GIBSON

LANDO MARTINEZ / HOCUS

Hocus: Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / SoundCloud

1. Tell me about the gear in your photos:  First up is my Bonser Instruments 2015 Tele Custom. This was made by local musician Jon Bonser (The New Kinetics/Soft Lions/The Hiroshima Mockingbirds). I brought him some Guitar World magazines and asked him if he could make me one of these, but better, cooler and left handed. Three months later, I received the best guitar in the planet. It has some high gains and low sounding rumbles. And it stays in tune!!!! Well-balanced for both live performances and studio recordings

Next is my 2001 SG Custom. This guitar is balls out tough and has that Gibson crunch! It’s been a great guitar in the field but due to many injuries and shows, is now my number two guitar that only needs to come out when needed.

Next is the “Hocus” sound. A lot of my peers in the music scene sneer and chuckle due to the fact that my amp that I use and can rely on is my solid state Crate GFX 212. It produces that great high gain and very well-balanced clean sounds. Coupled with my Bonser and Gibson, this amplifier screams and sings in perfect harmony.

Also here is my “pedal board”. 1 = gain . 2= gut punch gain. 3 = reverb
Even though I have three switches, I still miss them on occasion while performing.

2. What song of yours do you feel is the best portrayal of your particular sound/style?  “Better Than You.” It’s a great rocker that just wants to get you jumping around and feeling snooty at the same time. Plus the riff and chorus is really contagious. It’s a great audience participation song.

3. If money was no object, what’s the one “holy grail” piece of gear you’d buy?  Out of necessity and budget, I’ve always favored Crate solid state amplifiers as they have have a great tone and awesome sound. So if I had the money, I’ve always read that Orange Amplifiers are the “bees knees.” I would really like to try them out.

4. What is your current favorite piece of equipment?  My current favorite is my Bonser Instruments Custom Tele. Jon Bonser is not only a great musician, but a great human being and fantastic craftsman. I would see his posts about building amplifiers and it really intrigued me that wow, this guy is making amplifiers from scratch. I wonder if he could make me a guitar? So I asked him it was possible and he jumped on the project immediately.

I brought some magazines to his house and discussed what I wanted he was extremely patient, and really wanted this guitar to be “my” guitar. At times, I was really impatient but this was a handmade guitar made for me and about three months later, I had it. It looks and feels great. Not only that, this guitar was the very first guitar that sports the “Bonser Instruments” logo. I am very proud of it and him. Every now and then I send him drunk texts on how this guitar is my dream guitar and I thank him profusely. Hopefully we will get a sister made by the end of the year. Here is a link of my baby being made. For all you guitar players…check him out! His gear is AWESOME.

5. What do you have coming up that we should know about? We have two shows coming up:

April 15 at The Ken Club, San Diego, CA
May 6 at The Pier View Pub, Oceanside, CA

We have just completed recording and mixing a 9-song EP. It was recorded at Raunchola Productions in Spring Valley and will be mastered by Tad Doyle.
We hope have it out by May 2016.

JORDAN KRIMSTON / BIG BAD BUFFALO

Big Bad Buffalo: Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Bandcamp

1. Tell me about your current rig: Weirdest part? Work in progress?  All of my Big Bad Buffalo gear is very “rock” oriented. It all kind of caters towards a fat, crunchy, hardly-restrained sound. I like the ability to slightly alter my tone song-to-song, which is the main reason I have pedals. I think the weirdest pedal I have is my Philosopher’s Tone pedal which is a distortion/sustain pedal, but I use it as a treble-boost pedal. I also have a Hardwire Loop/Delay pedal that I use to get a Tera Melos-esque stutter effect. My rig is definitely still a work in progress as BBB’s sound has changed and doesn’t require some of the effects I used to use.

2. What song of yours (or your band’s) do you feel is the best portrayal of your particular sound/style?  Ooh, tough call. If I had to pick, it would probably be between a couple songs of the new, currently unrecorded, album. Sorry! Off of American (our first album), I would say “Sharon is Karen.”

3. If money was no object, what’s the holy grail piece of gear you’d buy? I would definitely get a Satellite amp. Hands down.

4. Who is the musician you admire the most sound/gear-wise? Tough call for sure … I think in terms of distorted tones, I would go with John Reis (Hot Snakes) or Rivers Cuomo (Weezer), but in terms of clean tones I would go with Andrew Aged (Inc.) or David Pajo (Slint). Kinda split that answer four ways, haha.

5. What do you have coming up that we should know about?  Lately, Big Bad Buffalo has been pretty inactive in a public sense. We’ve mainly been working on demoing songs for our next record which is due to come out in the summer. Once the record comes out, we’ll start playing a lot more again.

Big Bad Buffalo are playing an all-ages show hosted by 91X’s Lou Niles on Saturday, April 9th at The Studio in Encinitas (1057 s. Coast Hwy), with Indio Romero and Julian Rey Saenz. Get info here. Be sure to listen and download their debut album, “American,” here.

