want Aaron's NIN days toys?
NIN equipment for sale – SAVE SHABBEY ROAD!
Here’s the skinny… I’m selling a bunch of my guitars, effects pedals, road cases, etc, that I used while I was playing in Nails. If you’re interested, you can get your hands on this stuff right now at a great music shop in LA called Future Music:
[
futuremusicstore.com]
For those of you elsewhere that might be interested, you can contact the store directly for more details, and they can even arrange things such as shipping. And yes… ALL of this stuff was actually used and played on stage with NIN. I suppose the best point of reference I could use for this equipment would be the “Beside You In Time” DVD? So I’ll try my best here to figure out what was used on which song er whatever. Be warned though… If you’re looking for pristine, brand new musical gear, then this stuff isn’t for you. The bloodstains, loogies, dents, and scratches are all over these things. BUT… It’s all in 100% perfect working condition. I'm a half-wit when it comes to the "inter-nerd" stuff, so I haven't figured out how to post pictures of this stuff in here yet... But that should be fixed inna day er 2? So yeah, I’m “cleaning house” here for a couple of reasons:
1) We’re trying to scrounge up enough dough to properly repair our studio, Shabbey Road. Our roof has suffered MAJOR water damage, we have a slew of electrical problems which only get worse by the day, and the second floor is basically on the brink of collapsing. A major hurdle in even starting the repairs, is clearing away this massive amount of musical equipment crammed so tightly into our little studio. As of now, we can hardly even wade our way into the areas in need of repair.
2) At this point, we simply just have wayyyy too much stuff… And we don’t have enough room to store it all, nor do I find the need to own 4 copies of the exact same guitar, or pedal, etc
So if you’re wondering, “Why would you want to get rid of all this great stuff? It obviously must be kinda crappy then.” Well, let me try to explain… When I started playing guitar for Nails a few years back, I suddenly found myself in a peculiar situation I never would’ve imagined being in. Like a kid in a candy store, I was basically told: “Pick out as many guitars, amps, pedals, etc that you are going to need, and we’ll get all of it for you.” Initially I thought, “Cool, I’ll get a couple free guitars and pedals out of this.” Then, after picking out a handful of things, and thinking I’d ALREADY gotten away with murder, I was told that I still hadn’t even BARELY picked out enough equipment. Cos apparently, besides the guitars and pedals to cover all the different sorts of sounds and tones I was aiming for… There were also an extensive amount of alternate tunings for many of the songs… All of which required their own individual guitars. As if that didn’t seem ridiculous enough… I was also told that only one set of all this equipment wouldn’t be adequate… I would need an entire set of duplicates for an identical SECOND “rig” to alternate with the original. As my brain was still trying to register all of this, I was told that even another identical “backup rig”… A THIRD… Would be needed (in case of an “emergency”). Not to mention that many other things, such as certain pedals required even more duplicates. As the tours kept rolling, the more equipment kept strolling in… Often due to the lengths I’d go to entertain myself… Such as seeing how much of the stuff I could possibly destroy.
Fast forward to the present day… And it’s just completely ridiculous and unnecessary for me to need or store for example 4 identical Hagstrom Swede guitars, 5 Z-Vex Octane pedals, etc. Sooooo… After recently setting aside all the stuff I still actually use… The rest of it is now up for grabs. Again… Not because any of it is inferior to what I’m keeping… But because I just don’t need guitars sitting in cases I know I’ll never open again. Word?
So here is a listing of some of the stuff I’m selling over at Future Music, with as much technical and background info I can possibly provide or remember. And again, since everything was constantly being played in rotation from night to night, all of this gear saw plenty of action on the front lines, and circled the globe with us quite a few times.
Hagstrom “Swede” guitar - Black
I used this model of Hagstrom guitars quite a bit with Nails. The couple of Black “Swede” models I had out on the road were designated as the ones for “Drop D” tuning. I used these on a ton of songs… “The Wretched”, “Eraser”, “Reptile”, “Burn”… This particular guitar, is the one I’m playing in “Somewhat Damaged” on the “Beside You In Time” DVD, and even in the song “Beside You In Time” itself.
