Mick Thomson is a creature of habit—give him a few of his Ibanez MTM signature guitars packed with his Seymour Duncan EMTY Blackout pickups and he’s a happy dude. Each one of his guitars features a mahogany body, maple neck, and rosewood fretboard.
As far as he’s concerned, the best guitar he has out on the road right now is his white-and-black “storm trooper” Ibanez MTM that’s kept tuned to dropped-B. According to Thomson, it’s perfect for rhythm work and can stand up against any other 6-string in his collection for leads. Nearly all of 2008’s All Hope is Gone and the bulk of the rhythm material for last year’s .5: The Gray Chapter was done with the storm trooper. For this run, the band is primarily using two tunings and he uses a different set of D’Addario EXL117 strings for each one. For dropped-A tunings, he goes with .011–.058 and for dropped-B tunings he goes with .012–.068. Thomson recently worked with Dunlop to create a custom Jazz III pick made of a graphite composite because he feels they’re slicker, harder, and doesn’t make any scraping or scratching sounds when they wear down.
This is #7’s backup to the storm trooper—his very first prototype he got for his signature line back in the early 2000s.
Thomson starts the night out with this Oakland Raiders-themed Ibanez MTM that’s tuned to dropped-A for “Sacrastrophe.”
Thomson’s newest signature model features a carbon-fiber cap on the body and headstock and is tuned to dropped-A.
All of Thomson’s Audio-Technica wireless packs on his guitars are protected by Trojan condoms to keep them from getting wet from water, beer, sweat, and blood.
Much like his guitars, Mick rocks only the gear with his name on it—for this tour, he’s been using two Rivera KR-7 heads. One head goes to front of house and the second head runs through a 1x12 iso cabinet with a Celestion G-12K-100 because it meshes well with the third channel of the KR-7 and allows more headroom giving more clarity to the drop-tuned notes.
The secret weapon of his amp setup is the Rivera RockCrusher because he runs the FOH signal through the unit allowing him and his tech to color and dial in the sound from room to room or venue to venue. In addition, the RockCrusher can emulate most speakers on the market making it an invaluable tool for Mick in the studio.
Thomson’s rack of effects is slim—but utilitarian. He only uses six effects plus a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power ISO-5 and Peterson Stomp Classic tuner. His noisemakers include a Maxon OD-820 Overdrive Pro for lead boosts, an Electro-Harmonix Bassballs that’s kicked on for “Disasterpiece,” an MXR Carbon Copy Delay for parts of “Vermillion,” a Death By Audio Fuzz War, and a custom-made octave fuzz created by Thomson’s tech Kevin Allen. Mick commissioned his tech to make the filthiest, gnarliest, most obnoxious-sounding fuzzbox possible because as the guitarist sees it, “the fuzz better fuck your sound up.” He uses the custom octave fuzz on parts of “Duality.”
His rackmounted gear includes Audio-Technica wireless units, a Furman power conditioner, a Boss GT-Pro, and a Dunlop Custom Shop DCR-2SR Cry Baby Rack Wah. Thomson uses the GT-Pro to mimic the vocal sounds he originally recorded on tracks like “Spit It Out,” “Surfacing,” “Prosthetics,” and others off their 1999 self-titled debut. He switched to the GT-Pro from the Boss GX-700 during the recording of All Hope is Gone because of the updated algorithms, added MIDI capabilities, and to preserve the 700’s life.
Tech Kevin Allen uses a Voodoo Lab Ground Control Pro backstage to do all of Thomson’s switching throughout a show.
Like his 6-string counterpart, Jim Root uses various body stylings of his signature Fender guitars that feature mahogany bodies, maple necks, rosewood fretboards—ebony for his Jazzmasters—single volume knob, and EMG pickups. All of his axes are equipped with Dunlop .011–.056 strings for dropped-A and .012–.058 for dropped-B tunings. And for guitar picks, #4 recently collaborated with Dunlop to customize a Jazz III nylon pick that is the shape of a Tortex III pick.
His newest signature guitar is a sandblasted Jazzmaster that he recently created with Fender. The company describes the process as “leaving the surface grain pattern wonderfully textured with parallel ruts and grooves in which the black grain-filler coat shows beneath the color finish coat.” Root commented that he feels the removal of some of the wood makes this particular Jazzmaster more resonant. This sig offset has an EMG 81 in the bridge and a 60 in the neck.
