Marshall EL84 20/20 stereo power amps, Effects As a standing tribute to the late Paul Gray, TG presents this never-before published interview with the Slipknot bassist. As Slipknot put it in Skeptic, The world will never see another crazy motherfucker like you. One of my brothers friends had a weird right-handed bass, which I strung left-handed, and a practice amp. Ibanez and Peavey have somebody everywhere.". I like a bit of everything, drawing your attentionhopefully not unwiselyto the fact that I had the first rap hit by a white artist with 1981s Wot! Please dont forget the exclamation mark by the way. I recall Visconti lounging in his producer's chair dialing up sounds on his iPhone. Gary Moore preferred Dean Markley Electric Guitar strings he used .010 set (2504B) or a .009 set (2508). Stevie Ray Vaughan String Gauge Table. Things like that made a big difference, and on some tracks, youre hearing five to six guitar takes all at once. Apart from the TC Nova System, for its analog distortions, and a Dunlop wah, the only other pedal used was the H9 Harmonizer. There had been a headline-generating arrest for drugs and drink-driving in 2003, sobriety, relapses and recent treatment for addiction. and four years as Production Editor and Deputy Editor at Bizarre. Nick from Widnes England Writes: The two main acoustic guitars that Paul Simon uses on stage are as follows: Yamaha LS400 (black) Custom made by Luther Terumi (Terry) Nakamoto. The legendary Dan Erlewine, luthier Gene Imbody and Berklees Tomo Fujita have shot a 6-point lesson video to help, Producer Mura Masa says that PinkPantheresss Boys A Liar was made in a couple of hours, and that he didnt know about the Ice Spice 'Pt 2' remix until he saw the video, A-ha interview: "We were convinced that the record company would drop us and everything was over before it began" the story of Take On Me and their debut album Hunting High And Low. Yaamaha even produced a replica of Pauls guitar , the FJ681 "Paul Simon . That 77 has much more of a Lemmy-type sound than my 74. If you listen to Pauls note choices on Vermilion, he was all over the shop and it sounded great I wanted to try things like that.. He played bass and guitar left-handed, and there was something about his muting, a weird sort of backwards quality. Apart from a regular open-G blues tuning [Editors note: Check out Silly Kids Games on The Black Album for an example. Title Written by Originally by Original date Covered by ; Before I Forget . It was always the singer or the guitarist that got the glory, so I liked the slightly subversive nature of those bass players. Someone else can probably add more, or demonstrate that my memory is faulty. Did he have any interesting methods for capturing the powerful guitar sound on Evil Spirits? Actually, none that I can think of. "It's a little bit of both, like on songs like 'Wait And Bleed' I'll use my fingers But then there's songs like 'Sulfur' or 'People = Shit' that have grind parts where you need the attack of a pick. Take the song 'Scissors', from the first album, where I'm tuned to an octave below A. After then he used steel strings. Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, You've mentioned quite a few genres there, so what's your favourite bassline of all time? Scott D. Smith/Retna ./Retna Ltd./Corbis. The guy I got it from says that it was a factory custom that had been requested to have the toaster pickup put on it. Title Written by Originally by Original date Covered by ; Before I Forget . I have to find my place in Slipknot and stay away from just following the guitars, so I play along with what the drums are doing. When it came to music, Paul was up there with some of the greats, remembered Corey, in a heartfelt tribute to his old bandmate. How did you capture the albums live feel in the studio? Lots of discussion about this all over this board. I just do standard exercises, you know, what do they call 'em? Do you remember what your first bass guitar was? I really like the growl Tonys got on it and it really suits the songs perfectly. 