Interesting Darkness rig walkthrough in Guitarist this month...

[Twinfan]

In this month's Guitarist mag their video vault has Simon Bradley (groan) chatting with Justin and Dan from the Darkness about their rigs.

Justin is much quieter in real life than his stage persona, and doesn't seem to be too much of a gear head.  Bog stock Gibson LP Customs, plus a couple of delay pedals.  I wasn't that interested in what he had to say to be honest  :oops:

Whereas his brother Dan is definitely a tone junkie - giving his guitars nicknames and having a few drawers of pedals etc.  I also found him much easier to listen to, and he seemed to be a guy you could chat to down the pub.  I always was a bit of a fan, even more so now.  :)

Where things got interesting was when it came to amps...

Justin has used Rectifiers and Cornfords a lot in the past, yet he was plugged into a couple of tatty looking Marshall SuperLeads running into similar looking Marshall 4x12s via Powerbrakes.  A very ordinary rig, with the heads having everything on 6, the channels jumpered and guitars plugged into the 'high' inputs.

Dan used Diezels with Stone Gods yet he too was running a tatty looking Marshall SuperLead, also with the channels jumpered but using the 'low' inputs, again into tatty Marshall 4x12s via Powerbrakes.  As he's the tone junkie, he also had a Wizard head and an AC30 with Greenbacks for a bit of extra flavour.

So, are they skint?  Or is a bog standard Marshall the best thing out there?

[FELINEGUITARS]

OLD Marshalls can be pretty expensive.

There is a bit of that AC/DC - if it ain't broke don't change it mentality I'm sure and that rig sounds spot on for them

[Loomer]

Well, if they just want to play rockin' rawk with a side order of rawk then I can't imagine that sort of rig being all that bad :D

[Tellboy]

According to this Total Guitar article they chose Marshalls as they just wanted to go to a "back to basics vibe".

http://www.musicradar.com/totalguitar/exclusive-the-darkness-talk-new-album-486068

[Twinfan]

I don't know if they're old Marshalls Jon, or just well used newer ones.  The AC30 was fairly beat up too, and had Greenbacks, so I'm guessing it's more modern stuff.  I don't think they'd buy old stuff and then hack it about for road use?

Nice article Tellboy - cheers!  I totally get the back to basics thing, it's quite a refreshing thing to do.

[nfe]

A big part of it is often simply getting used to what is easily available to hire in on tour - and widely available if something needs replaced.

[Twinfan]

Yeah I know that, but I've seen them live in all Darkness/Stone Gods/Hot Fuzz formats and with the aforementioned Diezels, Mesas, Cornfords etc.  Didn't seem to be a problem in the past.  The cabs vertainly weren't hired in as Dan was talking about speaker swaps, so I would imagine its all their own gear.

I thought it was interesting to see the Old Skool approach.

[Ratrod]

Old JTM's and Super Leads are hard to beat.

There's a reason they've been used for decades. They simply work.

[nfe]

Yeah I know that, but I've seen them live in all Darkness/Stone Gods/Hot Fuzz formats and with the aforementioned Diezels, Mesas, Cornfords etc.  Didn't seem to be a problem in the past.  The cabs vertainly weren't hired in as Dan was talking about speaker swaps, so I would imagine its all their own gear.

I thought it was interesting to see the Old Skool approach.

I've never seen them in any bands but I don't imagine the Darkness have quite the backing they once did to have lots of whatever they liked on tour and the other smaller acts probably did tour with their own stuff.

I guess the other factor that often cones in is simply that they've used something in the studio and really got on great with it. Though I don't know if they've recorded much as of late?

And then of course there's the "we want X vibe and X band used this..." approach, which I suppose is likely.

[Twinfan]

They have a new album coming out soon, so they're definitely recording.  If they can lug about 7-8 heads, 4 4x12s, a rack of pedals etc I'm sure they could still take the Cornfords etc if they wanted to.

I guess they've just decided to have some fun with a basic rig.  Fair play to them!

[Philly Q]

Wasn't there an issue with Cornford - something to do with Paul Cornford being ill so the support went to pieces and they lost a few endorsers?

That might partly explain them dropping the Cornfords, if not the other gear.

More generally, how are you finding the Guitarist Vault?  I must admit video clips tend to try my patience, I would far rather just read an interview.... never really bothered to watch the CDs/DVDs either.

[Twinfan]

I always watched the videos and demos, but not the techniques stuff.  My Vault is still not updating automatically for my subscription so I've emailed the support folks again.

Other than using up a bunch of my monthly download allowance at the flat, I don't mind the Vault.

[blue]

i saw the Darkness on their recent tour, and i must say Dan had one of the best live rhythm guitar sounds i've ever heard!  they did a new song called Cannonball where Just Dan was playing and it sounded amazing.  but they kept all the amps offstage, so you couldn't see what they were using.  i did spot a power brake on Justin's side of the stage, and after the show a roadie lifted two Marshall heads onto stage front on Dan's side.  they looked like Superlead reissues to me.

i actually met the band a few years ago, and spent a couple of hours in the bar with them.  Justin is quite quiet, and Dan is a nice guy.  i spoke to Justin's tech and commented that i wasn't keen on his fizzy dual rectifier pre-amp gain tone.  he agreed and said Justin had been looking at changing to something else but didn't want to have a Marshall like everyone else.  looks like he's finally given in :)

[Twinfan]

Seems that way!

[Ian Price]

I saw them on the recent UK tour and the pre break up UK tour. I must say that they looked far happier on the recent tour - great tone all round as well!