This signature model Jazzmaster is a flat-black model that is loaded with the EMG JH Het Set pickups that Root feels has more headroom and offers a more “rounder” saturation than the standard 81-60 pairing.
Jim’s favorite stage guitar has been his first signature Tele that was conceptualized with Fender in the early 2000s. The dual-humbucker, mahogany-bodied Telecaster has been used on every album and every tour since he received it nearly 10 years ago. Root hopes to convince Fender to do a limited run of relic’d copies of this guitar in the future.
His lone signature Strat has a matte silver finish with a patina copper pickguard. He currently uses this one the least because it is extra bright.
While he does a have a signature Orange head—#4 Jim Root Terror—he’s currently using a pair of Rockerverbs for his live sound. His main live amp is a Rockerverb 100 that runs into an isolated Orange 4x12 cab loaded with Celestion Vintage 30s that is close-mic’d with three Audio-Technica AT4050s.
His backup head is a Rockerverb 100 MKII.
Root’s batch of effects are fairly simple and straightforward as he has an old Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor—he claims the updated circuitry and lead-free solder in the new versions are less desirable and impact his sound too much—an MXR Auto Q Wah, a Maxon AF-9 Auto Filter, a Maxon PT-9 Pro+ Phase Shifter, two MXR Carbon Copy Delays—each is set with varying decay and repeat lengths—an Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb, and an Electro-Harmonix Micro POG. A T-Rex FuelTank Classic powers his stomps.
His satellite board that sits out front onstage includes a Cry Baby controller for the rack-mounted wah, a third MXR Carbon Copy so he can create oscillating chaos, a Maxon FV10 Fuzz Elements Void, an MXR GT-OD for a backup dirt box, and a Dunlop JH1D Jimi Hendrix Signature Wah. He feels the Hendrix wah has a different vibe that is a bit more traditional sounding effect that harkens back to the earliest Vox models. The Hendrix wah sits on a G-Lab True Bypass Wah-Pad that allows Root to leave the wah half-cocked without having to ride the foot pedal.
Naturally, every recording Eddie Van Halen ever played on has been pored over by legions of guitar players of all styles. It might seem funny, then, to consider EVH solos that might require more attention. But your 100 Guitarists hosts have their picks of solos that they feel merit a little discussion. Some of these are deep cuts—get ready for some instrumental bonus tracks and Van Halen III mentions—and some are among the biggest radio hits of their time. Just because their hits, though, doesn’t mean we don’t have more to add to the conversation.
We can’t cover everything EVH—Jason has already tried while producing the Runnin’ With the Dweezil podcast. But we cover as much as we can in our longest episode yet. And in the second installment of our current listening segment, we’re talking about new-ish music from Oz Noy and Bill Orcutt.
Tinkering with theSDE-3 Dual Digital Delay suggested a similar, possibly enduring appeal. As an evolution of the Roland SDE-3000rack unit from the 1980s, it’s a texture machine, bubbling with subtle-to-odd triangle LFO modulations and enhanced dual-delay patterns that make tone mazes from dopey-simple melodies. And with the capacity to use it with two amps in stereo or in panning capacity, it can be much more dimensional. But while the SDE-3 will become indispensable to some for its most complex echo textures, its basic voice possesses warmth that lends personality in pedestrian applications too.
Tapping Into the Source
Some interest in the original SDE-3000 is in its association with Eddie Van Halen, who ran two of them in a wet-dry-wet configuration, using different delay rates and modulation to thicken and lend dimension to solos. But while EVH’s de facto endorsement prompted reissues of the effect as far back as the ’90s, part of the appeal was down to the 3000’s intrinsic elegance and simplicity.
In fact, the original rack unit’s features don’t differ much from what you would find on modern, inexpensive stompbox echoes. But the SDE-3000’s simplicity and reliable predictability made it conducive to fast workflow in the studio. Critically, it also avoided the lo-fi and sterility shortcomings that plagued some lesser rivals—an attribute designer Yoshi Ikegami chalks up to analog components elsewhere in the circuit and a fortuitous clock imprecision that lends organic essence to the repeats.
