Lessons

Lesson Info

Skype Call with Aaron Marshall

part of why, you know, like following up with intervals now is because Aaron is an axe effects user. So I want to get a chance to talk to him about how he's using an axe effects putting a some other gear, like, you know, is Paris guitars and his bare knuckle pickups. You know, there are a lot of bands that are using this hardware, you know, t create their own particular sounds. And I like talking to bands that you really develop their particular tone with it, as opposed to just, you know, modeling a couple you know, of standard stock cycle. I put it to scream in front of 51 50. Um, and you know, I've always appreciated the tone that Aaron was getting out of the unit, so I wanted to see what he was doing that, um, Fahrenheit. I'm not bad yourself. Pretty good. Pretty good. Also. Okay, So how long have you been an axe effects player? When? When did you first get your unit? Um, it's probably about three years now, I guess since the inception of intervals, um, it was like I had ah is usual...

ly, like an angle. Powerball in an orange for 12 was like my go to set up before I got my first fractal. And, uh, I live in Canada. When two came out, it wasn't, like, readily available. I think there was, like, a shipping discrepancy or something. So a couple of friends of mine and myself got a rental car and drove to New Hampshire, and we actually got our units from fractal H Q. It was like a 12 hour drivers so silly, um, but had to have it, and we were getting ready to do the first intervals recording. So I just wanted to make sure that you know that we were employing the new guy instead of, So I went out and grab it, too, and I haven't stopped using it since. It's like the only thing that allows me to do what I need to dio with intervals, you know? So do you have the standard to or you have the mark two version of it? You know, I actually I actually have two of them because of greedy, but I've got a, uh, G two in my studio desk, and I have a mark two in the live rig, which is behind me here, which is kind of in shambles at the moment, but were off the roads, OK, and then the other guitar senior man Lucas. Right. So what does he also have? A Yeah, exactly. Yeah, he's He's still running the G to in our live rig is. Well, he actually came with what we what? We bought those at first and he had just bought an ultra, And then the toos came out. So we made the switch, OK? Eso You know, I've seen bands used the X effects in a couple different ways in their live performance, you know, being lined indirectly or through a solid state power Amper into a to power AMP, how do you How do you guys set up your rigs live? We do both in our, uh, first tour of this year, we were in Europe with protests, a hero and a you know, due to the lack of back line situation and flying in and stuff way, actually, we're going to run cabinets and power and that there was a malfunction with the power and so was the first time we did it without using cabinets on stage Bully direct to the front of house and, uh, was a little strange. I'm sure if we had in your monitoring or something like that, they didn't have anything. You were just that could be circumvented. What? We're dependent on the wedges. And we had crew. We had hired crew for that tour, so we had a monitor guy and stuff, but so we made the best of the situation. But here, in a perfect world, we bring a power in the cabinet. Um, been experimenting with that a little bit Lucas owns of DHT, which is awesome, and I love to power, and I think it sounds phenomenal. But it's not one of the ill deal 34 VH tease. That's who felt the worse of the 2 90 to 92 sets. Katie eights. Okay, that's right. Pardon me and we still we run that thing at half power, so it's still like 45 watts aside and just crank it because it just sounds so good. Um, but we've experimented with our friends and protest the hero Lent is a matrix, and it's nice because it's really lightweight, and it's super reliable when it sounds awesome. Okay, a couple of 4 12 oranges on stage, and it's literally kind of Ah, more of a selfish thing. It's just so we don't feel naked up there and anyone in the first, the first couple of rows from the stage will still get a little bit of guitar. Whereas, you know, the main source of our tone is going direct to the front of house. So it's coming at the Mains. But we like to do both. And I think it kind of allows us to get, you know, from an artist perspective. Anyway, it allows us to kind of feel like we're still driving into vamp. I still get that response but on, you know, getting I'm going right to the front of house. No microphone bleed. All that. So what? What? What? I'm sorry, modeling with the unit kind of changes depending on my mood. But lately, um, the most consistent ones since the making of our latest record through the last couple tours has been the corncob um 50 which is Ah ah core inferred model, which is kind of