The ’18 Sound
Brian guides us through his light but very carefully-chosen rig
Keeley Memphis Sun
“I don’t use effects much, just once in a while. Every delay pedal will do slapback but I thought it was cool that it was specifically for it. It was just easier to get all those sounds in one little box.”
Catal in bread Belle Epoch Tape Ec ho
“The tap tempo is difficult from night to night because we’re particular about the rhythms so we set it. And what I do, like for the timed delay in Come Wander with me or something like that, it has to be the same every time. So I’ll set it to the record and then I pull the knobs off. So wherever the knobs are when it’s right, I’ll pull all the knobs off and then set them all at noon. That way it never changes, there’s no questions. Because I don’t like to be fiddling – I’ve got enough work to do up there!”
JHS Doublebarrel
“It’s a light overdrive. The left side is their Morning Glory, so I guess you could compare to like a Klon but it doesn’t have that midrange thing like the Klon has and I find if you just put it on a little bit, it can sort of act like a compressor or a really light overdrive. Sometimes you can’t even hear it – the overdrive I mean, you can hear the pedal. It’s mega transparent. Everyone says, ‘This or that pedal is transparent’… but this is transparent.
“The other side is their take on the Tube Screamer. I only use that for one song. Even a Tube Screamer with the gain all the way down is too much gain. But sometimes I need to stack it, because otherwise if I’m playing a single-note riff it just sounds thin. JHS put a blend knob in so you can blend your clean signal. So I have the drive all the way off and volume and tone at noon.”
JHS Pulp 'n' Peel Compressor
“If you play as clean as I do sometimes you need that compressor to hold everything together, especially if you’re fingerpicking real fast. It’s based on the Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer that Mark Knopfler used on Sultans of Swing. That’s exactly the type of compression I’m going for. I don’t squeeze it too hard. In the studio [Dire Straits] were using Fairchilds and all this other stuff like 1176s, and it’s tough to replicate. The Pulp 'N' Peel is cool because it does the compression thing, again it has a blend knob, but it also has a little switch on it that adds a little dirt to it, it’s what an 1176 will do.”
JMI 15T
“I have two JMIS and then I have a bunch of Voxs. But do you know the funny thing? I only have one AC30, the rest of them are all Twin AC 15S. Because I run mine less than halfway up, it’s not loud. But it’s clean and they’re bright. They work really well with Gibsons. It does everything for me in the way I play clean. The Vox compresses really nice but it doesn’t get muddy. It’s got a nice overdrive that cuts but it’s not too bright. A Fender one takes my head off. But with a Vox the bass and the treble knob are interactive so the more you turn them up, the less midrange you get. So it’s all midrange when they’re off. Then as you turn the bass and the treble up you get less midrange.”
2018 Gibson ES -335 Anchor Stud VOS
“They did a limited run when they took the stop tail out and put the anchor studs in. For me, a 335 feels like I’m playing an acoustic and when I’m playing it onstage, even though it’s electric I get that feeling of being at home and writing. If you put on a Les Paul, a Telecaster or even a Junior you want to rip. But you lose that connection of the songwriter thing. And for me having to put my arm around it and hold it, the same way you do with an acoustic – you’re cradling it. It sort of hugs you back in the chest. I love that I can feel the vibration in the guitar and it does something different – you don’t get it from another guitar.
“I have this weird trick where I’m using the AC30 but I use 335s with it with Luther Lee humbucker-size P-90s in them. If one thing is really bright, the other thing has to be really dark. So it’s bright amp, dark guitar, bright and snappy pickup. And I find that position and the way I set the amp, allows me to fingerpick and it doesn’t lose anything without the compressor.”
“I think the Bigsby changes the tone of the guitar. If it’s off the 355 it has this weird midrange thing. The Bigsby clamping on there definitely does something. It’s not massive but I think the fingerpicking would go wacky if I took that off.”
had no idea what they were talking about if I hadn’t played piano. The third, the middle finger – put the flat on the third, I’ve got it. Or drop the third; that’s a big AC/DC trick. Play the chord but drop the third. That’s why the chord is so punchy, so it helps big time.”
Gaslight moved so fast after The ’59Sound came out 10 years ago and there seemed to be pressure on the band. Are you able to reflect and take in things a bit more now?
“Definitely. It’s much more satisfying this time, just to be able to travel and do this thing. Before it was so fast and there was so much pressure – sometimes self-inflicted pressure, that I didn’t enjoy any of it. I didn’t see it. But now I’ve sort of gotten licence from people to do what I’m going to do. As long as I stick within my thing… if I released a grime record I don’t know if people would like that! They give me a lot of freedom. They’re like, ‘You want to do a dubby kind of song like Elvis Costello? Cool.’ At the same time I can do a folk or soul or punk song. I’ve got this freedom and I feel lucky to have it because that comes from the people, and I’m able to be free. I feel free. In the band with all the pressure that came with it and as big as the band is, you’re not as free because you do have to please everyone who comes to the shows. You do have to do the thing. When you go to see the Foo Fighters at Wembley they better be playing. There’s no experimenting. No jamming; ‘Yo check out this raga tune.’ People would be fuming, because as a band, you’ve got to go and do the show.
“I was so cool with it when I was younger and I was so in because I was burning with excitement; if you’re excited, I’m excited. Bang! Go! And I wanted to do it. Now I just want to do this thing. I want [the audience] to be happy but let me take you on this little trip now. It’s not just about slamming home the excitement: ‘Let me strip this down on the piano, let me play this with a little beat to it, I think I’ve learned something. Follow me along, let me see if you’ll come with me.’
So far it’s been working. But it’s a different thing.”
“I can do a folk, a soul or a punk song...”