Evolved Echo Animal
Though the SDE-3 traces a line back to the SDE-3000 in sound and function, it is a very evolved riff on a theme. I don’t have an original SDE-3000 on hand for comparison, but it’s easy to hear how the SDE-3 bridges a gap between analog haze and more clinical, surgical digital sounds in the way that made the original famous. Thanks to the hi-cut control, the SDE-3’s voice can be shaped to enhance the angular aspect of the echoes, or blunt sharp edges. There’s also a lot of leeway to toy with varied EQ settings without sacrificing the ample definition in the repeats. That also means you can take advantage of the polyrhythmic effects that are arguably its greatest asset.
“There’s a lot of leeway to toy with varied EQ settings without sacrificing the ample definition in the repeats.”
The SDE-3’s offset control, which generates these polyrhythmic echoes, is its heart. The most practical and familiar echos, like quarter, eighth, and dotted-eighth patterns, are easy to access in the second half of the offset knobs range. In the first half of the knob’s throw, however, the offset delays often clang about at less-regular intervals, producing complex polyrhythms that are also cool multipliers of the modulation and EQ effects. For example, when emphasizing top end in repeats, using aggressive effects mixes and pitch-wobble modulation generates eerie ghost notes that swim through and around patterns, adding rhythmic interest and texture without derailing the drive behind a groove. Even at modest settings, these are great alternatives to more staid, regular subdivision patterns. Many of the coolest sounds tend toward the foggy reverb spectrum. Removing high end, piling on feedback, and adding the woozy, drunken drift from modulation creates fascinating backdrops for slow, sparse chord melodies. Faster modulations throb and swirl like old BBC Radiophonic Workshop sci-fi sound designs.
By themselves, the modulations have their own broad appeal. Chorus tones are rarely the archetypal Roland Jazz Chorus or CE type—tending to be a bit darker and mistier. But they do a nice job suggesting that texture without lapsing into caricature. There are also really cool rotary-speaker-like textures and vibrato sounds that offer alternatives to go-to industry standards.
The Verdict
The SDE-3’s many available sounds and textures would be appealing at $219—even without the stereo and panning connectivity options, a useful hold function, and expression pedal control that opens up additional options. The panning capabilities, in particular, sparked all kinds of thoughts about studio applications. Mastering the SDE-3 takes just a little study—certain polyrhythms can be dramatically reshaped by the interactivity of other controls and you need to take care to achieve identical results twice. But this is a pedal that, by virtue of its relative simplicity and richness and breadth of sounds, exceeds the utility of some similarly priced rivals, all while opening up possibilities well outside the simple echo realm
Reader: T. Moody
Hometown: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Guitar: The Green Snake
Reader T. Moody turned this Yamaha Pacifica body into a reptilian rocker.
I have always loved the reverse headstock, simply because nothing says 1987 (the best year in the history of the world) like a reverse headstock. The pickups are both Seymour Duncan—an SH-1N in the neck position and TB-4 in the bridge, both in a very cool lime green color. Right when these pickups got listed, the Buy It Now button once again lit up like the Fourth of July. I am a loyal disciple of Sperzel locking tuners and think Bob Sperzel was a pure genius, so I knew those were going on this project even before I started on it. I also knew that I wanted a Vega-Trem; those units are absolutely amazing.
When the body arrived, I thought it would be cool to do some kind of burst around the yellow so I went with a neon green. It turned out better than I imagined. Next up was the shaping and cutting of the pickguard. I had this crocodile-type, faux-leather material that I glued on the pickguard and then shaped to my liking. I wanted just a single volume control and no tone knob, because, like King Edward (Van Halen) once said, “Your volume is your tone.”
T. Moody
I then shaped and glued the faux-leather material in the cavity. The tuning knobs, volume knob, pickguard, screws, and selector switch were also painted in the lemon-lime paint scheme. I put everything together, installed the pickups, strung it up, set it up, plugged it in, and I was blown away. I think this is the best-playing and -sounding guitar I have ever tried.
The only thing missing was the center piece and strap. The latter was easy because DiMarzio makes their ClipLock in neon green. The center piece was more difficult because originally, I was thinking that some kind of gator-style decoration would be cool. In the end, I went with a green snake, because crocodiles ain’t too flexible—and they’re way too big to fit in a pickup cavity!
The Green Snake’s back is just as striking as the front.
