The Jazzmaster icon goes beyond offsets and shreds on fresh, sparkly Teles and a Vox-Fender mashup. Plus, he encounters his first Floyd Rose.
Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis is rock ’n’ roll’s loudest low talker. Onstage, the reserved frontman is overshadowed by his three full stacks, summoning up President Teddy Roosevelt’s quote: “speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”
Fellow volume-dealing stalwarts Emmett Jefferson Murphy III (drums)—better known as “Murph”—and Lou Barlow (bass/vocals) helped J form the band in 1984 after their first group, Deep Wound, dissolved. Both left Dinosaur Jr., and then rejoined in 2005. This core group has released eight studio albums of dynamically rich rock that teeters between a runaway locomotive fueled on feedback and buzzing riffs, and hooky, melodic, pop-soaked nimble rhythms that carry more than they crush. While never reaching the mainstream stratosphere like some of their contemporaries (including Nirvana, who opened for Dino Jr. in 1991), this consummate power trio have remained popular in the American underground by continually selling out theaters, splashing into the Billboard 200 (climbing even higher in the Independent and Rock charts), and headlining alternative-music festivals. All along the way, their soft-spoken shredder has ascended as a guitar-hero among musical outcasts.
Before Dinosaur Jr.’s sold-out show at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl, Mascis reconnected with PG’s Chris Kies to talk Teles (yes, you read that right; he’s touring with more Telecasters than ever), including the development of his new signature T that’s based on his studio-perfect ’58 model. We also witness two firsts for J: a Phantom-Tele-Jazzmaster Frankenstein and a Floyd Rose-equipped guitar.
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The Phantom of the Bowl
J Mascis has been linked to the Jazzmaster for decades. In 2021, he broke his offset mold, releasing a signature Fender Telecaster based on a beloved 1958 Tele that has long been his go-to instrument for tracking solos. But during our November 2021 chat at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl, Mascis mentioned that the ’60s Vox Phantom was his favorite silhouette. He could never get along with them onstage, so he’s cobbled together various parts and made his own dream machine. This guitar features a modern copy of a Phantom body, a Fender Deluxe Series Telecaster maple neck and fretboard (with jumbo frets), and a Mastery JM-style bridge.
The project was entrusted to and executed by Trevor Healy of Healy Guitars out of Easthampton, Massachusetts. Healy recounts: “My favorite thing about it was cutting around the Mastery bridge to fit snug inside the pickguard. There’s also a Seymour Duncan custom shop pickup under the bridge pickup cover, if I’m not mistaken.” Regarding the pickups we can see, Mascis tried several sets—including Fender Eric Johnson signature single-coils (middle and neck) matched with a Seymour Duncan Stra-Bro 90 (bridge)—before landing on a trio of Fender Noiseless single-coils. The guitar rides in open-G tuning and is used on “I Ain’t” from their new album Sweep It Into Space.
All of J’s guitars take Ernie Ball Regular Slinkys (.010–.046) and he shreds with Dunlop Tortex 1.14 mm picks.
Full-On Phantom
Here’s a head-to-toe shot of the marvelous mash-up.
Déjà Blue
“I’ve started seeing it in guitar shops, and it’s weird because it’s like, ‘why is my guitar up on the wall?’,” jokes Mascis. “It’s not a guitar I designed, like with my signature Jazzmasters, so seeing a copy of a guitar I’ve had for decades is weird.” Mascis sort of fell into the Telecaster world by way of Fort Apache Studios owner Joe Harvard, who sold J the 1958 top-loading Tele that his new signature is based on.
Mascis played that ’58 while producing Buffalo Tom’s 1990 album Birdbrain at Fort Apache. Mascis let Harvard know that if he ever wanted to part ways with the Tele, he should call him first. Harvard swore he’d never break ties with the guitar, but only a few months later Mascis got the fateful call. In the Rundown, he mentions that since owning the ’58 it has appeared on almost every solo he’s recorded, because he tends to like what he plays on that Tele more than anything else he owns.
