Private Gear Tour: Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba

[@DigitalAshTCG]

Matt is such an amazing artist

[@HK271]

i love that. no clean or distorted. its dirty or huge.

[@priceyboy]

R.I.P Jerry Finn

[@patmccrotch5373]

I could geek out on gear all day long. Good shit

[@biggin92191]

Now playing his sig Fenders though.

[@kurdtjohn]

His remarks on his '79 LP Custom is so damn accurate

[@ChristianSpraungel]

I have a '57 goldtop les paul. And I play a 1960 marshall reissue half stack. It sounds exactly like the guitar on Crimson.

[@lespaul462]

The paint on the Silverburst doesn't change, its the nitrocellulose laquer that ages and yellows or greens.

[@MsChainsaw1]

i like the "i would shit my pajamas with the flap on the but" quote that was soo funny oooo matt!!!! :p

[@TimLundin3]

I think matt has cotton mouth from smoking some pot haha

[@franco.cordini]

what is a cotton mouth? haha srsly i don't know :o

[@saffronthurkettle6795]

Matt really hasn’t aged much in 12 years

[@xxdazziexx]

Oddly I agree with this comment until recently, it’s starting to catch up with him now

[@daniwest1370]

V40 speakers? or v30?

[@patmccrotch5373]

"I'd shit my pajamas with the little flap on the butt." Haha, I'm incorporating that into my conversations.

[@victorandrada]

awesom setup

[@DiCkRiChArDz]

i fucking love orange amps... i just tried one at a local shop the other day and it was raw as fuck.

[@jamiestillbelieves]

Mr Skiba you are the reason I bought mah Les Paul and she's a sexy beast!

[@A7XAvA]

are those p90s on the silverburst les paul?

[@Rasser48]

@A7XAvA I think it is Seymour Duncan Patchcats

[@stilwel]

@A7XAvA They look like Gibson P94's which are humbucker sized P90's.

[@GreatOverlord]

@lespaul462 im pretty sure he's going for the sound of the amp, not the sound of his own voice saying the name of an amp. its not important.

[@ClearColorCloud]

@MMZen I think it's obvious that Matt doesn't spend a lot of time sifting through gear in search of the holy grail. Jerry Finn basically picked out his amps for him, and it sounds like he uses the effects because the companies sent them to him. Jerry payed attention, so Matt has good amps. Line 6 just wants to make a buck, so he's got mediocre pedals. But, with those amps/guitars, it still sounds great. I think he just sees the big picture, but you're right.

[@rafaeldemoraes_gtr]

Does anyone here knows if he used to play PAF's in his Les Pauls?

[@ToneResearch]

His older Norlin-era ebony customs I assume would've been either Shaws or T-tops depending on the year. I think I read an interview from a long time ago, maybe 1999-2000, where the text mentioned he had a 1979 ebony custom and 1980 silverburst custom (the website may have just swapped the years), so that would put the silverburst originally with late 70s t-tops and at least the 1980 with Shaws (don't know about the other ebony custom he had at the time). The T-tops in the silverburst were switched out for Seymour Duncan Phat Cats sometime before/while they recorded Agony & Irony. The goldtop here appears to be a 2001 Standard, rather than a '57 reissue, given the tuners are Grover Rotomatics and not vintage-style like reissues generally have, the speed knobs (minus 1 replaced), and the truss-rod cover is also of the same period. Pickups would be 490R/498T. Hardware/electronics could've been swapped, but going by tones I've heard in live performances and my own testing I assume it's stock for a 2001 Standard. There is also another custom that Matt picked up sometime in 2003-2004, another ebony custom, that appears to be a '68 issue. Originally that guitar would have 57 Classics, and at one point had some Seymour Duncan in the bridge (check the Time to Waste video), but could've been put back with the stock bridge covered 57 Classic+ as seen in some live performances from 2005. Did some more searching and looks like it could've been a JB/Jazz set. One other small note I wanted to add is that his signature GPC guitar used a Dimarzio Air Classic in the bridge. Only really saw it in the Metro Halloween-time show from 2002 and even then I think some of it was re-recorded in a studio afterwards so don't know much there. Not sure about the strats from around that time. Between studio and live there going to be differences, more-so after Maybe I'll Catch Fire, especially with all of the gear used on Good Mourning and Crimson. I may do a more comprehensive write-up at some point of my findings along with amps/cabs/speakers. Hopefully this gives a decent enough starting point.

[@fanderfen]

nice gear.

[@13thepanda]

awsome...

[@alkalinetrio751]

this goldtop is kickass.

[@saffronthurkettle6795]

That’s made me wonder why Matt now pays fenders then

[@740am]

I feel like Gibson had a burst of popularity in the 2000s

[@boynamedlen]

Cool greenburst LP!

