Behind The Scenes From A Memory: Interview With Weazel

Interview chat with “Weazel” (JP’s guitar tech for M2000). We were also joined by Jose and Maddi later as we talked. This chat was unplanned but was very enjoyable due to its informal nature!

Alan Muirden: Can you tell us about the new Ernie Ball guitars?

Weazel: Well, John has three prototype guitars out with him on this leg: the original, the second prototype he warms up with, and we have it on stage as a spare and the one he's actually playing live now is the third one, where they've refined the neck more to his specs, where it's got a flatter radius and the shape of the neck is flatter as well, but it still needs a little more tweaking as far as he's concerned, but it's a lot closer.

AM: Do they have the same pickup arrangement on these guitars as the Ibanez JPMs?

W: Yes and no! I mean, he's got custom made DiMarzios and on the latest prototype, the pickups aren't direct mounted to the body, whereas on the first two they are, so we're getting a lot of resonant feedback from them not being directly mounted to the body. The biggest thing about the Ernie Balls is the fact that they've got the Fishman Powerbridge Piezo saddles so the guitar has two outputs: one for the magnetics – the DiMarzios – and one for the Piezos straight to a DI for an acoustic sound.

AM: There have been a lot of great comments about the acoustic sound...

W: Oh yeah – it's an amazing sound and it seems to be working out well.

AM: Do the guitars all have the same finish?

W: Fairly close – all three are a metallic type of blue. The third one is the darkest of all – there's some transparent black that's been sprayed over the blue so it has a darker colour. This third prototype is amazing. It's really tight and it's amazing how much it resonates on its own acoustically and you can really feel that coming right back through your hand.

AM: And all three are six strings – no seven as yet?

W: That's right they're all six strings – they are working on a seven string.

AM: One of the seven string Ibanez guitars JP has is a beautiful blue/black finish; are you carrying that on this tour?

W: Right – we have that out with us and it's a backup seven – the main seven string he's using on this tour is the black and white Picasso.

AM: Will the finish on the publicly available Ernie Balls be the same as he has now?

W: I'm not sure. I'm not sure what John has decided with Ernie Ball on that. I think it would be nice to have a nice plain finish; certainly not the Picasso graphic as it's a new chapter. Yeah, John hasn't said anything and I'm just under the impression that the new guitars aren't going to have graphics.

AM: What about JP's rack? When I saw the band in November in Brussels it had grown to THREE flight cased units!

W: It's two! There's three flight cases up there but one is just being used as a stand for the baby powder plate and his drink!

AM: The gig in LA where the power was pulled – did it give you any problems?

W: No. As a matter of fact, the only problems I've been having with the gear have been here in Europe! Some of the things in the rack just don't like the conversion – the voltage conversion and the fact that it's 50 cycles – regardless of the fact that many modern electronics are today built to run on 50/60 cycles. I don't care! They don't like 50 cycles – they DON'T like it! They'll operate but not the way they're designed to operate so..... if we had power here in Europe like we had in the States, John's racks would be very happy. Right now, John's racks are very UNHAPPY! I've had five bad shows in a row and it's only due to the power – we just did 32 shows in the States – 32 shows and the stuff was very consistent and very good, well-tuned in. I think we had two occasions on the US leg where the Triaxis went out once with a dodgy set of tubes, which you know you can't allow for. The same thing with the Dual Rectifier – dodgy set of tubes and once it was serviced it was fine and back to normal. As a matter of fact, after the Rectifier was serviced, it was an amazing sound! We didn't have any instances where anything completely failed. But over here in Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, both the German shows...

AM: Well maybe the UK will be a turning point!

W: I hope so because I've had four panic days in a row – I could do with a rest!

AM: What about the cabs? I see John is using six Mesa Boogie cabs.

W: Yeah – the setup we have here is the exact same setup as the States.

AM: One curious thing I've noticed is John Myung’s bass rig sometimes has Ampeg cabs in Europe – any reason?

Jose Baraquio: He's using here exactly what he used in the States – in November we had a lot of rental gear.

W: I don't think Mark Snyder had JM's rig built then.

AM: Are you familiar with most of the products that JP uses?

W: Some I am, some I'm not – I've not had any call to work with some of the components. The guitar players I’ve worked with in the past never had quite the array of products and equipment that John has.

AM: What about the pedalboard?

W: It's a double expanded Bradshaw which is a new one that Mark (Snyder) put together for John – the board itself looked when I first saw it, brand new – he's still using the Ernie Ball volume pedals.

AM: I guess it's the Steve Morse connection that steered JP towards Ernie Ball?

