Sunday, May 25, 2008

Teppei's Current Guitars- Updated 6/14

6/14 Edit- Added info about the bridge pickup changes in the Les Pauls.

Teppei has used many different guitars for live and recording, but recently has settled on these for live shows: his black 1985 Gibson Les Paul Custom, Blonde Nash T-Series Timewarp ('51 Telecaster/Broadcaster) and his Fender Jaguar Baritone. In the past, his black Les Paul was his main axe of choice (with his wine red 1977 Les Paul standard being used in the studio) but now it seems as if his Telecaster has become the most used.


The Les Paul is still used on songs like Deadbolt, Red Sky and Of Dust and Nations but the last couple of tours have seen the LP being used less. He used to string this LP with Ernie Ball 11-52s, but it is unknown if this remains true. Teppei replaced the stock bridge pickup with a Seymour Duncan. His studio Les Paul custom has a Dimarzio Super Distortion pickup in the bridge position.

The Telecaster has stepped up and become the main axe, and is used on Trust, The Artist In The Ambulance, Come All You Weary, Broken Lungs, For Miles, Hold Fast Hope, The Flags Of Dawn, Cold Cash and Colder Hearts and others. In an interview with Ultimate Guitar, he commented on his move toward his Telecaster with single coils for the more heavy material. This is uncommon in the rock world, and even in Thrice's past (the Les Paul was used much more on past tours). The Tele can still be driven hard, but leaves the articulation and clarity that is so key in the Thrice tone. As a little aside, this move toward Fender (he seems to be really liking his new '59 Fender Bassman reissue amp) really pleases me as I'm a Strat player who plans on buying an old silverface Twin Reverb and then becoming poor (and toneful) this Summer.


Teppei's baritone Fender Jaguar was used pretty much exclusively in recording the Fire EP, and naturally that is where it is used live. Its sound is naturally deep and heavy, but is another single coil guitar which again leaves more chime and clarity and is less boomy than a Les Paul or other humbucker-equipped guitar.

Teppei also keeps his P-90 equipped Epiphone Casino with him. This guitar doesn't seem to be getting as much use as the aforementioned guitars, but is still one which Teppei really likes due to the hollow body and natural tone of the P-90s. P-90 pickups are famous for being used in the early Gibson guitars, and were popular before humbuckers. They are single-coil pickups, but in a bigger package and have a bigger and warmer sound. This also causes a bit more noise, since they don't cancel noise like humbuckers and are stronger than single coils. The combination of the warm P-90s and the natural hollowbody tone is what keeps this guitar on the road. This guitar was played when I saw Thrice in February, but I can't remember when.


Stay tuned for a look at Dustin and Eddie's guitars too. If there's anyone out there reading this, feel free to comment with your comments, concerns, questions, ideas, gripes, etc.. I just set it to where there is no registering necessary to comment (just like on the Alchemy Index blog). Hopefully there's a few of you out there on the interwebs reading this stuff!

Edit 6/2- Thanks to Russell for pointing out some crucial things about Teppei's Nash Tele!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for doing this. Hopefully you answer some questions that I've mulled over as you expand this blog into the other members equipment (more specifically Dustin's confusing guitar mods). The only thing that you might want to mention is that Teppei's telecaster (and Dustin's new one for that matter) are both Nash T-Series timewarp guitars. Teppeis is based off of the 51 broadcaster or nocaster (telecaster was the name that was invented after broadcaster was taken off due to copyright infringement) though I'm not sure what pickups he has in it. It still is a telecaster but this technicality gives one little additional bit of information. Thanks again for all the work you've put into this.

Mike said...

Hey Russell, thanks a lot for that info! I didn't really know the scoop on the Nash, but I'll be adding that into the article (giving you credit, of course).

I haven't updated in a bit because I've been busy graduating from High School and doing all the fun/annoying things associated with it. I've been doing my homework on Dustin's Variax Tele, though. :)

Thanks for the interest, and I'm glad I can help a bit!

Anonymous said...

Haha thanks for the credit (though really it doesn't matter to me) Glad theres another gear head out there who is interested in the confusing world of Thrice.

Anonymous said...

Hey man. Finally a page about their gear. I've been trying to find a nice page about it for months now. Nice work. A queston though. Hav any idea what pickups teppei has in the tele? I've heard the seymour duncan hot rails as a suggestion but just wondered if you knew anything more specific.
Keep upp the good work!

Mike said...

Glad to hear you're enjoying the site!

As far as I know they are the stock Nash pickups. He's a fan of the single coil sounds he gets with the Tele, so I think he'd stray away from the humbucker-esque Hot Rails. Listening to things like live versions of Come All You Weary, it's pure early 50s Tele twang.

He does have a Seymour Duncan in one of his LPs though.

Anonymous said...

Do you know what exact jag-model Teppei is using? Is it a custom one? Been looking for one myself since I adore it's sound, but all I can find is the ugly-arse black HH baritone.

Ivebeenshot said...

The jag that teppei is using is a Japanese made baritone. Based off the fender bass iv. Craigslist it and you'll find a few around for 700 bucks or so.

At the past couple shows I've seen teppei using a Gibson es-335. I can't remember if it's a hollow body or not but that's the guitar he was using for of dust and nations.

For amps teps was using a vox ac30 and a jcm800 combo.

Dustin stuck with his line 6 spidervalve and nash tele with variax guts.

If anybody has a chance to snap a picture of teppeis pedal board please do and post it!!!!!

Anonymous said...

The LP Custom that Teppei was/is using.. I thought it was a Custom Lite?

Unknown said...

Thanks for doing this man. It's awesome. Do you know if there's still a copy of their Alchemy Index equipment blog anywhere on the net?