Here’s the skinny… I’m
selling a bunch of my guitars, effects pedals, road cases, etc, that I used
while I was playing in Nails. You can check out photos of some of the stuff here in our Myspace photo section, or just click HERE
If you’re seriously interested, you can get your hands on
this stuff right now at a great music shop in LA called FUTURE MUSIC
For those of you elsewhere
that might be interested, you can contact the store directly for more details,
and they can even arrange things such as shipping. Please, DON'T ask us about prices on this stuff here... Call or email the store. Their contact info is provided on their website linked above.
And yes… ALL of this stuff
was actually used and played on stage with NIN. I suppose the best point of
reference I could use for this equipment would be the “Beside You In Time” DVD?
So I’ll try my best here to figure out what was used on which song er whatever.
Be warned though… If you’re looking for pristine, brand new musical gear, then
this stuff isn’t for you. The bloodstains, loogies, dents, and scratches are
all over these things. BUT… All of it is in 100% perfect working condition. So yeah,
I’m “cleaning house” here for a couple of reasons:
1) We’re trying to
scrounge up enough dough to properly repair our studio, Shabbey Road. Our roof
has suffered MAJOR water damage, we have a slew of electrical problems which
only get worse by the day, and the second floor is basically on the brink of
collapsing. A major hurdle in even starting the repairs, is clearing away the massive amount of musical equipment crammed so tightly into our little studio.
As of now, we can hardly even wade our way into the areas in need of repair.
2) At this point, we
simply just have wayyyy too much stuff… It's just not practical. And, we don’t have enough room to store
it all anymore, nor do I find the need to own 4 copies of the exact same guitar, pedal, etc
So if you’re wondering,
“Why would you want to get rid of all this stuff? It obviously must be
kinda crappy then.” Well, let me try to explain… When I started playing guitar
for Nails a few years back, I suddenly found myself in a peculiar situation I
never would’ve imagined being in. Like a kid in a candy store, I was basically
told: “Pick out as many guitars, amps, pedals, etc that you are going to need,
and we’ll get all of it for you.” Initially I thought, “Cool, I’ll get a couple
free guitars and pedals out of this.” Then, after picking out a handful of
things, and thinking I’d ALREADY gotten away with murder, I was told that I
still hadn’t even BARELY picked out enough equipment. Cos apparently, besides
the guitars and pedals to cover all the different sorts of sounds and tones I was
aiming for… There were also an extensive amount of alternate tunings for many
of the songs… All of which required their own individual guitars. As if that
didn’t seem ridiculous enough… I was also told that only one set of all this
equipment wouldn’t be adequate… I would need an entire set of duplicates for an
identical SECOND “rig” to alternate with the original. As my brain was still
trying to register all of this, I was told that even another identical “backup
rig”… A THIRD… Would be needed (in case of an “emergency”). Not to mention that
many other things, such as certain pedals, required even more duplicates. As the
tours kept rolling, the more equipment kept strolling in… Often due to the
lengths I’d go to entertain myself… Such as seeing how much of it I
could possibly destroy.
Fast forward to the
present day… And it’s just completely ridiculous and unnecessary for me to own or store for example 4 identical Hagstrom "Swede" guitars, 5 Z-Vex Octane pedals,
etc. Sooooo… After recently setting aside all the stuff I still actually use…
The rest of it is now up for grabs. Again… Not because any of it is inferior to
what I’m keeping… But because I just don’t need guitars sitting in dusty cases I know
I’ll never open again. Word?
So here is a listing of some
of the stuff I’m selling over at Future Music, with as much technical and
background info I can possibly provide or remember. And again, since everything
was constantly being played in rotation from night to night, all of this gear
saw plenty of action on the front lines, and circled the globe with us quite a
few times.
Hagstrom “Swede” guitar -
Black
I used this model of
Hagstrom guitars quite a bit with Nails. The couple of Black “Swede” models I
had out on the road were designated as those for “Drop D” tuning. I used
these on a ton of songs… “The Wretched”, “Eraser”, “Reptile”, “Burn”… This
particular guitar, is the specific one I’m playing in “Somewhat Damaged” on the “Beside
You In Time” DVD, and even on there in the song “Beside You In Time”.
