In just five short years, two scorching albums, and hundreds of electrifying, shock-rock performances (think fake blood and straightjackets like Ozzy, Cooper, and Manson), Starcrawler has earned big-named fans like Elton John, Dave Grohl, Mike Campbell, and Ryan Adams. (The latter produced their 2018 self-titled debut featuring Beck's daughter Tuesday on the cover. Both of them are fans, too.)
Much of Starcrawler's glam-punk swagger is due to the peanut-butter-and-jelly relationship between singer Arrow de Wilde and guitarist Henri Cash. His prickly guitars and redlined Ramones rhythms flank her seething, sneering, sensual vocals making every second of Starcrawler's 28 minutes a gas. And most of it was done on three strings.
"Having three strings allows me to just play," admits Cash. "Half the strings, half the brain power [laughs]… I'm so used to the 3-string setup that it feels natural and I don't think about anything."
2019's follow-up Devour You maintained the daring Stooges' snarl, but incorporated slower tempos and B-Bender moans for the Let It Bleed-esque "No More Pennies" and dream-pop swirler "Born Asleep." The result is still an overall good-time ruckus, but the occasional change of pace makes the faster-paced uppercuts hit harder.
In between recording fresh material for Starcrawler and a new project, gear-gobbling guitarist Henri Cash virtually welcomed PG's Chris Kies into his L.A.-based tone zone.
In this episode, the sharp-dressed man shows off his main custom builds from Randy Parsons (including a 3-string ripper), induces serious gear lust with his collection of Fenders, Gretsches, and Gibsons, and shows off the degrees of burn bustling on his board.
Special thanks to Vice Cooler for all of Henri's video and photography.
[Brought to you by D'Addario Auto Lock Straps: https://ddar.io/AutoLockRR]3-String Parsons White Bat
Harlan Howard described country music as "three chords and the truth." For Starcrawler guitarist Henri Cash, it's "three strings and the power."
Above is Cash's custom-made, 3-string "White Bat" built by esteemed luthier Randy Parsons who has delivered jaw-dropping instruments for Jack White, Jimmy Page, and Joe Perry.
About four years ago, Cash first encountered the Seattle-based builder's work at a NAMM Show when his aunt—custom strapmaker Jodi Head—and Parsons were booth neighbors. Throughout the show, they bonded over music and unusual instruments. At the close, Randy offered to build Henri a custom White Bat model.
The key elements making it his dream machine (a cross of his beloved White Falcon and Randy's original Bat) would be the single TV Jones Power'Tron Plus (Cash only uses the bridge pickup in any guitar), a built-in R2R Treble Booster (approximating the onboard 9V boost found in late 1960s Gretsch Rally models), and a Bigsby vibrato (huge Neil Young fan). For this one, he actually uses partial sets of Ernie Ball Baritone Slinkys (.026–.036–.046).
Parsons White Bat
Here's a full-fledge, 6-string White Bat built by Randy Parsons. This one is chambered like the 3-string Bat and features all the same accoutrements. For his standard 6-strings, Henry goes with Ernie Ball Power Slinkys (.011–.048) for most guitars. (He puts Slinky .010s on his Les Pauls for "Skynyrd" bends.)
1980s Epiphone Les Paul
This 1980s Epiphone Les Paul is where all the 3-string raging started for Henri. His father is a musician and often plays in open tunings. He always tried to play his dad's instruments but couldn't quite grasp it until he broke the part of the Les Paul's bridge and saddles. Instead of taking it to his dad to fix, he removed the strings and quickly realized with the remaining top three strings (tuned to D–A–D), he could cop chords and compelling sounds.
His dad encouraged the musical pursuit knowing his son was a fan of other "mutated" players in the B-52s, Morphine, and The Presidents of the United States of America, but he did warn that if he was going to continue playing just three strings, he should move them further down the neck to balance out the tension. After that (and adding a Stones-y G–D–G tuning to his repertoire), Cash was off and riffing.
When schoolmate Arrow de Wilde approached Cash about playing guitar, he had only played drums and bass in previous bands, but he was interested and most of the early Starcrawler jams were written on this 3-string Epiphone.
1950s Gretsch 6130 Roundup
A recent addition to Cash's abundant collection is this 1950s Gretsch 6130 Roundup complete with the western motif and Dynasonic pickups.
Gretsch White Falcon
Another pivotal guitar used a bunch in the studio and onstage is this big, beautiful Gretsch White Falcon.
Fender Road Worn '50s Telecaster
Since getting it (and before falling for the Parsons), this Tele has probably logged the most hours by his side. He scooped this original-run Fender Road Worn '50s Telecaster at Imperial Vintage Guitars. It's worth noting that the original Road Worn relic'ing was relegated to just the neck, so all the body bruises and bashing has been added by Henri's hands. Starcrawler's 2018 self-titled debut featured mainly this Tele and the 3-string Parsons.
