Premier Guitar | 10 years ago
Article and photos: http://bit.ly/UmphreysMcGeeRR
Premier Guitar met with Brendan Bayliss, Jake Cinninger, and Ryan Stasik of Umphrey’s McGee on February 6, 2015, shortly before their set at The Ryman in Nashville to see how they fuel their “improg” with multiple amps and a boatload of effects that yield a huge array of tones.
Brendan Bayliss has been playing PRS guitars for 20. His current No. 1 is Lucy, a lovely single-cut built to replicate Bayliss’ former No. 1, Felicia. The guitars are basically Mark Tremonti Signature guitars in disguise. Lucy and Felicia are stock, with the exception of the whammy bars, which have been replaced with a “Jake Blade”—a custom, ergonomic palm plate made from a piece of metal taken from a Harley-Davidson fuel tank).
When Bayliss goes acoustic, he plays a Babicz Spider.
Bayliss’ uses two pedalboards. The 1/4"cable from his guitar first hits a Sarno Music Solutions Steel Guitar Black Box tube-driven buffer/impedance matcher. From there, it goes to a Boss TU-3 tuner.
Then his signal jumps to the second board and hits a loop switcher that controls Stigtronics Compressor and Delay stomps, a Morley Steve Vai Bad Horsie Wah, Mesa/Boogie Grid Slammer and Tone-Burst pedals, Cusack Screamer and Tap-a-Whirl pedals, three Boss units—a DD-20 Giga Delay, an OC-3 Super Octave, and a CE-3 Chorus Ensemble—and two MXRs, a Flanger and a Phase 90. From the loop switcher, Bayliss’ signal hits an A/B box that switches between an Oldfield amp and a Stigtronics Overdrive that’s feeding a Mesa/Boogie Electra Dyne head.
Bayliss tours with two Oldfield combos he describes as “like a [Fender] Twin, only way sexier.” One is the canvas for most of his tones, and the other is a backup.
Bayliss also uses a Mesa/Boogie Electra Dyne that’s set for dirty sounds. The Boogie runs into a 2x12 Hard Truckers cabinet with Electro-Voice speakers.
To learn more about the gear behind Umphrey's McGee, visit: http://bit.ly/UmphreysMcGeeRR