In our November 2021 cover story, J elaborated on what makes the blue-sparkle T so special: “On that Tele, I find my solos are more interesting. If I play the same solo on a Strat, it just sounds like a Strat to me. It’s slightly more boring somehow? I don’t know where my brain or fingers go or why that happens, but I usually find that if I play solos on different guitars for the same song, the stuff I play on that Tele is always more interesting. The top-loader was the first Tele I really bonded with, and it was about the feel. When I pick up Teles with string-through-body bridges, the strings are a little harder to bend. People say the top-loaders don’t have as much sustain, but I never thought of a Tele as a sustain guitar anyway, and when you hit a Big Muff, every guitar has sustain. So that argument doesn't really work for me.”
Notable ingredients for the production model include an alder body covered with a dashing bottle-rocket blue-flake finish (offset with a mirrored pickguard), a custom J Mascis C-profile maple neck that’s paired with a maple fretboard pocketing 21 jumbo frets, and J Mascis Custom ’58 Tele Single-Coil pickups. However, in the signature guitar he showed us, he swapped out the stock Fender pickups for a Seymour Duncan BG1400 Lead Stack Telecaster (bridge) and McNelly A2 or A5 T-style (neck). (The neck and hardware feature Fender’s “road-worn” treatment, too.) So far, he’s been using it on “Feel the Pain” and “Start Choppin’.”
Sparkle Spank
Prior to getting his signature Tele, this Fender Custom Shop Deluxe Telecaster Thinline was his favorite live T. The purple-sparkle axe features many of J’s go-to specs, like jumbo frets on a worn-down, C-profile maple neck and a top-loader bridge. (Although Fender delivered the guitar with a string-through setup, forgetting his request for a top-loading bridge, J quickly swapped one onto it.) As of filming, it had a Seymour Duncan BG1400 Lead Stack Telecaster (bridge) and TV Jones Starwood (neck).
JM Thinline for J
To match his Custom Shop Tele Thinline, Mascis requested a Jazzmaster Thinline semi-hollow in the hopes it’d be a lightweight option for extended practice jams, but the finished product came out heavier than J imagined. The Custom Shop JM-style pickups were spray painted by his tech.
A St. Vincent Jazzmaster?
While recording Sweep It Into Space, J experimented with different sounds and tunings. One pairing that yielded a raucous result was using an Ernie Ball Music Man St. Vincent guitar in C#-tuning, which delivered the gnarly “I Met the Stones.” The foundation of the beefy track is the St. Vincent’s DiMarzio mini humbuckers into a Fender tweed. J shared this with PG in November 2021: “It [EBMM St. Vincent] seemed to play in tune well at that pitch. A lot of those rhythm parts are on that guitar through a tweed Fender Bandmaster. I think the sound on that song is mostly from the amp and the mini-humbuckers in that guitar.” So, his road-take on that instrument is a Jazzmaster with the neck pickup disconnected, blasting through the same DiMarzio bridge mini-humbucker that’s in the St. Vincent.
Tuxedo Tele
“I asked Fender if they had any guitars that would stay in tune in C#, and they sent this to me,” says Mascis. The Fender American Ultra Luxe Telecaster Floyd Rose HH is J’s first 6-string with a Floyd Rose trem and, noted in the Rundown, he eyed “Mountain Man” (from 1985’s Dinosaur) for its maiden voyage.
The snazzy Telecaster is constructed with an alder body, Fender’s augmented-D-shaped maple neck, a maple fretboard and 22 jumbo frets, Ultra Double Tap humbuckers (splitable via Fender’s S-1 switch), and a Floyd Rose Original Double-Locking 2-Point Tremolo bridge.
J For Jazzmaster
We’d be remised if we didn’t feature J’s longtime live No. 1—a sunburst ’63 Fender Jazzmaster with its original neck and pickups. He replaced the pickup covers and knobs, put in jumbo frets, subbed in a Tune-o-matic-style bridge, and since our 2017 episode, he upgraded the stock Fender vibrato to a Mastery.
