GEAR TATS INTERVIEW

Guitarstuff4U:  So mr. Gear Tats, what made you decide to start the Gear Tats business?


Gear Tats: Well I grew up playing guitar in the eighties when Hair Bands were the rage and they had these amazing guitar players. All of those guitarists had great custom graphic guitars that I would drool over and dream about owning. I remember CC Deville had a bunch of cool guitars in one of Poison's videos, as well as Queensrych, Anthrax, Warrent, Paul Gilbert, Steve Vai, Vernon Reid,John Petrucci. The list is endless. They all had these amazing looking axes. A few times I attempted to do some customizing on my own but the results were always pretty bad. I've wrecked a few guitars in my day I'm sorry to say. Years and years later my friend bought a vinyl cutter was showing me some decals that he had made which got my gears spinning. This could be a way to make custom guitar graphics that would look great and were affordable to the average guitarist. 

Guitarstuff4U:  Where did you get all those cool designs? Did you come up with them or do you have a partner that does that?


Gear Tats:  I design all of the decals myself. I've been a graphic artist since high school, and even when I went to college for music I still kept up with all the graphic programs on the computer and studied art on my own. I've also done a few custom decals for clients who had a design in their mind that they really wanted which was fun.

Guitarstuff4U:   Any other designs slated to come out in the near future?


Gear Tats:  Oh yeah! It's really limitless as far as design possibilities. Not only will we be moving into multi-colored designs in the future but also designs inspired by customer feedback through facebook and twitter. We're really interested in finding out what people would like to see on their guitars and then giving them the best versions of that.

Guitarstuff4U:   Are specific designs meant for certain styles of guitar or can any design be put on any guitar?


Gear Tats:  We do have a few decals that are designed for specific body shapes like tribals, or a new line of pin-stripping we are about to launch. Others are designed to fit on most guitars but come in two sizes, electric and acoustic.  We are also looking at creating a few killer designs for Flying V's. We can't ignore those guys.

 Guitarstuff4U:  No you most certainly shouldn't, especially since it seems EVERYONE these days is playing a flying-V or some other non-traditional body style guitar.

Guitarstuff4U:  On the technical side of the spectrum, you say that Gear Tats are permanent yet can also be removed if you wish it, how does that work? I would imagine some kind of solvent would be involved, as you couldn’t just use water, instruments rarely get wet but I'm sure it does happen.

Gear Tats:  These decals are made from high quality sign vinyl which does have an adhesive on the back of it. It is designed to stand up to moderate use on indoor signs without fading of falling off. When it is removed from a surface it doesn't leave any residue behind that I have found. The only side effect I have noticed when removing a decal that had been on one of my guitars for a few years was that the surface was much cleaner where the decal had been.

Guitarstuff4U:   Were there any design you had that didn’t "make the cut" so to speak? and might we see those designs if things take - off for Gear Tats?


Gear Tats:  Yeah there were a few that didn't "make the cut" :). Mostly because of the learning curve involved with the decal creation process. The way that these decals are made involves removing the parts of the design where the guitar body shows through. Some of my earlier designs were very intricate and the time it took to remove all of those little bits of vinyl would have sent the price of them through the roof. Maybe down the road we'll introduce a Premier Line of GearTats that will include these amazing  designs for customers that want something a little more intense looking.

Guitarstuff4U: ok thats all we have for now Bassers and Guitar'ers, if you want to see more about Gear Tats you can view whats on stock at GEARTATS

Who's ready for the Thor Rune interview? I hope you ARE! here it is!

Guitarstuff4U: Just for info I play a Gibson Epiphone Les Paul with a Marshall MG-15 amp, whats your current set up for live play and /or practice (if you set up different for practice that is)?