1970s Fender Telecaster Custom
When Ryan Adams produced the band's first album, Cash fell in love with his 1974 Fender Tele Custom. At the time, he couldn't afford a vintage guitar (so he settled for the previous Road Worn Telecaster), but after saving some scratch and lurking on eBay, he landed this (at the time) clean Tele Custom.
He deemed it his No. 1 before heading out to support Starcrawler, but at the first show it screeched and scratched because the pickups weren't potted and Cash plays with lots of volume and gain. He went to Welcome to Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar in Seattle to have it serviced, but still needing to play that night's show, they dropped in a temporary fix—a Lollar Special T. The replacement sounded so good that Henri left it and has the now-wax-potted original single-coil in the guitar's case.MIM Fender Classic Series Tele with B-Bender
Thanks to his uncle Brad Rice (who's played guitar for and collaborated with Keith Urban, Ryan Adams, Jason Boland, Will Hoge, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Whiskeytown, and Jack Ingram) and falling in love with the Clarence White-era Byrds, Cash specifically scored this tobacco sunburst MIM Fender Classic Series Tele so he could recreate White's Parson StringBender (now owned by Marty Stuart). He even added the Nudie sticker (above the neck pickup) and swapped out the stock tuners for banjo tuners. He recorded with it and plays it onstage for the songs "No More Pennies" and "Born Asleep."
Satellite Coronet
Some P-90 bark for the in-progress Starcrawler album was dished out by this Satellite Coronet that is now no longer in production because of a lawsuit issued by Gibson.
Custom Echopark Clarence
When opening for the Distillers, luthier Gabriel Currie gifted this custom Echopark Clarence model before a show in Detroit. A notable first happened with this T when Henri resuscitate it himself with a headstock repair while touring in Europe.
Kauer Banshee
If you share a house with another guitarist, you know where to go looking for your instruments when they go missing. Cash and his father play tag with this custom Kauer Banshee that howls with a single Lollar.
1966 Gibson SJN Country Western
Prior to the quarantine, Cash didn't have a suitable acoustic. And your roommates and neighbors can only take so much noise, so he scooped this 1966 Gibson SJN Country Western. Now it's one of his favorites: "Every time I sit down with it, I feel like I'm getting somewhere."
1950s Gibson LG-1
Cash's friend (and guitar sleuth) "fenderfinder" helped him land this 1950s Gibson LG-2.
Fender American Acoustasonic Jazzmaster
Originally a skeptic of the acoustic-electric hybrid, but after spending some time with the Fender American Acoustasonic Jazzmaster, Henri's a believer. He's enjoyed blending the acoustics and dialing up some Weezer-y dynamics.
Henri Cash's Wall of Amps
"Sound guys usually hate me," goofs Cash. "I typically tour with a Showman, Bandmaster, and Vibroverb … but they're only on the two or three!" For much of quarantine and this Rundown, Henri plugged into a Fender '62 Princeton Chris Stapleton Edition and a 1959 Fender Vibrolux that an '80s punk painted red.
Henri Cash's Pedalboard
Most of Henri's pedals fit into one of two categories: mayhem and movement. The wild bunch includes a trifecta of EarthQuaker Devices (Bit Commander, Hoof, Park Fuzz Sound), R2R Electric One Knob Treble Booster, and DigiTech Drop. And for the some subtle gruff, he's got a Way Huge Red Llama. The modulation and time-based boxes are a MXR Carbon Copy, Strymon Flint, DOD FX60 Stereo Chorus, TC Electronic Shaker, and EQD Afterneath. A MXR Clone Looper is a practice tool, Strymon Qjai powers his pedals, a Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner keeps his guitars in check, and a Lehle Dual SGoS Amp Switcher controls the Fenders.
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Since forming in 2010, Atlanta noise rockers Whores had only released one LP, 2016’s Gold.—until this year. Eight long years later, their new full-length, WAR., dropped in April, and Whores celebrated by tearing across the country and blasting audiences with their maelstrom of massive, sledge-hammering rock ’n’ roll.
The day after their gig at Cobra Nashville, Whores frontman Christian Lembach, dressed in his Nashville best, met up with PG’s Chris Kies at Eastside Music Supply to run through his brutal road rig.
Brought to you by D’Addario.Earthy Esquire
When vocalist and guitarist Christian Lembach got sober over 20 years ago, he bought a Fender Telecaster off of a friend, then picked up an Esquire shortly after. That original Esquire stays home, but he brings this pine-body Earth Guitars Esquire out on the road. (It’s the lightest he’s ever played.) It’s loaded with a German-made reproduction of Schecter’s F520T pickup—aka the “Walk of Life” pickup intended to reproduce Mark Knopfler’s sound. (Lembach buys them in batches of five at a time to make sure he’s got plenty of backups.)
