Thursday, September 17, 2009

Teppei's Guitars: Song By Song

I'm going to start looking through videos to see which guitar Teppei uses live for each song. I doubt I'll find every song, and I'm not even going to attempt Identity Crisis, but I'm going to keep updating this over time. I won't go into elaborate detail about the guitars, as I've done that already in past articles. If you've got anything to add, please do!

Note about 2009: Teppei seems to be using his ES-335 for everything that he used to play the Les Paul on.

THE ILLUSION OF SAFETY- 2002
Kill Me Quickly- Gibson Les Paul
A Subtle Dagger-
See You In The Shallows- Gibson Les Paul
Betrayal Is A Symptom- Gibson Les Paul
Deadbolt- Gibson Les Paul(2002-2009)
In Years To Come-
The Red Death- Gibson Les Paul
A Living Dance Upon Dead Minds-
Where Idols Once Stood-
Trust- Nash Telecaster (2008)
To Awake and Avenge the Dead- Gibson Les Paul
So Strange I Remember You- Gibson Les Paul
The Beltsville Crucible-

THE ARTIST IN THE AMBULANCE- 2003
Cold Cash and Colder Hearts- Fender Amer. Deluxe Tele (03-04)/Nash Tele (05-present)
Under A Killing Moon- Gibson Les Paul
All That's Left- Gibson Les Paul/Nash Tele (2008)
Sillhouette- Gibson Les Paul
Stare At The Sun- Fender Amer. Deluxe Tele (03-04)/Nash Tele (05-present)
Paper Tigers- Gibson Les Paul
Hoods On Peregrine-
The Melting Point Of Wax- Fender Amer. Deluxe Tele (03-04)/Nash Tele (2008)
Blood Clots and Black Holes- Gibson Les Paul
The Artist In The Ambulance- Gibson Les Paul (03-07)/Nash Tele (08-present)
The Abolition Of Man-
Don't Tell and We Won't Ask- Gibson Les Paul

VHEISSU- 2005
Image Of The Invisible- Nash Tele (2005)
Between The End and Where We Lie-
The Earth Will Shake- Gibson Les Paul
Atlantic- Gibson Les Paul
For Miles- Gibson Les Paul
Hold Fast Hope- Nash Tele (2008)
Like Moths To Flame-
Music Box-
Of Dust and Nations- Gibson Les Paul
Stand and Feel Your Worth- Gibson Les Paul
Red Sky- Gibson Les Paul (2005)/Nash Tele (2007-present)
----
The Flags Of Dawn- Nash Tele

THE ALCHEMY INDEX VOL. 1: FIRE- 2007
Firebreather- Fender Baritone Jaguar
The Messenger- Fender Baritone Jaguar
Backdraft- Fender Baritone Jaguar
The Arsonist- Fender Baritone Jaguar
Burn The Fleet- Fender Baritone Jaguar
The Flame Deluge-

THE ALCHEMY INDEX VOL. 2: WATER- 2007
Digital Sea- no guitar
Open Water- no guitar
Lost Continent- no guitar
Night Diving-
The Whaler- no guitar
Kings Upon the Main-

THE ALCHEMY INDEX VOL. 3: AIR- 2008
Broken Lungs- Nash Tele
The Sky Is Falling- Nash Tele
A Song For Milly Michaelson- ES-335
Daedalus- Nash Tele
As The Crow Flies-
Silver Wings- Taylor (only played acoustic)

THE ALCHEMY INDEX VOL. 4: EARTH- 2008
Moving Mountains- Taylor
Digging My Own Grave-
The Earth Isn't Humming- Nash Tele
The Lion and the Wolf- no guitar
Come All You Weary- Nash Tele
Child Of Dust- Taylor (when played acoustic. No guitar in the album version.)

BEGGARS- 2009
All The World Is Mad- Gibson ES-335
The Weight- Gibson ES-335
Circles- no guitar
Doublespeak- Gibson ES-335
In Exile- Gibson ES-335
At The Last- Nash Tele
Wood & Wire-
Talking Through Glass-
The Great Exchange-
Beggars- Gibson ES-335
---
Helter Skelter- Gibson ES-335

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Beggars!

Okay, so I decided not to listen to the leak or buy the album on iTunes and wait for the physical CD release of the new album. There's something about coming home with a new CD on its release date, so today I finally got to hear Beggars.

Analyzing the tones on The Alchemy Index was pretty difficult with all the studio trickery and effects. This time it's a bit different. The tones are straightforward- and no less amazing than anything before it.

There are certain ingrediants that really create the vibe of the guitars on this album:
#1- Vox AC30s. Teppei has relied heavily on this amp for years, but this time the tone is pure Vox. Dustin bought an AC30 and has been using it live also. It sounds like both guitars on this album are going through these amps. Teppei has a stock AC30 from the 90s, and Dustin uses one of the Handwired AC30s, which are still in production.

