EHX

MEGAN LISCOMB / SOFT LIONS

Soft Lions: Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Bandcamp / Boy King

1. Tell me about the stuff in your photos: My current rig is a Bonser amp copy of an old Silvertone, a Danelectro that Jon made over for me to look like a Silvertone, and a handful of sloppily daisy-chained pedals. I absolutely love this guitar. It’s super light and plays like a dream. My pedal board is def a work in progress. I’d like to get it a little tighter and wire it up. Jon just gave me a really dope fuzz and distortion pedal that he made, it’s got a cat’s face on it, so obvi I’m very excited to get it on my board.

2. What song of yours do you feel is the best portrayal of your particular sound/style?  Of our currently released material, I’d have to say “Spellbreaker.” Plenty of reverb and a little bit of surfy-ness, but it also gets heavy.

3. If money was no object, what’s the ‘holy grail’ piece of gear you’d buy?  Oh god, I have no idea! Before I was in this band, almost all of my stuff was hand-me-downs from my dad and other friends, and I had really rarely ever bought anything. It’s just been in the last couple years after working with people like you and Jon Bonser that I started to see the value in being really intentional with your sound. It turns out some of my dad’s nicest stuff he gave me doesn’t sound like me. I guess I really love stupid cheap guitars. I recently bought a 3/4 size bubblegum pink Squier strat and I put stickers all over it and play it at home every day. If I had unlimited cash, I would probably buy a lot of really, really dumb guitars like that, Danelectros too, and do weird stuff to them. Glitter, stickers, flowers and crystals.

4. What was the first piece of gear you bought and what are your thoughts on it now?  Do you have still have it? The first piece of gear I ever bought was actually also a Squier guitar. It was white on white and I wanted it because it had a whammy bar. I bought it from a coworker at the movie theater where I had my first job in high school for $10 in the parking lot. I have no idea what happened to it. Maybe it’s in my mom’s garage? I also really wish I still had my first pedalboard. It was literally a board that I had covered with glitter and velcroed my pedals too. It was a huge fucking mess and it shed glitter everywhere.

5. What do you have coming up that we should know about?  On Saturday, Soft Lions are playing a FUNdraiser at Shaper Studios (#softlionsFUNdraiser) to help us cover the costs of making our next record. The Schizophonics, Boy King, and DJ Jon Blaj will be playing as well, plus projections by Zeuqsav. On April 20, we’ll be recording at Tiny Telephone in SF, with John Vanderslice producing us. We’re unbelievably excited, and we’ll see you at the show!!

LEANNA PATTERSON / THE WHISKEY CIRCLE

The Whiskey Circle: Facebook / Website / Twitter / Instagram / Bandcamp

1. Tell me about your current rig: Right now I’m playing my ‘70s Gibson SG Special and Japanese Fender Mustang through a Fender Tweed Blues Jr. with five pedals: Electro Harmonix Memory Boy Deluxe, Electro Harmonix Cathedral Reverb, Boss Blues Driver, Boss Bass Distortion and Boss tuner. I’ve been content with this setup for about a year.

I’ve gone through about five guitars and six amps before deciding on this setup. I’ve played a Jaguar, Tele, Gretsch Electromatic and some Japanese Teisco’s. But none of them compare to the Gibson. This SG actually belongs to my husband and drummer [Brett “Puck” Patterson]. It was gifted to him by a high school friend for his 21st birthday.

Same thing goes for my amp. I’ve played through a Vox AC15, Fender silverface Champ, Gretsch Electromatic, Marshall 4×10 and a Fender Deville before deciding on my Blues Jr. Something about the tubes powering up a small speaker creates a wonderfully clean and warm tone that I love. The little 15w amp and 12” speaker make every guitar coming though sound great. It makes the SG sound perfect and it makes the mustang sound crisp and twangy.

2. What song of yours is the best portrayal of your particular sound/style?  Right now, we’re working on some new stuff that I really feels captures the sound and direction I’ve wanted for a while. Of the stuff we’ve already released, I would say “Don’t Walk Away” from our second EP because it encompasses a lot of the elements that we like to use in our songwriting: ambient guitar, slide guitar, driving drum beat, vamping, catchy vocals and harmonies.

