Inventive open tunings, offset time signatures, jangly Teles, and dream-machine pedals help illuminate the cinematic melodies and moods for the archetype of Midwest emo.
The 15-year history of Rig Rundown has established that guitar gear fascination (and obsession) runs deep in our community. It’s the life blood of our show. But if there was ever antithetical example to guitar gluttony and equipment idolatry, it would be American Football. Their original self-proclaimed “bedroom college project” focused on self-expression, musical creativity, and working with what you had, which wasn’t much.
For the recording of their pioneering American Football album released in 1999, they borrowed most of their gear, shared a single guitar cable and tuner, didn’t use bass, and formulated odd open tunings that allowed for sinuously melodic cinematic passages between Kinsella and Holmes. Their exploration of unique open tunings inspire a legion of players include 6-string virtuoso Yvette Young. (She now ships all her signature Ibanez guitars in a tricky open tuning—F–A–C–G–B–E—derived from American Football.) Their ingenious and scrappy methods went on to inform the brand of Midwest emo that simmered a devoted fanbase waiting for their return after disbanding in 2000. First returning to the stage in 2014 and delivering two more American Football albums in 2016 and 2019, the band continues using minimal gear for maximum art.
Ahead of American Football’s headlining show at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl, cofounding members Mike Kinsella (vocals/guitar) and Steve Holmes (guitar) invited PG’s Perry Bean onstage for a refreshingly practical gear chat. Kinsella recalls the band’s basic beginnings and explains how he starts every American Football demo. Then, Holmes shows off his “gorgeous and favorite” Tele. Plus, we encounter a Rig Rundown first where the tech has veto power over setlists.Brought to you by D'Addario Trigger Capo.
A Fender From a Friend
American Football’s origins were aided by friends who borrowed them gear. The band recorded most of their earliest work on whatever equipment that worked and was loaned to them. (Guitarist/singer Mike Kinsella admits in the Rundown that he didn’t even own a guitar when they recorded the first EP.) Additionally, through their 26 years they’ve been ransacked several times depleting their gear collection, so they’re not too precious about anything. This Fender Player Plus Telecaster was recently given to him from pal Joe Trohman of Fall Out Boy. Kinsella believes Trohman gave Fender his specs or may have modded it before it was gifted to him, because the DiMarzio Chopper T was added before he got the T. Kinsella notes that he leaves the 3-way selector in the middle position most times.
Retail Therapy
“I really enjoying going to Chicago Music Exchange because their staff is so nice and helpful. I just have so much fun there,” states Kinsella. Every couple years Mike goes there with the intention of buying a guitar and most recently he got this Fender Vintera 70s Telecaster Custom that’s been upgraded with the DiMarzio Chopper T.
Dark and Dead
Another one of Kinsella’s causalities to crooks was a late-’90s Fender Tele-Sonic. He reacquired a different chambered Tele when visiting Texas. He uses this one onstage the least, but really enjoys his “dark, dead sound” that makes him feel in “total control.” This quirky Tele has a chambered mahogany body, a maple neck on a rosewood fretboard, a compact 24.75" scale length, and DeArmond Dynasonic single-coil pickups.
Keeping It Straight
Guitarists Mike Kinsella and Steve Holmes rarely play in the same open tunings. To make sure each set goes smoothly, the band’s tech Mike Garzon has veto power on song inclusion and order based on what he can pull off while also being an auxiliary member covering percussion and keyboards. Here’s a cheat sheet that helps map the choreography each song needs and where it could potentially work in the set.
Mike In Stereo
Fenders have long been part of the band’s tone and on this North American run Kinsella used a pair of Fender Deluxe Reverb reissues. He’s plugging into them both to give a fuller, spacier, dreamier stereo effect.
Mike Kinsella's Pedalboard
The band never used pedals when recording or performing their first EP and debut full length in the late ’90s. To achieve differing sounds, they would create open tunings, change pickup selections, and layer all guitars parts. Pedals didn’t enter the equation until they restarted in 2014 when they wanted to expound on their original ideas, or as Kinsella explains in the Rundown, “we wanted to make the dreamy part, even dreamier.” The embellishments are accomplished with a Keeley Caverns, an EarthQuaker Devices Avalanche Run, an Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Nano, a Fat-Boost FB-3, and an EarthQuaker Devices Special Cranker. And an Ernie Ball MVP Volume Pedal is first in the chain before his Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner.
Steve's Squeeze
Before recording the band’s return album, LP2, Holmes secured this 2014 Fender American Elite Telecaster. “It’s a gorgeous guitar. It’s my favorite guitar. If I had three of them, that’s all I would play,” admits Holmes. He prefers to use the Elite for songs that require a more midrange sting.
