I’m doing.’ Or, ‘Maybe I’ve spent enough years thinking about me! What does it feel like to turn the lens around?’” he continues, naming Elvis Costello and Paul Simon as inspirations along the way through that self-evolution. “Also, trying to be mindful of—I had strengths then that I don’t have now, but I have strengths now that I didn’t have then. And now it’s time to celebrate those. Even in just a physical way, like hearing Frank Zappa talking about how his agility as a guitar player was waning as he got older. It’s like, that just means that you showcase different aspects of your skills.
“I am a changing person. It would be weird if I was still writing the same way I was when I was 23. There would probably be some weird implications there as to who I’d be becoming as a human [laughs].”
Taylor Goldsmith considers Oh Brother, the ninth full-length in Dawes’ catalog, to be the beginning of a new phase of Dawes, containing some of his most unfiltered, unedited songwriting.
Since its inception, the engine behind Dawes has been the brothers Goldsmith, with Taylor on guitar and vocals and Griffin on drums and sometimes vocal harmonies. But they’ve always had consistent backup. For the first several years, that was Wylie Gelber on bass and Tay Strathairn on keyboards. On We’re All Gonna Die, Lee Pardini replaced Strathairn and has been with the band since. Oh Brother, however, marks the departure of Gelber and Pardini.
“We were like, ‘Wow, this is an intense time; this is a vulnerable time,’” remarks Goldsmith, who says that their parting was supportive and loving, but still rocked him and Griffin. “You get a glimpse of your vulnerability in a way that you haven’t felt in a long time when things are just up and running. For a second there, we’re like, ‘We’re getting a little rattled—how do we survive this?’”
They decided to pair up with producer Mike Viola, a close family friend, who has also worked with Mandy Moore—Taylor’s spouse—along with Panic! At the Disco, Andrew Bird, and Jenny Lewis. “[We knew that] he understands all of the parameters of that raw state. And, you know, I always show Mike my songs, so he was aware of what we had cookin’,” says Goldsmith.
Griffin stayed behind the kit, but Taylor took over on bass and keys, the latter of which he has more experience with than he’s displayed on past releases. “We’ve made records where it’s very tempting to appeal to your strengths, where it’s like, ‘Oh, I know how to do this, I’m just gonna nail it,’” he says. “Then there’s records that we make where we really push ourselves into territories where we aren’t comfortable. That contributed to [Misadventures of Doomscroller] feeling like a living, breathing thing—very reactive, very urgent, very aware. We were paying very close attention. And I would say the same goes for this.”
That new terrain, says Goldsmith, “forced us to react to each other and react to the music in new ways, and all of a sudden, we’re exploring new corners of what we do. I’m really excited in that sense, because it’s like this is the first album of a new phase.”
“That forced us to react to each other and react to the music in new ways, and all of a sudden, we’re exploring new corners of what we do.”
In proper folk (or even folk-rock) tradition, the music of Dawes isn’t exactly riddled with guitar solos, but that’s not to say that Goldsmith doesn’t show off his chops when the timing is right. Just listen to the languid, fluent lick on “Surprise!”, the shamelessly prog-inspired riff in the bridge of “Front Row Seat,” and the tactful, articulate line that threads through “Enough Already.” Goldsmith has a strong, individual sense of phrasing, where his improvised melodies can be just as biting as his catalog’s occasional lyrical jabs at presumably toxic ex-girlfriends, and just as melancholy as his self-reflective metaphors, all the while without drawing too much attention to himself over the song.
Of course, most of our conversation revolves around songwriting, as that’s the craft that’s the truest and closest to his identity. “There’s an openness, a goofiness—I even struggle to say it now, but—an earnestness that goes along with who I am, not only as a writer but as a person,” Goldsmith elaborates. “And I think it’s important that those two things reflect one another. ’Cause when you meet someone and they don’t, I get a little bit weirded out, like, ‘What have I been listening to? Are you lying to me?’” he says with a smile.
Taylor Goldsmith's Gear
Pictured here performing live in 2014, Taylor Goldsmith has been the primary songwriter for all of Dawes' records, beginning with 2009’s North Hills.
