Rig Rundown - God Is an Astronaut

Article and photos: www.premierguitar.com/articles...
Premier Guitar’s Chris Kies visits Nashville’s Exit/In before God Is an Astronaut’s gig to hang with guitarists Torsten Kinsella and Jamie Dean and bassist Niels Kinsella to talk semi-hollowbodies, complex modeling rigs, and why felt picks rule.
The only guitar that Torsten Kinsella brought on the road to the U.S. is this 1968 Gibson ES-345 that he modded by putting in Curtis Novak humbuckers with a switch mounted under the pickguard so he can split the neck pickup for single-coil tones. In the past, Torsten has been associated with Gibson Les Pauls and Fender Strats, but feels his 345 gives him the aggression of a LP but still allows him to get sparkly clean sounds like a Strat. For strings, he goes with Ernie Ball Slinky Skinny Top Heavy Bottom .010-.052.
Like Torsten, guitarist/keyboardist Jamie Dean travels light when it comes to his road-dog 6-string, a 1985 Yamaha SA800 that he bought back in Dublin years ago. He had guitar tech Tony Thompson swap out the stock tuners and give the neck a refret, but other than that, it’s stock. And keeping in line with Torsten and his streamlined approach, Jamie gets all his amp and pedal needs from a Fractal Audio Axe-Fx II XL.
To continue learning about the band's gear, visit: www.premierguitar.com/articles...

[@Sensates85]

Never could I expect a GIAA rig rundown here. Do more postrock rig rundown! It sounded glorious through headphones.

[@derfedrevog2983]

These are some of the most beautiful guitar tones I've heard.

[@jtweito]

Thank you for showing his Axe Fx routing on the laptop. That is super rad

[@premierguitar]

Heck yeah! It was actually Torsten's idea...

[@jtweito]

that gentleman deserves two cookies. not just one!

[@mrfweeter]

Incredible band, so much emotion in their music

[@unelias2592]

i agree 200%

[@noi5emaker]

Beautiful sounds. I love hearing guitarists who spend a lot of time creating sounds as opposed to trying to replicate tones of yesteryear.

[@macdad159]

His tone is phenomenal. What he does with his equipment just blew my mind.

[@temporarymomentary]

It's not like a typical post rock band. It's something else. Very unique.

[@Abrahamhamham]

Saw them twice. Really good shows. They shook people's hands after the show and signed stuff. Really took their time. Gotta see them again as soon as possible. It goes really well with the weather.

[@iwillnevergetone5]

Solid tones and phrasing in this here playing. i dig it. definitely have to check out the band now !

[@mattsnyder4754]

I'd rather watch a thousand of these than one "you know man, I'm just all about tone man. Just plug a les Paul into a Marshall man."

[@HDvideoedit]

Lol im laughing

[@Jonnyguitar1877]

Matt Snyder oh come on guitar was the best in 1969 lol

[@brunolinharesmiranda]

You can't deny that, tonewise, it's better this days. It's just a matter of personal taste. Yes, there the best amps, the best guitars and the best tones. But we do have better amps, better guitars and pretty awesome tones too with today's gear.

[@jg932]

At the end of the day, it's about if the people being interviewed, regardless if it's the player or the tech, are interested or passionate enough to discuss the rig. Some if not most of the people on these rig rundowns sound like they could't care less, at least this group actually cares, even the first guy went in depth about his sound and what he was using in the AX FX. If that's not commitment I don't know what is.

[@sachingowda2807]

Incredible band.Would have been great if the video included the drums as well!

[@ahmadzahirikaputrazainuddi3230]

excellent choice for rig rundown to make this documentary..giaa is a next level of music genre..plus giaa also my favourite of all time..hopefully you guys can make other rig for band like Foals, Atom For Peace, Thievery corporation and so on. thanks again..

[@GeorgiosMallis-ji8jt]

Those guitar tones, what he does with his equipment and those melodies..He is phenomenal! Genius!

