MOD® Kits, MOD102+ DIY Guitar Amp
The MOD 102+ is a great place to start for those interested in building their own tube amp. It is based on a classic American tube-circuit design combined with a British-style Class A output tube section that produces 8 Watts of power. At low volume it produces a clean, chimey tone that moves into smooth overdrive at higher volumes. The amp features a three position progressive toggle switch for off-standby-power. In addition, each control features push-pull functionality - pull out the bass control knob for "mid boost", pull out the treble control knob for "bright", pull out the volume control knob for "turbo". These features along with a JJ ECC803-S (a long plate 12AX7 known for its complex mid range tones) allow for a wider variety of tones and extra control for the user. All parts are included along with a pre-drilled steel chassis, wire, and tubes.
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Amplified Parts
$275
Mighty Bass 50BT - Modeling Bass Amp with IR
Mighty Bass 50BT is a versatile bass amp for practice, rehearsing and recording. It's equipped with a premium 6.5" loudspeaker and driven by a 50-watt classic D power amp.
NUX's iconic TSAC modeling technology provides various nice-sounding amp models and all the essential effects with great playability & response, while IR offers you more cab sounds! You can engage drum function with APP, and record phrase loops with footswitch.
Mighty Bass 50BT has 3 channels, you can save one preset in each. For deep tone editing, simply use its Mobile APP and PC Software!
Highlights:
-Bass Amp Modeling with Cab IRs, expanding possibilities of tones
-IR loading (1024 samples) with Edit Software
-Whitebox compressor effect offers you analog touch & response
-Independent IR toggles for Amp and DI out
-USB Audio Stream for recording interface with routing setup
-Footswitch to remote Drum&Loop (60s)
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NUX
$279
Rig Rundown - The Dead Daisies' Doug Aldrich & Glenn Hughes
When we rolled into Nashville's Mercy Lounge during soundcheck, the band was roaring through the Deep Purple classic "Mistreated," with Glenn Hughes hitting all the requisite high notes and Doug Aldrich laying down the song's heavy riff. Drummer Tommy Clufetos and bassist Hughes had the groove in a headlock, and guitarist David Lowy—who leads this musical collective—was grinding out the rhythm.
After the check, we talked to legends Aldrich, of Whitesnake and Dio fame, and Hughes, whose bona fides include Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and Black Country Communion, about the gear they're using to push up Daisies, who have a new album called Holy Ground. So, get ready for gold tops, Marshalls, a killer Nash bass, and a couple stacks of Orange-flavored goodness.
[Brought to you by D'Addario's XPND Pedalboards: https://ddar.io/xpnd.rr]
Doug’s Gold and Black Beauty
For the Dead Daisies' current tour, Doug Aldrich is slinging three LP-style gold tops. His main instrument is this black-pickguard-wearing road-warrior. It's his favorite among the six gold tops he owns, yielding what he describes as a "big, open sound." (True that!) He acquired this '57 Gibson Custom Shop reissue in 2008 and replaced the pickups with his Suhr signature high-outputs. The tuners are by TonePros and the well-played axe has been refretted by Bruce Nelson of L.A.'s Nelson Guitar Works. Otherwise, it's stock. And he uses .11–.50 Dunlop strings and tunes down a whole step on all his guitars for Dead Daisies.
The Golden Ruby
The Golden Ruby was built by Leo Scala and named for Aldrich's pre-school-aged daughter. In addition to being onstage, it's gone to class with her for show-and-tell. It's a bit different from his Gibsons, although it also sports his Suhr signature pickups, in that the neck's got a slightly thinner profile—"but still chunky," Doug adds. "I like a chunky neck." There's also a wraparound bridge and, like most L.P.-style guitars, it's got a mahogany body and maple top.
Head Games
The most immediately noticeable difference on Aldrich's Scala L.P.-style is its hand-tooled headstock, which features a distinctive top cut and Scala's signature logo.
A Real Signature Model
And Ruby's done a little customizing on this Scala herself. It took a few practice runs to nail this autograph for daddy.
