Slash’s blues-rock romp Orgy of The Damned debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Blues Albums Chart this spring. Now, the legendary guitar slinger is taking it to the people with his 29-date S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Blues Festival tour. When Slash’s Blues Ball Band played an intimate pre-tour gig at the Gibson Garage in Nashville, they invited John Bohlinger and the PG team.
Before shooting our Rundown with singer/guitarist Tash Neal and Slash’s tech, Ace Bergman, Slash sat down with PG for a chat. The maestro tells Bohlinger about how he found his blues sound on a 1963 Gibson ES-335 he picked up at Norman’s Rare Guitars in Los Angeles. That guitar was copied by the Gibson Custom Shop for the Slash 1963 ES-335 Collector’s Edition model, which he now brings on the road.
On Orgy of the Damned, Slash and company are digging into a different repertoire than his usual hard-rock-’n’-rollin’ fare. In this case, he’s re-exploring influences and old bands. “All these songs had … a very specific influence on me,” he explains. Back in the ’90s, Slash formed his Blues Ball Band, and he was inspired to pick that project back up, record, and hit the road to play “music that I really loved when I was a kid.Brought to you by D’Addario
Bettin' on 'Birds
Slash tours with a pair of Gibson Custom 1963 Firebird Vs. He doubles up almost all of the guitars he carries. This red one is his go-to, while a green one serves as backup. “They just sound great,” he explains. Bergman says both are “pretty straightforward” models, and like most of his guitars, they’re tuned a half-step down and strung with Ernie Ball .011–.048s.
The Prototype
This prototype of the limited Collector’s Edition reproduction of Slash’s 1963 ES-335 sports a vintage sunburst finish with Murphy Lab light aging to match his original. It also includes a Bigsby B7 vibrato tailpiece, unpotted Custombucker pickups, and period-correct nylon saddles.
“This one looks so much like the original,” explains Bergman, “that when they were doing the photoshoot, they had to keep them separate, just so they wouldn’t end up in the wrong case and get mixed up.”
Scala Special
This heavily relic’d Gibson Custom Shop Master Artisan Collection Leo Scala Explorer was built to ’58 specs by luthier Leo Scala. (Tech Ace Bergman notes that it was influenced by the famous Big Ed 1958 Gibson Explorer.) “It’s a real special guitar; he loves it a lot,” says Bergman.
Winner by a Neck
Slash’s black 1986 Gibson Les Paul Standard rocks a set of his signature Duncan pickups. Other than that, it’s what you’d expect. “It’s a Standard, so you can find the specs anywhere,” says Bergman. “One of the main things he looks for in a guitar is the neck. If he likes the neck, that’s a big plus.”
Metal Warrior
The only non-Gibson in the arsenal is Slash’s Travis Bean, used primarily for slide. “They’re really cool guitars,” Slash says of the vintage aluminum-neck model. Look closely, and you’ll see where his preferred settings are marked with red tape on each knob.
Amped Up on Magnatones
Slash has long been known to let it rip in front of an army of Marshalls. These days, though, he reaches for a Magnatone. “That changed a lot of things,” he says of the switch, calling them growly and old-school. “You could really get into the tones of the guitars.”
For gigs with the Blues Ball Band, he’s using M-80 combos loaded with Celestion Vintage 30s. Bergman assures that “they’re super loud.” Out of sight, Slash’s Talkbox is driven with a Magnatone Super Fifty-Nine M-80 head.
With His Own Two Feet
“I haven’t had a pedalboard in front of my feet since the ’80s,” Slash tells us. With the Blues Ball, though, he’s keeping it simple and stomping his own boxes. His chain includes a Peterson Strobostomp, Dunlop Cry Baby, MXR CAE Boost/Line Driver, Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer, MXR EVH90, BBE Soul Vibe Rotary Simulator, Boss DD-3 Digital Delay, MXR Uni-Vibe, and everything is powered with a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus.
All pedals are taped down with their settings dialed-in. When his signal leaves the board, it hits a Whirlwind Selector A/B box, where it splits off between his amps and his Talkbox rig.
Goin' for Gold
“I’ll play anything with six strings,” explains Neal, “but not everything is going to inspire stuff.” Tash tours with just two guitars. Both are completely stock, and both feature P-90 pickups. His go-to is this Gibson 1956 Les Paul Goldtop Reissue.
