Darwin’s favourite pop-punk band, Danger Den, are back at it again with their favourite gear of all time.
The band runs through what they use, why they use it, and how it sounds!
Jeremy (Lead Vocals / Guitar) – 2010 Gibson Les Paul Standard
Jeremy: So my latest acquisition to my ever expanding guitar collection is my 2010 Gibson Les Paul Standard with P-90 pickups.
So basically I was sick of going out of tune with my 55 Reissue Les Paul Junior so I opted for another Les Paul with a proper bridge this time.
I still love my P-90s, being in a band with 3 guitar players, playing with P-90s lets me have my own unique sound that cuts through the mix.
James and Liam both love their Fenders and I love my Gibsons. Fun fact, Liam originally owned this guitar but he sold it to me.
Sold it to me, meaning that he owed me some money so he gave me a free guitar to pay me back.
James (Lead Guitar / Vocals) Fender 65 Reissue Stratocaster, Fender Pine Telecaster and Orange TH 30
James: For the writing and recording and overall production of what is one of my new favourite songs in the band’s set list.
I took it as an opportunity to experiment with my Fender guitars, using the usual Fender 65 reissue Stratocaster equipped with the Seymour Duncan cool rails allowed me to have a punchy guitar solo that cut through the mix with ease, for the Jungle lead parts I made use of an old friend that I used on previous work with my old band ‘Orion Haze’, this was to be my old pine telecaster as Fender dubbed it, which is loosely based off of a 1952 reissue Tele, which allowed me to have that rich single coil sound embedded with loads of sustain, all backed up by the incredibly versatile TH 30 head by Orange amplifiers.
Allowing ‘Daisy’ to have a true pop-punk sound breaking traditions, all the while creating something new, this in my opinion along with the other gear we’ve used made this track its own personality.
Liam (Rhythm Guitar / Vocals) – “The Red Gretsch”
Liam: A recent pickup of mine has been my Red Gretsch Duo Jet. It is an amazingly versatile guitar, fitting the many genres of music we play.
It has very quickly become one of my favourite guitars. The sound and playability is second to none.
Luke (Bass / Vocals) – Orange Bass Butler Bi-Amp Preamp
Luke: To hype up the release of ‘New Year’s Eve’, I wrote about my Epiphone Thunderbird, “Birdy”. Birdy’s still going well, it still stays in tune.
This time around, I’ll talk about the true guts of my live sound, and that is my Orange Bass Butler Bi-Amp Preamp pedal.
It’s a bulky unit that splits the signal into a clean and dirty channel. The always-on clean channel features a bass and treble EQ and an awesome single knob optical compressor that can be set low for a generic bass tone, or cranked for a gritty overdriven tone similar to an Ampeg SVT.
The foot-switchable dirty channel blends into the clean channel and has a bass, mid, and treble EQ along with a gain knob that can be turned up for some tasty distortion.
Having 3 guitarists in the band means that only the bottom end really cuts through the mix, so I mainly use the dirty channel as a boost for our heavier songs like ‘Merch Guy Mike’s Favourite Song’ and whenever I have a solo.
The pedal provides me with a huge bass tone without having to cart around heavy amps to every gig. Plus, it’s analogue, which means that I can be snobby to my bandmates who use digital modellers.
Blake Alessandro – Truth American Maple Custom
Blake: Out of all the kits I’ve owned in my career I keep coming back to my Truth American maple custom, I play 1up 2down and it is the one kit I believe I’ll never get rid of. Its tone is big and roomy and cuts through nicely.
Shell sizing
Kick 24″×15″
Rack Tom 12″×8″
Floor Tom 16″x16″
Floor Tom 18″x16″
Snare drums I change depending on the show/vibe I’m feeling, but my main go too is my beautiful Evetts Australian Gum 14″x6″, this thing has the best tone and is surprisingly very bright.
Hardware is all DW 9000 rock solid hardware that can withstand anything, in Australia it’s expensive but it’s well worth the investment, it has lasted me years of tours and studio work.
I’m a massive fan of the Zildjian K Sweets, they are warm and bright at the same time and have such a beautiful sound, sizing changes from time to time but currently my set up consists of;
10″ k splash
15″ k sweet hats
19″ k sweet crash
21″ k sweet ride
20″ k crash ride
As for sticks I use Vic Firth extreme 5As.