a strange one for, like, modern metal, I'd say, but I get better results with, like, vintage amps with the master crate like more that pushed amp kind of vibe. Lately, I've been using the record, which is the train wreck model, for I've always used it for Leeds, but I've dialed in really good rhythm with it, too. And I think it's I think it's awesome. I kind of love the vintage amps for mid gain stuff. I used the bread 800 like a J. Marshall J. C. M 800 and various cleans, depending on what we need to do. But it's like that's pretty much it for now. So before you were using the axe, was that Were those that have stamps used to like to use, like, you know, like non master volume type lamps? Um, not really, No. I mean, I said I had an angle Powerball that was like kind of my go team modern metal rig. I was playing with another band before intervals and stuff. And no, not really. I think that's something that I've like become Akin Teoh in the last couple of years. Like I just really like the sound of an AMP that's like actually working itself. Andi. Certain vintage jams just have that That's out another one is the Friedman. Yeah. The H b a kicks ass in the real world too. It seems like half the fractal users I see you're using those now. I'm like a, um uh, not toast. Palm s models used that on the last Senate. Cracker is using the freed minutes. I got to know it out with what? We just did a festival in New Jersey with them and like, Yeah, he's he's doing the same thing. I think me she's been messing with, I think ever I know Jake was using the brown eye. It just has this natural twinning, and it almost doesn't eat overdrive. It's crazy how awesome that thing is. I'm gonna get to plan my first real one tomorrow. Ah, friend of my Nick Johnson. If you guys don't know Nick, he's amazing. Amazing. Canadians are player, but we have a jam tomorrow and he owns a brown eye that I'm stoked. I'm curious. Do you think that you've just over time developed an appreciation for the style of those ants vs? Like you know, you're more classic. I can angle Powerball higher gain amps or do you think it's particular just in the axe effects. You just like those models. But you think if you were using a tube AMP you might still go back to those other ones? That's a good point. You know, maybe before the axe effects and the ability to experiment and stuff I may have been fairly reluctant to like, I think the first time I ever tried, like a vintage dampened and put it through its paces like that is Ah, friend of mine, Mike Fort, who's, Ah, who's legendary And Guy Randall now? Yeah, that's right. With Randall. Yeah, I mean, he was 15 minutes down the highway from me best dude, and I had a bit of a session there, like a while ago where we got to try some amps and stuff. And he has a this modern plexi situation, which is just like I've never heard anything like it. So that got me thinking. And then the more I tweaking the axe effects, I have the ability to experiment with sort of different variables, cabinets and microphone combinations against, you know, these vintage type amps. And I just realized that, like there's so much tone in those things, as opposed to like not taking anything away from a 51 50 year a diesel or an angle there. Great amplifiers. But personally, the characteristics I'm looking for that attitude just lives in vintage jams. Eso What about in the studio? Do you line the axe effects and directly? Do you mike it up? Yeah, both, actually, all of our releases. So the first to eat peas and our debut record are all direct and not because we'd like intended to do that specifically, Um, we just didn't necessarily have the resources to do like shootouts with lots of cabs and mic placement and all that stuff. We tried a little bit, and the direct single ended up taking the cake every time. Um, so that is what it is. But for album Teoh and some more time and resources, I'm definitely tryingto to make some stuff up. He's a power amp and some cabinets and just got to see what we get, you know? Okay, um, one thing I was like the s bands, they're using the axe effects in the studio and live is you see a lot of bands advertising. You know, the tone on the record is the tone live when that's not always necessarily, you know it can be, But it's always not necessarily the best thing. So some bands that I see sounding money sometimes I was wonder, you know, maybe there are optimizing their tone. It's you like, you know, in your time recording were there are other specific models you tend to prefer live versus on the record. Yeah, I'd say I stick with the model, but I definitely pay more attention to e que. I think that's the biggest thing and varying amounts of gain. Or if you're you know, maybe a compressor works for your tone to the studio. Maybe not so flattering Live. I think the biggest thing is that in a studio environment on, I think Cooper touched on this recently just before you guys called me. Um, is that