Photo by Tim Bugbee/Tinnitus Photography
Guitars
- Fender Telecaster
- Gibson ES-345
- Radocaster (made by Wylie Gelber)
Amps
- ’64 Fender Deluxe
- Matchless Laurel Canyon
Effects
- 29 Pedals EUNA
- Jackson Audio Bloom
- Ibanez Tube Screamer with Keeley mod
- Vintage Boss Chorus
- Vintage Boss VB-2 Vibrato
- Strymon Flint
- Strymon El Capistan
Strings
- Ernie Ball .010s
In Goldsmith’s songwriting process, he explains that he’s learned to lean away from the inclination towards perfectionism. Paraphrasing something he heard Father John Misty share about Leonard Cohen, he says, “People think you’re cultivating these songs, or, ‘I wouldn’t deign to write something that’s beneath me,’ but the reality is, ‘I’m a rat, and I’ll take whatever I can possibly get, and then I’ll just try to get the best of it.’
“Ever since Misadventures of Doomscroller,” he adds, “I’ve enjoyed this quality of, rather than try to be a minimalist, I want to be a maximalist. I want to see how much a song can handle.” For the songs on Oh Brother, that meant that he decided to continue adding “more observations within the universe” of “Surprise!”, ultimately writing six verses. A similar approach to “King of the Never-Wills,” a ballad about a character suffering from alcoholism, resulted in four verses.
“The economy of songwriting that we’re all taught would buck that,” says Goldsmith. “It would insist that I only keep the very best and shed something that isn’t as good. But I’m not going to think economically. I’m not going to think, ‘Is this self-indulgent?’
Goldsmith’s songwriting has shifted thematically over the years, from more personal, introspective expression to more social commentary and, at times, even satire, in songs like We’re All Gonna Die’s “When the Tequila Runs Out.”
Photo by Mike White
“I don’t abide that term being applied to music. Because if there’s a concern about self-indulgence, then you’d have to dismiss all of jazz. All of it. You’d have to dismiss so many of my most favorite songs. Because in a weird way, I feel like that’s the whole point—self-indulgence. And then obviously relating to someone else, to another human being.” (He elaborates that, if Bob Dylan had trimmed back any of the verses on “Desolation Row,” it would have deprived him of the unique experience it creates for him when he listens to it.)
One of the joys of speaking with Goldsmith is just listening to his thought processes. When I ask him a question, he seems compelled to share every backstory to every detail that’s going through his head, in an effort to both do his insights justice and to generously provide me with the most complete answer. That makes him a bit verbose, but not in a bad way, because he never rambles. There is an endpoint to his thoughts. When he’s done, however, it takes me a second to realize that it’s then my turn to speak.
To his point on artistic self-indulgence, I offer that there’s no need for artists to feel “icky” about self-promotion—that to promote your art is to celebrate it, and to create a shared experience with your audience.
“I hear what you’re saying loud and clear; I couldn’t agree more,” Goldsmith replies. “But I also try to be mindful of this when I’m writing, like if I’m going to drag you through the mud of, ‘She left today, she’s not coming back, I’m a piece of shit, what’s wrong with me, the end’.... That might be relatable, that might evoke a response, but I don’t know if that’s necessarily helpful … other than dragging someone else through the shit with me.
“In a weird way, I feel like that’s the whole point—self-indulgence. And then obviously relating to someone else, to another human being.”
“So, if I’m going to share, I want there to be something to offer, something that feels like: ‘Here’s a path that’s helped me through this, or here’s an observation that has changed how I see this particular experience.’ It’s so hard to delineate between the two, but I feel like there is a difference.”
Naming the opening track “Mister Los Angeles,” “King of the Never-Wills,” and even the title track to his 2015 chart-topper, “All Your Favorite Bands,” he remarks, “I wouldn’t call these songs ‘cool.’ Like, when I hear what cool music is, I wouldn’t put those songs next to them [laughs]. But maybe this record was my strongest dose of just letting me be me, and recognizing what that essence is rather than trying to force out certain aspects of who I am, and force in certain aspects of what I’m not. I think a big part of writing these songs was just self-acceptance,” he concludes, laughing, “and just a whole lot of fishing.”
YouTube It
Led by Goldsmith, Dawes infuses more rock power into their folk sound live at the Los Angeles Ace Hotel in 2023.
Reverend Vernon Reid Totem Series Electric Guitar - Shaman