Specifications:
[ Body ] 45mm Mahogany
Body with 10mm Carved Mahogany Top
[ Neck ] Set Mahogany
Neck
[ Fingerboard ]
Resinator Fretboard with Hagstrom Pearl Block Position Marks
[ Truss Rod ] H-Expander
Truss Rod
[ Tuning Keys ] Hagstrom
18:1 Die Cast Tuners
[ Scale Length ] 24.75”
Scale
[ Pickups ] 2x Hagstrom
Custom 58 Humbuckers
[ Pickup Selector ]
3-Way Toggle
[ Bridge ] Long Travel
Tune-O-Matic with Hagstrom Stop Tail Piece and 6 Individual Brass String Blocks
[ Controls ] 2x Volume /
2x Tone / 3-Way Tone Filter Toggle (center bypass)
Hagstrom “F200P” guitar –
White
This was one of the
smaller guitars with a P-90 style pickup that I used for songs where the tuning
was down half a step, or even down half a step and then drop-tuned. This guitar
saw a lot of action on songs such as “Closer”, “Getting Smaller”, and “Piggy”. This
particular guitar, is the exact same one I’m seen playing first on the “Beside You In
Time” DVD in “Love Is Not Enough”.
Specifications:
[ Body ] 45mm Contoured
Mahogany Body
[ Neck ] Set Nato Neck
[ Fingerboard ] Resinator Fretboard
with Hagstrom 6mm Dot Position Marks
[ Truss Rod ] H-Expander Truss
Rod
[ Tuning Keys ] Hagstrom 18:1 Die
Cast Tuners
[ Scale Length ] 24.75” Scale
[ Pickups ] 2x Hagstrom H90
Single Coil Pickups
[ Selector ] 3-Way Toggle
[ Bridge ] Hagstrom Full
Contact Tremolo FCS-1
[ Controls ] 1x Volume / 1x Tone
Reverend “Club King 290”
guitar – Gold-top
This guitar is AWESOME. I got this one after a very memorable experience of having the opportunity to "hang out", and "talk shop" with none other than the late, great Ron Asheton of The Stooges... Somebody I've surely ripped off more than any other. There’s an amazing tone knob on here that can make the guitar produce a
massive, chunky humbucker type sound, or even a thinner, twangy Telecaster sound… And everything in between! Seeing as how I was a bit more precious with this
guitar than a lot of the others, it wasn’t brought out as much live. So I
usually used this one on special occasions. For instance, when we were only
recording. This way I knew it wouldn’t end up getting snapped in half. I recall using this guitar when we recorded a bunch of Joy Division
covers with Peter Murphy, and also when we did a BBC Radio 1 session in London.
I've also used this guitar quite a bit recently with Jubilee… And recorded all of
my guitar parts for “Rebel Hiss” for instance with it.
Specifications:
[ Body ] Semi-hollow with
5.5 mm solid spruce top on korina, and 'shooting star' f-hole. Black back and
sides with cream binding.
19-1/4" x 14-3/4" x 1-3/4".
[ Neck ] Bolt-on, maple,
amber tinted satin finish
[ Fingerboard ] Rosewood, 12"
radius
[ Truss Rod ] Dual-action, access
at headstock
[ Tuning Keys ] Reverend Pin Lock
Tuners
[ Scale Length ] 25-1/2" Scale
[ Pickups ] Two Reverend P90's,
output/tone calibrated for each position, Hum cancelling when combined.
[ Selector ] 3-Way
[ Bridge ] Stop tail
[ Controls ] Custom Volume & Tone, Bass Contour
VERY LARGE 20 space
rack-mount case on wheels – Manufactured by Case World
http://www.caseworld.tv/
Specifications:
20 rack spaces
1-2 inches of foam
This is one of the cases
that housed one of my complete guitar “rigs”. We referred to it as "The Death Star". This thing contained everything that produced my guitar sound. That included the “head” of
my amplifier, all of my effects pedals, and the midi brains connected to
them so I could trigger them from up on stage. This thing was at every NIN show I
was, and saw just as much action as I did… Yet is still in perfect working
order, and much better shape than I am. This thing could be used for anything though. Hell, if
ya just wanna convert it into a tough little bookshelf that could survive being
thrown off a roof… It’s like Burger King here dude, “Have it YOUR way!”