Tone … Deaf
Anyone who has witnessed Dinosaur Jr. live recognizes these towers of tone. For years, Mascis has been flanked by the same three stacks and sidestage combo. Here we see three-fourths of J’s jumbo setup: two late-’60s Marshall Super Bass full-stacks and a vintage Hiwatt DR-103 head driving two Marshall 4x12s.
Close Ups
Vintage Hiwatt DR-103
1960s Marshall Super Bass
Another 1960s Marshall Super Bass
Fender Makes Four
In the 2012 episode, Mascis was using a Victoria 80212 tweed Twin clone, but in 2017, and again in late 2021, he was using the same vintage Fender Twin Reverb.
More For Mascis
For at least 10-plus years, J Mascis has used a Bob Bradshaw-built Custom Audio Electronics switcher as his mission control. The standout stomps that were seen in the 2012 and 2017 editions include a Tone Bender MkI/Rangemaster-clone combo pedal made by Built to Spill’s Jim Roth (bottom right corner—in a third new enclosure since the 2012 and 2017 videos, each showing a different box), Mascis’ first Electro-Harmonix “Ram’s Head” Big Muff (top right), a vintage EHX Electric Mistress, an MC-FX clone of a Univox Super-Fuzz (lower right, blue box), a pair of ZVEX pedals—a Double Rock (two Box of Rock stomps in one) and a Lo-Fi Loop Junky (both bottom left), a Tube Works Real Tube Overdrive, a Moog MF Delay, and a Boss TU-3S Tuner. The new pedals not featured in the last two videos are a Homebrew Electronics Germania 44 treble booster (lower right), a JAM Pedals RetroVibe MkII, an Xotic SL Drive, a Suhr Jack Rabbit tremolo, a Dr. Scientist Frazz Dazzler fuzz, an EHX Oceans 11, and a (Dunlop) Jimi Hendrix ’69 Psych Series Uni-Vibe chorus/vibrato. Everything receives juice from either an MXR MC403 Power System or an MXR M237 DC Brick.
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- Rig Rundown: Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis and Lou Barlow [2017 ... ›
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Introducing the new Gibson Acoustic Special models, handcrafted in Bozeman, Montana, featuring solid wood construction, satin nitrocellulose lacquer finishes, and L.R. Baggs electronics.
Solid Wood Construction
Each of the three Acoustic Special models from Gibson are crafted using solid mahogany for the back and sides, solid Sitka spruce for the tops, utile for the necks, and rosewood for the fretboards for a sound that will only get better and better as they age.
Satin Nitrocellulose Lacquer Finishes
All three Gibson Acoustic Special models are finished in satin nitrocellulose lacquer for a finish that breathes, ages gracefully, and lets the natural beauty–both in sound and appearance–of the quality tonewoods come through.
L.R. Baggs Electronics
The Gibson Acoustic Special guitars come with L.R. Baggs Element Bronze under-saddle piezo pickups and active preamps pre-installed, making them stage and studio-ready from the moment you pick them up.
For more information, please visit gibson.com.
Introducing the Gibson Acoustic Specials – J-45, Hummingbird & L-00 Special - YouTube
Great Eastern FX Co. has released the limited-edition OC201 Preamp, featuring vintage Mullard OC201 transistors for a unique fuzz sound. Part of the 'Obsolete Devices' series, this pedal combines classic circuits with modern components for optimal tone and reliability.
Boutique British pedal designers GreatEastern FX Co. have released a new pedal. Limited to just 50 units, the OC201 Preamp is an intriguing twist on the familiar two-transistor fuzz circuit, built around a pair of new-old-stock Mullard OC201 transistors.
“The OC201 is a very early silicon transistor,” company founder David Greeves explains. “It was actually the first silicon transistor made by Mullard, using the same method as their germanium devices. It’s pretty crude by modern standards, with very low gain and limited bandwidth, but that’s exactly what makes it so great in a fuzz pedal.”
This little-known low-gain silicon transistor is responsible for the OC201 Preamp’s palette of sounds, which GreatEastern FX say ranges from dirty boost and garage rock drive sounds up to a raw and richly textured fuzz, all with the excellent volume knob clean-up characteristics this style of fuzz is famous for. The circuit has also been tweaked to deliver a healthy kick of volume to your amp.
