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Skype Call with Jake Bowen

Lesson 8 from: Summer Gear Guide

Gear Gods Team

Skype Call with Jake Bowen

Lesson 8 from: Summer Gear Guide

Gear Gods Team

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Lesson Info

8. Skype Call with Jake Bowen

Lesson Info

Skype Call with Jake Bowen

talking to Jake Bone from per free. He is one of the three guitar players and periphery on duh we're gonna be talking to him about, you know, he's also a fractal player, but he had he uses I've been his guitars and DiMarzio pickups. Awesome. I think we have. I think we haven't ready for you. There you go. South going today. Great. How are you? Pretty good. Eso you've had quite a few new pieces of gear Come out in the last year or so. You have a I bonus guitar and a DiMarzio pickup on your name, right? Yes. Can you tell me a little about those were developing those simultaneously. Like keeping one in mind when you can't with the other. Did you work on the guitar first and then the pick up? Well, I got the, um I got an email from my rep, but I've been as explaining to me that they were interested in developing a signature guitar. And, um, you know, I was really excited, and I really wanted to do it. And, um, you know, is going over ideas on would Ah, what type of it's already I would lik...

e and um, you know, all my favorite signature models always come with some sort of special pickup in them that go with the guitar really well, and, you know, really, Ah, solidify the identity of the player and the guitar. So a soon as I got that offer, I went to DiMarzio and I said, Hey, ah, even as is interested in doing this, would you be interested in developing a pickup? So they were They were excited to do that. And, um, they were kind of developed side by side. But the pickup ended up being finished before the guitar was. But, um, But when? When? When they get star does go for sale in, uh, in July, you'll be able to get the pickups and the guitar. So did that. And did one inform the design of the other, like DiMarzio here and like, what type of wood is in the guitar, for example? And then the DiMarzio say like, Okay, you've got base would or mahogany whatever. So, you know, let's go with this design for the pickup. Um, you know, the woods and the guitar were still being decided before before we started designing the pickup, so the guitar ended up being a mahogany body with a maple top. But the pickup is a ceramic magnet pickup. So it just happened to work out that it sounds great, and I love it. But the woods were never considered when developing the pickup on both of those are called the Titan, right? Yeah. Yeah, There's the Titan neck and the Titan Bridge. Okay. And what about what about your guitar? The guitar? It's called the jbm 100. Jake Bowen, Model one. So, what was it like? You know, You know, you've got your custom guitar being designed. You have your custom pickups being designed. It almost feel like too much freedom. Like, did you have to put a lot of soul searching into OK, you know, my guitar and my pickups are both being developed. This is gonna be like my tone, you know, other people are gonna be buying up, and you gotta be playing it to Did you have to, like, really figure out and stew on that? Yeah. It took a lot of thought, and luckily ah, I worked. I worked pretty closely with Ivan Asen, my rep Mike Taft at Ivan as and hey, lets me build the kind of guitars that I want to build with Ivan s. So I was able to kind of figure out what I liked with with their l a custom shop and then, ah, the one of the last l A custom shops that they sent me, um ended up being the basis for the signature Siri's, um, which is built in Japan. Um, but it didn't It didn't change too much other than ah, then maybe the woods used I I think I have a different different woods in the L A custom shop, but ah, it just ah, what's great is that Ivan has already makes parts already existing parts that I feel comfortable playing on, and they use high quality wood. And it was it was really easy to develop something that I would declining on a swell a something that we could sell because that was kind of like the big thing with the guitar is that I didn't want to put something out, that I wasn't going to play or if, like I needed a guitar and there's one at a local store, you know, I would I want to play that one. So that was kind of the biggest point in developing it was making making it something that, you know, I would play myself. Did you? Did you have any fear of, like, what if the perfect guitar for me is just not like, you know, what people are into or not. Was that not a concern at all? Not really. I think when You know, when I got this offer, I was just like, you know, what? The best signature guitars air really? Just an expression of that Players, You know what they want and how you know what they what they think looks good and what they think feels good. And that's just what I went with. I just went completely based on stuff that I know I enjoy. But, um, strangely enough, a lot of the stuff that I enjoy about I've been his guitars, a lot of people. Ah, there's there's this cult following for them And ah, a lot of the things are the choices that I may it is eyes fall in line with a lot of the things that those types of people like the um You remember the last time I talked to you about your guitar. You told me that when everything's about it was the particular finish. Could you describe that a little bit? Yeah. I'm