Z Vex Octane 3 Guitar
Pedal
(BTW, don't ask me why everything ended up under-lined from here down, I'm not too sharp with "the internets")
About as over the top of a fuzz pedal you
can find… Kinda like an old Octavia, but on steroids. This pedal toured the
world with me many times over, yet is still in EXCELLENT working condition. In
fact, because like all of my other pedals, again, they were housed in that large
rackmount case off-stage, and then switched on and off via midi on my “Ground
Control” unit on stage, it looks almost BRAND NEW. It even includes the
original box. I used this pedal on many, many songs, including: “Wish” “Only”,
“The Hand That Feeds” “Gave Up”, and “Closer” just to name a few. You can also distinctly
hear me using this pedal on some Icarus Line tunes such as “Party The Baby
Off”, and “On The Lash”.
Boss DD-3 Delay Guitar
Pedal
I actually used two of
these live with NIN. One of them was set up as a short delay for a “slapback”
effect, and the other as a longer delay. I used this pedal on many, many songs
with Nine Inch Nails, including: “Head Like A Hole”, “Terrible Lie”, “Eraser”,
“Only”, “Wish”, and “Burn”. I also think I used this on just about every Icarus
Line song I can think of. Ha. “Feed A Cat To Your Cobra”, “Spit On It”,
“Caviar”… Damn, all of ‘em? I always felt kinda silly for being so devoted to this particular delay, until we did a tour with Bauhaus, and Daniel Ash had the exact same one on his pedal-board, and swore by it too. Actually… Because I’ve always kept the long delay
settings in the exact same position for years… Occasionally, when it was time for me to
play a “shoegazey/psych” solo type thing in a Nails song… I’d just play a solo
I wrote for The Icarus Line over it, just to keep myself entertained.
I think I did that quite often on “The Day The World Went Away”… Just playing
my solo for “Getting Bright At Night” on top of it. On other songs, I’d slip in
some Love And Rockets, The Stooges, or 13th Floor Elevators parts here and there. Nobody ever seemed to
notice or call me on it. Hmmm.
Anyway, whatever… This is a cool pedal. Ha.
There’s quite a bit more
pedals and stuff of mine for sale over at Future Music right now… But it’d take me another year to describe 'em all. If you wanna know what’s mine, just ask whoever is
there what’s what. Or, like I said before, just call them at the number provided on their website. They’re all super cool guys, know a lot about vintage gear,
and are easily the most straight up and honest people in this type of business
I’ve ever encountered. Over the years, I think I’ve bought at least 4 or 5
guitars from Future Music… A few amps, and dozens of pedals… And I’ve never
been screwed, or ripped off. If you live in the LA area, make sure to check
their place out, and support ‘em. Did I mention the owner of the place, Jack,
was in the band Green On Red? How cool is that?!
- Aaron
P.S.
Lotsa stuff happening with
Jubilee, including an upcoming E.P., and some local live shows. Can’t wait. See
ya soon.
P.P.S.
If ya ever happened to
wonder how I could possibly manage sitting down, and follow through with writing these long-ass updates… It’s usually with the aid of a good
soundtrack. As I recall, the last entry was during my intense
obsession/hibernation period spent with the “Neil Young Archives – Volume 1”
10-disc box-set. I think I lost a coupla weeks of my life trapped inside that thing.
And don’t waste yer time with the cd version… Ya wanna go for the DVD or
Blu-Ray sets. Cos it’s not just about the listed tunes ya only get for instance
on the cd version. It’s about them damn “easter eggs” and extras. Like the
footage of Neil playing “Mr. Soul” with Stephen Stills at Woodstock, or
watching CSNY play “Sea Of Madness” in Big Sur. Muy Killer.
P.ee-P.ee P.eniS.
It
wasn’t a coincidence that I happened to churn out this butt-nugget the same day
my Beatles box-sets arrived in the mail. Don’t be a retard… Get the MONO
version. Most people forget how the bands of this particular era spent their
time and energy perfecting the Mono mixes, and then split for a beach somewhere
once it was finished, leaving the stereo mix for the studio’s receptionist to
handle. That’s cos for awhile back there, NOBODY owned stereo equipment… Just
rich old people. It was kinda like the 5.1 mix of it’s day. I can’t, and don’t
know ANYBODY else who is capable of listening to a 5.1 mix, do you? Well,
actually, get the Mono AND the Stereo sets… It’s THE BEATLES dude. If anybody
cruises yer pad, and finds out you have like, 9 “re-mix” box-sets by… Well…
ANYBODY, and not even one of these, it’s settled. You don’t
like music. Actually, if you own ANY type of “re-mix” record, you probably
don’t like music.