This limited-edition pedal is the first in a new series that Great Eastern FX are calling ‘Obsolete Devices’. According to the company, the Obsolete Devices series will feature the company’s take on a range of classic circuits, constructed using a mixture of vintage and modern components. It’s a distinct departure from Great Eastern FX’s main range of pedals.
“With pedals like the Design-a-drive and the XO Variable Crossover, we’re really committed to developing original designs that bring something new to the table,” founder David Greeves explains. “I’m always very conscious of choosing parts that aren’t going to go obsolete so we can go on making the pedals for as long as people want to buy them. But I also love messing around with old parts and classic circuits, which is a totally different mentality. The Obsolete Devices series is basically a way for me to have fun modifying these classic circuits and experimenting with my stash of NOS components, then share the results.
“The name is a little bit of an inside joke,” he continues. “I think what gets labelled as ‘obsolete’ is very subjective. As pedal designers and guitar players, we obsess over obsolete components and what, in any other field, would be considered outdated designs. So the name is a nod to that. I also loved the thought of us coming out with some brand-new Obsolete Devices of our own!”
Alongside the pedal’s new-old-stock Mullard OC201 transistors – which are the reason only 50 of them are being made – the OC201 Preamp uses quality modern components, including high-tolerance Dale metal film resistors and WIMA capacitors. GreatEastern FX say that this hybrid approach, using vintage parts where they make the most difference sonically and low-noise modern parts elsewhere, will deliver the best combination of tone and reliability while also keeping the price from spiralling out of control.
The OC201 Preamp will cost £249 in the UK, $299 in the US and €299 in the EU. It’s available now direct from Great Eastern FX Co. and from the following dealers:
- UK – Andertons
- Europe – Pedaltown.nl
- USA – Sound Shoppe NYC
- Canada – Electric Mojo Guitars
For more information, please visit greateasternfx.com.
Obsolete Devices OC201 Preamp | Great Eastern FX Co. - YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.Geppetto Guitars introduces The Atomic Punk humbucker pickup set, handcrafted with high wind bridge and low wind neck pickups for superior tone. Featuring AlNiCo magnets and customizable covers, this set, developed for gigging pro Jason Soules, offers versatility and quality craftsmanship.
Geppetto Guitars has introduced its newest humbucker pickup set, The Atomic Punk. Featuring a high wind bridge and a low wind neck pickup, each pickup reflects Geppetto’s well-established ethos: made by hand, one at a time, with an emphasis on workmanship and superior tone.
The Atomic Punk bridge pickup features an AlNiCo 8 magnet and the neck is built with an AlNiCo 3 magnet, with wax potting available upon request. Atomic Punk pickup sets are available with polished nickel, raw nickel or aged nickel covers, as well as uncovered.
Geppetto Guitars owner Mike O'Donoghue developed the Atomic Punk at the behest of longtime customer and friend Jason Soules, a gigging pro who currently writes and plays guitar with the bands The Problem Eels (from Nashville TN) and Crimson Devils (Austin TX).
“I built it to Jason’s exact request,” says O’Donoghue, “and this set absolutely has the best characteristics in the bridge, neck, and middle positions. It really covers a multitude of voices as well as tones.”
The Atomic Punk bridge pickup’s DC resistance is approximately 13.5k and features an Alnico 8magnet. The Atomic Punk neck pickup DCR is 6.75k and features an Alnico 3 magnet.
Both pickups come with two-conductor wiring as standard configuration, although the AtomicPunk bridge pickup is available with optional four-conductor wiring.
The Atomic Punk pickup set carries a street price of $250 (including your choice of covers) and is directly from Geppetto Guitars via telephone at 512-630-8423, online at geppettoguitars.com as well as Austin Vintage Guitars, Austin TX.
For more information, please visit geppettoguitars.com.
Atomic Punk Demo - YouTube
What Lindsay Ell, Joshua Crumbly, Jennifer Batten, Earl Slick, and other traveling artists ask for on the road, and the lessons they’ve learned.