Mahogany Marvel
Neal’s backup is a beloved Gibson SG, which he bought a while ago after a back surgery, when he says he “needed a light guitar.” He’s used to breaking a lot of strings, so he started using heavier gauge D’Addario .011s on each axe to help keep them intact through the set!
New-Old Rock
“Pedals are cool, but it’s paramount that the amp itself is doing it,” Neal explains. The singer/guitarist’s Fender ’59 Bassman reissue, which he says sounds warm and emotive, does the trick.
Spare Stompin'
Neal keeps a modest pedalboard at his feet, which is loaded up with a D’Addario Chromatic Pedal Tuner, Dunlop Cry Baby, XTS Custom Pedals Precision Multi-Drive, EHX Green Russian Big Muff, and a Fender Waylon Jennings Phaser, all powered by a T-Rex Fuel Tank.
Shop Slash's Rig
Gibson Custom 1963 Firebird V
Gibson Slash Les Paul Standard Electric Guitar - Appetite Burst
Seymour Duncan APH-2s Alnico II Pro Slash Humbuckers (Set)
Seymour Duncan Slash 2.0 Humbucker (Set)
Magnatone Super Fifty-Nine M-80 2 x 12-Inch 45-Watt Combo
Magnatone Super Fifty-Nine M-80 - 45-Watt Tube Head
Boss DD-3 Digital Delay
MXR M68 Uni-Vibe Chorus / Vibrato Pedal
MXR EVH Phase 90 Eddie Van Halen Phase Pedal
Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer
MXR MC401 CAE Boost/Line Driver Pedal
Dunlop 535Q Cry Baby Wah
Peterson StroboStomp HD Tuner
Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2Plus
Radial Shotgun 4-Channel Amp Driver
Ernie Ball 2220 Power Slinky Nickel Wound Electric Guitar Strings - .011-.048
Dunlop Tortex 1.14 mm Picks
Gibson Les Paul Standard '50s Goldtop
Gibson SG Special Electric Guitar - Ebony
Fender '59 Bassman LTD 4 x 10-inch 45-Watt Tube Combo Amp
Fender Waylon Jennings Phaser
Electro-Harmonix Green Russian Big Muff Pi Fuzz
T-Rex Fuel Tank Classic Power Supply
D'Addario CT-20 Chromatic Tuner Pedal
Used S-100s were a great deal for a long time and attracted other guitarists with less cash and unconventional leanings—among them Pavement’s Steve Malkmus and revered homebrew psychedelicist Bobb Trimble. But none are more famously associated with the S-100 than Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil. Soundgarden’s rise in the 1990s probably had more than a little to do with the model’s reintroduction in the same decade. And were it not for Guild changing hands a few times in recent years, a signature version honoring Thayil probably would have come much sooner. At last, though, the Polara Kim Thayil is here—in a very limited run of 30 (very expensive) USA-built instruments, and the more readily available $899 Indonesia-built version reviewed here. It’s a solid, versatile guitar that readily speaks in voices other than de-tuned heaviness.
Fast Motor Finger
I’ve heard a few folks, including my colleague Zach Wish (who filmed our First Look video for this model) describe this Polara’s mahogany neck as “chunky.” Admittedly, that term leaves room for interpretation, but I think of chunky in terms of early 1950s Telecasters and Les Pauls. And though it can feel a bit wide at the shoulder—the source of chunky perceptions, perhaps—the Thayil Polara’s neck (which Guild calls a “vintage soft U”) is actually quite slim. In fact, it bears an uncanny resemblance to Gibson’s Slim Taper neck, which is actually a little thicker and less squared at the shoulder around frets 1 through 3. The Guild neck shares the same satisfying sense of grip as the slim taper shape up around the 12th fret, though, and on the whole it feels fast and made for ripping. Like the SG, the Polara’s neck also practically begs the player to indulge in Townshend-ian, neck-bending vibrato moves, though there is inevitably a little penalty to pay in terms of tuning stability if you get too enthused. The fretboard radius is a slightly-flatter-than-Gibson 12.5”, and big bends feel effortless right up to the 22nd fret, which, by the way, feels very accessible in spite of what looks like a very sturdy and substantial heel joint. The rosewood fretboard is a lovely piece of lumber, with subtle, pretty, undulating grain that is a nice organic contrast to the pearloid block inlay and the ivory-colored ABS binding.