[@OnlineMusicSwap]

I loved echos too! thank you so much Premier guitar. I absolutely love nerding out to these rundowns and think you have outstanding staff. peace and prosperity!

[@MontyCantsin5]

That feedback setting at 13:00...dayuum!

[@Irisplove]

Really nice guys, more than happy to talk. It's so refreshing.

[@ocelot972]

Thank you for the GIAA rig rundown! That Goatkeeper pedal is really rad!

[@aquabot]

These guys are really cool nice guys. Really cool rig rundown.

[@Widdy5150]

Well done Premier Guitar for including artists using modellers 👍

[@JackstandJohnny]

I love you Rig Rundown. Ive never heard of this band, just like many others that you showcase in your series. I am so glad I found them. This is the stuff I love listening to when Im laying in bed just spacing out. So great. Awesome band.

[@premierguitar]

Thanks for watching!

[@NinjaDog578]

Caspian next !

[@colebridgewood8014]

Caspian has done their own rig rundowns or at least Erin has

[@zMPHz]

That's an incredible guitar setup!

[@lmartinho]

Portugal miss you

[@scottmantooth8785]

very ethereal tones found at this location

[@Jeepjones85]

I really like his guitar tones

[@JM-5150]

I just stumbled across this band 3 days ago. By far one of the greatest things I've heard in the last 20 years. Phenomenal bus all I can say.

[@Aenima308]

You should do an explosions in the sky rig rundown

[@premierguitar]

We tried on the last tour, but it didn't work out - trust us, they're on our radar!

[@tMatt5M]

Beautiful music

[@stephendoran2690]

thorsten is such a beautiful player-echoes is a beast of a tune!

[@YouTheLivingMusic]

Beautiful stuff!

[@NavJack27gaming]

my fave band, its GREAT seeing how the hell they do all that. AWESOME

[@NavJack27gaming]

i always KNEW they were geeks, LOVE it!

[@JunkieMonkey321]

damn sick tone. super ambient. love it

[@frantisekvtelensky820]

What a band! Must check them out! Those sounds are very inspirational for my own music! Thanks PG! :)

[@fonzybrookestone727]

Cool sounds!

[@Voxshades]

That, is a proper bass strap.

[@alexm.3098]

It's a Minotaur Strap, from a small manufacturer in Greece. Very cool straps, got two of them, very helpfull to manage heavu basses or old school Les Pauls.

[@lptomtom]

That, is, a, useless, comma,

[@JeanFrancoisDesrosiers]

Refreshing to see an instrumental band not going the all-vintage-analog-tone-snob route AND sound awesome. Now that may be an opening for progress. Few! took 50 years!

[@esulaksono]

yessss more postrock stuff pls

[@jakeharderproductions2572]

I wish you guys did a brief rundown of the drums!

[@DandamanV]

I came here after watching the CW Stoneking; you could not have two more polar opposite rigs. I love this, he's using digital effects to their fullest, and it's not ruling over him like large pedalboards are wont to do.

[@MrUltraworld]

I have not heard of these guys, your rig rundowns show have turned this old guy onto some really cool bands. I looked at some live footage from Moscow earlier this year. All this technology really works well in a live setting, it has a soul. A very original band in a Sea of lookalike soundalikes.

[@HARTYNMUGHES]

Fred Garvin so refreshing to hear that from (please don't take this the wrong way) an older player. Too much elitism amongst players who think that any setup that isn't a les Paul into a Marshall stack is sacrilege. Stupid, shitty attitude.

[@MrUltraworld]

Martyn Hughes Thank You, I take that as a huge compliment. I'm not the least bit embarrassed to say that I'm 54. In '78, I saw the mighty Van Halen open for Black Sabbath, saw Pink Floyd's Animals and the Wall tours. I've been a Luthier, Amp, and Effects Tech since 1980. I traveled from 1980 - 2000. I love gear and the people who get great tones from that gear. I'm using a Fractal myself. I love to hear new bands using the latest technology to get great tones to write music that stands out. This band stands out. I will make it a point to see these guys live ASAP.