Over the last few decades, technology has been a driving force in the creation, production, and dissemination of recorded music. The shift from big budgets, world-class studios, and gold and platinum album sales certifications to no-budgets, home studios, and streams/followers has transformed the entire industry. Touring is no exception to this metamorphosis. Tour buses, tractor trailers, and large-scale stage productions are mostly vestiges of the past, available only to today’s biggest acts like Taylor Swift or Iron Maiden. The rest have to eke out a living by taking advantage of technology and adapting to a more conservative approach to touring that often requires the promoter, venue, or festival to provide at least some portion of the backline.
Backline usually refers to amps, speaker cabinets, and drums, and nowadays it simply isn’t cost effective for many artists to tote these items around the country, so “fly-out dates” have become the norm. It’s a viable, cost-effective option to play nationally without having to rent vehicles and hire road crews. Guitarists and bass players can now travel with a chosen instrument and travel rig, usually a modeling amp or pedal, which fits neatly into a gig bag. They then request that the venue or promoter supply the necessary sonic accoutrements. '
Premier Guitar recently caught up with several artists adept at fly-out dates to find out what they bring, what they request, and what they’ve experienced as the touring industry continues to evolve around them.
Joshua Crumbly
Acclaimed bassist Joshua Crumbly (Terence Blanchard, Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah) asks for three different choices for amps on fly-out dates. He provides three options because he wants to give himself the best chance that a backline company or music festival will be able to provide at least one of his preferences or mix and match based on his choices. His first choice is an Ampeg SVT-PRO CL or Ampeg SVT-PRO VR amplifier with an Ampeg SVT 4x10 cabinet. “This is actually my first choice for upright bass tour dates as well,” he adds. His second choice is a Fender Super Bassman amplifier with a Fender 410 Pro cab, and his third choice is a Markbass Little Tube 800 with a Markbass 410 cab.
“I used to travel with my own DI but typically do not anymore,” Crumbly explains. “I now ask for a Rupert Neve RND1 or a Radial DI and for a mic on the cabinet, like an EV-RE20 or something comparable.” Crumbly’s upright bass specs are a ¾-size fully carved or hybrid double bass equipped with a Fishman Full Circle or David Gage Realist pickup (no exceptions about pickup choices) and Thomastik Spirocore Weich bass strings or D’Addario Orchestral Medium tension strings.
A few months ago, Crumbly was out on tour with trumpeter Riley Mulherkar. One of the dates was in Madison, Wisconsin, and he was told ahead of time that there would be one show where the club did not have a bass amp, but a local bassist, named John Christensen, would let him borrow one, and that he’d bring it by before soundcheck. Turns out Christensen brought a powered speaker and a Grace Design FELiX preamp DI—not what Crumbly was expecting. “I had heard some rumblings about it being really good for upright bass, so was not really excited and had suppressed expectations for it in the electric setting I was in,” he recalls. “But it ended up working so great, I remember feeling like it was the first time on the whole tour where I could really hear myself, along with all of the nuance of the instrument.”
One of Crumbly’s goals for this year is to learn how to adjust action and intonation and learn how to make truss rod adjustments. “Traveling, especially long flights, can be very hard on instruments,” he attests. “The action on one of my main basses has been fluctuating a lot, and not every gig has a budget for techs, so as my mentor, Reggie Hamilton, would so eloquently say, ‘Learn all of the skills you can.’”
Lindsay Ell
Photo by Hannah Gray Hall
Pop-country singer-songwriter Lindsay Ell loves mixing dirty and clean amps in stereo whenever she can, so her rider includes two reissue Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverbs and one Vox AC30, or two VOX AC30s and one Matchless DC-30. “I also usually get a backup Deluxe because I know if any one of the amps go down, I can always just rock with a Deluxe Reverb,” she explains. “I’ve had so many gigs where we get to the venue and one of the speakers is blown on one of the amps or the power supply doesn’t work. So, I always feel better getting at least one extra.” The condition of the equipment is a topic that will reverberate throughout this article. Many artists have grown accustomed to requesting more than they need simply because they know gear maintenance can sometimes be questionable, especially outside of primary markets.
