The Strike’s David Maemone - GEAR MASTERS Ep. 652

I started playing guitar on Les Pauls, so to me they feel like home. It is super portable. I can actually fit this in my backpack if I need to. Hey guys, David from The Strike. We're here at the Park West in Chicago, and I'm gonna walk you through my rig. So, starting with guitars. My main guitar on this gig, The Strike, we're very influenced by the 80s. I personally love a lot of guitarists like Steve Lukather, Dan Hough, the Session Greats. So, I have a Super Strat made by Sur. It is the Pete Thorne model, which in my opinion is like the ultimate player's gigging Super Strat. It just kind of ticks all the boxes for me. Some things that I love about it, the neck is great. It's super stable. It's like a roasted maple, I believe. Locking tuners are awesome. This thing stays in tune really, really well, and it's got a cool Wilkinson bridge on it that is very stable. You can do the dive bomby kind of Floyd light stuff, and it's great. It's locked down here as well. The pickups are super cool. They're noiseless. Big thing for me is I rely on this position two in between sound a lot, and this guitar, when you switch to position two, it automatically splits the humbucker in the bridge, which gives you that quacky sound that we all love. And then when you put it down into the bridge position, you can also, I think, put it into parallel. It's not like a full split. It's just a parallel series switch, but it sounds kind of like a single coil, which is really useful as well. The only thing that I've done to this is I put a stop inside to make this down only function. So I need to tune down to drop D every now and then, and if you're floating, we all know that's like a long process that you don't want to do on stage in front of people, so I'm kind of a down only guy anyways, so I put a stop in there, and so I can tune to drop D and we're good to go, and that's the only change I've made. Yeah, we're dimed on volume and tone. I'm kind of simple like that. Yeah, so standard tuning strings right now. I recently switched to the D'Addario, the XS. They're coated strings, which I really like. I like the feel. The feel to me is like a little more natural than some other coated strings, so I've been rocking these and been super happy. Second guitar is a newer addition. It's this incredible Les Paul Custom that I've been loving recently. This is a new guy from Gibson that they recently sent to me, and it's amazing. I started playing guitar on Les Pauls, so to me, they feel like home. They're like the most comfortable. I like the short scale. I just find them really fun to play and easy to play, and it's a nice change of pace too from the Strat. Sometimes you want something different, and there's a few songs that we have where I recorded on a Les Paul in the studio, and so I wanted to get that sound live, and so I've been using this. I would say I probably use it for like 30% of the set right now. Soundtrack, for example, that kind of is like that Def Leppard-y kind of hair metal vibe that it's got a pretty overdriven tone, and there's the guitar solo in there that I recorded on a Les Paul, so I wanted to use a Les Paul live, and then, let's see, Miles Ahead too, also kind of that lead. This is like a really thick-sounding guitar, which is awesome for those leads. It just cuts through and takes up a lot of space in a really good way, so I've been loving it for that. This is completely stock. Same strings as the Sur, the 10s, the Diodarios, but other than that, it's totally stock, and it sounds amazing stock, so you don't really need to do anything to these. The case is a godsend. Honestly, this is one of the greatest additions. The Anki is obviously insanely protective for two guitars. You can check it. It's 49 pounds, and your guitars will show up to the gig safely, and then it doubles as a guitar boat onstage for me as well, so I can do some quick changes right here, and I don't have to lug around extra stands or anything, so I love it for that. It's got a bunch of extra storage too, so I can fit my wireless pack, extra strings, picks, all that stuff in there as well, so it's honestly the best. And then, as far as the rest of the rig goes, it's super simple. I'm running the Quad Cortex and the Sur Wireless, which has been rock solid, all on this perfect size Pedaltrain Metro 20, which is super portable. I can actually fit this in my backpack if I need to, which I love. If we're just going on a quick trip somewhere, and I don't want to bring a ton of road cases with me, fits in the backpack, which is huge. Okay, first of all, Sur Wireless. I start there, of course, the tuner. It's awesome to have the two-in-one like that, and then straight into the Quad, and honestly, I run one preset, and I have eight scenes set up in that preset, and I kind of don't leave that the entire show, and you can see them here. I basically, from left to right, get progressively dirtier, and also want to mention this KNK Shield, which is awesome to have on stage, because stuff is always moving around, and if something falls on this guy, it's protected. The screen is also covered magnetically. You can take it off if you need to get in, and really, as far as the preset itself, I kind of run two paths that I switch depending on what scene I'm in, and one is an AC30 that's set pretty clean, right on the edge of breakup, and then I'll boost that with some pedals depending on how dirty I want that to get, and then for the more rock stuff, I switch to a Friedman amp that's going through a four-by-12 cab. The AC30's going through an open-back two-by-12, and I'll switch between those two, so my main solo sound will be the Friedman. Some of the cleaner stuff will be the AC30, and I actually have a parallel path here on some of the cleaner stuff that is sort of my attempt at simulating a Rockman-esque clean sound that's more direct-sounding, so I'll actually blend that in with the amp sound and get a little more of that top-end kind of sparkle that sounds like you were plugging kind of straight into a console or something, and that's been nice for that super shimmery 80s, like you put an H3000 chorus on that, and you're kind of set. So that's basically what I'm doing, and then as far as modulation and delays, depending on the preset, I'm kind of just blending in different amounts of chorus and delay and reverb, and the great thing about the Quad is from scene to scene, you can change the mix amounts and decay amounts and chorus depth and stuff really, really easily, and so that makes this kind of just a no-brainer for those quick changes, too, and you can MIDI control all that, too. I'm not doing that right now. I'm just doing it all via the footswitches, which has been rock solid, and so yeah, that's kind of the rig here, and Dunlop is there. If I want to add any expression, I can. I mainly just use it as a volume pedal right now for some swells. It's all powered, I think you pronounce it Chox DC-7, and then the Crux, which is an adapter that you kind of need to run the Quad off this guy, but that's it. One IEC out, and you're good to go. All right, picks are the Tortex one millimeter, I believe, and we got these customized, which is pretty cool, with the band logo and then my signature on the back, so I can always throw them out to the crowd and they get a little something special from the show.