Rig Tour
Davebaksh PR S Singlecut [Black ]
4 “This is a single-cut from around 2003. When Mark Tremonti started playing them, he asked for a flat black one. PRS made him one but it needed a few tweaks, so their artist rep asked me if I wanted it. It’s one of two made that year… I’m getting it off the road as soon as possible! There’s a sticker from a band called The Independents, who have a Legion Of Doom – kinda like this club if you’ve toured or made a bond with them; we also joined Turbonegro’s Turbojugend gang. There’s another sticker from Pennywise, who have been super sweet to us from the beginning. And, of course, a skull. We’re all big metal fans, but I was the heavy kid in high school.”
PR S Singlecut [matte brown]
5 “This is one PRS made for me in 2006. In fact, all my single-cuts are pre-lawsuit, made before PRS and Gibson got into it. It’s matte chocolate brown; we put the orange racing strips on there and got brown sound written on the 12th fret. The pickups I use are the Rio Grande Barbeque humbuckers, modelled after the PAFs. They really chase that Billy Gibbons tone – which is one of the greatest of all time if you ask me! Getting around a thicker neck works better for me; thin ones feel like squeezing a piece of paper. I guess without sounding too innuendo-ish… I need a thick piece of wood in my hand. I have big palms – ha ha! The scalelength of single-cuts against the Les Pauls work together really well – you get a really good harmonic balance.”
Miss ion Controller Pedals
6 “Mission pedals over in the States made these two foot controllers for me. The green one controls a two-octave whammy sweep. I use it in the solo for the song No Brains, but not really anything else. Tom Morello’s a massive influence for me! And the one on the right is a straight wah.”
Kemper Profiler
7 “My main sound is a Marshall JMP, profiled at Deryck’s studio. It’s in between a Plexi and an 800, with all the cut, warmth and oomph… plus more gain! My ‘War’ sound is a Fender Deluxe, for semi-overdriven tones and the clean is a Silverface. The lead channel is a JCM Slash, but the older one from the ’90s, like a Jubilee with a heavier mid-sweep. I kick in the flanger during Fake My
Own Death, and for solos I use the Treble Booster as a Tube Screamer to thin out the sound and help it cut a little more. I also use the pitch shifter to take me down three semitones for the beginning of
Goddamn I’m Dead Again, as we’re tuned to D# standard. It sounds
really low and chunky; at soundcheck I can’t resist playing Roots Bloody Roots!”
Kemper Foot Controller
8 “We adorned the whole thing with Newcastle United stickers… because they’re the best, ha ha! I was on a rugby tour in 1995, got served breakfast in Wales, which had a Kellogg’s hologram of Alan Shearer scoring a header against Leeds United. I thought this guy looked pretty rad and he ended up being one of the best strikers of all time!”
Tom thacker
Gibson Les Paul Standard 2016 T [Heritage Cherry Sunburst] 9 “I actually preferred the way the LP Traditionals felt, but this one just sounded right for Sum 41… a bit more metal, I guess. The pickup selector is blocked – the neck is disengaged because I used to accidentally knock it up and down when playing live. Nowadays we play with a little more finesse than simply trashing our guitars! They’ve got the locking tuners, but honestly, I was thinking about finding one without them… I like a guitar very basic. It’s funny, Dave picked this up not long ago and said, ‘I don’t know, maybe I should try out some more Gibsons?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know dude… that’s my territory!’”
Gibson Les Paul Goldtop
10 “When I first joined Sum 41 about 10 years ago, we were talking about what I’d play. Deryck had a Goldtop which he loved so I went with that, though it got retired eventually. This is a newer one with Seymour Duncan JBs and it’s my backup for this tour. I’ve taken the tone knob off – I don’t need it. Whatever makes my tech’s life easier, I’m happy with… they just remove knobs and tape things down so I don’t cut my hand. I prefer my guitars with a bit more weight, I pick and fret quite hard. I don’t like super thin guitars – especially for live, I need something a bit more substantial to beat up.”
Kemper Profiler
11 “For this record, Deryck wanted to go out with Kempers. I like tube amps, and used to bring an 800 as well as a Fender Deluxe Reverb, but we do a lot of international touring. You lose and break things very easily, it gets expensive. So we profiled all our sounds and they’re really similar if you do it right. My main rhythm is a JCM800 with Vintage 30s, that’s the classic sound I’ve always used. Interestingly, for leads, I use the AC30 – because the Kemper can give amps gain they wouldn’t have. And it doesn’t even sound shitty! You can add different tubes, rebias it… all sorts of stuff in the digital realm.”
“Dave has the PRS sound, Tom’s got the Les Paul, so I wanted a different kinda vibe to separate my tone”