To that point, Ell says her craziest backline memory is from a gig in Texas, where her drummer got on a kit only to find it was completely falling apart. “He had to steady the snare between his knees because the stand wasn’t stable,” she recalls. “And the toms were falling apart as soundcheck went along. All the heads were so old, the kick head broke during soundcheck.” They later found out that the backline company had double-booked a bunch of gear, so some guy ended up bringing his personal kit to the gig. “It was in need of a lot of TLC, and we had to duct-tape most of it together to get through the show, but we made it.”
Earl Slick
David Bowie guitar legend Earl Slick usually orders more amps than he needs because he knows from experience the condition might be questionable upon arrival. “When the roadies call in, I have them specifically ask questions about the shape of the amps, and of course they are always great until you get them,” he chuckles. One time, while on tour in the U.K. with Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols), he got an amp that started cutting in and out after the first song. “I don’t know where they were getting the rentals from, and I don’t even remember the amp they brought me,” he recalls. “But it wasn’t even remotely what I asked for.” He eventually kicked the amp off the stage into the back wall. But because he was with Matlock, playing Sex Pistols tunes, the audience loved it. “They thought it was part of the show,” he recalls. “But I was basically having a complete fucking meltdown.”
When Slick did the Double Fantasy (John Lennon and Yoko Ono) show with Tony Levin and Andy Newmark at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, he ordered two VOX AC30s and two Marshall plexi half stacks. “We’d never done this stuff live before, and I didn’t want to take any chances, so the amps start showing up, and the sound man is shitting his pants, and I’m like, ‘Don’t worry dude, it’s only going to be one amp—whichever one works [laughter].’”
Nili Brosh
Israeli-American guitarist Nili Brosh is able to get her Mesa/Boogie Triple Crown 100 rig most of the time, partly because she’s endorsed by the brand, but also many of her tours start in Los Angeles, where she relies on Center Staging to deliver the goods. However, even such a seemingly bulletproof situation isn’t without obstacles when you’re working multiple gigs simultaneously.
“If I’m going on tour, it’s easy to start from L.A.,” she proclaims. “Last year I was doing a couple of gigs at the exact same time and all of my rigs were coming from Center Staging. And a lot of the time they’ll provide a backup as well. So, I flew in from a Dethklok tour to make a Danny Elfman rehearsal, and cartage was like, ‘Here’s your rig.’ And there was one Triple Crown and one other Mesa head, a Mark Series or something, and I was like, ‘Hmmm … I know they know me, and they know what rig I prefer, so why would they send me a Mark-series backup?’ Then I realized, ‘I think I am using all the Triple Crowns they have right now, that’s why they sent this one [laughter].’” She ran into a tech a few months later who confirmed that she was in fact using all of Center Staging’s Triple Crowns. “The good thing about Mesa is that if the Triple Crown isn’t available, usually what I do see is a Triple Rectifier. It’s not really my kind of amp, but I’ve definitely made it work. It’s nice to have a 3-channel tube amp show up at a fly date.”
Brosh does have a backup travel modeling rig, which is Headrush MX5. “It’s tiny and fits in a backpack,” she says. “I usually carry it in my suitcase anyway because it’s a great little rig to do some quick recording or even if I just go DI.”
In the end, Brosh says it’s all about how you manage expectations and that savvy players should be able to make just about any situation work. “Whether you get what you ask for or not, there are so many solutions, and there are a lot more fallback options to put in your suitcase than there’s ever been before.”
Rudy Sarzo
Photo by Coffman Rock Shots
Quiet Riot bassist Rudy Sarzo was playing Ampeg before he started using backline rentals. So, when the band transitioned from traditional road tours to fly dates, after witnessing how Blue Öyster Cult was doing it, Sarzo was able to transition seamlessly. “I could always find an Ampeg, even in places like Bulgaria or Russia,” he attests. “Aguilar is very popular, too.”