Born on the Sunburst
It was love at first site when Aldrich saw this '59 reissue at a friend's house during the COVID lockdown. It was sent to his pal by Gibson, and the high eye-appeal of its flame top made it a must-have. This one has Gibson tuners and his signature Suhr pickups. He also had it refretted. And there's another customization—tooth marks on its bottom, top, and one dial courtesy of another COVID acquisition: a Boston terrier puppy. This guitar's voice accents the high-mids a bit, making it perfect for covering Ritchie Blackmore leads.
Did You Say Marshall?
You want rock tone? You get rock amps. Aldrich plays a pair of John Suhr-modded 100-watt Marshal JMP heads. The one on the left is from 1978 and was a one-master 4-input head until Suhr added another master "so I can kick it up a little bit for solos," the guitarist explains. There's also an effects loop. In that loop resides an Eventide H9, set only on 27.DIGD to provide a reverb sound its owner loves.
On the right, a 1979 model with an added master. It's the first amp Doug bought when he moved to Los Angeles in 1981. The 4x12 cabs are both reissues, with Celestion Vintage 25s. The cabs are always miked live with SM57s and behind them lurks a Palmer line driver.
Doug Aldrich's Pedalboard
Aldrich is big fan of the tried-and-true sounds of MXR pedals. First stop on his board is a Phase 90 set slow, and then a Dunlop-made Custom Audio Electronics (CAE) wah, a CAE Boost/Overdrive, a DVK GoldTop (which was standing in until his preferred Dunlop Authentic Hendrix '69 Psych Series Uni-Vibe Chorus/Vibrato pedal arrived just in time for the gig), a Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner, an MXR Talk Box, an on/off for the Eventide, and a boost switch for the amps. His wireless is a Lectrosonics.
Glenn Hughes' Main Bass
This custom Bill Nash-built bass has traveled with Glenn Hughes for 12 years. It's a JB model with Lollar pickups and a custom thin neck. And has it got a voice!
Orange Squeezers
Hughes powers up two Orange AD200B MKIII heads running through two 8x10 Orange OBC810 cabinets.
(A second tower is at stage right of the drum kit, and those are David Lowy's Friedmans at front-view right.)
Glenn Hughes' Pedalboard
It's a short but sweet affair: a Black Cat Bass Octave Fuzz, a Nice Rack Y-boost, and a DigiTech X-Series delay.
Breedlove Eco Collection Rainforest Series - PG Gear Spotlight
Rainforest S Series
Breedlove's new ECO Collection Rainforest S Series of affordably priced guitars honors the sounds of the magnificent, mysterious Congo River Basin—the caws of colorful birds and calls of the chimpanzee. Crafted with Breedlove's earth-conscious, sonically superior EcoTonewood technology, all African mahogany Rainforest guitars bring you a warm, immediate sound with a strong midrange emphasis and a ringing sustain, along with true environmental sustainability! Versatile Concert body Rainforest guitars come in dazzling finishes like Papillon, Midnight Blue, Black Gold and Orchid, and feature Side-mounted Fishman Presys I electronics (with built-in tuner, volume, contour and phase controls).
Breedlove
$732
Photo by Holly Whitaker
"When you hear repetitive music, it strikes this inner chord on a purely biological level," co-guitarist Louis Borlase adds. "For example, if you have a thought, and you hear it over and over again, you start to make sense of how you are thinking. That same thing happens with minimalism and repetition. If you can let an idea ride for long enough, you realize that it has enoughscope [to reflect] a kind of microscopic adjustment over time. That is central to the way we enjoy listening to music, but also the way we enjoy writing music."
Squid - Narrator (Official Video) ft. Martha Skye Murphy
Pearson adds, "There's the psychology of the repetitive firing of neurons, where we're constantly breathing and our heart is beating—it's a whole world to think about, which is quite fun. But, for us, I think there are loads of things we find interesting about repetition that we don't really talk about. A lot of how we write is unspoken. If something feels good, it feels good, and we don't always have a shared goal of where we want things to go. We just let them happen."
