Along with a demented Jim Root partscaster, the metalcore guitarists ride ESP warhorses into battle on a recent tour with elijah.
Philadelphia-raised metal guitarist Xander Raymond Charles has built himself quite a following on YouTube—his subscribers now number over 120,000. But when he’s not YouTubing, he’s playing live, and earlier this year, he went out on a national tour with metalcore artist elijah. Charles formed half of elijah’s brutal dual guitar section, along with Brandon Kyle. Ahead of a recent Nashville gig, the two shredders sat down with PG’s Chris Kies to share what they packed for the road trip.
Brought to you by D’Addario.
Rooting Around
Charles’ go-to metal machine is this Fender Jim Root partscaster with a 2014 Strat body and 2018 neck. He put in a pair of Root’s signature EMG Daemonum pickups, then pulled out the neck one out of “boredom” while on tour. He’s also replaced a lot of the factory hardware with odds and ends from Lowes or Home Depot. Like most of the duo’s guitars, the partscaster is tuned to drop C, and this one rocks a set of Nashville-made Stringjoy .012–.062 strings.
From the Bench to First String
Kyle’s main ride is this ESP LTD TE-401, which started its life as a backup but has graduated to be Kyle’s No. 1. It’s an affordable model from ESP’s line that Kyle maintains is one of the best-sounding guitars he’s ever played. He loves the playability and feel, which are similar to the Fenders he grew up playing. Obviously, the EMG pickups give it more gas than other T-styles.
Backup Warhorse
This single-humbucker, JM-style ESP LTD XJ-1 HT is another warhorse in Kyle’s stable and serves as a backup during elijah’s current set. It’s equipped with D’Addario XL .012–.056s.
Low and Long
This stunning Squier Vintage Modified Baritone Jazzmaster can handle all of Charles’ low-end demands with its 30" scale length.
Fresh from the Lab
Charles was gifted this 7-string Cerberus prototype, which is geared up with locking tuners, a single Guitarmory Pickups humbucker, and a 30" scale length.
Quad Power
Both Charles and Kyle are running Neural DSP Quad Cortexes, and after some testing, both decided to roll with a profile of an EVH 5150 loaded with EL34s. For clean sounds in the set, they lean on a Friedman profile. Sennheiser wireless systems let both guitarists cut loose onstage.
Shop Elijah's Rig
D'Addario XL Strings
EMG JR Daemonum Pickups
Stringjoy Strings
ESP LTD XJ-1 HT
Fishman Fluence Pickup
Neural DSP Quad Cortex
The Martin D-11E Rock the Vote acoustic-electric guitar is a special edition instrument crafted to inspire people to participate in our democracy. This collaboration between Martin Guitar, David Crosby’s estate, Rock the Vote, and artist Robert Goetzl tells a powerful story. “David was a patriot,” says Executive Chairman Chris Martin IV. “He believed deeply in this great experiment of ours, and his passion for voting is something we wanted to honor and continue.”
The vision for the original D-16E Rock the Vote guitar launched back in 2020 was born from a conversation between Chris and David Crosby, partnering with Rock the Vote to encourage people to register and participate in federal, state, and local elections. That conversation led to blending Robert’s compelling artwork with Martin's renowned craftsmanship. Robert shares, “David threw out this quote, that ‘democracy works if you work it,’ and that became a guiding theme for the artwork.”
A reissue of that original guitar, the all-new D-11E Rock the Vote model includes new features like an LR Baggs M80 soundhole pickup paired exclusively with Luxe by Martin® Kovar™ strings. Kovar is a unique alloy of two ferromagnetic metals, nickel, and cobalt, not found in conventional phosphor bronze strings. When paired with the adjustable M80 humbucking coil, these strings are guaranteed to deliver an exceptional acoustic-electric experience. It’s the ideal pairing for players seeking warm, authentic, amplified tones in any performance setting.
The D-11E Rock the Vote acoustic-electric is crafted with premium materials, including American sycamore satin back and sides and a spruce gloss top showcasing Robert’s custom artwork. Its Dreadnought size and unique 000 depth offer players a powerful, projective sound with strong bass and a comfortable feel. It also features a satin select hardwood neck, ebony bridge and fingerboard, silver binding, and includes a softshell case made of hemp.
This guitar not only commemorates David Crosby’s legacy, but through this collaboration, Martin Guitar is proud to support Rock the Vote with a $5,000 donation. Rock the Vote is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to building the political power of young people, and over the past 30 years it has helped register over 14 million voters. According to the organization, “In 2024, Millennials and Generation Z will comprise 44% of American voters. Young voters are new voters and as new voters they face unique obstacles to voting... Our efforts focus on research-driven programs and innovative solutions to right the system and ensure each youth generation is represented in our democracy.”