It’s equipped with a 3-way selector switch. At right, it bypasses the tone circuit; in the middle position, it’s a regular bridge-pickup configuration, with volume and tone activated; and at left, the tone is bypassed again, but an extra capacitor adds a bass boost.
Lembach installed six brass saddles in lieu of the traditional 3-saddle bridge. He often plays barre chords higher up the neck, and the six saddles allow for more accurate intonation.
All of Lembach’s guitars are tuned to drop C, and he plays with D’Addario Duralin .70 mm picks. They’re strung with heavy D’Addario NYXL sets, .013–.056 with a wound G. The 30-foot Bullet Cable coil cable attenuates some of the guitar’s top end.
Tuned-Up Tele
Lembach had this black Fender Telecaster—the one he bought from his friend—modified to his preferred Esquire specs, with a single bridge pickup and the same 3-way selector configuration as his other weapon. He prefers the 6-saddle bridge to this rusty 3-saddle version, but this one holds a special place in his heart all the same.
Favor From Furlan
When John Furlan of Furlan Guitars reached out to Lembach about building him a custom guitar, it was an easy sell. The two worked together on this beauty, based on a non-reverse Gibson Firebird body with a Fender-style scale length, roasted maple neck, and rosewood fretboard.
It’s got a bridge and locking tuners from Hipshot, and it’s loaded with Greenville Beauty Parlor P-90s. A typical Gibson-style toggle switches between neck, bridge, and both configurations, while another Esquire-style 3-way switch on the lower bout handles Lembach’s preferred bridge-pickup wirings: no tone, tone and volume, or bass boost.
No Logo
Lembach stays loyal to his twin Marshall Super Leads, with taped-over logos—an aesthetic Lembach picked up from Nirvana. A tech in Atlanta figured out that the one on the left is a 1973, which runs at eight ohms, or half power (Lembach removed two of the power tubes), into a 16-ohm cabinet. The power drop allows Lembach to coax feedback at lower volumes. The original preamp tubes from Yugoslavia—no longer a country, mind you—are still working in the amp.
The one on the right is a reissue 1959SLP from 2002 or 2003, which Lembach finds brighter than his vintage model. He goes into the lower-input second channel to dampen the edge.
Both amps run through Marshall JCM800 cabinets with Celestion G12T-75s.
Christian Lembach's Board
A Loop-Master Pedals Clean/Dirty Effects Switcher manages Lembach’s signal. Its A loop is used for verses, bridges, intros, and outros, and has the majority of the pedals in it. The first thing in the A loop is the ZVEX Fuzz Factory made specially for the band, followed by a Devi Ever Soda Meiser, Beetronics Swarm, Keeley Nova Wah, Spiral Electric FX Yellow Spiral, Boss NF-1, and Alexander Pedals Radical II Delay.
The B loop has a clone of the Electro-Harmonix Green Russian Big Muff, an EHX POG, and a ZVEX Super Hard On. The A loop is already pretty loud; B somehow gets even louder. An EHX Superego+ is a new addition that Lembach’s planning to integrate.
A CIOKS DC10 powers the board, and a Lehle device under the board cleans up unwanted hum and noise.
Bluegrass music is bigger than a genre. It’s become an entire world of ideas and feelings in the popular American imagination. And musician Jerry Douglas has been a key part of its celebration and revival over the past 30 years. “It's an old form of music that came from people in the south playing on the porch and became this juggernaut of a genre,” says Douglas. “It’s a character. It's a physical music.”
Douglas has racked up an impressive cabinet of accolades, including Grammys, American Music Association Awards, and International Bluegrass Music Association Awards. He’s been dubbed the CMA Awards’ Musician of the Year three times, and played with everyone from Allison Krauss and Elvis Costello to Bela Fleck and John Fogerty. He’s an encyclopedic guide to contemporary American roots music, and on this episode of Wong Notes, he walks Cory Wong through the most important moments in his 50-year career.
Tune in to hear Douglas’ assessment of bluegrass’ demanding nature (“Honestly, there's not so many genres nowadays that require as much technical facility as something like bluegrass”), what’s required of roots players (“Get it right, get it fast, make it hook”), and why the O Brother, Where Are Thou? soundtrack connected with so many listeners. Wondering how to get involved with session work? Douglas says there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, and what worked for him might not work today. The key is to be dynamic—and know when to keep your mouth shut.
There are plenty of gems in this interview, like Douglas’ thoughts on what makes a good solo, but the most significant might be Douglas’ big takeaway from decades of sitting in on communal roots-music sessions. “We can play in all genres,” says Douglas. “We just have to listen.”
