Musical scaffolder Mat Mitchell details how ’80s tech (Fairlight CMI) and design (headless guitars) have influenced the band’s sound and what modern gear he uses to approximate it.
Rut busting and reconstructing has probably been happening since the discovery of fire and advent of the wheel. Guitarists confront it each time they pick up a new instrument to avoid predictable patterns and tones. Premier Guitar contributor (and recent Rig Rundown subject) Pete Thorn has addressed this by suggesting several practices to approach our beloved 6 strings in a fresh perspective. And recently John Bohlinger recommended playing a different instrument to fertilize musical crops. But what does a guitar-playing producer and multi-instrumentalist do to shake things up for his band’s fourth album? Well, for Puscifer’s Mat Mitchell and the band’s 2020 release, Existential Reckoning, you go back in time 40 years to 8-bit synth sounds and the archaic sampling lurking inside the proto-digital Fairlight CMI.
“Part of [the appeal],” Mitchell told PG in a 2021 interview, “is the flow—the way that you work when you’re using these tools. It forces you to do things differently. They are very limited, and being creative within very set boundaries is really good.” And being the creative force he is, Mitchell found gold in the antiquated sounds and tech.
“They sound very unique,” he explains. “Of course, you can sample one and put it in a laptop, but it’s different. All the voices are separate hardware. When you hit a note, it is bouncing around between [processor] cards, so you can hit a note five times and it may sound different all five times. There are all these little things that affect the way it sounds when you’re performing, which is a very different sound from what you get when you sample.”
But he would never tour with this digital dino, so how does Mitchell recreate 8-bit tones in a performance setting? Thankfully, moments ahead of the audience filling the pews of Nashville’s iconic Ryman Auditorium, Puscifer’s aural architect welcomed PG’s Chris Kies for a chat about how Existential Reckoning’s inspiration took him back to the future, and how his live rig has metamorphized and been miniaturized with contemporary gear to realistically represent those superannuated sounds.
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Xcellent Axe
While recording Existential Reckoning, Mitchell relied heavily on a Steinberger GL2T. Not wanting to tour with it, he tapped Kiesel Guitars to build him a few custom Type-X models for the road. This bodacious beauty has a swamp ash body, a 3-piece walnut/maple neck with thru construction, an early version of Seymour Duncan’s first AlNiCo 2 Stack Tele pickup, and a fixed bridge. All his guitars take D’Addario EPN115 XL Pure Nickel strings (.011–.048). It’s worth noting the usual curvy contours and bevels found on a standard Kiesel Type-X were removed by request from Mitchell, who prefers hard-edged instruments like his prized Esquire. Another mentionable mod is the seemingly straight-ahead 3-way pickup selector (bridge, right?) that rolls the tone all the way off (middle) for when Mitchell grabs an EBow and a slight Q-notch filter (neck) for lead or chordal stuff that he wants tucked under. When it’s in the standard bridge position it bypasses the tone circuit. This wiring and tonewood collection are found on all three Type-Xs we’ll see.
X Marks the Spot
Here’s another Kiesel Type-X, but this one has a Seymour Duncan Antiquity Tele single-coil. Besides the radical visuals these instruments add to the band’s stage production, part of the choice was pragmatic because the lightweight, headless design allows Mat to swing the guitar off his shoulder in a split second and control the Waldorf Iridium synth engine for Existential Reckoning jams.
The X-Man
Above is Mitchell’s third Type-X Kiesel. He mentions in the Rundown that “once you give me a guitar, I don’t like to give it back,” so if he has it his way, he’ll start and finish the show with the same X.
Tidy Tones
“There’s a few reasons we shifted to the Axe-Fx III,” admits Mitchell. “First, we have enough songs that our rig was getting bigger, more complex, and it had more failure points. We also wanted a clean stage, so there’s no amps, no cabs, no pedalboards onstage, and that’s why on this run we’re now using wireless, too.” Most of his patches are based around either a Mesa/Boogie Mark II C+ (dirty) or Vibro-King (clean). The band enjoys free-range stage access with Shure Axient AD4Q units.
Lone Wolf
His only guitar-specific hardware outside the Axe-Fx III is this DigiTech FreqOut, to help Mitchell stir up a funnel of feedback.
Fear the Gear
Here’s the bulk of the gear used during the recording of Existential Reckoning and the corresponding Live at Arcosanti album, performed in the depths of the Arizona desert. Starting on the left is the Steinberger GL2T, then a pair of shots of the Fairlight CMI digital synthesizer, sampler and digital audio workstation. Below that is his Fender Custom Shop Esquire reissue and Mesa/Boogie Mark II C+, and the bottom row shows Mitchell’s choice stomps: ZVEX Fuzz Factory, Fulltone OCD, Electro-Harmonix Micro POG, Boss VB-2 Vibrato, Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz, and Radial SGI. The lower-right shows a pair of Oto Machines (BOUM Warming Unit and BIM 12-Bit Delay).
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You probably know Ed Helms from his unforgettable turns in The Hangover movies, The Office, and a laundry list of era-defining comedies, but what you might not know is that he shreds bluegrass music, too. (Actually, if you’ve seen The Office, you’ll know about his impressive musicianship.) Helms has played in bluegrass bands since his college days, so he knows a thing or two about writing a great American roots song. And what’s more American than getting too pissed off and ruining nice things?