Double Offsets
The Fender American Professional Jazzmaster gets stage time with Steve for the lowered tunings in their catalog, where the Fender ’60s Jaguar Fiesta Red works in the set for parts that require a more high-end, shriller attack.
Loud and Proud
Steve opted for the beefier, 85W Fender ’65 Twin Reverb reissue for these summer shows because of its ability to provide the volume and stay clean.
Steve Holmes' Pedalboard
The double EQD Dispatch Master layout is giving Steve a reverb wash while the second dream box adds in delay on top of the reverb. He will occasionally engage them both to build a climactic moment in a song. The Walrus Audio Emissary parallel boost works to push the signal and the Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer adds in some snarl. Holmes relies on an Ernie Ball VP Junior 250K for dynamics and a Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner to keep his Fenders in check.
Shop American Football's Rig
Fender Player Plus Telecaster
DiMarzio Chopper T Bridge
Fender American Professional Jazzmaster
Fender Vintera '70s Telecaster Custom
Fender Deluxe Reverb
Fender Twin Reverb
Keeley Caverns
EarthQuaker Devices Avalanche Run
EHX Holy Grail Nano
EarthQuaker Devices Special Cranker
EarthQuaker Devices Dispatch Master
Walrus Audio Emissary
Any working ’60s JMP Super Lead is an amazing amplifier, but the combination of Dave’s ears, experience, and quality time with his own Super Lead add up to a melding of twists and tradition that captures the richness, power, and dynamics of Marshall non-master-volume amps in a high-quality and, if you want, quieter package.
Stripped Down, Lowdown, Bright, and Brighter
True to lineage, the 50-watt Plex uses a pair of EL34 power tubes and a trio of 12AX7s pulling preamp and phase inverter duties. The familiar volume 1, volume 2, presence, bass, and mid knobs handle gain and EQ tasks. But the Plex deviates from tradition, too. An old Marshall Super Lead has four inputs—high and low sensitivity inputs for channel I and II. The Plex, however, uses a single pair of inputs that are hardwired in jumpered fashion—the same way you might jumper on the front panel of a 2-channel Marshall—effectively mixing the two preamp stages. A post-phase-inverter master volume helps keep the sound pressure level in check when you need to cool it without compromising feel and dynamics. And above each volume knob is a 3-way bright switch. The switches alter the frequency and gain response of the corresponding volume control, toggling between a darker bypassed setting, a mild treble boost enabled by a 100 pF bright capacitor, or a screaming third setting with a 4700 pF cap in the line. The power switch doubles as a high/low voltage selector, engaging an internal Variac that drops operational voltage from 120 volts to 90 volts, achieving the brown sound synonymous with ’80s hard-rock Super Lead applications.
The spartan back panel sports outputs for 4-, 8-, or 16-ohm loads and an IEC mains power input. The head weighs in at a reasonable 34 pounds with dimensions of 24" x 10" x 8.75"—just a hair smaller than a real JMP. The circuit is arrayed on a high-quality printed circuit board—a manufacturing method Friedman favors in many respects for quality control purposes.
But … Does It Van Halen?
Hell yes it does. Dime the Plex, flip it to low voltage, and you’re living in the Eddie zone. Recreating that high-octane, modded-Marshall aggression and kerrang with the most familiar Marshall-style knobs is easy and intuitive. But this amp is full of surprises, too, and many sonic possibilities hide behind the simple additional controls.
The lead channel, controlled by volume 1, is aggressive and edgy, capturing the cut and midrange growl most immediately associated with vintage plexis. Anything below 3 on the gain control is pretty clean. At around 4, hot pickups will induce breakup. And in the 5-to-6 range, it comes alive with rich saturation, enhanced harmonics, and sustain. Approaching 10, the Friedman blossoms into something furious and snarling. The 100 pF bright capacitor setting gently lifts the top end for a hint of jangle, while the 4700 pF cap boosts upper midrange and treble, adding even more chimey range and sharper bite.
The normal channel, controlled by volume 2, feels very much like the antithesis of the lead channel. It’s dark and brooding with lots of resonance in the bass. Keeping the gain below 5 still yields a woolly, forceful voice. Starting around 6 it slips into thick clipping, and as you move toward 10, the Friedman delivers progressively denser tonalities, more compression, and more sustain. The 100 pF bright cap mode adds a splash of air, while the 4700 pF setting significantly jacks the drive and boosts frequencies from 1200 Hz up. Each is a very different version of a cool color.