Thor Rune: My live rig currently consists of an ADA MP2 tube preamp, and an Alesis Quadraverb 2 for effects and a Digitech DHP55 for harmonization. That all gets fed in to a Peavey Classic 50-50 tube power amp and a Marshall cab with Celestion G12T75 speakers. I use an ART X15 foot controller to change tones.
For home practice I recently picked up a Pod xt which is pretty convenient for jamming by myself or recording demos. Every now and then ill crank up my 5150 if I need a little adrenaline rush lol. Luckily I have very nice neighbors. Guitar wise I have a bunch, but live I normally rely on my Charvel Model 6 and my Steinberger. I'll bring out others occasionally for shits and giggles but those 2 are so versatile they can do everything I need.

Guitarstuff4U: which one has no head on the Neck?

Thor Rune: Yeah the Steinberger is "headless"

Guitarstuff4U: when you are practicing, how long do you usually play for? Are there any special thing you do while practicing that you believe make you a better guitarist?

Thor Rune: Marz always rags on me for not practicing enough lol. He's right too I'm really lazy with actual "practicing" (as opposed to rehearsing).
I would say the best thing to do to make yourself better is play with other musicians. No amount of practice by yourself can make up for that. I've met plenty of musicians who could tear it up in their bedroom but as soon as they have to actually play along with others they're lost.

Guitarstuff4U: Have you ever heard of / or use Guitar Pro? cause i agree with Marz that program is the bomb for guitarists

Thor Rune: Guitar Pro is an amazing tool for learning songs; there's such a vast library of tabs out there for it. I've never really used it for tabbing my own stuff though as I use Cubase instead. It's not nearly as powerful as Guitar Pro for creating quality tabs but it's good enough for my needs which is usually just working out guitarmonies and solos for myself.

Guitarstuff4U: "guitarmonies" i like that, and i totally agree if you don't jam with others, you don't get the whole thing about keeping time with others and learning to improvise. and learning to "shred" as people call it nowadays doesn't necessarily mean you can play a song beginning to end. So, then what would you recommend to someone like me who can't "solo" but still can play a good rhythm get better at soloing then, scales? I know some but not enough.

Thor Rune: Scales are good to know for theoretical and harmony purposes, and scale runs are a good way to get from point A to point B in a solo, but relying on them can make solos sound rather predictable and linear. I'd say the best thing for writing tasty solos is to try singing what you want to hear... or humming if your voice sucks like me ;). The point is to think melodically, chances are if you can't sing it you're overplaying. As far as improving your soloing technique there's nothing wrong with learning other peoples solos and figuring out what they do so that you can incorporate their tricks in to your repertoire. One of the best ways to learn parts is to use something like VLC player, which lets you slow down songs without changing the pitch. That way you can learn the tricky parts at a slow speed and work your way up to full speed. A lot of players are too focused on trying to play everything super fast right away instead of worrying about playing cleanly and articulation. Start off slow until it "clicks"; when that happens playing at full speed is way easier and it'll sound a lot better because you're aware of every note and nuance in the part.


Guitarstuff4U: Does everyone in the band contribute to writing songs? or is it more like KISS is set up where only one or 2 or 3 of you write?

Thor Rune: As for the writing Marz does pretty much all the writing. Kingdom Earth was pretty much written by the time I joined the band so that concept was all his idea.


Guitarstuff4U: OK this one's going to be easy compared to the rest of these questions, lol. this is a simple one, what brand strings do you use both on stage and off?

Thor Rune: Let's see... I use either D'Addario or Dean Markley strings. I used to have to use special double-ball end strings for the Steinberger but I got an adapter that lets me use regular strings with it. The special strings were getting quite hard to find and kinda pricey.

Guitarstuff4U: what about your gear when it comes to maintenance, for instance do you change your own strings? take your ax to the shop? DO more than that maybe? such as adjustments to the bridge or neck( just for info: I strongly recommend all new and mid level guys take their instrument to a qualified "shop" for such adjustments)

Thor Rune: I do all my own guitar setup unless it requires fret dressing or some similar alterations. I think every guitar player should at least be familiar with what's involved with setting up their guitar even if they're not comfortable doing it themselves.

great Thor, and thanks for your answers and taking the time to talk with me and I'm sure all your fans will appreciate it

check below for the video for "Crop Circles" by The Worshyp!!


Visit The Worshyp here The Worshyp or at their facebook page : The Worshyp @ Facebook