Howling Wolfe
Chelsea gives us the tour of her European touring rig
Guitars
“I always play in D standard, it was just how I started when I was young. The first guitar I had when I was younger was a classical from when my mom was in high school and I found it in the garage. It had a broken tuning peg and I tuned it to that string, and it ended up being really close to D standard. So when I got a proper guitar I realised it was a lot better suited for my voice; standard E wasn’t great for my vocal range. Then a lot of drop C too. Twinfawn, one of the newer songs is in CGCGGC, that one is really fun to play in.”
1 Gretsch Broadcaster
“I’ve been playing 335s for a few years and I was recently blessed with this amazing Gretsch Broadcaster that I’m in love with. It’s got an even deeper sound that’s in the same realm as a 335 but I like it so much better. It’s definitely one of my favourite guitars I’ve ever had. The colour is something I wouldn’t normally pick. Sometimes, I like all black and then sometimes I like things to look a little vintage-y, old school. It’s probably the loudest guitar I’ve ever had.”
2 Gibson 1979 ES -335
“I got into the 335s because they have great dynamic and feel but you can also get really controlled feedback through them. Even though they’re hollow-bodies it’s not an intense wail every time you turn a distortion on. You can control it and I really enjoy that for this set and lineup. For our main headline sets I’ve been using both guitars so this 335 is still in action [this guitar was also used for a lot of the tracking on Hissspun].”
Guitar Pedalboard
“When I come to Europe my ’board is super simplified. I stick with my favourites and try not to get too crazy, especially if we’re doing opening dates and a short set. Everything is compacted.”
3 Dunlop DVP3 Volume
“I used to use my hand on the guitar’s volume but it’s so much more fun to use your foot. Lots of fade out of feedback.”
4 Way Huge Angry Troll boost
“We’ll get a good clean [tone] going on the Bassbreaker, then add the Angry Troll and from there add the Apocalypse or the Acapulco. This is my general tone. Sometimes I use a Speaker Cranker but I switched to this one for the tour because I was digging it. It’s got different levels of tone, so I start here.”
5 Death By Audio Apocalypse
“The Apocalypse was my first proper fuzz pedal. We recorded the
album Abyss with John Congleton in Dallas, Texas and he had one there. I was instantly drawn to it because of the name, of course. But the second I plugged that in I knew it was going to be a defining tone for that album. So this is more for the Abyss songs, like Carrion Flowers and Dragged out. It’s very, very heavy. You can get this world-ending massive amount of thunder and bass. But you can do a lot with it too, you can use five different settings and I use the second [War Fuzz mode and what DBA call: ‘a very full and dynamic distortion with rich harmonics and sustain’]. The tone control changes it a lot. I guess I’m drawn to pedals that are easy and fun.”
6 EARTHQUAKER DEVICES ACAPULCO GOLD DISTORTION
“This is my favourite right now and I used this a lot on Hissspun so a lot of the newer songs will have this one. I don’t know what they would call it but for me it’s the marriage of distortion and fuzz. It’s the perfect in-between, which makes it perfect for a more compact ’board. I love that it has one knob, that’s it. As the rhythm player, I’m happy with this setting.”
VOCAL PEDALBOARD
“I think it drives every sound engineer crazy that [I use effects on my vocals] but I keep fighting for it because I really feel like it’s part of my sound and when I try to use a proper vocal pedal I find it doesn’t have the power. There’s something that’s a little more separated with them, it’s like the voice and then the effect but with guitar pedals it’s right there, so you can instantly hear it on your voice. In a way I feel like I’ve learned to use my voice as an instrument.”
7 BOSS RV-5 REVERB
“I have that on a hall setting.”
“I’ll fuck around with that in between the songs. I pretty much know [settings] by vision at this point instead of having to hear it.”
8 DIGITECH DIGIDELAY
“I’ll click this one for a really intense dragged-out reverb.”
10 TRIBUTE AUDIO DESIGNS EFFECT INTEGRATOR
“This kind of takes the place of a DI. It’s meant for singers who go through guitar pedals as it changes the signal at the end so it’s not so crazy for front of house.
AMP 11 FENDER BASSBREAKER 45 2 X 12 COMBO AND HIWATT CAB
“I’ve been using the Fender Bassbreaker for a few years and they were kind enough to ship one over here so the last European tours have also used it. I’m running that through a Hiwatt cab, I used to use a Hiwatt amp here too and I’m a big fan of it but for now I’m using the Bassbreaker with a second Hiwatt cab to give it more bassy low-end goodness.
“The Bassman reminded me of the Hiwatt and I was thinking of getting one in the States and then Fender came out with Bassbreaker. They asked if I’d like to try it and, obviously, it has that bassy feel and it was just perfect for what we were doing on Abyss and it carried over to Hissspin. I love the way it looks too.”