”The 3-position bias switch can completely recast the sound, feel, and response of a given modulation setting as well as change the interactive dynamics of the controls.“
I’m not a big fan of gold hardware (at least until the plating wears down and takes on a warm glow). But here, against the gloss black polyurethane finish sprayed over the solid mahogany body, it actually looks quite subtle. The Grover Rotomatic 14:1 ratio tuners are, as always, an attractive, substantial-feeling addition to the hardware and feel smooth and accurate. There aren’t too many tuning machines I like more. Signature model signifiers, incidentally, are also subdued and classy—just a few bits of Soundgarden symbology on the truss rod cover and the pickup controls backplate.
More Than Mass
Kim Thayil is rightly associated with de-tuned Sabbath/Melvins chord thuggery. And his namesake Polara dishes such tones pretty effortlessly. Hook it up to a Sovtek Big Muff and drop-D riffs take on an almost comic sense of swagger. But thick chord tones are not the whole ball of wax. The alnico 2 bridge pickup (rated at 7.10k ohms of resistance) exhibits excellent string-to-string volume balance that lends it punch, but also makes it a great vehicle for jangly sounds. At times you can hear hints of a Rickenbacker Hi-Gain’s tight, ringing voice and it can be brilliantly bright. The alnico 2 neck pickup (rated at 7k ohms) is smooth and thick but retains a bit of the bridge pickup’s jangly personality. The combined voice is often the most satisfying of the three. Together, the pickups sound bright with just enough bass ballast to let a very balanced, widescreen overtone picture shine through. And like the bridge pickup setting, the two combined humbuckers sometimes surprise with how readily they pull in the direction of the Beatles rather than Black Sabbath. Cooler still, you can use the small toggle just forward of the treble volume control to put the two pickups out of phase. Depending on your pick attack and musical context, you can coax tones ranging from filtered, Jerry Garcia-with-wah snap-and-quack to Telecaster sting. The out-of-phase setting rules with fuzz, too—transforming that same Sovtek Big Muff into its super-focused and punkier mid-’60s alter ego. There is one quirk to the out-of-phase setting: Volume attenuation on either pickup can quickly turn those snarling sounds to less massive versions of the in-phase settings. Still, the ability to so totally transform the instrument’s voice with the flick of a little toggle is an endlessly fun source of flexibility.
Though the pickups yield many lovely sounds, there is a little midrange emphasis and haze around the edges that can make them sound a touch boxy, less airy, and a little less explosive compared to pickups like the alnico 5 ’60s Burstbuckers in the Gibson SG I kept at hand for comparison. But for pickups in an $899 instrument, they are lively and have ample personality.
The Verdict
When you listen to the first few Soundgarden records, you hear a lot of punchy, midrange-y tones that remind you that Kim Thayil (who, among other things, had an interest in jangly Paisley Underground bands) is about more than thick, mega-massive, woofer-busting hugeness. Fittingly, his signature Polara similarly reminds you that there is more to the mahogany-solidbody-and-humbuckers formula than rock writ large. The Thayil Polara is just as happy playing the part of George Harrison’s or Peter Buck’s guitar as it is slinging slabs of leaden grunge. It’s a great value for that multifacetedness.
Guild Polara Kim Thayil Signature Demo | First Look
“‘Stumbled into guitar’ is a good way of putting our start with the instrument. [Spencer Stewart] and I formed the band in 2015 and that’s when I got my first electric guitar,” admits The Band CAMINO’s vocalist and guitarist Jeffery Jordan.
That sort of sideways T-bone collision into guitardom allows this pop-minded duo to avoid typical tonal tropes like worrying about tubes versus modeling, or imports versus custom. Their focus was and continues to be translating their danceable melodies into guitar-driven rompers and producing the best live show possible.
“We definitely enjoyed a pedalboard-and-amp-era of the band, but the tech has come so far and we’re able to eliminate so much room for error and potential inconsistencies, allowing for a freer performance,” adds Jordan.
As we quickly found out in our Rundown with Jordan and Stewart, the band’s approach favors execution over exhibitionism.
In mid-September, just before the band commenced their headlining Screaming in the Dark tour, in support of the just-released The Dark album, co-frontmen and dueling guitarists Jeffery Jordan and Spencer Stewart invited PG’s Chris Kies to rehearsal for a gear talk. The main chauffeurs of CAMINO explained how grabbing guitar later in life allowed them to avoid a lot of gear gossip and find tonal solutions that enrich their performances. Plus, they both discuss the stable of studs from Fender, Gibson, and Epiphone that give bounce and beauty to their merging of indie-rock and electropop.Brought to you by D'Addario XPND.
