Read Time 2 Minutes
The ongoing process of sorting through my notes and documentation of GearFest has brought this zany ride to Dave Weiner and his demonstration of Paul Reed Smith guitars and amps.
Dave Weiner, in case you’ve missed the bus, most famously known for his role as the backing guitarist in Steve Vai’s band. How did he land that? By showing he can get the job done. And what does “getting the job done” include? Everything.
Not only has Weiner established himself in Vai’s band, but he’s also released two solo albums which he’d done almost everything himself including performing almost every instrument heard, writing, recording, and engineering. Of course there are a few guest musicians, but who’s counting?
In addition to that he performs with an improv band named Jace while running a web site web site on the side entitled Riff of the Week where every week he posts a new instructional video. Because he has so much time to spare he also teaches at GIT in LA, gives personal lessons to people all over the world via Skype, and offers his services as a session musician, producer, and engineer.
Ya got enough to do? Where the hell do you store all of that extra time, Chronos?
So while Dave was apparently not restricted by the icy grip of Father Time, he stopped by GearFest to showcase some guitars and an amp from Paul Reed Smith whilst performing a few songs off his more recent album On Revolute. People familiar with Weiner know he has a history of playing Ibanez 7-stringers, so the first impression here was with a PRS 6-string 513.
The 513 is at face value a guitar with two humbuckers and a single coil, but it has two toggle switches. One 5-way switch for the common HSH setup and a 3-way that switches between humbucker and single coil settings for a maximum of 13 different pickup settings. The body and neck are built of mahogany with a maple top and a rosewood fretboard and uses PRS pickups. He’d also featured the use of his 7-string 513 which was actually built out of ash with a maple top and neck with an ebony fretboard.
And all of this greatness was demonstrated through a PRS HX/DA tube amp. The amp has two 12″ speakers housed in a birch cabinet. For as simple of an amp as it is it’s very versatile. It has seven knobs total divided into three sections. Volume/presence, EQ, and gain. Each section has its own HX/DA toggle switch. There wasn’t a whole lot of tweaking back and forth, but what I’ve gathered is the HX settings will give you a brighter sound versus the DA’s darker tone.
Overall it was all great gear demonstrated by a great guitarist. What more could anyone ask for?
wpDiscuz
Sounds like a good video.
I can’t find a single link to it from your page.
What’s up with that?
Well. The unfortunate part of Dave’s performance is that I ran out of battery power on my camera. I do believe that the guys at Sweetwater will be posting videos they’d recorded eventually as well, which should be a much better quality than what I have anyway.
I had a cold at the time so my footage is riddled with wobbly camera tricks and coughing, so I’m skeptical that many people would want to watch it anyway.