"When you hear repetitive music, it strikes this inner chord on a purely biological level."—Louis Borlase
Letting things happen—even while committed to a demanding, well-defined set of principles—has been the band's working M.O. from the outset. Squid started while the band members (who also include lead singer and drummer Ollie Judge, keyboardist Arthur Leadbetter, and bassist Laurie Nankivell) were still students in Brighton, a hip, artsy city on England's southern coast, and their first gig was a semi-regular residency at the Verdict, a local jazz club they chanced upon.
Squid are, from left to right, vocalist/drummer Ollie Judge, bassist Laurie Nankivell, keyboardist Arthur Leadbetter, and guitarists Anton Pearson and Louis Borlase.
"I was out looking for somewhere to have a drink with some friends," Pearson says. "We saw this jazz venue that we hadn't noticed before, and went in. The guy was super nice and let us watch for free. At the end, I asked if it would be possible for us to put on a show there, and he said yes. We didn't realize at the time that it was one of the most renowned jazz venues in Europe—it was in The Guardian's top five list of jazz venues in Europe—and here we were putting on a night there. We formed the band because we agreed to curate a night of music, but we didn't have any music to play, so we just wrote a set for that."
Despite getting their start in a jazz club, Squid isn't a jam band. They improvise, although they approach improvisation more like a stimulant. It's how they get the ball rolling, and a big part of how they interact as an ensemble. But extended solos aren't their thing.
TIDBIT: Squid's debut full-length was recorded in a small London studio during a heatwave, and the air conditioning was turned off for tracking. "It was so sweaty," says Louis Borlase. "If we'd done any extra takes, we would have all probably lost about two liters of water."
"Improvisation is a compositional tool," Borlase explains. "But it's also—maybe on a more implicit, subconscious level—something that is very key to how we capture music in the studio, and maybe on a live level as well. None of us has this precious attachment to our parts to say, for example, 'I want to make sure that this certain guitar line or keyboard riff is captured at exactly the two-minute mark.' Jamming is the way in which we find an inception of musical ideas. People bring in ideas—nobody ever brings a song to a Squid writing session—and we listen to what that person has brought, as opposed to thinking about what we could do over the top of it. We very much leave that up to chance, and I think that's very important."
"Anything longer than four seconds is a bit like, 'What's this guy doing?'" says Pearson. "We have an understanding that you should never be attached to ideas, because what's the point? If you bring something small in, let that be an impetus for a process rather than a means to an end. Part of how we get to finished tracks is that someone brings in something small, it changes completely, and we realize that the thing that was brought in originally doesn't work, so we take it out. What's left are the beginnings of something new."
Anton Pearson's Gear
Anton Pearson explains that Squid's compositions evolve from musical micro-ideas brought in by various bandmembers. "Anything longer than four seconds is a bit like, 'What's this guy doing?'" he says.
Photo by Piran Aston
Guitars
- Fender Duo Sonic
- Mexico-made Fender Telecaster
Amps
- Fender Vibrolux
- 1967 Selmer Treble-N-Bass (on loan from a friend)
Strings and Picks
- D'Addario XT (.010–.046)
- D'Addario Duralin .85 mm
Effects
Boss DD-3 Digital Delay
Electro-Harmonix Canyon
TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb
EarthQuaker Devices Avalanche Run
Muzizy Fuzz
DigiTech Whammy
Dunlop Cry Baby
Electro-Harmonix Superego Synth Engine
Dwarfcraft Devices Wizard of Pitch
JHS Tidewater Tremolo
Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner
The band members were friends first—the band came later—and that energy is an important part of the group's dynamic and compositional process, too. "Our music is a total reflection of the way we interact on a purely hanging-out level," Borlase says. "When you hang out with your friends that you respect, and you're having a conversation or debate, you listen to each other and let that thought play out before you put your thought into the conversation. That transfer from conversation to music is key."
Not that informal, friendly, musical conversations were possible once the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns canceled a year's worth of gigs. That also impacted the types of songs Squid wrote. "We were ready to hit the road, but then, suddenly, we were left with these embryonic pieces of music that were just starting to take form," Borlase says. "Usually when we write music, we tune in to how the audience responds.