"We are thrilled to partner with Martin Guitar to harness the power of music in inspiring young musicians and their fans to engage in our democracy," said Carolyn DeWitt, President and Executive Director of Rock the Vote. "Music has always been a catalyst for change, uplifting critical issues and driving people to action. As we face the defining challenges of 2024, it's essential that young voices are heard and their passion is transformed into meaningful participation at the polls," adds Carolyn DeWitt, President & Executive Director of Rock The Vote.
With only 47 of these guitars made, honoring the election of the 47th U.S. president, each one represents a commitment to encouraging civic participation through the universal language of music. “I believe it’s our responsibility as citizens to participate in our democracy,” says Chris.
For more information, please visit martinguitar.com.
Grace Bowers has quickly won a reputation for high-energy guitar heroics.
While she appreciates the sentiment, Bowers doesn’t love being called a guitar prodigy, saying it dismisses the eight years she’s put into studying the instrument.
Photo by Cedric Jones
“I was living in California at the time, in a small town outside of San Francisco,” she reflects. “And there’s absolutely no live music there, whatsoever. I didn’t even know any people my age who played an instrument. So, I pretty much had no hope. And I would always dream that I’d be playing on a stage, or just anywhere, honestly. It always felt super unrealistic and like, ‘Oh, that would never happen.’”
When the pandemic hit, the now 18-year-old Bowers was finishing the seventh grade, and the abrupt separation from her peers didn’t exactly help to improve her sense of belonging. Pretty soon, however, things took a major, positive turn: “I started posting videos online, and it got some momentum,” she shares. Gibson took notice, and offered her an endorsement when she was just 14. Then,“We moved to Nashville, and I was playing onstage almost every night.”
The sudden wealth of opportunity that came with the move changed everything. “It was the biggest motivation ever,” she continues. “Made me want to do it more than I ever have [laughs].”
Grace Bower's Gear
One of Bowers’ main guitars is this 1961 Gibson SG Special. She also plays a Murphy Lab version of the model.
Effects
- Analog Man King of Tone
- Wah
- Boost
- Gain
Strings & Picks
- Ernie Ball .010s
- Dunlop 2.0 mm
By now, Bowers’ résumé has gathered more than just moss. Earlier this year, she was recruited by Dolly Parton to perform on Dolly Parton’s Pet Gala; she’s played with Devon Allman, Tyler Childers, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, and Susan Tedeschi; and in August, shared a bill with her first guitar hero, Slash. And, on the tails of all this success, she’s just released her debut album, Wine on Venus.
Produced by John Osborne of the Brothers Osborne, the album is a collection of eight original tracks, written by Bowers in collaboration with her band the Hodge Podge, and one cover—Sly & the Family Stone’s “Dance to the Music.” Although she has been playing for nine years, the grasp Bowers has on her instrument at 18 is rare. She knows just what notes to play and when to play them, saying very much with very little. She also wields a tone that’s just fuzzy enough, just singing enough, and just wailing enough—when she feels like it. Wine on Venus is the perfect showcase of her wisdom on guitar, antecedent to her being even a quarter century of age. It was recorded live in the studio over the span of one week, and Bowers knew going in just which shots she was going to call.
The eight original songs on Wine on Venus were written by Bowers in collaboration with Esther Okai-Tetteh and the rest of her band, the Hodge Podge.
She shares that she’s highly averse to recording in an isolated booth, unable to see the rest of the band—something she’s done a lot as a session guitarist. “Before we went into the studio, I told John, if I’m wearing headphones, it’s over,” she says. “And when we’re playing live, eye contact is one of the most important things. So, the band was live in the room, and then I was outside looking through a window in the control room with John. We put my amp upstairs on this balcony—it’s like a house, the studio—and turned it to 10, and for the entire record, my guitar was recorded in the control room. It was very loud; I’ll tell you that.”
Carving out your own voice as an individual artist in improv-based genres can be a significant challenge, and Bowers kept that in mind. “I’d say [that difficulty comes from] oversaturation. There’s a lot of jam bands out there right now. And don’t get me wrong; I love that kind of music, but what a lot of them lack is songs. When we went into the studio, I wanted to make sure that we wrote songs and didn’t just jam. I was very intentional in the writing process with Esther [Okai-Tetteh, vocalist]—to write catchy hooks and make sure that the lyrics meant something.”