dialing in at low volumes is basically an illusion, because when you start to get tones flying around at like High Devi, all that high end and a lot of that low end that you can get away with in the studio not so flattering on stage. So the biggest thing for us is get a reversal room that has a p a in a large room, and I take time before we begin rehearsals for a tour. And I'm in their crank that on e queuing out frequencies. I'm getting pretty surgical with it and just trying to get the same thing, but something that translates at a high, high decibel level, you know, eso Can you tell me what you know? We've talked a lot of the X effects and tell me what about your guitar and pick up set up? I mean, you're using appear s and then you've got bare knuckles in there, right? That's right. Yeah. The band plays 50 56 string and seven string material, but in terms of the sixth Ring stuff, I'm a new Pollard Smith endorsee. And I couldn't be happier there like my dream company. Like, I've been playing guitar for about 14 years now. And like when I think about an electric guitar, I literally think about the custom. 24. Always always wanted one. I worked in a music store here in Toronto for years, and people would ask, What do you playing? What do you dream about itself? It's like I want a custom 24 They were gracious enough, Teoh. I acquired two of them on our last tour. They're phenomenal. I adore the living crap out of these things. They're they're just amazing. So my main live guitar six string guitar has a set of bare knuckle juggernauts in it, which I've come to really like, actually, Um I think, Misha, I kind of, you know, I share some similarities and things that I look for in tone, you know, on my approach is like a little bit different just cause our our playing styles a little different, but, um, yeah, the jugs are amazing. It brings that guitar the life. Not to say that clarity, Paul Reed Smith pickups aren't fantastic, but the bare knuckle PRS combination is just win. And at the moment, I'm also working on an album for myself. And Constant 24 is well, it's got a bare knuckle black dog in the bridge and a V H two in the neck, which is a fantastic combo to. Did you choose those pickups because of a stylistic difference with the music? That's right. Yeah, it's a little early looking for him. That's right. Yeah. Medium output kind of allows me to make the guitar a jack of all trades. It's in standard tuning, little bit lighter gauge strings and stuff. It's kind of what I'm using for practicing teaching. I'm writing this stuff with it. The guitar is a five way switch, so I'm able toe, make it sound like a Strat or do whatever And, uh, yeah, medium A pickups, allow me toe Get the most out of it. We're using bare knuckles Before you were before you were playing Prso Javan in a previous guitar. Yeah, I've kind of had relationships with a bunch of companies, and, uh, you know, I have a bit of a collection and stuff, and bare knuckles were usually my go to. The only other pickups I were I was using were Seymour Duncans, and I'm still actually using them in a seven string Strandberg boat. And seven, it's a little headless guy, and Duncan stepped up to the plate real quick to make me a set of custom slanted pickups for the fan. Fret. And it's a Pegasus in the Bridge. Tension in the neck, which Keith Merrow, who works for Duncan, was instrumental in creating in their their frickin great I think they're awesome to their definitely rival the knuckles. Okay, s So what is your rig? You know, pretty much, you know, guitar with those pickups straight into the axe, Or do you have any pedals that you are sending into the front of their? Not at the moment. Three only thing that I wrote on stage in front of his a tuner. Just cause of where the Brinks that sometimes I just like to be able to tune on the floor. Um, but other than that, no, I have a couple tricks up my sleeve that I'd like to implement on our next tour. Um, namely the Empress Parametric EQ your Para Que? It's marketed us Empress Sarah, Canadian Company. That from Ottawa. They make amazing stuff. People probably know them for their their super delay. See, a lot of those. Um, but it za wicked parametric in Q for guitar That allows you Teoh kind of trim the fat a little without having toe, You know, using overdrive as a clean boost or do any of those types of tricks. So I'll probably try that. But other than that, no, that after, Does everything okay? Well, thank you for being on the program. No worries. Thank you for having me. Alright, Jassy it. So that was our martial from Intervals. And we're gonna be jumping over now. Teoh Producer Mark Lewis. Who? Who You probably know from all of his recordings that he's done it all you Hammer. He just produced the latest White Chapel record, which hit the Billboard top 10. And we're pretty excited to have him on here talking about some of the guitar Andi pickups that he uses with the MGs and everything.