A Flashy Fender
Jeffery Jordan’s first electric was a Strat. He’s long enjoyed the Fender side of things, and one of his main rides for the upcoming tour would be this MIM Fender Telecaster. Two things to note on this T would be its glow-in-the-dark paint job and the addition of the EverTune bridge, making this not only an onstage stunner but a locked-damn hammer always ready to smash. Both Jordan and Stewart exclusively use D’Addario NYXL1052 Light Top/Heavy Bottom strings (.010–.052) on their electrics. They’re normally in standard tuning, but they do explore open-D for a few songs.
Backup Blaster
This Fender Jim Root Jazzmaster joins the party if the Tele can’t dance. It comes stock with a set of EMG 60/81 pickups, but Jordan swapped in a couple of Lace Sensors. The bridge is the gold version that offers a classic ’50s Style single-coil sound while the neck Lace is a silver model giving Jordan a fat, ’70s single-coil sound with increased output and more midrange. Again, an EverTune bridge has been added for tuning stability.
Bold Bird
For the first time, Jordan will be hitting the road with a Gibson. Three songs are allocated to this regal raptor—a Custom Shop Firebird Custom, decked out with a mahogany body laced with multi-ply binding, elegant gold hardware, and a set of 498T/490R humbuckers.
Booming Bell
The subtler side of The Band CAMINO is handled by this Gibson J-45 Standard finished in a smoldering tobacco burst. It runs through their Neural DSP Quad Cortex thanks to the included L.R. Baggs VTC electronics.
Dancing in the Dark
Spencer Stewart joined the electric guitar cult in 2015 when forming the Band CAMINO with Jeffery Jordan. He started the band’s existence with a Strat before being seduced by a Gibson Lzzy Hale Explorer. Ever since he’s been cruising and bruising with ’buckers, but one of his current main rides revs and roars with Fishman Fluence pickups. He prefers to record with these guitars because the Fluences are so dynamic and versatile. Originally finished in a stealth black, Stewart jazzed them up with glow-in-the-dark paint and blacklight speckles that make them both dazzle onstage. The red one takes lead, while the blue one hangs in the second position.
High Flyer
Any songs in open-D are reserved for Stewart’s Firebird Studio ’70s Tribute, still rocking its stock mini-humbuckers. He loves its tone and the added bonus of it being a light-feathered bird.
Stolen Upgrades
During a quick stop at a morning radio show in L.A., the band left their acoustics in the rental vehicle. When they returned from the brief session, the unattended acoustics were gone. Stewart lost an Epiphone Masterbilt and Jordan was out a Fender flattop. Before an in-store performance and album signing at Nashville’s beloved Grimey’s, Gibson offered Stewart a chance to check out this Gibson Hummingbird Studio Rosewood. Needless to say, he’s not giving it back nor letting it out of his sight.
The Same But Not
A recent venture into a Nashville Guitar Center yielded a déjà vu moment when Stewart saw this Epiphone Masterbuilt DR-500RNS—very similar to the aforementioned looted acoustic. He took it as a sign, and plunked down the plastic to be reconnected with an old friend.
Clean Business
With less than 10 years under their belt as electric guitarists and growing up with tech, Jeffery and Spencer don’t have a lot of the mental pitfalls more veteran players fall into when thinking about live guitar tones. For these two, it’s all about the precision, practicality, and polished sounds they can achieve for a maximum performance that connects directly with the audience. The one-stop solution for those needs is this rolling buffet that starts with Neural DSP Quad Cortex units. Every moment of their show is programmed in these tablet-sized titans. The other hardware in their rack includes Shure PSM 1000s (in-ear monitors), Shure P10T-G10 Dual Wireless Transmitters, Shure ULXD4D Dual Channel Digital Wireless Receivers, Radial Gold Digger 4 Channel Mic Selectors, Sennheiser AC3200-II Active High Power Broadband antennas, Focusrite RedNet A16R MkII 16x16 Analog Dante Interfaces, Ferrofish A32 Pro Dante Multi-Format Converters, Midas XL48 Preamps, and Universal Audio Apollo X6 Thunderbolt Interfaces. This setup can either pilot a moon mission or make for a smooth, flawless rock show.