Okai-Tetteh, whose first name is pronounced “Acey,” was Bowers’ primary writing partner in the development of the album’s material. “A lot of it [came together] sitting on my bedroom floor, writing songs every night. She wrote a lot of the [vocal] melody, which is where I struggle. Whereas I wrote all of the music, and then we both collaborated on the lyrics.” The other members of the Hodge Podge, who include keyboardist Joshua Blaylock, drummer Brandon Combs, bassist Eric Fortaleza, and co-guitarist Prince Parker, each fleshed out the arrangements with their own contributions.
Bowers picked up guitar at age 9 after discovering Slash, and fully fell in love with it at 13, after hearing B.B. King for the first time.
Photo by David McClister
Blues guitarists are typically working with the starkest templates (three or four chords) and the most concise vocabulary (the minor pentatonic scale), which, in many albeit honest, dedicated hands, often sound commonplace. But in the best hands, the blues can be some of the most powerful music out there. As Bowers puts it, “The blues comes from your heart, and you’re not just playing it, if that makes sense. I’m not the best at expressing emotions.... It comes out better for me on guitar.”
“As long as I have a very clean-toned amp and my pedalboard, I’m pretty much good to go.”
Bowers owns three different SGs, and her two main choices are her ’61 model with P-90s—“That’s like my baby”—and a newer model with humbuckers. Her pedalboard is a “basic setup,” and she doesn’t know all the names of her pedals off the top of her head. But in classic funk fashion, she does like to employ her wah while playing rhythm parts. As for amps for live shows, she doesn’t yet have her own tour bus, so she’s been relying on backlines. “As long as I have a very clean-toned amp and my pedalboard, I’m pretty much good to go,” she says. Her greatest inspirations on guitar, aside from Slash, are Leslie West, Eddie Hazel, Carlos Santana, and Marc Bolan. “I have a huge Electric Warrior poster above my bed right now,” she tells me.
As for the future, Bowers says she doesn’t really have long-term goals, exactly. “I don’t like to set expectations for myself, because I just want to see where things are going to bring me naturally. I love doing what feels right in the moment.
“Before, I was super shy and didn’t have a lot of confidence,” she continues. “Guitar really helped me build that up, and now I’m doing things that I would have been horrified to do three years ago. It’s definitely helped me come out of my shell.”
YouTube It
In this brief live clip, Grace Bowers breaks down the blues and builds it back up with incredible tone, feel, and taste.
![Rig Rundown: Baroness' John Baizley, Gina Gleason & Nick Jost [2024]](https://www.premierguitar.com/media-library/youtube.jpg?id=53559996&width=1245&height=700&quality=85&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0)
Hard rockers Baroness were busy writing during the early days of the pandemic, sharing ideas and bits of songs over weekly video calls until they had enough for a new record. Then, after scouting for potential recording locations, they rented an Airbnb in a tiny town in New York and got to work.
The band brought all their gear along with them: They literally loaded up a U-Haul truck and left no pedal behind—a bit unnecessary in retrospect. At the end of their stay, they’d all but finished their sixth studio album, Stone, which was released in September 2023. On their recent summer tour supporting the record, the quartet played Nashville’s Basement East, where PG’s Chris Kies met up with vocalist/guitarist John Baizley, guitarist Gina Gleason, and bassist Nick Jost to get an in-depth look at their current road rigs.
Franken-backer
Baizley received this custom-built Rickenbacker during the band’s sessions for Stone. It’s got the body and electronics of a Rick 620 but the neck of a 660 model. The Rick and Gleason’s Tele fill in the sonic gaps for each other.
I Think I Smell a Strat
Baizley’s other two primary guitars are these Fender Stratocasters. The first is an American Pro II with a tortoiseshell pickguard and HSS pickup configuration; the second is an original American Pro. The AmPro II lives in heavier tunings and takes a set of .012–.052s, but Baizley prefers both in the fourth position of the 5-way selector switch to build space around Gleason’s leads.
Tele Twins
Gleason rocks two Fender Telecasters, again from both the American Pro I and II series. She actually prefers the first iteration of the V-Mod pickups for their aggression and grit in live contexts, while the V-Mod IIs make for a smoother recording weapon. One stays in D-standard tuning while the other is in C standard with a dropped A#. Gleason strings them with .009–.046s and .010–.046s, respectively, and the whole band loves D’Addario NYXL sets.
So Bass-ic
Bassist Nick Jost is a Fender man, too, with a Precision Bass and American Professional Jazz Bass that both run through his mini-but-mighty rig: A diminutive Gallien-Krueger Legacy series head powers a classic Ampeg 8x10 cabinet. He usually plays with his fingers, but when he loses a game of dice on the road, he’ll sometimes be forced into playing with a pick.