1977 Rickenbacker 4001 Slipknot had always seemed combustible yet invincible nine individual, larger-than-life characters who came together as a unit onstage. It took me 15 years to figure out that all they were really playing was the pentatonic scale with some extra notes chucked in! Rad in plaid, Captain Sensible strikes a pose and a power chord onstage. I loved anything with a galloping bass line that challenged the listener beyond widdly guitar stuff or a bloke shrieking his head off. The Ibanez PGB1 electric bass guitar is the choice of Slipknot's Paul Gray. ", Don't miss the latest deals, news, reviews, features and tutorials. I've heard this too. But the first bass I used to try out for this band, because I didn't have a bass and I'm left-handed, was some no-name bass but kind of like a double cutaway so it kind of looked like an SG maybe? He was loved around that scene.. We have a tendency towards being first-takers together. Its what he was born to do, its what hed love to do, its the thing hed love more than anything., As fans wondered about Slipknots future, the band grieved. We came in through the front and walked through the crowd, just dead-cold staring at people like we didnt know they were there, says Anders, who left the band later when Corey Taylor was recruited. It's worked for me So far anyway! Hed listen to Cliff Burtons bass fills repeatedly, rewinding his tapes until he had figured them out. While Paul tragically left us too soon, his creative influence remains. Gary Moore played Gibson Les Paul guitars. I knew the guitar lines and could have jammed those, but the bass parts were totally different and I was like, 'Fuck!' Feb 21, 2015. I like to pick a patch out from the library and then heavily modify it for the song, and I really get in there and tweak them. Its safe to say that when Slipknot takes time off, Paul was the one person worst affected by the other side-bands. "In the beginning you will probably emulate your favourite players, but take that and make it your own and be yourself. Its a clairvoyant chemistry that cant be really pinned down. http://www.bassstringsonline.com/Hofner-Beatle-Bass-Strings_c_101.html, First New Bass Day in decades for me: Yamaha BB350F, Fun with a Squier Bass VI and a AB165 1968 Bassman setup -. His playing was informed by his early devotion to thrash, and that conversion to the bass. In the early days the Beatles would steal piano strings to put on the bass. Thats my go-to bass at the moment with the Damned, and thats the one I used on our tour. Clapton used these strings in the early days, around the Cream era. When we started the band I felt it, right when we started it, and it still feels the same. "I started with Ampeg but now I'm with Peavey. The main guitar is a 1959 Les Paul Standard . Added by Bastien. Eventide H9, Strings and Picks Today, we celebrate the songs which epitomised his pivotal role within The Nine. This is all from memory. As well as his work in Slipknot, he also filled in on bass for desert rockers Unida fronted by Kyuss singer John Garcia and other projects like Drop Dead, Gorgeous and Reggie And The Full Effect. The fact that Ament was using an 12-string bass helps to explain the instrument's presence on the track, although you won't hear the extra strings ringing out individually - they simply add to the overall tone. Its been 10 years since we lost Slipknot bassist Paul Gray. Whether he knew you or not. Theyre just magnificent! Once you get up to .100 or a .105, it just sounds kind of dull to me. Largely penned by Paul and Shawn Clown Crahan before the band had formed, the song was originally titled Slipknot though the group ended up using the name for one of their first shows. To make it worth your while, you must consider how much sugar was added to their . Simple as it may be, especially when compared to their earlier tracks, Duality is also the sound of The Nine at their most effective its four minutes and 12 seconds condensed down to three and a half for a single version that would become directly responsible for converting new armies of metalheads around the world. Feed. I think they picked me because they collectively like various albums Ive made: especially the T. Rex and Bowie stuff. It's definitely a different thing compared to if I was playing in a punk band with only one guitar player and I could fucking, y'know, noodle around and do lots of stuff. Bassist Paul, aka The Pig, aka #2, appeared in a black uniform, steadily headbanging and riffing while chaos erupted around him. Their string of hits included Stimulation and I Could Make You Love Me. 1990s British-made handwired Vox AC30 reissue You gotta find your pocket. What did you hope to get out of the Damned in the studio? Paul Gray: The Man Behind the Mask. I was lucky enough to see them all play club venues, where you could really watch what their fingers were doing. Photo by Matt Condon. They toured All Hope Is Gone across nine gruelling legs, starting in July 2008 in Washington, taking in Download in June 2009, and