Specifications:
[ Body ] 45mm Mahogany Body with 10mm Carved Mahogany Top
[ Neck ] Set Mahogany Neck
[ Fingerboard ] Resinator Fretboard with Hagstrom Pearl Block Position Marks
[ Truss Rod ] H-Expander Truss Rod
[ Tuning Keys ] Hagstrom 18:1 Die Cast Tuners
[ Scale Length ] 24.75” Scale
[ Pickups ] 2x Hagstrom Custom 58 Humbuckers
[ Pickup Selector ] 3-Way Toggle
[ Bridge ] Long Travel Tune-O-Matic with Hagstrom Stop Tail Piece and 6 Individual Brass String Blocks
[ Controls ] 2x Volume / 2x Tone / 3-Way Tone Filter Toggle (center bypass)
Hagstrom “F200P” guitar – White
This was one of the smaller guitars with a P-90 style pickup that I used for songs where the tuning was down half a step, or even down half a step and then drop-tuned. This guitar saw a lot of action on songs such as “Closer”, “Getting Smaller”, and “Piggy”. This particular guitar, is the same one I’m seen playing first on the “Beside You In Time” DVD, in “Love Is Not Enough”
Specifications:
[ Body ] 45mm Contoured Mahogany Body
[ Neck ] Set Nato Neck
[ Fingerboard ] Resinator Fretboard with Hagstrom 6mm Dot Position Marks
[ Truss Rod ] H-Expander Truss Rod
[ Tuning Keys ] Hagstrom 18:1 Die Cast Tuners
[ Scale Length ] 24.75” Scale
[ Pickups ] 2x Hagstrom H90 Single Coil Pickups
[ Selector ] 3-Way Toggle
[ Bridge ] Hagstrom Full Contact Tremolo FCS-1
[ Controls ] 1x Volume / 1x Tone
Reverend “Club King 290” guitar – Goldtop
This guitar is AWESOME. There’s an amazing tone knob on here, that can make it either sound like a massive, chunky humbucker type guitar, or a thinner, twangy Telecaster… And then everything in between. Seeing as how I was a bit more precious with this guitar than a lot of the others, it wasn’t brought out as much live. So I usually used this one on special occasions, for instance, when we were only recording. This way I knew it wouldn’t end up getting snapped in half. I vividly recall using this exact guitar when we recorded a bunch of Joy Division covers with Peter Murphy, and also when we did a BBC Radio 1 session in London. I also used this guitar recently quite a bit with Jubilee… And recorded all of my guitar parts for “Rebel Hiss” for instance with it.
Specifications:
[ Body ] Semi-hollow with 5.5 mm solid spruce top on korina, and 'shooting star' f-hole. Black back and sides with cream binding. ?19-1/4" x 14-3/4" x 1-3/4".
[ Neck ] Bolt-on, maple, amber tinted satin finish
[ Fingerboard ] Rosewood, 12" radius
[ Truss Rod ] Dual-action, access at headstock
[ Tuning Keys ] Reverend Pin Lock Tuners
[ Scale Length ] 25-1/2" Scale
[ Pickups ] Two Reverend P90's, output/tone calibrated for each position, Hum cancelling when combined.
[ Selector ] 3-Way
[ Bridge ] Stop tail
[ Controls ] Custom Volume & Tone, Bass Contour
VERY LARGE 20 space rack-mount case on wheels – Manufactured by Case World
[
www.caseworld.tv]
Specifications:
20 rack spaces
1 inch of foam
This is one of the cases that housed one of my complete guitar “rigs”. This would include the “head” of my amplifier, all of my effects pedals, and all the midi brains connected to them so I could trigger them from on stage. This thing was at every NIN show I was, and saw just as much action as I did… Yet is still in perfect working order, and much better shape. This thing could be used for anything. Hell, if ya just wanna convert it into a tough little bookshelf that could survive being thrown off a roof… It’s like Burger King here dude, “Have it YOUR way!”
