Declan Mehrtens and Gus Romer brought the heat for the punk quartet’s storming spring headline tour.
Australian punks Amyl and the Sniffers have had a pretty good year. In October 2024, they released their third full-length, Cartoon Darkness, and opened a run of North American shows for Foo Fighters. This year, they warmed up the stage for the Offspring for a handful of shows in Brazil, then tore off across the United States and Canada for a headlining tour.
Ahead of their stopover at Nashville’s Marathon Music Works, PG’s Chris Kies met with guitarist Declan Mehrtens and bassist Gus Romer to see what weapons the Aussie invaders are using to conquer the music world.
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300 Club
Mehrtens reckons he’s played around 300 gigs with this trusty Gibson Explorer, and it was used on just about every track on Cartoon Darkness. While recording, he equipped it with flatwound strings and a Lollar P-90 pickup in the bridge, but for tour, it’s got a Seymour Duncan Saturday Night Special in the bridge in addition to its stock neck pickup. It’s tuned a half-step down, and an identical (though less beat-up) Explorer is on hand in case this first one goes down.
Marshall and Friends
In addition to his beloved JCM800, Mehrtens is running a Hiwatt Custom 100, a model he discovered in Foo Fighters’ studio. Both are dialled in for a general-purpose rock tone, and an always-on Daredevil Drive-Bi, kept behind the stacks, runs into the Hiwatt to push it into breakup.
Declan Mehrtens’ Pedalboard
The jewel of Mehrtens’ board is his SoloDallas Schaffer Replica, famous for its recreation of Angus Young’s guitar tone. In addition, he runs a TC Electronic PolyTune 3 Noir, Electro-Harmonix Soul Food modded with LED diodes, MXR Micro Flanger, two MXR Carbon Copy Minis, and a Vox wah pedal. A switcher with six loops, built by Dave Friedman, manages the changes.
P for Punk
Romer plays this Fender Precision Bass, which is either a 2023 or 2024 model, though he insists the “P” in P bass stands for “punk.”
Three-Headed Beast
Romer’s signal is split into three channels: One split comes after his tuner, and runs clean to front-of-house, another channel runs direct and dirty from this Ampeg SVT Classic, and the last runs through his cabinet into a Sennheiser MD 421.
Gus Romer’s Pedalboard
Romer’s board, furnished with the help of Mehrtens, gets right to the point: It features a TC Electronic PolyTune 3, a Boss ODB-3, and an MXR Distortion+.
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