Sonic Structure
Much of the amp’s tone-shaping flexibility comes from using the volume knobs, not just for gain, but as tone controls to create a best match for a specific guitar. In a general sense, the normal channel adds fullness and body to single-coils, while the lead channel brings definition, bite, and clarity to humbuckers. With a Stratocaster, setting both channel volumes in the 3-to-6 range achieves classic Marshall clean that hints at Hendrix. Strat pickups sound zingy with bright caps bypassed, but the 100 pF setting adds even more attractive shimmer. Lead mode and high gain settings are a nice fit for a Strat, too. Setting the lead channel to 7-to-8 and backing the normal channel to 4 pushes the amp to full-bodied, blistering sustain, and adding the 4700 pF bright cap adds upper midrange urgency. P-90s in a Les Paul Jr. are a more extreme version of this recipe—gritty, snarling, and explosive. But if I ever sensed the signal was lacking, just rolling up the normal channel and using the 100 pF cap did the trick—evoking, more than once, the gritty style of the Pixies’ Joey Santiago.
The Plex’sdynamics and touch sensitivity are outstanding. Using just variation in guitar volume and picking intensity, I effortlessly moved from clean arpeggios to crunch and full-on shred. The low sensitivity input felt especially nice for working with these intensity adjustments, too. It predictably reduces gain, but it also darkens and mellows edgier pickups. The vintage-voiced tone stack is sensitive as well. Treble, mid, bass, and presence controls are accommodating, cover a lot of harmonic range, and even extreme EQ settings never seem to neuter the fundamental voice. If you use pedals, you’ll run them straight into the front of the amp. There’s no effects loop here. Still, a Riveter Electric Brass Tacks treble booster with dark amp settings conjured the sounds of early Sabbath, and the front end easily handled the extra level.
My Kid’s Asleep
Usually, implementing a master volume in this type of circuit can produce sonic anemia at low levels. But Dave Friedman’s addition of a unique post-phase-inverter master volume means you can preserve much more tone, character, and feel at tiny-venue levels. The low-voltage Variac mode offers interesting less-hot options, too, enabling spongier, more saturated, creamier tones at less deafening volumes.
The Verdict
The Plex offers a perfect balance of vintage Marshall-ness and a not-too-busy list of practical extra features—maintaining the essence of plexi tone while expanding tone-shaping functionality and increasing the amp’s useful volume range. But for all its enhancements, the Plex stays close to its vintage inspiration, giving it a brash, raw, unruliness that’s always exciting
Friedman PLEX 50-Watt Tube Amplifier Head
When he’s on the West Coast, Jim Campilongo feels something like a stranger in his own home. His latest record pays tribute to the city he misses when he’s there, and the one where he built most of his career.
He did this largely in his adopted home of New York City, where, for most of the 2000s, he was a mainstay—and, for music fans in the know, a must-see—of the downtown arts scene, with long-running and celebrated residencies at Lower East Side venues like Rockwood Music Hall and the now-defunct Living Room.
Campilongo left the East Coast to return West roughly two years ago. But his newest record, She Loved the Coney Island Freak Show, is very much a New York album—maybe his most New York one of all. It is also very much a rock album—maybe his most rock one of all. There are reasons for this. The roots of the record stretch back to the dark days of Covid, when words like “quarantine” and “distancing” were too much a part of the common vernacular. Life was weirder, quieter and, truth be told, often drearier. Campilongo found escape where he could, which manifested in daily 5 a.m. walks around his Brooklyn neighborhood. His companion was an old iPod playlist of classic-rock songs. “I’d go out, it’d be pitch black, there’d be no one around—it was like a science-fiction movie,” he recalls. “I had these old-school Vic Firth headphones, and an iPod that had a playlist of maybe 300 classic-rock tunes that I made back when iPods were the latest thing. And I would walk the streets listening to it over and over.”
The 4TET, from left to right: drummer Dan Rieser, Campilongo, bassist Andy Hess, and guitarist Luca Benedetti.
Some of the songs that, quite literally, got into Campilongo’s head? “It was ‘Mississippi Queen’ kind of stuff,” he says. “‘Hush’ by Deep Purple. Elvin Bishop’s ‘Travelin’ Shoes,’ which is an amazingly eventful track. There’s background vocals, there’s a little breakdown, there’s a melodic solo. There’s harmonies, a great rhythm.... I became obsessed with it.”
These songs, and the 297 or so others on Campilongo’s playlist, informed several of the tracks on She Loved the Coney Island Freak Show. One, a greasy, growly workout titled “This Is a Quiet Street,” was influenced by Grand Funk Railroad’s live version of the Animals’ 1966 single, “Inside Looking Out”—“a song I’ve been listening to since high school, and that I’ve been trying to write for 20 years,” Campilongo says. “This is about the closest I’ve gotten.” Another track, “Do Not Disturb,” he continues, “is like my interpretation of a ZZ Top tune.”
“I’d go out, it’d be pitch black, there’d be no one around—it was like a science-fiction movie.... And I would walk the streets listening to it over and over.”