Helms joins Sean Watkins and Peter Harper for a writing session that centers on a paraphrased version of Abraham Maslow’s law of the instrument: “When all you’ve got is a hammer, everything’s a nail.” The trio use the phrase as a way to look at personal and societal inabilities to approach situations with “the right tool,” like nuance, patience, or grace. Instead, anger—the hammer—seems to be the only tool in our belts. That inevitably means we end up smashing stuff.
Tune in to hear how this John Prine-inspired country tune takes shape—plus, don’t miss the story of Sean’s DMV blowup when he was just 16.
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Jack White played a big part in making these vintage outcasts desirable. But these are still fine times to make cool sounds for less—especially if you aren’t brand or image conscious. And White, staying faithful to his roots, likes the idea of making sure there’s fewer financial obstacles to making a racket. That led to the collaboration with Donner reviewed here—the Donner X Third Man Triple Threat—a $99 distortion, phaser, and delay combo that you can practically fit in a pencil case.
Light and Little Analog Amalgamator
China-based Donner is probably best known to PG readers for its very inexpensive mini effects, which can usually be had for less than 50 bucks. Keen-eyed effects heads will notice that the Triple Threat looks a lot like Donner’s Alpha Crunch and Alpha Force—three-in-one distortion/chorus/delay units in identically sized enclosures that sell for 69 bucks. The Triple Threat effectively subs a version of Donner’s Pearl Tremor mini phaser for the chorus. While many players will find more utility in the chorus-equipped Donner three-in-one, White’s choice of a phaser substitute is a cool one.
Those consumed with the matter of portability will be tickled by the Triple Threat. It measures about 7 ½" wide and less than 2 ½" deep. It will actually fit in a back pocket. And if you’re committed to making your load-in as light as possible or maximizing square inches in a tiny apartment, the Triple Threat is less problematic than the king-sized Mr. Goodbar on your desk that you shouldn’t eat anyway. While it’s not heavy by any means, the Triple Threat feels super sturdy. The tiny knobs might be the only part of the design that I would worry about in terms of fragility—particularly given the very necessary proximity of the knobs to the footswitches. But the removable rubber rings that surround the knobs, which also make them easier to adjust, also work as bumpers of a kind against glancing blows.
Blast, Warp, Repeat….
I don’t think the intent of the Triple Threat is to emulate any particular tone synonymous with Jack White. I’m not as familiar with White’s solo output as I am with that from the White Stripes. But I associate the former with a lot of glitchy fuzz and octave scramble and the latter with the sound of a Silvertone Twin Twelve bludgeoned by a Big Muff or Micro Amp. If he used a phaser anywhere in his catalog, I don’t remember.
White and Donner probably envisioned the distortion circuit in the Triple Threat as the best compromise between simply rowdy and evil. It serviceably covers Jack White sounds ranging from organic amp filth to fuzzier stuff, and can change in feel drastically depending on your guitar. Sixty-year-old lipstick pickups in a Silvertone, for instance, sound super-White Stripes-like—gritting up a clean black-panel Fender at the mellow end of the gain spectrum and sounding fuzzy and mammoth at the more aggressive end. Alnico V PAFs coaxed trashier, more modern, more metallic tones at high-gain extremes. And a Stratocaster spanned SRV-ish and L.A. glam-metal tonalities. A Boss DS-1 is a pretty reasonable touchstone in a very general way. But the wide ranging gain and tone controls give the Triple Threat’s distortion a pretty varied personality.
As mentioned, the Triple Threat’s phaser is based on Donner’s Pearl Tremor. It sounds a little like a script-era MXR Phase 90. However, it’s less thick than that circuit, and even at maximum depth it’s not as bubble-gum chewy as a more modern block-script Phase 90 or a Small Stone. Some of that might be down to what sounds like a slight reduction in low end when the phaser is engaged. But the Triple Threat phaser also requires a level boost. To reach unity gain, you need to set the level at 3 o’clock, which leaves much of the parameter’s lower reaches pretty ineffective.
The delay is uniquely quirky, too. At its highest mix levels, repeats are much louder than at equivalent settings on analog echoes, including the MXR Carbon Copy and Ibanez Analog Delay. That can open up cool textural options based on pronounced echoes. Lower mix levels evoke some of the hazy qualities of the Carbon Copy, Memory Man, DM-2 and others. But the Triple Threat’s repeats are brighter than any of those delays, sounding closer to an MXR’s Carbon Copy Bright. Some analog delay users will miss the dark taper of vintage BBD units. The greater treble response also means the effect swells a little less smoothly to the self-oscillation point. But despite its brighter profile, the Triple Threat’s delay is still thicker sounding than the Boss DD-3 I used as a digital comparison.
The Verdict
At 99 bucks, it’s hard to fault differences between the Triple Threat’s individual effects and analog equivalents that, for the most part, cost $100 to $160 by themselves. In spite of its quirks, the Triple Threat’s combination of tiny size, convenience, ease of use, and range of tones make it a steal. And any pro with a simple rig that more-or-less mirrors this one could do a fly-in or backline gig with confidence that cool sounds—and a very light load-in—await.