finishing in Las Vegas that October. The Damneds dynamic duo, Captain Sensible and Paul Gray, played together in the studio for the first time in 22 years while recording the bands new album. Gauges : Medium 46-63-80-102. As one of the three founding members of Slipknot, Paul Gray fast became one of their key songwriters his name more often than not found in the credits for the tracks that werent assigned to the group as a whole. Based on that statement, it is likely that these strings were used even prior to that, were his main choice before he started playing Stratocasters (at which point he began using Ernie Ball strings) Aqua Marine. "I took a few bass lessons to learn slap and pop techniques, because once I really got into bass I started listening to everything - not just metal and rock. "I have to find my place in Slipknot and stay away from just following the guitars, so I play along with what the drums are doing. Dunlop wah It makes pedals sound great, so my live setup, which was formerly my travel rig, but sounded so good it became the main one, is a Dunlop wah into the TC Nova System through a Marshall EL84 20/20 and a Marshall 4x12. From triumph to tragedy, here is his story. Although the Captain was stationed on bass for the Damneds first few recordings, he emerged on the groups third album, 1979s Machine Gun Etiquette, as a dexterous and melodic guitarist with a knack for penning killer hooks that draw on a surprisingly vast range of influences. So I begged my mum for a guitar, and she finally got me one. Yet again, he moved. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Captain, please tell us a bit about who influenced your guitar playing? I was going to donate my Epi Viola, but after putting LaBella flats on it, I liked it too much. Paul had previously dabbled in a band in Minneapolis called F.O.R., toured with Kyuss offshoot Unida, recorded with rockers Reggie And The Full Effect, and was poised to go out with metal super- group Hail!. Gray has been in and out of the bandmostly outsince 1984.Photo by Tony Woolliscroft. Gray: We turned everything up full! Which is a hard thing to do with nine people in the band!". It may not display this or other websites correctly. Never having had a lesson, I play completely by ear and I often overstretch myself. I will miss him with every fibre of my heart, as will everybody at this table and everyone who knew him he was the best of us.. Overview. Incredibly, he was welcomed into the band, Vexx. Freddie used .010, .011, and .012 on his top strings and light to medium strings on the bass (wound) strings. Theres a massive range of guitar ideas in the Damneds discography, from straight-ahead punk stuff to psych-rock. I think it was made in February, which was just a month or two after they stopped doing the toaster pickups. Back in the late 1960s the bass player in my band (who was left-handed) purchased a Hofner. It isn't THAT different, I listened to the rest of the album with the exception of Bother it sounded like Slipknot with the proper amount of band members. He doesnt use conventional tunings a lot of the time, and a lot of the strings sort of ring on in an open tuning, and it gives the bass so much more room to trade off and prompts more ideas in my playing. Gray: I used the 1980 Ric that I used on TheBlack Album, but the one that ended up on most of the tracks was my very early 74. Repeat: the secret debut album that launched the legend, The definitive history of every Slipknot mask, The 10 best new metal songs you need to hear this week, Watch this metal frontman teach terrified daytime TV hosts black metal growls on live TV, James Hetfield has been cast in a 'dark western' film with Juliette Lewis and Game Of Thrones' Peter Dinklage, Watch grannies rip through some gnarly death metal and shoot fireworks from their backsides in this hilarious advert for Liquid Death iced tea, Watch Mike Shinoda & Ice Nine Kills' Spencer Charnas star in Demi Lovato's new Scream-inspired video, Every issue delivered direct to your door. Tony McPhees Groundhogs performance of Cherry Red on Top of the Pops departed radically from the shows usual fare, and that was the moment I decided to get a guitar and only a Gibson SG would do. The Nova is great, combining analog distortions with digital delays and reverbsand despite being a bit long in the tooth these days, theres not a lot of similar alternatives. Although the band parted ways with Joey in 2013, the remaining seven musicians immortalised their grief and memories on 2015s .5: The Gray Chapter. Technical