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Yes, there's a couple of things to be told about the equipment. I
mean, that beautiful 'teardrop'-shaped bass Toody plays... isn't she a beauty?
And what's that guitar Fred plays? And Andrew's drum kit...?
F R E D :
To begin with Fred's guitar, it's a Guild S-200 Thunderbird. Or, that's what
it was originally...! According to Fred, they were made only in 1959 (other
sources say 1963 actually), and there were only a couple of hundred or so made -
and they just didn't sell because they were so ugly. Once more, Fred explains:
"I
remember this guy from Big Brother (and the Holding Company) had one... and this
guy from the Lovin' Spoonful, and Muddy Waters had one... and the Lollipop
Shoppe's guitarist! There was a stripped-down version of this guitar made later
on, the "Polaris", but this one... we had one hanging in our guitar
shop, and no-one wanted to buy it. So when I wrecked my Gretsch... See, I had
this Gretsch guitar I played with The Rats, and I had this trick of throwing it
over my shoulder, so that it turned around my back hanging from the strap, and
I'd catch it again and go on playing... so one night, the shoulderstrap snapped
and oh man, that Gretsch just flew through the hall in slow motion... and it
crashed on the floor, it was a concrete floor, yeah... That was the end of that
one. In fact I screwed the neck back on that night so that I could finish the
set, but it was terrible, so after that I picked up the Guild. I put a tremolo
on it and made some changes, painted it, and put in a 9 volts signal booster..."
(This by the way is the little switch Fred occasionally flicks for a solo - he
doesn't use any fuzz, overdrive or distortion pedals, it just comes from the
Guild + the Marshall amp!) The amplifier Fred uses is a Marshall JCM800 valve
head (a red one!) and in Europe he plugs that head into a VT speaker cabinet
(matching Toody's bass cab - see Toody's gear). Andrew told me: "Fred
spotted a Marshall cabinet matching his amp somewhere in Greece, this tour. It
was fucking unreal, so loud as that was! Oh man! He connected the two
and it was - whaaaammmmm.... ! Blew us all away! The guy who owned it was like "yeah,
the thing's okay"... Man, this was a loud motherfucker!"
More
about Fred's Guild - click
here.
T O O D Y :
With its very distinghuishing shape and sound, Toody's Vox "Wyman"
bass is one of Dead Moon's trade marks. Its official type is V248 but it was
named after Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones who played it regularly - back in
the sixties, that is. The hollow body of the bass makes the sound very 'round'
and warm, but it makes the bass quite fragile. More than once Toody's bass could
be seen covered with 'stage tape' to keep it together. "Fred is re-glueing
the body every once in a while", says Toody, "the touring doesn't do
much good. It has a crack here and there, but that's okay... here, it has a
crack in the neck here (near the headstock) that's always been there, so..."
About the VT speaker cabinets that are stored in Europe and used for tours
there: "They are Canadian made; we had them in our store... they came with
transistor heads originally, but we sold those, and the cabinets were just fine
actually. So I think we started playing them when we started The Rats..."
The amplifier used by Toody is an Ampeg, I haven't actally checked the type but
I believe its a V4 - it's not a 'standard' SVT model. (A bit of a personal note
here:Ampegs are very reliable usually, but when Dead Moon played in my home
town, Toody's amp had broken down and she needed to borrow a bass amp top from
yours truly - my old faithful Kustom 250...! That night, after some serious
drinking with Andrew (mind you: serious drinking with Andrew!), tour
manager Edwin had to put me and my amp in a taxi - I think I had a serious
conversation with the amplifier on the way home! Oooops....)
More about
Toody's bass & other cool Vox gear: click
here.
A N D R E W :
You don't have to be a "gear spotter" to see that Andrew and
his drum kit are something special. A candle instead of a pair of rack toms...
one (floor-)tom and one cymbal only (except for the hi-hat, OK!)... Well - it
used to be a Ludwig drum kit (yep - same brand as The Beatles used) but, well,
how shall we put this... it's covered with the remains of hundreds and hundreds
of candles, with stickers of clubs, bands and booze brands, it's mistreated by a
maniac drummer whose only aim in life (after having counted four) seems beating
the shit outta his instrument, and... well, Andrew's the only drummer I've ever
seen who shares his beers with his drum kit... Changing bassdrum skins happens
only when it's really necessary, but (lo and behold!) the '97 tour
brought a new snare drum ("it's a Gretsch" - so, same brand as the
tremolo on Fred's guitar...)
More about Ludwig drums: click
here.
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