[code:1]Dan's Gear...
Dan is incredibly fussy about the band's equipment and is responsible for nearly all of the equipment the band have acquired over the last two years. It's Dan that I work closely with, tweaking sounds and constantly putting our heads together to try and improve on the overall sound.
Dan's main guitar is a modern (1998) Les Paul Standard (honeyburst). Dan and Justin request a change of strings before each and every gig, and due to this have broken just two strings between them in the last 35 gigs.
Dan originally used Ernie Ball Super Slinkies but switched to Slinky Top/Heavy Bottoms with the low E on 52, but found that even these heavier gauge strings weren't giving a full enough sound to carry the songs on one guitar. After experimenting with different custom gauges we settled on a custom picked selection of 54, 44, 33, 22, 17, 11 (this is an extremely heavy gauge that most would find very difficult to play with!) Dan chooses Jim Dunlop 73mm nylon picks.
For amplification, Dan runs two Marshall MkII 100 watt Super Lead Heads through two 1960ax Vintage greenback 4 x 12" cabinets.
Marshall 1 (Dan's Clean Sound) is a rare limited edition version of the standard MkII head and is responsible for the bulk of The Darkness sound.
As this amp is 100 watts, it has to be run through a Marshall Power Brake to basically stop people being killed in the front row these amps have no pre-amps so you have to crank them to get overdrive. Dan runs this amp with very little gain (the treble gain on about 1.5 and bass gain on about 4) so that for his rhythm sound it's basically clean until he starts really hammering his guitar.
Marshall 2 (Dan's Heavy Sound) is a Standard Super Lead head and very similar to Marshall 1 although visually it is physically slightly larger and sonically is harsher in the mid-range.
Dan runs this amp on extremely low volume (between 1 and 2 on both gain inputs) without a power brake and uses a Mesa Boogie V-Twin as a pre-amp. He prefers this sound to an actual Mesa head as you get a more 'glittery' heavy sound due to the Marshall working away after the Mesa. The Mesa V-Twin is set to about quarter gain and half way up on the master volume with all tone controls on full.
At the front of the stage you will find a Line6 Delay Modeller out of which two leads are sent (L & R) to both Marshall's so that they run in stereo. Before you get to the Line6 you will find a very rare vintage Ibanez Tube Screamer which is generally used for his solos, etc. This pedal was the first out of the stables when Ibanez first developed this model and cuts through just about anything!
The rest of Dan's pedals are basically A/B boxes, one cutting the sound to the heavy amp channel when not needed and one sending the whole signal to a Boss TU12 Tuner (also at front of the stage). Dan also has an arsenal of vintage pedals/gadgets/effects, etc., etc., that come into play in the studio.[/code:1]
[code:1]Justin's Gear...
Justin's main guitar is basically the exact same modern (1998) Les Paul Standard model as Dan's (in black though). As a second guitar Justin has a transparent 1969 Dan Armstrong (circa Keith Richards/Joe Perry) guitar, which he picked up for next to nothing. Justin prefers not to use this guitar live as it is very rare and a bit fragile. This guitar is used for all of Justin's solos in the studio as it generally cuts through the teamed Les Pauls. Dan Armstrong started re-releasing these guitars and are proving quite popular (also pushing up the price of the originals by about £1000).
Justin uses Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinkies (9 on the top for those ultra fast solos and 42 on the low E to keep the bottom end up). Justin also chooses Jim Dunlop 73mm nylon picks.
For amplification Justin uses a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier Head through a Marshall 1960ax Greenback 4 x 12" for his rhythm sound. He uses the middle channel (rhythm) with the gain pretty low and the master channel right up (which pushes the mids extensively).
For Justin's solo sound he uses an A/B box at the front of the stage to kick in a Marshall JCM800 2 x 12" combo. Justin originally used a different channel on the Mesa head for lead solos but they never seemed to cut through enough (not enough headroom in the amp).
With the JCM800 the pre-amp is just below 10 and driven by a Boss Turbo distortion (on full). Justin also has a Korg DTR1 rack tuner at the front of the chain which can mute signal to the amp for tuning. Justin also uses a Shure wireless system to allow him to run around without being hindered by leads.[/code:1]
RAGMAN
