What´s up everybody? I´m Jeff - I play in the band "Norma Jean".
This is my main guitar for this tour. This is an LTD "Viper" 1000. Kind of an older model. Usually.... I think they stoped selling them a couple of years ago but...
Yeah, I picked this up recently and took it out on tour - it´s my 1st "Viper" - obviously just on offset kinda SG type thing. Super rad guitar - I dig it.
This particular guitar is kinda interresting because it´s a 24 fret and also a 24.75 scale - these two however are 25.5 scales and also 22 frets. This is the ONLY guitar I have that has 24 frets... Kind of a little weird to get used to, but...
still pretty nice. It´s kinda like a little bit easier up top sometimes, but - other then that, this particular guitar has a "Custom 5" Seymour Duncan - I play Duncans exclusively.
That is a "Custom 5", This one has a "Custom Custom", this one has a "JB" all in the bridge. All of these pickups are "59s" - yeah, that´s pretty much it - as far as like settings and that, just bridge...
tone is usually all the way up, depending on how I´m feeling that day you know. I don´t know... Volume of course cranked... I use Dunlop "Heavy Core" 54´s kinda like - I don´t know - I like a thicker gauge.
and I use it for all the guitars, it does not really matter what the scale length is. It does not really affect wether I use those or not. Unless it´s in lower tuning, these guitars are all in dropped C# - I use 54s for that.
If we´re in something like B, I usually use kind of a hybrid, where the lowest is a 60 instead of a 54 just because I hit... I play very hard and just very "untrained" so...
I´ve been playing ESP for about 8 years and I´ve been with them for about 6, so... They are super awesome dudes so I´m always just playing their stuff - honestliy, like all guitars - I´m just a guitar Nerd.
As far as, you know, playability, their neck shape - just the perfect guitar.
This is a ESP "Phoenix" two. Standard tuning ESP - also not made anymore unfortunately, but - super sick guitar, obviously I have two of them - this one and the other one. This is kinda like a "Firebird" type - a little different, not as thin
it does not have like an "SG" or "Firebird" normally has like from the front to back - like other neck throughs - this one just goes all the way to the back, a little bit thicker body, I like thicker bodies, so this is like kinda perfect for me.
I also got, like, it´s not painted on the neck, it´s just super smooth and like... slides super awesome. Once again, there´s also "Custom Customs" in this particular guitar here.
I have another "Phoenix" two. Same as the other - ESP standard. This one is a little bit newer, they actually stopped making these, I belive in 2013.
That one was made in 2011 but they stopped making them in 2013. I actually got a bunch of them last year. They don´t bring that model to their standard series anymore.
But... I think somebody more famous then me decided they wanted it and then they didn´t so they gave it to me.
This has a, just a "JB" in the neck - I mean in the bridge and a "59" in the neck. Standard works better for me usually you know? I usually switch bridge pickups, but as far as in the neck it´s usually always a "59".
Here we have a Boss "Chromatic Tuner" - from there it goes straight into the "Drop" pedal. This pedal if you happen to be not familiar with it,
it´s changing tunings for you, it really cuts down having to swap guitars due to new tunings in the set and things like that, we only use two tunings on this tour - drop C# and A.
This doe not really... well there´s a slight latency in how it works, but it´s not something that could be heard, its more like a "feel" thing.
You kinda get used to it and then just the amount of convenience it adds to the set is so great, so we do that.
This here is an octave pedal that use, it´s made by "MAK" it´s actually just a guy in Krimea - Russia now apparently. He makes pedals and he gave me a few and....
I really like the sound of this one as an octave up, it´s got a really cool sound and it also has like a "shimmer" setting - I don´t use that on this particular tour but it has that
This is also an octave pedal that I use, this one is for lows - this one is the TRex Octavius - this is THE ocvtave pedal for anybody wondering, if you ever heard our records and wonder why
when all of our guitars all sound like bass guitars - that´s the thing that does it. In this particualr set, I actually use it for the low and in one particular song I use this one for the highs - because I prefer the highs on this one verses this one
for that particular song. From here it´s the Boss "DD20" gig delay, I have a bunch of delays, but I always seem to come back to this one because it´s the easiest one for me to use.
I don´t know, it´s just like....
It´s really convenient and I also like that unlike sort of, certain more like analog delays it does not have a, like a "hard stop" when you shut it of.
It still trails, wich really lends itself to our set a lot, so...
I use that most of the time. This is the TRex "Creamer", it´s a, just a Reverb pedal. Pretty small, I like that it has a small footprint, it actually has a lot of options for how small it is.
It sounds like.... It´s not the greatest sounding reverb you´ll ever hear, but it sounds really phenomenal for having such a small footprint.
And then off course.. Just a Boss "Noise supressor" - "NS2". Another one that I´ve always come back to, cause like, I´ve used other Noise Surpressors, but this one just seems to be.... I don´t know maybe it just works the best, so.... it always ends up being on.
Ah.... Yeah, I don´t really have too many pedals on my board that I´m not using for any part of our set so that´s what I´ve got going on for this tour.
If there was one pedal that would define my sound in Norma Jean or the Norma Jean Sound in general - it´s definately the "Octavius". Like - I should not even be saying that - don´t do that - don´t buy this - don´t buy it... Just kidding - do buy it....
Yeah, no - it´s just an AWESOME pedal. It´s just great and we use it a TON. And I mean Delay, Reverb and whatever - that all kind of changes, obviously we like all that stuff and that...
I think that probably we´ll change brands or change pedals or whatever but as far as like THE one pedal - the certain specific pedal, that is like one we - I can never get rid of and I think we as a band will never get rid of so....
Here are the Guitar heads that we play, we play EVH "5153´s" - we just go in direct - there is nothing from obviously the pedal board, no overdrives, no other sort of fancy stuff. Just straight in.
That´s kind of what we like. I´ve been playing the EVH for... I guess 4 or 5 years now I guess, beforehand I always was a fan of the "5150´s" and stuff like that, so I´ve had quite a few of those....
Never really been a fan of, you know like, "Mesa" or "Marshalls" - I mean at least for this particular sound, I mean those obviously have their place, but for us, I feel like these have a certain gain characteristic that´s really really cool.
Just kinda... Works for us, so... Other then that ahm.... just like pretty standard stuff, nothing really exciting - headwise - gear, we just plug in, turn up and make feedback and.... noise...