[@Archcecil]

whats the first song that plays?

[@rockpwnsu]

LINE 6 FTW

[@41224jason]

meh. why do you have THREE amazing amps, perfect--and have to ruin them all with a Line 6 Distortion Modeler. why?

[@ISISbandLive]

@dumlilkid You mean Anton Lavey? Me thinks hes been dead for a while.

[@lessthanthreebrad]

so what he has one.

[@marc0d0n]

SUPER BALLZ

[@MetalMan1023]

is the grim reaper death from family guy

[@gizmo359c]

@t0psecretshit well, if he didnt have guitars and amplifiers it would be difficult for him to be the guitarist aye

[@mommmmmmy2]

@allrain in vein

[@bigham48]

Alkaline Trio ate my hamster!

[@DiCkRiChArDz]

werd! I approve.

[@NinjaTylerBlack]

now they just use kempers and it sounds like nothing

[@rockingrugger]

ah right

[@dumlilkid]

you people think he isnt a satanist, but he really is. he is friends with the former head of the CoS. They even talk on the phone, which I thought was hilarious! I heard this directly from Matt!

[@Nameless164]

Dytzel.

[@Seabee156]

And now Matt Skiba is in Blink 182 😂

[@lessthanthreebrad]

haha thats funny.

[@snapascrew]

DEEEZEL it's pronounced DEEEEZEL

[@johnnybegood8049]

Cool video but man, it hurts my eyes!

[@dumlilkid]

and what?

[@D0g63rt]

He sounds kinda boring (or bored) but he seems like a smart guy.

[@Dookiebassplayer7]

Your kind of a know it all,arent you?

[@rectangularcuboid]

*You're

[@darkroomignite8264]

*aren't

[@ande44715]

I love ak3 but for fuck's sake matt, know your gear. V40's!? Ugh, so frustrating hearing that. Try V30's I do love the sound of the guitar's on crimson. Sounds a lot like a bogner shiva (maybe ecstacy), orange rockerverb, marshall jcm800 (possibly a splawn cause there's a little more clarity than an 800), and a hint of a boogie (dual rec/triple rec).

[@diemturner5755]

Sorry for being fashionably late, but it's only by 3 years which was, in part, due to a jammed zipper that had corroded from 8 1/2 years of non-stop sandwich coleslaw buffering of big muff fluffers, knaw'meen? But then again, Crimson's from 2005 so as to moor us both firmly in the armchair of post-decadian quarterbacking making it all academic at best, but that's what we got here Principal Brah...make of it what you might not have otherwise done had not your will inserted itself as the early bird that caught the worm. AnyballzMcGeezak, you're close but no La Palina Mr. Sam. You must have watched a different clip than the rest of some of us as he tells us, clear as his crackled voice could muster, what amps were used on Crimson. Matt recounted the first time working with Jerry who got him to half-mast (half-Matt?) with the "Dyzel or Deesul amplifiers" and at 0:38 stated that he, "...picked up this VH4 which is what we used on most of our Good Morning record and on Crimson," followed at 0:44 with the full-on morning Bogwood with, "When we went in to do Crimson Jerry had just gotten one of these Bogner Shivas...that's what I've been waxing my medulla oblongata with ever since live...Dan can't even anymore, he'd rather I didn't but that's how the oarman lathers his paddle." While some liberties were taken with citations heretofore, they realistically mirror the verbosity of your prolific (yet overwrought and overthought) attempt at intuiting amplifiers that you heard, but for naught. But we are not want to unnecessarily undermine your efforts, so only a 50% deduction on the selection of shivecstacy (had I been on the panel I'd have deducted standard marks as the answer was IN the vidya, but... t'was not my call). HOW'VER!! bonus points awarded for Celestion skillz. Joking aside, I was just having a bit of laff, as it were. All in a day's good work fun :-) I work hard so, I as a counterbalance, I write retarded shit and, when I'm nursing a semi, I'll farm titanic shinola from the depths of Moloch's colon. Peace be with you brutha and godspeed on your travels, Diem

[@JerkyChid]

can't stand him but want some of that gear

[@gODfall]

Alkaline Trio are you kidding me? my granny rocks out more then them.

[@Bls-of1ld]

Lol

[@guitarlad24]

these guys arnt even heavy> why do they need the diezel and rockerverb -.- seems pointless

[@amarr1]

i think this guy thinks he's cool.

[@iaminsideyourhome69]

...cause he is

[@Respecttheriff]

V40's???? Doesn't he mean V30's. Loads of money in gear, but has no idea what he is talking about...

[@KYamada416]

gayest rig ever