actually ever right here. I can hold it up. Have a great, um, but ah, I'm not sure how well you can tell what the lighting in my room. But it's a Matt finish, and, uh, there are some guitars with a matt finish. Um, but the this particular finish doesn't it doesn't get, like, Warren off after a while. And I've actually toward a lot on the guitar, and it still looks as new into this. You know, when I opened the case for the first time, But I also wanted to do ah, originally a matte black finish. And, um, they ended up sending this kind of like a pencil lead. Ah, graphite black finish. And it ended up being kind of Blake. I like that much better. So we ended up going with that, Um, but, uh, yeah, because I like very subtle, subtle guitar design choices. I'm not really into, like, fancy tops or crazy colors. I like things that are, um ah, sleek the Could you tell me a little bit about because you've got three guitar players, which is not unheard of, but not incredibly common. Um, the how do you go about, you know, you queueing your bands, you know, setting up your sound that all your guitars and periphery work with each other in a live show or even on an album? Yes, sir. That's a really good question. Um and ah, it really comes down to ah, um, the axe effects and how we dial it in on the on the axe effects, which is the guitar preempt that we use. We use the expects to excel. It's by a fractal audio, and it we have a lot going on, and there's a lot of layering. And there's also a bass player and ah, vocalist and a drummer to account for. So we really have to make sure that the the tone is ah is surgical in the sense that it sits right exactly where it needs to our as best as we can get it. We're not, You know, we're not tone doctors or anything, but it's, um uh, it's a very mid range of guitar tone. And, uh, I mean, if you think about the guitar as an instrument and where it sits in a certain frequency range. Typically, rock and metal is in the mid range if there's one guitar player or sometimes two guitar players, but the music isn't as intricate. You can kind of experiment of a little bit outside of the mid range frequencies. But we tend to have a very mid rangy sound. And something that we go for is this. Ah, tone that really meshes well with the base. And there are some recordings. Um, good examples of this are like Mushega or ah, like a life once lost. They have guitar tone that is really mid, rangy, and it sits really well with the base. So when the bass and the guitar playing the same thing, it it produces this very unique growl. And that's kind of what we get for. I remember he told me that all three of you guys actually use pretty much the same exact aunt model, right? And it's just like any code differences were set up by your front of house sound guy. Um, the end. The other thing that I thought was interesting was that you guys were in stereo, right? I like performance. Well ah, Mark on Misha are on the right and left. Um actually, I think from the audience perspective, Mark would be on the left and we should be on the right, and I I sit in the center. I mean, I'm faded to the center And, um, the reason for that is ah, we want when you when you're when you're recording guitars and you double track guitars normally your pan one hard left and pan one hard right. And ah, it produces this kind of, uh, it's not, I guess, like technically, it might be considered a coarsening effect, but it does. It's not as like, uh, um, obvious as a coursing effect, but it makes the sound Why much wider. So we try to go for that live, um and ah, with me panned in the centre, I'm able to do a lot of the more ambient, ethereal sound, awesome layers. But when we do, when we do all play the same riff, it really sounds like this huge wide guitar sound. Do you know, I I haven't really paid as much attention lately to lifetime with bands, but I don't really see too many vans doing a stereo set up a lot of life. Sound to me tends to be motto. Do you ever run into issues where your at a club and, uh, are, you know, venue or whatever? Um, and, uh, the sound system is not set up to be stereo like any kind of phasing issue. Anything at the change with your set up? Yeah. I mean, it happens occasionally. We're still very much a club band and some clubs that we play have ah, you know, a much smaller p a or, um P a. That is running mono. And ah, it's ah, we don't have to change anything on our end. But our sound guy Alex marquees it will definitely have to fight with a little bit to get the sound right. But he knows that I had a route all that stuff toe to get the most out of whatever set up we walk into. But yeah, it's been been certain clubs. It's been kind of difficult to really get the best sound for were like a notoriously difficult ban to mix, and and Alex is really the the only guy who understands it so he usually has to figure it out, but, yeah, it's been difficult. So both your guitar, The Ivan is JB 100 right? And then the pickups in tomorrow's he was hiding. Those are all available now. Well, the pickups are available now, and we are working on a seven string version on, and then the guitar will be available in July. Okay, So are the pickups also available for sale outside of the guitar, right? Yeah. Yeah. You can actually go to Guitar Center or ah, musicians front online and grab them. Or you can order them from any DiMarzio dealer. Okay, well, thank you very much for for being allergic. Thank you.

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