Captain S talks us through his Damned stage equipment and his essential studio gear back at Sensible Mansions.

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Are they gone yet? Good... AND THAT GOES FOR ANY BLOOMIN' PARADIDDLE MERCHANTS WHO MIGHT STILL BE LURKING ABOUT ALSO!!

So, where do we begin? With the guitars I reckon. As you're probably aware there has been a long standing tradition of Gibson SG usage in the Damned since we started out, well... quite a few years back (memory fails me). BJ still has his original red gibbo with chrome tremelo tail piece that he used on all those early gigs but prefers Telecasters these days for some reason of other.

The SG pretty much suited the sound of the band down to the ground though and, as my guitar heroes Carlos Santana and Tony McPhee were also afficianados I went this way myself.

Until I was at a loose end one day and found myself in Sam Ash's music shop (NY, 48th st) where I fell instantly in love with the Ltd (Esp) Viper 301 that I have been using for the last few years. Obviously inspired by the SG in style it has a slightly thicker body which produces more sustain. The sound that emanates from the beastie is the sweetest raw power that you could ever wish for and the thing is very solidly built.... well if it can survive touring with me then it must be I reckon.

Simply a great guitar with the minimum of controls to get in the way. And they don't cost an arm and a leg either folks as Ltd is Esp's budget line. Fantastic.

The preamp I am plugging into lately is a Line 6 POD XT PRO rack unit which enables me to have four pretty diverse sounds all easily accessed via the 'Shortboard' floor-pedal which includes an intergrated wah wah. I have created my own rythm, lead, spaced out echo and 50's jangle patches for use with The Damned.

But there wouldn't be much sound to be had without the rest of the rig which consists of two Marshall 4" by 12" speaker cabs driven by a Marshall EL-34 valve power amp (known as the 9200 series in the UK) which produces sumptuous amounts of the luvverly stereo valve power that the speakers (and I) dig so much. Marshall are a great British company without whom rock music would probably not exist... or if it did it would be unrecognizable simply because so many classic records have been made with these amps.

I WAS also using this marvellous Delay Modeler thing (also by Line 6, which I use in the studio and produced all the guitar echoes on 'Grave Disorder' and is VERY inspiring) but some bas***d has nicked it!

At home I have a Mac computer running a Cubase sequencer and some pretty impressive VST plug-in instruments like these softsynths by Native Instruments.

'Absynth', (really!) which creates highly sophisticated and quite psychedelic synth noises of all description.

'B4', a Hammond organ simulator SO AUTHENTIC that I gave my REAL Hammond away in a competition on this website if ya recall.

'Pro-52', which manages to capture all the luvverly analog tones of the classic Sequential Cirquits 'Prophet 5' synth. Which I remember well from my days with Tony Mansfield recording 'Women and Captains First' and all that as it was that bloomin synth thats all over 'Happy Talk'. Theres hardly a 'real' instrument on the thing... and I was in the pub for most of the recording session... but thats another story!

For recording it has to be Steinberg's Cubase which I've been using for years now as it's SO user friendly. This with a MAC G5 and a Tascam 1082 audio midi interface is a pretty powerful system for home recording the likes of which we could only dream about when we first started out as a band. I won't go into the old cliché about the equipment they recorded 'Sgt Pepper' on but suffice to say there are a lot of failry sophisticated sounding hit records being made from home studio's these days.

I've also been bassing it with my chums in Dead Men Walking as you can see in this pic taken at our recent gig at CBGB's...... l-r, Mike Peters, Kirk Brandon, meself and Slim Jim Phantom. I thought of using my short scale Fender Mustang for it's ease of playing... (especially seeing as I'm used to that sort of neck length being a guitarist) but as soon as I tried the Viper it just felt (and looked) right. It's got a nice punchy warm sound and the bloke in the studio said it recorded great when I was in recently and I usually trust the ears of these techie people.

Now.... some out there might think that cos I'm an ESP artist that that's the only reason I'm singing the praised of this particular instrument but I can assure you I don't bother myself with crap gear.... and this bass is an absolute beauty. Mike kindly lends the Alarm's Marshall bass amp for our UK shows and as long as I can avoid hitting the headstock on Jim's cymbals (we play in a line at the front of the stage) everything goes swimmingly.

Anyway, heres the spec......... LTD VIPER-254: set neck construction; 34” scale; mahogany body; 5-piece maple & walnut neck; rosewood fingerboard; dot inlays w/model name at 12th fret; EMG 35-HZ EP pickups; volume & balance controls; EMG B64 active EQ; black hardware; Grover tuners; ESP BB-604 string-thru-body bridge; white binding on neck & headstock (creme on Olympic White); 21 XJ frets, See-thru Black Cherry (STBC).... theres also black and white models but the cherry does it for me.

