Rigged: Havok Guitarist David Sanchez
Hello, fellow Earthlings, David Sanchez from Havok here, and today I’m going to walk you through my rig, following the signal path all the way from the guitar to the sound coming out of the speaker. Let’s talk shop, mothertruckers!
On the last several tours I’ve been using my two main axes: an ESP/LTD Shadow and ESP/LTD DJ-600V. Both guitars are equipped with mahogany bodies, EMG 81 pickups in the bridge, Floyd Rose tremolos, and 22 frets. They are set up in E-flat standard tuning (half-step down) with Ernie Ball “Skinny Top Heavy Bottom” (.10-.52) strings.
I’ve recently started using InTune’s Jumbo Jazz picks. They’ve got a jazz tip, but they’re still the same size as a standard pick. How convenient! That’s it for all of you axeholes; now I’m gonna take you down to the pedalboard city where the grass is green and jokes aren’t witty.
My live rig is very simple and built for fast setup and tear-down.
From the output jack of my guitar, the hot, tasty riffs make their way to an MXR Wylde overdrive pedal which I occasionally use to “fill the holes” of my tone. I barely use any gain on it as my head has plenty to spare. The slightly overdriven tone gives it a subtle compression effect and fattens it up a bit. I don’t always use it, however: only when the tone is lacking something. After overdrive, the signal makes its way to the ever-necessary Boss tuner pedal. If you don’t have a tuner with a mute button at your shows, don’t expect to be taken seriously. Nobody wants to hear the ancient Chinese song called “Tu-Ning.” Now that we’re all tuned up, let’s head into a Boss Auto Wah for some snarling funky tones. I rarely use this pedal but it’s nice to have on deck when I’m feeling a little saucy. Last, but certainly not least, we arrive at the Boss Noise Suppressor. This pedal is KEY to Havok’s sound, as we have lots of short rests in our music.
Now that we’re past the pedalboard, I’d like to talk to you about the meat and potatoes of the Dirty Sanchez guitar tone. Give me tubes… Or give me death! The not-so-secret weapon of my rig is my Peavey XXXii head (run through a Peavey 430 straight cab).
This 120-watt face-ripper features passive circuitry in the clean channel for ultra-smooth clean tones while the distortion channels sport active circuitry, making it easy to massively boost or cut frequencies. The amp has gain for days but isn’t very noisy thanks to the built-in noise gate.
Kill ‘Em All and Reign In Blood have some of my favorite crunchy tones, so for me mids are key. A lot of metal players tend to scoop out the mids on their amps, but this is tonal suicide because the guitar is not a bassy instrument and it’s not a particularly treble-heavy instrument either; it’s a midrange instrument, so if you want to cut through the mix, crank your mids!! (The scooped sound might sound cool on …And Justice For All or in your bedroom, but if you want to have definition in the notes you’re playing live, for the love of all that is metal, DON’T SCOOP YOUR MIDS!)
When it comes to solos, I have a Homebrew Electonics Mimic (analog delay pedal) in the effects loop. The effects loop has an adjustable return level which makes it easy to add a volume boost to the loop. Using this return boost trick I don’t have to tap-dance to activate the lead channel of the amp and then activate the effects loop on a separate switch; I can get a volume boost AND delay with the click of just the “Effects” button on the Peavey footswitch.
Bah-deep ba-deep b-deep that’s all, folks! I hope this short rundown was informative and will inspire some to de-shittify their guitar tones. Thanks for reading this and supporting heavy metal!! See ya on the road…