3. If money was no object, what’s the one “holy grail” piece of gear you’d buy?  I would say either a Gretsch White Penguin or Fender Esquire through a Fender Bassman 4×10 with all of the pedals that Earthquaker Devices makes. The Gretsch White Penguin is just beautiful. It’s a completely unique instrument that you rarely see. The Esquire is hands down one of the classics. A real ‘50s Fender Bassman is just so…dreamy. And Earthquaker pedals would just be fun to mess with.

4. Who is the musician you admire most sound/gear-wise?  My favorite local artist would be Tommy Garcia from Mrs. Magician. His guitars, Satellite amps and style of playing are the quintessential San Diego guitar sound. [See his Gear and Loathing rig here] My favorite national artist would be Dave Grohl. More as a drummer than a guitarist, but mostly as an engineer and proponent of music in general.

5. What do you have coming up?  March 26 we’re throwing a house party and shooting a music video for our upcoming single, “High Deserts” [INFO]. We’re also working releasing a 4-track tape through Weiner Records due out by the end of April. Lastly, we are booking a West Coast tour in June. We already have the Standard in Hollywood and ACE hotel in Palm Springs booked.

DAVID ROBLES / MADLY

Madly: Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

1. Tell me about your current rig:  Right now I am using a Fender Deluxe, with a 12″ speaker, for my main amp. I experimented with bigger amps but quickly realized that a smaller amp works better for creating feedback. This small amp plus my pedalboard creates the “Madly” guitar sound. My favorite thing to do is twist the knobs on my Line 6 pedals while feed-backing. It never comes out quite the same and it’s a chance for me to have fun improvising during the solo sections of our songs. I try to come up with new sounds with every performance. I use three Line 6 pedals…the DL4 Delay Modeler (Green), the MM4 Modulation Modeler (Blue) and the FM4 Filter Modeler (Purple). I’ve had them forever and they have never let me down.

The latest additions to my pedalboard, thanks to my girlfriend, are the Soul Food and the Octavix. I use the Soul Food as a lead boost and use the Octavix when I need a little extra juice. That thing has a mini-toggle that switches it from 9V to 24V = fuzz pedal on steroids!! And last but not least, the Micro Synthesizer which I use on two songs(“Dead Ends” and “Through You”). I’m a huge fan of retro keyboard sounds, so this pedal was a must for me. I’m sure I’ll be using it a lot more in the future.

2. What is your favorite piece of gear?  That would be the Black Fender Strat that was left with me by a good friend over 15 years ago. She said that she would pick it up whenever she felt inspired to start playing again. Unfortunately, she passed away a few years ago and never picked it up. She always insisted that I play it but I always held back…until recently.  I now play it in her honor. It has become my favorite piece of gear for obvious reasons. It has three Kent Armstrong pickups, so it plays and sounds great! Thanks Fiona, R.I.P.

3. What’s the worst or weirdest piece of gear you’ve ever bought?  That would be my Z-Vex Fuzz Factory pedal. I used it for a while a few years back but it was just too over the top, even for me! It’s almost impossible to control. The overtones that it creates are just INSANE! I’m sure that I’ll come back to it eventually. I’m just not ready for it right now.

4. What’s the one “holy grail” piece of equipment you’d buy if money was no object?  I would definitely try to purchase Jimi Hendrix’s white Fender Strat that was used for Woodstock. No matter how many times I watch that performance, it blows me away every time! I also love watching the Rainbow Bridge performance. He played the white Strat for that one too. He’s so in tune with his guitar that it seems to be part of his body. Physical poetry at its finest. Year after year, he continues to be my biggest source of inspiration. I doubt that I’ll ever get the chance to own his Strat but it sure is fun to dream!

5. What do you have coming up?  We just got done mixing and mastering our upcoming, 8-song album. We just need to finish up the artwork and then plan on pressing some vinyl. I’m sure we’ll have a record release party once it’s ready. As for shows, we have three coming up in the next few months.