And that's it chums on the gear front, but as we all know the most important bit of kit on-stage is the jolly old roadie... but most of ours seem to have defected over to work with The Strugglers recently so we might be having to set up the gear ourselves (the exercise would do you good Cap - Anita) if we can't find some permanent replacements!

Hope this hasn't been TOO boring- Cap

Must've been a tricky bit
Live USA 2002

I'm Dan and i am 14 and coming to Sailsbury to see you on tour and i saw you in Hemel and we had a chat with my dad (not that you would remember). Anyway i started the E.guitar at easter and i am quite good and getting better, and i play damned stuff all the time, but PLEASE can you send me the tabs for the fast solos in things like born to kill and neat neat neat, as i am fed up of trying to work them out and could you give a quick explanation under the tab. Also what guitar would you get out of a sg,301 viper and telecaster as i would adventually like to get one of them and i know you have 2 of them.

from Dan

ps keep on happy talking,and please mail me back!!!!

see you in Sailsbury

Hi Dan,

Blimey - I'm afraid I cant read/write tab and dont have any of that stuff I can send you. And my esteemed colleague (the Damneds 1st guitarist) Brian James played all those riffs and fiddly bits that you refer to anyway.

Might I suggest asking for help on the damned messageboard as I know theres a few of 'em that frequent that place that are top guitar players and all that. Heres the address...

http://pub70.ezboard.com/fdamnednonsensefrm1

> Also what guitar would you get out of a sg, 301 viper and telecaster

Well - that depends on what sound you like as they are all pro guitars and will cut the mustard in all other respects.

The Viper is a descendant of the Gibson SG, a warm raunchy sounding guitar with humbucker pickups that give a high output. perfect for rock and punk. The build is great and the neck is fast for soloing but then again you could say that about most Gibson SGs and Les Paul models too. By the way Les Pauls are very heavy on your shoulder after a couple of hours swinging about onstage.

The Fender Telecaster has a much more abrasive twangy sound perfect (in my estimation) for country and funk, etc. They usually come with single pole pickups that supply less distortion but more cut and definition. I personally would never have one of these in the house, though I did purchase one before I knew much about guitars and sold it again pretty sharpish as soon as I discovered the Gibson sound.

Its all a matter of taste and what sound suits the material you'll be playing.

Theres a lot of good guitars in the music stores these days - different makes... a lot from the far east, and jolly good some of em are too but the quality can vary a bit.

I just pluck away quietly in the corner of the muso shop till it becomes evident whether the guitar is a winner or a heap of old turds. Even big name guitars like Gibbos and Fenders can vary in quality so I always like to try a couple of the same model and chose the one that feels right, blah blah.

Epiphone do some pretty good SGs, not bad at all but the pickups and quality are a little below par compared to the others we've mentioned. And our soundman (Andy) says the Viper beats ALL my other guitars for tone (including Gibson and Yamaha) so I must trust his judgement here.

Glad you like the Damned stuff... gawdblessya Dan.

Cap'n S

> From Dan

AND THE SAGA CONTINUED (ED:Orbit)

Firstly thanks for the reply on the tele,esp and sg.I hope im not bothering you to much capt's,but i do want to know stuff on guitars.do you get many e-mails from people?

Er... yes unfortunately... but people know that if I dont reply it means I've got summat better to do that sit in front of a sodding computer screen for hours, blah blah.

Anyway on the guitar front, my dad reckons that i should get a yamaha as they are cheap and i will not be as worried about taking it places and get dents and things than i would with a sg,so how is your yamaha handling?does it have fast neck and stuff?also how many guitars have gathered over the years?

OK then, Yamaha DO make some very impressive guitars - have done for years but you still have to match the guitar with the musical style you will be playing on it.

They make a lot of Fender style guitars... mainly Stratocaster clones and these while being exceptional value (they're pretty cheap) a lot of 'em ARE single coil pickups jobbies and have the resulting sharp cutting twangy sound.

If you like that then cool... but for a cheapie I would rather have an Epiphone SG of which there are 2 types... glued neck and bolt on neck. Theres not too much difference, although the glued ones are preferable and slightly more expensive of course - and this goes for ALL guitars.

I am presuming you are looking at the Yamaha Pacifica range (or whatever they're called) which is a good quality budget guitar. I suppose with the right distortion effects you could soup up the sound emenating from it a fair bit.

Have a good ol' twang in the guitar shop and see what YOU think,

Cheers - Cap

PS - I used a Yamaha Image (US name) or MSG (UK name) guitar for a few years but it was a top of the range job costing about a grand or so and they only made a few of 'em as it didnt sell as it should have.

Martin Booth (ex Yamaha chap) designed 'em and occasionally has one for sale... he's at Unit 4, Old Brickworks, Chapel lane, Little Cornard, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 0PB