LMG’s 50th Issue!

Hey Sabrefans!
Get yourself a copy of LMG’s 50th issue! Not only is it an awesome magazine, but it includes an article on Dean and Charlie’s gear for your reading pleasure!

JUNE 10 2011
LMG’s 50th issue bash with:
SABRETOOTH
Peachy Keen &
Taxi Violence

Come party with us!!

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Dean and Charles Ripping at Rhythm!!

Dean:
FINALLY! Rhythm guitars are done! Charles and I tried to stick to the 1-song-a-day schedule but that was easier said than done…
…ended up taking 3-4 weeks.

Charles:
So far we’ve done all rhythm guitars and drums, but bass and guitars solos on just a few songs. We started tracking rhythm guitars about a month ago and I guess we had some issues, but nothing that was a super big deal or anything. Maybe a bit of performance and tone issues and dealing with squeaks and scratches from our hands on the strings. We used new strings every two songs, so all the guitarists out there, you know what I’m talking about with the squeaks. Then obviously we had some parts where I’d play things a little differently to Dean (eg: I’d hammer-on a note, he’d pick), but we’ve kept some of those to make things a bit more organic.

Dean:
We had 11 songs to track of the regular; OD (overdrive) guitars, clean (electric) and acoustic guitar. Our songs are pretty busy and high in tempo so to keep them as clean as we could we decided to Dual track all the rhythms. Besides, buying twice the amount of strings and having to redo everything a second time makes quad tracking such a pain! In my personal opinion I don’t feel like they’re any less big than it would have sounded with two extra guitar tracks in the mix.

Charles:
As for gear… Well we didn’t really use that much. The main guitar we used was my red Ibanez RG550 (1991) with a maple fret board and EMG pickups (85b/81n), but we also used a Fender strat USA, Ibanez Jem77bfp and a steel string here and there.

Dean:
I used my BFOC custom 7 (emg707′s) for the bigger, lower tuned riffs and used the strat on the ballad “Tomorrows Gone”. All guitars strung with D’addario strings. The steel string acoustic had Elixir strings though. Elixirs were great on acoustic because we tried our best to avoid those in-between-chord-string-slides that spike your mix at chord change points. On acoustic guitars it’s so much louder! The coating on those strings allowed your fingers to slide across them without getting caught in the winding grooves, lowering the intense harshness of that scrape/slide sound. Giving you a cleaner acoustic take.

Charles:
As far as amplification we used a Peavey 5150 head and a Mesa Boogie 4×12 rectifier cab for all the amp stuff (which will be re-amped later anyways).

Dean:
We’ll change the Overdrive tones for every song to keep it less monotonous/fatiguing to the ear, plus, each song feels better with their own unique vibe.

Charles:
I’m really happy with the performances and sound so far, even though everything is kinda far from being complete. On a performance note, I think I struggled with some things and found others pretty easy, but we put a lot of thought and time into things, so even the easiest parts Dean and I had talks over as to how we felt it should be played. As usual, Dean motored through things that I might have struggled with and the other way round, so we filled in on each other’s weaknesses. Not much has changed from the way we play some of the songs live, but there will be few bits and pieces here and there and also the songs that no one has heard yet. I am very excited about our ballad though, i think it’s written well and the way it’s coming together makes me very happy. I’m also trying to use whatever influence I have to get little song specific quirks and effects into songs to make them more of their own song and have little parts that sound a bit more creative. (Ryan) Swanich the farthog actually came up with a really good quirk the other week…

Dean:
We left in small (tasteful) mistakes through out the whole process because we thought it was better to embrace the natural sound of a guitar than to do an over-clinically-tight-robot-sounding album with no feel and vibe (like the sound of today’s modern metal productions), but without losing any power or energy. As much as I couldn’t wait to finish, I enjoyed tracking guitars. It’s like another sit-in practice but a lot more intense because you’re constantly playing at your best, having every minor error in your technique become much more apparent for you to fix. Not only allowing for great takes but also to make you a much better player.

Charles:
All in all everything is coming along very well and it’s been a long effort, but we are really trying to do the most professional album we can from head to toe. I hope you guys will hear the thought behind everything we’ve done. For now, peace out and I’ll be back when the solos are done!

- Dean Bailey and Charles Knighton-Pullin

(Photo’s by Robin Bernstein)

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