• March 17th at Casbah with Systems Officer and The Slashes [info]

• April 22nd at Pour House with Shake Before Us and Dani Bell & The Tarantist.

• May 21st at In-Ko-Pah 3 with Three Mile Pilot, Audacity, The Blank Tapes, Shady Francos, Red Tank!, The Rosalyns, The Downs Family, Some Kind of Lizard, The Gloomies, Sunset intermezzo by the Montalban Quintet, Effects and lighting by Operation Mindblow [info]

TOMMY GARCIA / MRS. MAGICIAN

Mrs. Magician: Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / SoundCloud

1. Tell me about your current rig? The amps I’m using are all Satellite amps or things that we have modified. The one I use most often is a 75 watt model called the OMEGA that we added an additional tube preamp to, so I could get the sound I was after at a lower volume. Second up is a clone of a ’64 Fender Bassman called the ASSMAN; I love this amp for it’s slightly overdriven tones but that doesn’t really happen until it’s too loud to play live so it’s mostly a studio tool for me. And lastly, I’ve been using a ‘60s Dukane PA amp that we re-wired for use as a guitar amp with an old Vox Super Beatle cabinet, that we replaced the speakers in with modern Celestion greenbacks — it kind of reminds me of a brownface Fender Deluxe on steroids.

Guitar-wise, I’m using a parts-Jazzmaster that my friends all helped me put together by donating or selling me guitar parts for really cheap. The end result was a really inexpensive, great-sounding guitar that I think is as good, or better, than any model that Fender actually makes. Secondly, I still use my trusty ‘60s Silvertone Silhouette — mostly unmodded except for an added ground for the electronics and a bridge modded by my friend Brandon Madrid.

Then there’s pedals. When it comes to my live rig, it’s always kind of similar: Fuzz, boost, trem, two analog delays (set to different times) and reverb. In the studio, all bets are off and I just make shit up as I go along, usually trying new pedals that I’ve never used before — but live, I keep it the same and try and emulate the studio sounds with what I have in front of me.

2. What Mrs. Magician song do you feel is the best portrayal of the sound/style you’re after? “Where’s Shelly,” off of our upcoming LP Bermuda and I say that because it really has all of the different sounds that have been associated with our band over the years all rolled into one song. [Ed. note: Since the new album isn’t out yet, I’m including the band’s new single below. Enjoy!]

3. You work here in town at Satellite Amplifiers — in your eyes, what sets Satellite amps apart from others? If someone asked you they should buy one, what would you tell them? At Satellite, we strive to make things that we want to play and in many cases that’s how a prototype for something comes about. If I was asked why someone should buy one, I would just tell them to come play one and they would know why.

4. If money was no object, what’s the one “holy grail” piece of gear you’d buy? A Mosrite Ventures model. I am a firm believer that the cooler the piece of gear looks, the better you will sound using it and that is the coolest looking guitar out there.

5. Who is the musician you admire the most sound/gear-wise and why? The musician who’s sound I admire the most would have to be Rowland S. Howard. He wrote some of my favorite songs and was the most influential guitarist for me (other than the Swami). I also love that he used the same amp, guitar and pedals all the way from The Birthday Party up until he passed away, proving gear is secondary to imagination.

6. What do you have coming up that we should know about? Our new album comes out May 20th via Swami records. We also leave for SXSW next week.

3/12: Phoenix, AZ @ Viva PHX with The Growlers, RFTC, Mystic Braves
3/13: Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress with Rocket From The Crypt
3/14: Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad with PRAYERS, Plague Vendor
3/15: Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves with Mind Spiders, SAVAK
3/17: Austin, TX @ Breakaway Records — 1PM
3/18: Austin, TX @ BD Riley’s (Official Showcase) –– 9PM
3/19: Austin, TX @ Dozen Street (Little Dickman Records Party) –– 4PM
3/20: Austin, TX @ Empire Control Room –– 4:30PM