W: I couldn't tell you that. All I know is that Steve Morse has been an idol of John Petrucci's for many many years – I don't know if that had anything to do with it or not.

AM: So are you on tenterhooks during the show – I guess you are after a run of bad shows?

W: I'm pretty much running on 12 all the time, but I've been a guitar tech for 29 years and I'm pretty much laid back during daylight and once soundcheck is over, I'm on 12 the rest of the night. It's not 'til I see the last case go on the truck and get on the bus, that I can start to come down. I've been referred to as psychotic, serial killer! But you know, that's how I function. I HAVE to be on the edge, 'cos if you're not on the edge, you're not paying attention, and if you're not paying attention and something goes down, you're the asshole! It's real simple, like when the power went down on the racks in Oslo in the middle of the show.... it's like I went from 12 to 20 – to get that rack back up and running. And the last gig in Offenbach, we had a perfect soundcheck and everything was fine, the rig sounded great, after soundcheck it doesn't get turned off, doesn't get touched and yet when we went to do a line check during set change, the rig wasn't up. I mean most of the stuff was running but a power supply went out on one of the GCX switchers.... WHY? Who knows? I'll try and find out today when the gear comes in, but shit like that happens and you gotta get it going. My main thing is, during the show, I watch my guy's back. Even with every guitar change, I don't turn my back on him 'til I hear that first note or that first chord go off, 'cos with every change something could go amiss 'cos it's the way things happen, so I don't turn my back on my guy – I keep my eye on him constantly, because he's the one that's standing out there in the middle of everything and you got to back him up and that's why I'm here, it's what I'm supposed to do.

AM: Are the guys still sound checking without James?

W: So far he's been coming to soundchecks.

At this point we were joined by Maddi – bass and keyboard tech so I asked him a couple of questions!

AM: JM almost has as much rack mounted gear as JP.

Maddi Schieferstein: Yeah – it looks like it's a lot of stuff, but it's really simple – it's just BIG stuff and takes up a lot of room.

AM: Is JM still using bass pedals?

MS: No – he has a midi-control pedal, wah pedal and volume pedal – it's real simple.

AM: What Mackie gear is Jordan using?

MS: We have four cabs on the backline and two on the riser as wedges, plus he still gets a stereo keyboard fill in the company wedges as well – the blue lights on them look cool!

AM: One of the things I'm curious about is stage volume – any clues?

MS: It's loud! Depending on whose volume you're talking about; the bass is barely on, JM has two Mesa Boogie wedges in front of him and two Mesa Boogie cabinets behind him and some nights his backline cabs, we don't even turn them on 'cos it can affect the stage balance.....! Between his wedges and his cabs is a sweet spot and as soon as he finds it he doesn't move....

AM: Is MP still wearing earplugs?

JB: 95% of the time. He’ll take them [out] every once in a while, but stage volume is a BIG issue which will hopefully get resolved really soon, but it's screamingly loud.

MS: This is the first tour I've been on in a while where I have to wear earplugs every night and I'm offstage!

W: Unless I've gotten a lot more deaf in the past year, as much as they say how loud Petrucci is, he's not – not to me, even with six cabs up there, because for most of '98 I spent working with Judas Priest and I’ll tell you about fucking loud! The circle of "Tipton pain" right there in his sweet spot – I could barely go out to do line check on the guitar without it knocking me out on my ass! I'm telling you, Petrucci is EASILY half Glenn's volume. Even though John has all that stuff, he really doesn't have those Mesa's cranked.

MS: It really depends where on stage you are; on my side all I hear is guitar and keyboards plus some drums – I don't hear the bass, which is neither here or there really, but I'm sure on Weazel’s side of the stage it's different and where Jose is different. I tried to explain it to Jordan the other day and said all I hear is guitar, keyboards and a little bit of drums and he thought the bass was so loud, but it all depends on where you are. I remember Ian Hill (Priest bass player) always used to be RIGHT by his cabs.

W: That's right – it's where he likes to be, because Ian is not that loud. He has a little bit of volume, but especially the low end he has a real deep low end which he keeps right down because it bothers KK (Downing – Priest guitar player) and KK's all the way over on stage right and if the low end on the bass is too loud, it really throws him off... Ian likes to be right in front of his cabs – there's a certain sound that he likes – it's a very 'piano' like quality as he plays with a pick and the sound is really like someone banging on a piano and it's really lovely – I was taking care of Tipton AND Hill on stage left and I just LOVE the sound I get right there on stage left with Ian.

At that point, we had to spit as backline gear was starting to come into the venue, but it was a really enjoyable time in the kitchen with the guys – thanks to Weazel, Jose (again!) and Maddi.