Basically the trick to getting the Thrice AC30 tone is volume. They crank these things. If you want to get this sound but aren't playing big venues I suggest getting an AC15. Half the volume, and you can still get the sound.

The use of distortion/overdrive pedals on this album is pretty nonexistant. Teppei uses a homemade Tube Screamer clone for boosting- but he uses this not for the tone of the pedal, but to get more drive from the amp. It's just a tool to get more from the AC30.

#2- Line 6 delay. They've been using these for a long time. At least since The Artist In The Ambulance. Rather than using the DL4s they've been using the M13 multi-effects as of late, but it's the same thing essentially. Teppei almost exclusively uses the analog delay, digital delay and auto volume echo as his presets. I think it's mostly the analog delay heard on this album.

#3- Humbucker guitars. I think Teppei used his new Gibson on most of this album. I believe it's an ES-339... it's one of those darn ES's. The humbuckers help with getting more grit from the amp for overdriven tones. The Tele can be heard on the more chimey sounding tones (At The Last and Circles). It looks like Dustin has been sticking with his black Nash Tele.


Combining the British rock tone of the Vox amps and the ambiance of the delay results in the Beggars sound. There is certainly some post-production reverb on a lot of the guitar tracks too.



As far as bass goes, it sounds like Eddie is using his typical setup. His overdrive came mostly from the Tube Drive setting on the Line 6 M13. He's been running a stereo setup with 2 amps live recently, but I don't think that's how he was recorded for the album.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Warped '09 Gear!

Looks like Warped '09 has brought a few equipment changes. Dustin is no longer using Line 6 amps, and has switched to a handwired Vox AC30. He's still using his black Nash Tele. Teppei is still using his AC30 also, which is stock and from the 90s.

In the videos of the new songs being played on this tour, The Weight and All The World Is Mad, Teppei is using his semi-hollow Gibson (possibly a replacement for his Epiphone Casino?)g, which appears to be an ES-335 (sunburst color). He mentioned using this in the studio too, so it looks like we may be hearing this guitar more than his old stand-bys, the Les Paul and Tele on the Beggars album. Alvin Lee, BB King and Rich Robinson would be proud.

I found pics on this blog. There are some good shots of Teppei's Gibson. Apparently, this guitar is being used in place of his Les Paul on Of Dust and Nations and Deadbolt. It looks like the LP isn't even being used on this tour. Teppei is still using his Tele and Jaguar on the other songs.


Sorry for the lack of updates, there just hasn't been much to talk about lately! Teppei has been getting pretty in-depth over at Thrice.net, which is awesome- and also leaves me at a loss for things to write about, haha. Thanks for reading as always, and if you notice anything I didn't then point it out!

-Mike

Friday, April 24, 2009

A Small (Self-Indulgent) Aside

I've decided that I'm not cool enough to break free from the crowd... I now have a Twitter. www.twitter.com/mikeconnolly1. I suppose I'll be using this to talk about the blog, my music, and also to give me a new dumb thing to amuse myself with.


I'm also beginning to think that I should finally give in and make this blog a real website. It'd be nice to have some navigation... this page is definitely getting cluttered and becoming harder to browse through. Also, I'd like to sort of divide things up into sections (by album most likely), since Thrice have used pretty different equipment on each album and people seem to be interested in each.

Something for the near (maybe) future, I suppose.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

An Updated Look At Things

I thought about going back and revamping old articles like I used to do, but I decided to keep them the way they are for people looking for that sound. Anyway, despite Thrice's decrease in touring, there has not been a decrease in stuff for me to write about here...

I just haven't, because I suck at updating. Anyway, here's what I've got:

I've always credited Teppei's live distortion sounds to his Turbo Rat, however even when I was right about that I was totally wrong about how he used it. Teppei likes to use pedals to just push his amp transparently (rather than creating the distortion tone). This is how he used his Rat, a pedal which has now been sidelined by a homemade modified clone of a Tube Screamer, which Teppei says is his favorite distortion pedal. We can credit most of his sound to his amp- which most of the time is a Vox AC30.

Teppei also has invested in a Line 6 M13 multi-effect pedal to replace his DL4s, which have apparently given the band tons of problems on the road. The DL4s (and other Line 6 Modeler pedals) lose reliability because of their build: the switches are mounted directly to the PCB. If you've got a Line 6 Modeler, there are lots of people online who will mod your pedal for more reliability.


As far as amps on the new recording: it looks like the AC30 and Supro clone are getting use, as well as a vintage blonde Fender Bassman- different from Teppei's tweed Bassman that was used at times in 2008.

Eddie seems to be using a new M13 also, through his Ampeg setup. Despite the M13, he still has a DL4 and expression pedal on his board.


Thanks for reading!
-Mike