But She Loves the Coney Island Freak Show is not all rock-influenced. Leadoff track “Dragon Stamp,” a dark, deep-in-the-pocket jam that Campilongo introduces by sounding a detuned open low string, and then hitting a harmonic and raising the pitch by bending the string behind the nut (something of a JC trademark move), came to Campilongo after repeated playings of “Step to Me,” a 1991 song from deceased New York hardcore rapper Tim Dog, on his early morning walks. “I think I listened to that 50 times in a row, numerous times,” Campilongo says. “I couldn’t get enough of it.” The emotive “Sunset Park,” meanwhile, in which Campilongo unspools languid, vocal guitar lines in a manner that is nothing short of a master class in the subtle art of touch, tone and phrasing, was influenced by a Maria Callas aria. Another track, “Sal’s Waltz,” by Frédéric Chopin. “Whether it’s successful or not, who knows?” Campilongo says self-effacingly.
Sunset Park
While many of the She Loved the Coney Island Freak Show songs have their origins in Campilongo’s early-morning walks and his iPod-provided soundtrack, bringing them into existence was in some ways a more immediate affair. To record the album, Campilongo got together with guitarist and longtime collaborator Luca Benedetti, bassist Andy Hess, and drummer Dan Rieser in a combo they dubbed the 4TET, and laid down the tracks live in the studio—two studios, to be exact. “We did two days recording at Bunker [in Williamsburg, Brooklyn], and then another two days at a different studio [Atomic Sound, in Red Hook, Brooklyn],” he says. “It was pure joy to play with those guys.”
“I always figured I could get all the sounds I want from the volume and tone knobs on the guitar, or from where I pick, and how hard; all those little variations.”
Campilongo, as is his way, kept his gear setup minimal: his trusty 1959 Fender Telecaster with a top-loader bridge, plugged straight into a 1970 silver-panel Fender Princeton Reverb fitted with a Celestion G10 speaker—no pedals required. “It’s so uninteresting for me to talk about gear, because it’s basically the same answer every time,” he says with a laugh. As for why he mostly eschews effects? “I always figured I could get all the sounds I want from the volume and tone knobs on the guitar—and on a Tele, those knobs are really dramatic—or from where I pick, and how hard; all those little variations,” he reasons. Another benefit of going sans pedals? “You kind of just accept the hand you’re dealt, and you can get down to playing music quicker.”
When it came to the playing, Campilongo stuck to another tried-and-true aspect of his guitar style—improvisation. “None of what I’m doing on the album was worked out beforehand,” he says of his solos on She Loved the Coney Island Freak Show. In his opinion, this makes for not only a better playing experience, but a better listening one, too. “If I play a perfect solo and it’s worked out, I generally don’t like listening to it, because it’s not a time capsule of that moment,” he says. “It’s like going out on a first date and having a script of what to talk about, instead of it just being a natural conversation. I want to hear the real talk, warts and all.”
Jim Campilongo's Gear
Campilongo performing at Rockwood Music Hall Stage 3, the same Lower East Side venue where he previously held a long-running residency.
Photo by Manish Gosalia
Guitars
- 1959 Fender Telecaster
- Lumiere Jim Campilongo Signature T- Model
- Fender Custom Shop Jim Campilongo Signature Telecaster
Amps
Effects
- Crazy Tube Circuits Splash Reverb
- Crazy Tube Circuits Stardust Overdrive
- JAM Pedals Wahcko
- Universal Audio OX Amp Top Box
- Boomerang Phrase Sampler
Strings, Picks, & Accessories
- D’Addario EXL120 Nickel Wound Super Light (.009–.042)
- V-Picks Fusion
- Klotz Titanium guitar cable
- Souldier guitar straps
Campilongo’s commitment to balancing on that creative knife edge informs every aspect of the album, and also his music in general. “I don’t want to ever put out the same record twice in a row,” he says. To that end, he is already plotting future challenges, including a “pseudo-jazz record where I’m playing standards in the way I would present them, which would be a little scary.”
For all his musical adventurism, one aspect of Campilongo’s artistic makeup that remains steadfast is his connection to the city that helped birth She Loved the Coney Island Freak Show. “Even though I’m back in California, in many ways I feel like a transplanted New Yorker,” Campilongo says. “It’s in my DNA,” he laughs. “It’s not like I’m returning home to the West Coast and, you know, I can’t wait to go surfing.”
YouTube It
For years, Jim Campilongo held court at New York City’s Rockwood Music Hall. Here, Jim and the 4TET tear through a She Loved the Coney Island Freak Show highlight: the Southern-rock-inflected, ZZ Top-inspired “Do Not Disturb.”