Editor Bass Gear Magazine. Its cheaper, too, and once youve smoothed the frets and boshed on a scratchplate, youve got yourself a cracking guitar for what it costs. The bass player often partnered with ex-drummer Joey Jordison, fleshing out early anthems such as Surfacing and Spit It Out, the former including riffs hed written back in his Body Pit years. Captain Sensible: In the late 60s, this amazing bunch of blues guitarists appeared on the U.K. scene at the same time I started going to gigs: Paul Kossoff, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Mick Abrahams, Peter Green, Jimmy Page. What was your philosophy about shaping the tones for this album? We have three drummers, theres a lot of low end, do you know what I mean? I wish I had known that back then! If you think it's fucked up and weird, then that's cool because it's your thing. But the time was right. We both also share a love of melody and those three chords at the start of Louie Louie and all of the American garage-rock from the 60s. Any doubts over Slipknot sustaining the brain-melting brutality of their debut were answered in a vicious storm of blastbeats and tremolo-picked guitars that felt even angrier and more possessed than before. With Slipknot, my bass playing is a little more laid back and subdued, like I get spots where I get to do some stuff I guess, but it's hard to kind of like We have three drummers, there's a lot of low end, you know what I mean? Paul Dedrick Gray was born in LA on April 8, 1972. Sensible: Unlike some punk bassists who could only play by numbers, with the potential song disintegration if they lost their way, Paul can really busk it up! It was as simple as that. I can only speak for myself, but to me its just the greatest thing thats ever happened in my life, he enthused. TDPRI, short for Telecaster Discussion Page Reissue, is the leading online community and marketplace for Telecaster guitars. "But then I ended up going to Ibanez on the last album because - I can't remember where we were - but I went to a pawn shop and picked up this Ibanez ATK that they've stopped making and I just loved the way it played and sounded, so I started playing it too and Ibanez approached me to offer me a deal. With the emergence of Eddie Van Halen as a phenomenon in the late 1970s and 1980s . The Des Moines scene was thriving, as Americas corn belt misfits ploughed their frustrations into thrash, death metal and rock at clubs like the Runway. Paul himself remarked on how it was a sound you felt rather than heard, more atmospheric than melodic in nature. Those killer riffs on Surfacing, which switch from propulsive to filthy, came from his death metal project, Body Pit. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), 2004), Vermilion (Vol. But more importantly than anything else, Paul Grays songs and performances have resonated louder and prouder with each and every passing year. Those strings are absolutely the go-to strings for me and I absolutely love them. BA1 1UA. John Paul Jones. Instead of sticking with the drop B tuning used on its other tracks, Paul used a drop A tuning with this thickest string another octave down which he described as a super low, almost sub-woofer kind of frequency. The Kerrang! You are using an out of date browser. Most of the guys you cited developed their sounds around a Rickenbacker bass, and thats been your instrument of choice over the years. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox! You dont often get that, and I struggle to think of any other guitarist that Ive worked with that Ive had that relationship with. Luckily, it didnt choke at the Albert Hall during our 40th anniversary show. "I always experiment and go with whatever the song requires. He was the sort of person who, when he got his meagre paycheck from working at the gas station, would go down to the bar and spend it all buying people drinks. One has a very chunky neck, and thats a 74, and the 77 has a thinner neck than a Fender Jazz bass. The Gibson Les Paul Goldtop was on the cover of his album "Blue Guitar Hero". Rock n roll needs its rough edges. What was the first bassline you ever tried to play? Its an attitude I share, and who cares if theres a few jazz notes in there. It was actually a badass guitar, it was a Gibson Flying V and it was left-handed, and it ruled. I don't know what he used on actual recording. My mates at school and I would swap records and I got into Hawkwind with Lemmy and Machine Head by Deep Purple, and the bass was really prominent in both of those groups.