Z Vex Octane 3 Guitar Pedal
About as over the top of a fuzz pedal you can find… Kinda like an old Octavia, but on steroids. This pedal toured the world with me many times over, yet is still in EXCELLENT working condition. In fact, because like all of my other pedals, they were housed in a large rackmount case off-stage, and then switched on and off via midi on my “Ground Control” unit on stage, it looks almost BRAND NEW. It even includes the original box. I used this pedal on many, many songs, including: “Wish” “Only”, “The Hand That Feeds” “Gave Up”, and “Closer” just to name a few. You can also distinctly hear me using this pedal on some Icarus Line tunes such as “Party The Baby Off”, and “On The Lash”.
Boss DD-3 Delay Guitar Pedal
I actually used two of these live with NIN. One of them was set up as a short delay, for a “slapback” effect, and the other as a longer delay. I used this pedal on many, many songs with Nine Inch Nails, including: “Head Like A Hole” “Terrible Lie”, “Eraser”, “Only”, “Wish”, and “Burn”. I also think I used this on just about every Icarus Line song I can think of. Ha. “Feed A Cat To Your Cobra”, “Spit On It”, “Caviar”… Damn, all of ‘em. Actually… Because I’ve always kept the long delay settings exactly the same for years… Occasionally, when it was time for me to play a “shoegazey/psych” solo type thing in a Nails song… I’d just play a solo I wrote for The Icarus Line over the NIN tune just to keep myself entertained. I think I did that quite often on “The Day The World Went Away”… Just playing my solo for “Getting Bright At Night” on top of it. On other songs, I’d slip in some Love And Rockets or The Stooges here and there. Nobody ever seemed to notice or call me on it. Hmmm. Anyway, whatever… This is a cool pedal. Ha.
There’s quite a bit more pedals and stuff of mine for sale at Future Music right now… But it’d take me another year to describe 'em all. If you wanna know what’s mine, just ask whoever is there what’s what. They’re all super cool guys, know a lot about vintage gear, and are easily the most straight up and honest people in this type of business I’ve ever encountered. Over the years, I think I’ve bought at least 4 or 5 guitars from Future Music… A few amps, and dozens of pedals… And I’ve never been screwed, or ripped off. If you live in the LA area, make sure to check their place out, and support ‘em. Did I mention the owner of the place, Jack, was in the band Green On Red? How cool is that?!
- Aaron
P.S.
Lotsa stuff happening with Jubilee, including an upcoming E.P., and some local live shows. Can’t wait. See ya soon.
P.P.S.
If ya ever happened to wonder how I could possibly manage sitting down, and following through with writing these long-ass updates… It’s usually with the aid of a good soundtrack. As I recall, the last entry was during my intense obsession/hibernation period spent with the “Neil Young Archives – Volume 1” 10-disc box-set. I think I lost a coupla weeks of my life inside that thing. And don’t waste yer time with the cd version… Ya wanna go for the DVD or Blu-Ray sets… Cos it’s not just about the listed tunes ya only get for instance on the cd version… It’s about them damn “easter eggs” and extras. Like the footage of Neil playing “Mr. Soul” with Stephen Stills at Woodstock, or watching CSNY play “Sea Of Madness” in Big Sur. Muy Killer.
P.ee-P.ee P.eniS.
It wasn’t a coincidence that I happened to churn this butt-nugget out the same day my Beatles box-sets arrived in the mail. Don’t be a retard… Get the MONO version. Most people forget how the bands of this particular era spent their time and energy perfecting the Mono mixes, and then split for a beach somewhere once it was finished, leaving the stereo mix for the studio’s receptionist to handle. That’s cos for awhile back there, NOBODY owned stereo equipment… Just rich old people. It was kinda like the 5.1 mix of it’s day. I can’t, and don’t know ANYBODY else who is capable of listening to a 5.1 mix, do you? Well, actually, get the Mono AND the Stereo sets… It’s THE BEATLES dude. If anybody cruises yer pad, and finds out you have like, 9 “re-mix” box-sets by… Well… ANYBODY, and not even one of these, it’s settled. You don’t like music. Actually, if you own ANY type of “re-mix” record, you probably don’t like music.
