Blackjack ATX AvengerFor more information:
Schecter’s extremely popular BLACKJACK ATX line has a new addition for 2011: the ATX AVENGER. Loaded with quality features that professional guitarists demand, the ATX features a set-neck design with mahogany body and neck, ebony fingerboard and ‘Active’ symbol at the 12th fret. The Ultra Access neck joint allows unparalleled access to the upper frets.
Sizzling output, sustain and sonic clarity is generated by dual Seymour Duncan AHB-1 Blackout active humbuckers, and Grover Tuners, GraphTech nut and a locking Tone Pros bridge complete the package.
The ATX Avenger is available in Aged Black Satin, Aged White and (new for all ATX collection for 2011) Walnut Satin ; Black Nickel hardware and multi-ply aged binding are standard.
Dan Donegan (Disturbed) Signature Ultra-DD
The Ultra-DD features neck-thru body construction, 25.5” scale multi-laminate maple neck, raised center, with mahogany ‘wings’ and a figured maple top.
Dan’s choice of Seymour Duncan pickups are standard on his model, a high output custom-shop El Diablo in the bridge position and a 4-conductor ’59 model in the neck, providing brutal versatility. A TonePros system provides rock-steady intonation and tuning stability along with Schecter locking tuners and a GraphTech Tusq nut.
The Donegan is available in two finishes, Black Cherry Burst and Dark Blue Burst.
Diamond P-5 Custom
To meet the demanding needs of its bass players, Schecter is boosting the Diamond-P bass line for 2011 with the addition of the Diamond-P 5 Custom. This versatile new bass will share the same features currently found on the Diamond-P Custom line, with the addition of an added low ‘B’ string.
Standard features include a 35” rosewood/maple bolt-on neck, alder body, GraphTech Black Tusq XL nut, and Vintage style open-gear tuners. The Schecter SuperRock Bass (bridge) and Monster Tone II (neck) pickups offer a tasty array of tonal options, with further tones garnered via a coil-tap on the Tone control. The Schecter Custom String-Thru body bridge allows either top-load or string through options.
The Diamond P-5 Custom will be available in Dark Metallic Blue, Vintage White, and Gloss Black.
Omen 8
Due to the overwhelming success and appetite for their 8-string guitars, Schecter’s newest offering is the Omen-8, THE most affordable 8-string on the market, Keeping with the standard features of the Omen line, it includes a basswood body, a rosewood/maple bolt-on neck, high output Schecter Diamond Plus pickups, GraphTech Black Tusq XL nut, an 8-string TOM and chrome hardware. A double graphite rod system is employed in the 26.5” scale neck for added strength and reliability. The new model is offered in Walnut Satin and Gloss Black.
A Lefty version is also available in Gloss Black.
Omen Solo
The Omen Solo is the latest addition to the popular Omen line. The shape is based on Schecter’s Solo, the off-set single cut design popularized in the Hellraiser Collection. Like all the Omen guitars, the new Solo version redefines the term ‘entry level’, providing quality and features found in far more expensive instruments. The new Omen Solo is offered in Walnut Satin and Gloss Black, and standard features include a 25.5” scale rosewood/maple bolt-on neck, high output Schecter Diamond Plus pickups, GraphTech Black Tusq nut and chrome hardware. The guitar features a rounded bevel at the neck joint and increased neck angle to provide maximum playability and heighten sustain.
As with the entire Omen Collection, a Left-hand version is available in Gloss Black
Damien Riot
Keeping with the standard Damien line features, it includes a 25.5” scale rosewood/maple bolt-on neck with Black Pearl Bat inlays and an evil Satin Black finish.
The sleek horns and full cut-away allows easy access to the upper frets, while the EMG-hz pickups and string-through body design provide hard hitting sounds to punish the unfaithful. Schecter Tuners and a GraphTech nut round out the package.
A Floyd Rose Special Equipped version is also available.
Gary Holt (Exodus) Signature V-1
The new Holt model is a redesign of Schecter’s popular V-1 shape, now with the longer ‘wing’ on top. This striking axe is trimmed in a blood red binding throughout AND is armed with exclusive red EMG 81/89 active pickups … delivering attack, sustain and power.
The 24.75” scale mahogany neck is set into the offset ‘V’ body with an Ultra Access neck joint… for unparalleled access to the 22th fret! The rosewood fingerboard is emblazed with a red Exodus ‘goat-head’ inlay at the 12th fret.
An Original Floyd Rose locking tremolo system provides rock steady tuning, even with torturous dive bombing. Gloss Black finish, Grover tuners and Black hardware are standard. A Lefty version is also available.
Hellraiser Special C-8
As the undisputed leader in 8 strings electrics, this new 8 boasts features designed for stage or studio, at a price that allows guitarists to enter this new sonic arena!
Dual EMG 808 active humbuckers provide the power and clarity of this extremely low tuned instrument.
An extended 26.5” scale mahogany neck is set into the ever popular arched ‘C’ style body with Schecter’s Ultra Access neck-joint. A Black GrainEnhanced Figured Maple top adds visual and sonic depth.
Dual graphite reinforcement rods in the neck add tuning and neck stability, much needed but all put forsaken by competitor’s instruments. A custom Schecter forged 8-string bridge allows for individual string adjustments.
‘Dagger’ inlays add the final touch of evil to this instrument of mass destruction Available in Black Cherry and See-Thru Black.
Schecter has also added extended scale C-7 and C-7FR to the Hellrasier Special Collection.
Jerry Horton (Papa Roach) Signature Solo-6
Horton's new signature model is built on Schecter’s popular Solo-6 platform. The 25.5” scale mahogany neck is set into an arched mahogany body. The Solo is armed with Jerry’s long-time pickups of choice, the versatile Seymour Duncan JB / ’59 combination. A TonePros AVT-II wrap-around bridge and Schecter locking tuners round out Jerry’s upscale features.
The guitars striking two-tone finish features a satin ‘Skull & Carbs’ hotrod graphic with glossed metallic red sides and back.
T S/H-1
The new T S/H-1 design is the result of Schecter’s dedication to the pursuit of tonal excellence and versatility. The updated model, based on their Tempest shape, has a single cat’s eye sound port with a semi-hollow maple body, modified to be slightly larger to take advantage of the semi-hollow body’s acoustic properties. A 24.75” scale maple neck and rosewood fret board sport mother-of-pearl block inlays.
Design features unique to the T S/H-1 include a specially designed Vintage ‘S’ tailpiece, which creates higher string tension at the bridge, providing balanced tone and sustain. The overwound, ceramic magnet Schecter SuperRock MH pickups have increased power and treble bite while retaining classic vintage looks. A separate coil-tap toggle switch allows added tonal flexibility. Modern appointments such as chrome Grover Tuners, TonePros locking bridge, and Graph Tech Tusq XL nut complete the package.
Adding to the overall vintage vibe of this unique instrument, the T S/H-1 will be offered in Silverburst and Reverse Metallic Red and Black burst, each with single ply binding.
Schecter
Source: Press Releases
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.