EDWARD LOZA / THE HEART BEAT TRAIL

The Heart Beat Trail: Facebook / Bandcamp

Uniform Victor: Facebook / Twitter / Bandcamp

1. Tell me about the gear in the pictures. What is your go-to live rig and why?  The guitar I reach for the most is my 1999 Fender Stratocaster. It’s one the most comfortable and versatile guitars I’ve ever played. This is also the guitar I play the majority of the time in The Heart Beat Trail. For a while, I was modifying the electronics and hardware for fun but the current setup feels and sounds like home. I chose the gold pickguard as a nod to Ken of L’arc en Ciel. Initially, I just thought it looked cool but there ended up being a pleasant side effect. Coincidentally, the pickguard seems to cancel out some of the 60Hz hum from the pickups without screwing up the tone and it even made the guitar a little louder.

My live amp of the moment is a Hughes & Kettner Tubemeister 18 through a Fender Bassbreaker BB-212 cab. The amp is fun because I can push it hard and get a lot of reaction from the tubes. At only 18 watts, the amp sometimes struggles to rise above the band. Because of this I had to get a little more creative with the EQ on my amp and pedals than I would if I just had enough watts to be really loud. This lets me sit in the mix better and not be overly loud for the people in the front row.

On my pedalboard, I have one of my favorite flangers, the MXR M117R. I love sneaking flanger into songs. It can also be used to fake a chorus pedal and channel some lovely John McGeoch sounds. There’s also a Fulltone Deja Vibe on the board. This one is used heavily on the live version of “Cherry Blossoms” to get the syrupy wobble.

The red guitar is a Squier Jagmaster I got from my friend Paul Ryu in Mittens. It’s kind of like a wacky Strat with humbuckers and a short scale Jaguar neck. It’s pretty fun to play so I am grateful that Paul was willing to part with it. The Flying V is my newest guitar. It needs a little tweaking before I trust it live. Some guitars take a little more time to bond with but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. A strange guitar can tell you weird and wonderful things if you take the time.

In the band Peacock, I play lap steel. It is a bit tricky for me to play as it forces me to approach my parts differently than I would on guitar. The tuning among other things puts me out of my comfort zone, which is a bit of fun. It’s perfect for the spooky ghost notes and chords.

When recording, I almost always use my ‘70s silverface Fender Champ or the Groove Tubes Soul-O 45. That Champ is a magical amp that just sounds incredible no matter how I set it. My Vox VBM1 is the amp I used on “Man of Tin” by Uniform Victor to get that ripping, amp-on-fire sound. Amongst the many pedals by the Vox are two of my favorites: the Zvex Fuzz Factory and the ProCo Rat. As much as I LOVE the Fuzz Factory, I find the Zvex Mastotron a little more controllable live. That’s why one is on my board and the other is in the studio. I never build a pedalboard without a Rat. It goes from overdrive to almost fuzz and I love the span of the tone knob. If I could only have one dirty pedal it would be the Rat!

2. Which song is a good example of your style?  The Heart Beat Trail song “Falling” is a good one. On the solos, I tried to make it sound like when you’re dying to tell somebody you’re falling for them but you can’t quite say it yet. The solos feel like the release when you get the courage to say you’re falling in love. I chose a thick distorted sound because I felt the first solo needed to be like when you’re afraid to say you love somebody so you just keep telling yourself. Then the second solo is like when you finally exclaim “I LOVE YOU!” and kiss like it’s the end of the world.

3. What is your “money is no object” piece of dream gear?  Building a custom guitar is something I dream of. I don’t care if it’s not cool to admit but I want a signature guitar; call me up, Fender. Getting the neck just right would be the most exciting part of the build. A compound radius fretboard, jumbo frets, large headstock and an asymmetrical rear profile sound like a good start. For the body, I’d like to think I could come up with something as unique as the Music Man St. Vincent guitar but it would probably end up being a Strat in disguise. Even though I have two sunburst Strats, I kind of hate that color. I would have to go with a more interesting color like cerise.

4. Who is the musician you admire the most sound/gear-wise?  I am torn between Annie Clark of St. Vincent and Nels Cline of Wilco. They both push the boundaries of expected guitar sounds while also being masters of the more familiar sounds. I also love the way they both have elements of exploding discordant noise mixed with heartbreaking beauty in their styles. What I have learned from them is to play with the beauty and danger of a volcano as long as is serves the song.

5. What shows, news or projects do you have coming up?  The Heart Beat Trail will play The Merrow on April 7th with Daring Greatly and The Peripherals. We are currently writing/recording a follow up to So Long, Carcosa. Peacock is a new band with Berkeley Kent Austin, Lia Dearborn, Evan Bethany and I. We are in the middle of recording with Paul Durso at Zos Kia Studios and should have something available very soon.

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.