Dual Stereo
Baizley and Gleason both run stereo amp setups. Baizley changes his amp backline often; he used to run twin Roland JC-120s but just recently switched in this Fender ’68 Custom Deluxe Reverb.
Gleason keeps the Fender train rolling with a ’59 Bassman reissue and a ’68 Custom Princeton Reverb.
John Baizley’s Pedalboard
Baizley’s board is packed with staged dirt boxes and tasteful mod stomps, all held in check with a GigRig G2, Peterson StroboStomp, and Ernie Ball Volume Pedal. The crown drive jewels are a heavily modded EHX Big Muff and Crowther Double Hot Cake, but a Beetronix FX Overhive and Pro Co RAT add some sizzle, too. A Boss DD-3, DM-2W, and TR-2, EarthQuaker Devices Dispatch Master and Tentacle, MXR Phase 90 and Dyna Comp, and EHX Deluxe Memory Man handle the rest, while a DigiTech Whammy lurks for its moment to blast off.
Gina Gleason’s Pedalboard
Gleason’s favorite drive these days is the EQD Zoar, their instant-classic 2023 release. Piling on top of that are a MXR Super Badass Distortion, MXR Timmy, modded EHX Big Muff, and a touchy Philly Fuzz Infidel prototype; an Xotic SP Compressor and UAFX 1176 Studio Compressor tighten things up when needed. Three time machines—the Strymon TimeLine, EQD Space Spiral, and Boss DD-3—handle delay, and a Walrus Slo dishes out reverb. The MXR EVH Phase 90 adds some color along with another DigiTech Whammy. The Ernie Ball Volume Pedal, Peterson StroboStomp, and GigRig G2 keep Gleason’s board in line, too.
Nick Jost’s Pedalboard
Jost’s bass board, powered by an MXR Iso-Brick, is a touch more simple, with an Ernie Ball Volume Pedal and Boss TU-3 for utility duties before an Xotic Bass BB Preamp, Boss ODB-3, DOD FX69B Grunge, MXR Stereo Chorus, and Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Driver DI.
Roland Jazz Chorus-120
Fender '68 Custom Deluxe Reverb
Fender Bassman
Fender '68 Custom Princeton Reverb
Fender American Professional Telecaster
Fender American Professional Stratocaster
Fender Precision Bass
Fender American Professional Jazz Bass
Gallien-Krueger Legacy 800 Bass Amp Head
Ampeg 8x10 Cab
Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Drive DI
MXR Iso-Brick
Boss TU-3
Xotic Effects Bass BB Preamp
Boss ODB-3
MXR Stereo Chorus
Modded EHX Big Muff
Boss DD-3
MXR Dyna Comp
Pro Co RAT
MXR Phase 90
Boss TR-2
EHX Deluxe Memory Man
EarthQuaker Devices Dispatch Master
DigiTech Whammy
Walrus Audio SLO
Boss DM-2w
EarthQuaker Devices Tentacle
Peterson StroboStomp
Beetronics Overhive
EarthQuaker Devices Zoar
MXR Timmy
MXR Super Badass Distortion
Xotic SP Compressor
MXR EVH Phase 90
UAFX 1176 Compressor
Ernie Ball Volume Pedal
D'Addario NYXL .110 Strings
Strymon TimeLine
The MXR Layers Pedal blooms with rich, organic sustain that imbues every strum and pluck with resonance and depth. With a versatile suite of controls, this pedal can be as simple or complex as you need. Whether you want to lengthen single notes or generate multi-layered soundscapes rich with ambience, the MXR Layers Pedal will extend the creative potential of your instrument. Pull off chord voicings you never thought possible, compose transcendent melodies, orchestrate harmonic ensembles, create lively stereo pads, and more—all from a standard MXR housing.
MXR Layers Pedal highlights:
- Versatile suite of controls opens new frontiers to plug-and-play maestros and tonal tinkerers alike
- Up to three layers of sustain, each with its own status LED
- Trigger layers with footswitch or playing dynamics
- The Mix knob adjusts the wet signal level; in other words, the volume of your layers
- Trig knob sets the sensitivity of auto-trigger function
- Attack knob adjusts the fade-in time of each layer, while Decay knob sets the fade-out time
- Sub Oct switch adds fat subterranean vibes
- Advanced features such as expression pedal and tap switch control or additional parameter tweaks offer even more intricate customization
- Build richly detailed soundscapes that elevate musical expression to new heights
The MXR Layers Pedal is available now at $219.99 street/$314.27 MSRP from your favorite retailer.
For more information, please visit jimdunlop.com