In some respects, the newestLes Paul Studio adheres to that philosophy and shares many trademark elements with its Studio forebears. There’s no body binding and a silkscreened, rather than inlaid mother-of-pearl headstock logo, for instance. But Gibson also carefully and cleverly threaded the needle between economy and luxury with this release, including several desirable Les Paul features that have occasionally been excluded from the budget model over the years.
Classic Contours
Most readers with a cursory knowledge of the Les Paul format will know this guitar’s basic specs already: mahogany body with maple top, mahogany set neck, 24.75" scale length, 12" fingerboard radius, and dual humbuckers. The Les Paul Studio hasn’t always followed the Standard’s, um, standard quite so religiously. Studios from the first few years of the model’s existence, for example, were made with alder bodies and slightly thinner than the usual Les Paul depth. The newest version, too, veers from formula a bit by using Gibson’s Ultra Modern weight relief scheme, which slims the guitar’s weight to about 8 1/2 pounds. The carved maple top, however, is plain and not heavily figured, which keeps costs down. Even so, it looks good under the bright-red gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finish on our cherry sunburst example. (Wine red, ebony, and the striking blueberry burst are also available).
While the binding-free body and less-heavily figured top hint at the Studio’s “affordable” status, Gibson didn’t skimp on dressing up the neck. It has a bound rosewood fretboard with trapezoidal pearloid inlays rather than the dots many early versions featured. For many players, though, the fretboard binding is more than cosmetic—the ever-so-slight extra width also lends a more vintage-like feel, so it’s really nice to have it here. The neck itself is carved to Gibson’s familiar and ubiquitous Slim Taper profile, a shape inspired by early-’60s necks that were generally thinner and flatter than the ’50s profiles.
“Gibson carefully and cleverly threaded the needle between economy and luxury with this release.”
Hardware largely adheres to contemporary norms for all but vintage reissue-style Les Pauls: tune-o-matic bridge, aluminum stopbar tailpiece, Kluson-style Vintage Deluxe tuners with Keystone buttons, and larger strap buttons (yay!). Another feature here that some past Studio models lack is the cream pickguard, which contributes to the ’50s-era aura. There’s also a matching cream toggle switch washer in the included gig bag if you want to add another vintage touch.
Studio Play Date
Under the chrome pickup covers live two wax-potted, alnico 5 Gibson Burstbucker Pros, which are calibrated for their respective positions. The DC resistance for the Burstbucker Pro Rhythm is 7.8k and the Burstbucker Pro Treble 8.3k-ohms. They’re wired with a traditional Gibson four-knob complement and 3-way switch, but the volume knobs are push-pull controls that enable coil tapping, which broadens the tone palette considerably.
Playability is a high point. The fine setup, smooth fret work, and well-executed binding nibs lend a very visible sense of quality, but you can hear the payoff in the form of the well-balanced, resonant ring when you strum the guitar unplugged. When you turn it up, though, it’s classic Les Paul. Whether I paired it with a Vox-style head and 1x12, a Fender Bassman with a 2x12 cab, or numerous presets on a Fractal FM9, the Studio didn’t yield any negative surprises, but plenty of positive ones.
The Burstbucker Pros have plenty of bite. But most impressive for a Les Paul at this price, is the excellent clarity and articulation you hear along with strong hints of PAF-descendent grit and swirling overtones that lend heft and personality in cleaner amp settings. There’s none of the mud or mid-heavy boominess that you hear in some Les Pauls, even though the characteristically beefy Les Paul overdrive is present in abundance, helped, no doubt, by the slightly hotter-than-vintage-spec Burstbucker Pros. The Studio matches up well with a cranked amp or an overdrive. And while to some ears the Studio might not sound as creamy-complex or lush as high-end, vintage-leaning re-creations of a ’59 Standard, it will crunch, wail, and sing with aggression and civilized authority.
As for the coil-tapped tones, they don’t sound quite like genuine single-coil pickups, even though Gibson employs the nifty trick of wiring a capacitor in series with the coil tap—which is voiced to provide a fatter tapped-coil voice and balanced output with full-humbucking operation. It also provides hum-reducing operation when tapped and full-hum canceling operation when both are combined as they are reverse wind/reverse polarity. But generally, they will deliver the lighter jangle and chime that some humbuckers struggle with and lend a lot of versatility.The Verdict
From fit and finish, to playability, to sonic virtue and versatility, the new Les Paul Studio is a genuine Gibson USA-made Les Paul that offers a lot of value. It does just about everything a player working within this price range could want from a Les Paul Standard with a load of style to boot.
Gibson Les Paul Studio Electric Guitar - Cherry Sunburst