SCOTTIE BLINN / BLACK MARKET III

Black Market III: Facebook / Website / Instagram / Twitter / YouTube

1. Tell me about the stuff – what’s in your rig?  From ’91-’14, my rig was (all vintage): A ’65 Fender Super Reverb chained with a ’62 Fender Bandmaster head through a 4×12 Marshall 1960A slant cab, and a ’62 Fender Reverb tank.

But since discovering Quilter amplifiers, I get the same beefy tone…and more! The main set up is a Micro Pro 200 Mach II, and/or (original) MP200 and Pro Block 200 through a 4×10 tweed cab (or two) loaded with either Weber or Carvin speakers. Depending upon the size of the show, I’ll run either one head or two, and through smaller cabs like the Fender Excelsiors (only speakers), the tweeds, or the Marshall 1960A…or any combination within!

Quilter amps (under the QSC parent company) are all analog, class D solid state amps (no modeling) that saturate and communicate with the speakers exactly like tube amps. Add in all the other huge advantages these amps offer, especially for touring musicians, and there’s no reason to risk taking the vintage gear in the road. We are huge believers in these amps and are honored to a part of their family. Check out their website, or ask me about all the killer things these amps offer!

Effects: Boss ME70 and and a Boss ’65 Fender Reverb pedal. Shit sounds great and the vintage stuff stays at home now! My old set up included an original Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer I bought when I was 13 (some fucker stole it at a show in ’97!), a Vox Wah, an Ibanez Rotary Chorus, and a Danelectro Tape Delay.

Guitars: We balance our stage with matching cabs, and tend to do a bulk of the show with matching guitars and basses. I always use my first Stratocaster — the sunburst (a highly sought-after ‘80s Japanese reissue) ’67 body (which was split in half at an early Belly Up show with the Mississippi Mudsharks, and hung on the wall of the Tiki House until they closed last year) with ’62 neck, and typically a black Gretsch Electromatic hollowbody, a white blonde Stratocaster FSR, Danelectro Longhorn Baritone, and more recently, a black Frankensteined Telecaster (with a god-like neck pickup) and a sunburst Fender Cabronita Telecaster. We are also stoked about our endorsement deal with Boulder Creek Guitars – amazing instruments (you can see my red Telecaster in the outdoors photo with the MotorCult cab, and our black acoustic guitar and bass in our videos for “Black Mountain Side” and “Hummingbird”). ’67 Red Gibson 355 (pre-stereo) and black Gibson Lucille 355 (eat your heart out). The ’67 is an acquisition with a friend of mine for a joint collection. It lives at my house. The Lucille was a birthday gift from a close friend. Other guitars include: A ’48 Gibson acoustic archtop, a ’52 Gibson 125 with p90, a natural ’51 P-bass I handmade and pinstriped for Roxy, a silver Gretsch Electromatic solid body, a 2000-or-so Gibson Les Paul Standard Honeyburst (another gift!), and a custom painted semi-hollowbody (greenburst).

2. What song of yours (or your band’s) do you feel is the best portrayal of your particular sound/style?  “Black Roses.” At it’s heart, it’s traditional blues, musically and lyrically. Played on an old archtop and just stomping your foot, this one could have come right out of the Delta. But by getting more creative and poetic with the lyrics, not rehashing what has been done over and over, cranking it up with huge tone, and making a strikingly dark video, “Black Roses” is getting play across blues, rock, and metal radio shows worldwide. It is one of our best examples of a true crossover.

“Drinking water poured from the moon’s reflection.
Dead bird lying in your path.
You count the cars in a funeral procession.
Bad luck, won’t ya just pass…

Black Roses growing wild at the crossroads.
Hear the howlin’ on the hellhound’s trail.
The Cross of Salem protects from the inroads.
Ring a bell just to keep you away.”

Based on old superstitions, it’s a song about wearing God’s armor to protect ourselves from all the evil that surrounds us.

3. If money was no object, what’s the one “holy grail” piece of gear you’d buy?  An original ’62 Fender Stratocaster or a ’50 to 60’s Telecaster. Absolutely nothing feels or sounds as good…in my opinion.

4. Who is the musician you admire the most sound/gear-wise?  Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. I don’t need to go into the ‘why’ part, now do I?! Hahaha!

5. What do you have coming up that we should know about – shows, records, videos, news?

Shows: We’ve got a killer show at The Merrow on March 22 (info), great shows in CA, NV, ID and more April-June; a four-month European tour August-November; and then we are slated to headline five or six festivals in New Zealand February-March 2017 (more on this soon!)

Recording: We are still pumping the new Live CD Vanarchy, as well as our first two, Songs That Shake The Cage and Black Roses. We have recorded a few new tracks, including (with a video) Led Zeppelin’s “Black Mountain Side.” The next CD is in the works, and is going to hopefully trip out a lot of people!

Videos: Here’s the brand new video for “Black Mountain Side.” We have a couple more on the schedule. A full blown production of our song “When The Sun Goes Down” is underway. This song and “Black Roses” are hitting in New Zealand and Europe!