Nowadays, Quiet Riot does any combination of casinos, festivals, package tours, and clubs, so Sarzo knows his way around rental gear and what to expect. “Using rental gear, the preamp tubes take the most abuse,” he explains. “Now, I ask for an SVT 4-PRO. It has a master volume. It’s the only Ampeg that backline companies seem to have plenty of, and if you go power amp in with your own preamp, you can use the master to control the volume and bypass a potentially bad preamp tube.”
Sarzo admits he’s always adjusting to improve these kinds of situations, and trying, as much as possible, to get his bass tone out of the hands of the front-of-house sound guys. “A lot of times we’re on bills with multiple bands and there just isn’t enough time for me to sit down with them and explain what I need,” he says. To that effect, he’s recently returned to Ultimate Ears in-ear monitors (IEM) and a Neve DI that goes in between the amp and the speaker cab. “You can go XLR out from the Neve, so I get the Ampeg tone in my in-ears instead of a dry DI tone.”
Jennifer Batten
Some artists have adjusted to this new touring paradigm by becoming completely self-contained and foregoing the need to request or utilize any backline. Former Michael Jackson guitarist Jennifer Batten, for example, no longer requires backline support when she hits the road. “I go direct and everything I need is in my carry-on,” she explains.
Aside from her guitar, Batten travels with a BluGuitar Amp1 and either the BluGuitar Nanocab or Fatcab, along with a Line 6 HX Stomp XL Multi-effects Floor Processor. “When I show up, they give me a left and right XLR output and a wireless in-ear mix pack, and I’m done. I’m also usually capable of doing my own mix from an iPad that I bring if the engineer is set up with a router to send the tracks to me.”
Marcus Nand
Photo by ShotZ Fired Performance Photography
Marcus Nand, guitarist for Mike Tramp’s White Lion, is another musician who has utilized technology to scale back his touring needs. “Adapting to various conditions while maintaining consistency is a challenge when on tour,” he explains. “For the last few tours, I’ve used a Kemper, and we premixed the show using only IEM monitoring and no sound on stage. We even used digital drums to eliminate the unpredictability of the occasional inebriated soundman on club tours.”
Even though he describes his travel rig as a great and consistent setup, Nand admits it can be a little sterile. “Something shifted recently after playing a show with the Dead Daisies through good old tube amps. I thought, ‘Man that was fun!’ I realized I missed the tactile, dynamic magic and the raw feel of speakers pushing air, the unpredictable nuances, the connection between player and amp that makes things come alive, so we’ve reverted back to amps on stage and an acoustic drum kit.”
For this, Nand is now also using a BluGuitar Amp1. “It weighs about two pounds, delivers up to 100 watts of Marshall-like tone, and fits right into my carry-on.” All he now needs from the backline supplier is a decent Marshall 4x12 speaker cabinet. “There are so many great products on the market—for me, consistency in sound, reliability, and portability when traveling are the determining factors.”
Farees
At the 2022 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival with Leo Nocentelli’s debut show presenting his acclaimed record Another Side, Tuareg guitarist Farees borrowed one of Nocentelli’s parlor acoustic guitars for the show. “Likely a D’Angelico, if I remember right,” he recalls. “It wasn’t my usual type of instrument, but adapting is essential. I changed the strings, adjusted it for better playability—which is crucial for this kind of music—but its built-in amplification system was very basic and prone to feedback, with no equalization or piezo option.”
When he hit the stage, he realized he’d been wrongly given a large electric guitar amp—placed directly behind him. “It was probably a Fender Twin Reverb, and for an acoustic guitar like that, with no piezo or alternative amplification, this setup would’ve been a feedback nightmare and could’ve ruined the sound for the entire show.” But Farees stayed calm and acted quickly. “I asked the stage engineer to move the amp far behind me, set it to a low, clean volume, slightly boost the bass, and cut the high and mid frequencies. I also asked him to mic the amp and find something to cover the guitar’s soundhole to minimize feedback.”
Farees says that performance taught him a lot about staying adaptable under pressure and making the best of unpredictable circumstances. “On a big stage, it’s not just about playing your part—it’s about working with what you’re given, solving problems quickly, and keeping the energy high so the music and the moment shine—not for yourself, but for everyone involved, both within and beyond the band.”