"I don't think any other instrument can keep me on my feet as much as a guitar, for better or for worse." —Louis Borlase
Seeing people dancing at certain sections, or looking focused at other sections—that naturally feeds back to us for how we choose to make certain musical moments within a track stand out. We didn't have that, so we sent ideas to each other via the internet. There are certain examples where you can feel there's an idea that snowballed and gets out of control. Take a song like 'Narrator.' [The intense, emotionally grinding, rhythm-shifting first single from Bright Green Field.] In a parallel universe, we'd run the risk of it being less of a mind fuck than it actually is. It starts with an idea and it ends up a million miles away. It is a microcosm of that idea of starting with a thought and allowing that thought to take over your mind, and you end up somewhere else in a completely different state of being. But that piece of music would have been so different if we hadn't been faced with this pandemic. We played it very rarely because there was rarely a gig where we could play it in front of people."
Louis Borlase's Gear
"Improvisation is a compositional tool," explains Louis Borlase. "But it's also—maybe on a more implicit, subconscious level—something that is very key to how we capture music in the studio, and maybe on a live level as well."
Photo by Piran Aston
Guitars
- Burns Marquee
- Fender Jazzmaster
Amp
- Fender Twin Reverb
Strings and Picks
- D'Addario XT (.011–.056)
- D'Addario Duralin .85 mm
Effects
- MXR Carbon Copy
- Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
- Boss Blues Driver
- Alexander Pedals Syntax Error
- TC Electronic Sub 'N' Up Mini
Bright Green Field was made with award-winning producer Dan Carey at his one-room studio in South London, where his console and outboard gear share the same space as the bands he records. His production style—immersive and focused on live takes—was key to capturing Squid's loose, improvisatory energy.
"It was the middle of the summer, and it was boiling hot," Borlase says about cutting "Narrator." "The track that you've heard is the second take. There was never any need for a third or fourth take, because so much of it is based around improvisation. We never play it the same way twice. I guess the reason that second take of 'Narrator' felt so good is that, early on, you capture that nervous energy. It was so sweaty. If we'd done any extra takes, we would have all probably lost about two liters of water."
Live, Squid play with the same intensity and precision as exhibited by minimalist punk progenitors Wire—another two-guitar band noted for their carefully knit interplay.
Photo by Piran Aston
As a guitar band, Squid's approach to the instrument doesn't have much to do with the glory days of tight pants and arenas—or even '90s-era flannel and grunge. "There is a whole history you're engaging with when you touch the guitar," Pearson says. "And we're still interested in that history. We're interested in finding ways of making new stories. They say the electric guitar is so successful because it is that perfect marriage of technology and a gestural nature you get from acoustic instruments. You can go as far as you want in terms of electronic technology with it—right up to plugging it into a computer—but at the same time, you still have the gestural nature, that kind of visceral nature that you get when you see someone play it live. I studied West African music at university, and for a lot of communities, like in Mali and Niger, it is still such an important symbol—not just for music, but also resistance. It is still an interesting tool and it still has relevance, but it is important to keep thinking of ways to innovate and change people's perceptions of it, and I think we're trying to do that a bit."
Innovation, at least according to Borlase, may also just be the nature of the beast. "The guitar is as much a cultural object as it is a musical object, and that still hasn't faded away," he says. "Guitar is something that you feel you're saying something with, regardless of what notes you're playing. The guitar is a confusing thing, unless you're super high-tech and everything makes sense in your head. It's this thing that allows you to have a voice and be able to always aspire to those people who came before you. For us, there are a lot of bands before us that have not only played guitar, they have also challenged their own ways of thinking. If you continually confuse yourself, not to mention if you knock into something mid-song and realize, 'Why does this sound so bizarre?' I do that all the time—plus juggling three or four tunings and then using a capo. I don't think any other instrument can keep me on my feet as much as a guitar, for better or for worse."
Squid - The Dial | Stolen Sessions
On the good foot, Squid deliver their 2018 single "The Dial" at the Windmill, a pub in London's Brixton district known for championing cutting-edge music. Note the band's absolute polyphonic devotion to the groove.