[@HARTYNMUGHES]

Fred Garvin they're great but post rock gets very samey (though I've always been a fan of the genre) I'd highly recommend a band called PG Lost and their album "Key" as a modern example of the genre at its best but in terms of the cream of the crop, you want to be looking at Mogwai and Sigur Ros.

[@HARTYNMUGHES]

Fred Garvin ps, I'm jealous you've seen sabbath in their prime

[@MrUltraworld]

Martyn Hughes No, this was the end of Sabbath with Ozzy, but Ozzy could at least carry a tune, even if it was just a short ways. Ozzy was tossed out at the end of this tour. In 1980 I saw them with Ronnie James Dio at the helm, now that was something to write home about. Buy '78 was a bad year for Ozzie. Funny thing, with his new band, he was singing much better. Randy was very highly thought of. I'm guessing that cocaine helped Ozzie's singing.

[@stevedanielsson6423]

Super cool coil tapping thing on that!

[@Clockeman]

Hot damn, I love guitars.

[@juliomori968]

is a awesome gear!

[@andrewpappas9311]

God Is An Astronaut... That is an awesome band name XD

[@landonjackson3064]

OMG that 345 is gorgeous

[@johnmotherfuckincoltrane1242]

Godspeed You! Black Emperor Rig Rundown!

[@hiroprotagonitis]

leave them out, they'd be wasted on a channel with an audience like this.

[@johnmotherfuckincoltrane1242]

donor keblood I guess you're right, I don't think they would want such exposure anyways.

[@jeffreyfuentes5582]

Agalloch Fan Wouldn't that be short, though? Last time I heard GY!BE, it sounded almost like it was mostly random sounds from a computer and very little actual gear.

[@johnmotherfuckincoltrane1242]

Jeffrey Fuentes Here's a picture of one of their pedalboards: s176.photobucket.com/user/professorplumorange/media/DSC00924.jpg.html

[@jeffreyfuentes5582]

Holy shit... I guess they really have changed over time. I only listened to F#A#Infinity as well as a bit from other albums, but I only remember them rarely using only clean guitars. Probably should listen to more of their music, now.

[@justingarcia7722]

For those who use to or currently use giant rack systems/boards/multiple amps to achieve their sound for either personal preference or large studio repertoire should see Kemper/axefx etc as invaluable. We shouldn't consider it a threat to analog/tube technology but rather a tool for those who have been trying to achieve this all long but with much more expansive and troublesome means. If you are a one/two amp tops kinda player with maybe a fuzz and wah than all this is superfluous. I think it's great, I don't use much but if I were touring internationally I'd likely jump on it.

[@larniete-puki7651]

beautiful Gibson ES345

[@gustavobilbao8963]

Maravilloso !

[@5150cl]

ES-Tree45

[@erlendjohanmyrhaug4537]

Great band

[@nordgrenjoakim]

Best band ever! And also, great video :)

[@brndgtl]

Man, I love GIAA. I think this may be the video that puts the "real amps" bullshit to bed forever. The AxeFX stuff sounds amazing here!

[@hosoiarchives4858]

He quit axe fx and went to real amps

[@brndgtl]

@@hosoiarchives4858 we know! This was 4 years ago

[@davidallen346]

This guy knows good guitar tone

[@dylandebord9208]

really liking that es tree fort five

[@tamirkeren6750]

This guy should be payed by Fractal. Totaly sold the Axe Fx.

[@hosoiarchives4858]

Lol he doesn’t use them anymore

[@lauscho]

I never would have suspected this band to use amp modelling, but hey even post-rock bands are on the Axe-FX bandwagon now. I'd love to get into them myself, but the price is a bit steep for me, especially when I consider that I have a few pedals already and I don't need much more than what I already have. Maybe when the technology comes down in price a bit, I'll dive into it :)

[@Diax1324]

I'm totally with this guy on low output pickups. They sound better than modern high output shitfucks.

[@howtoplayguitar4385]

Car mats, absolutely genius

[@SocialistFish]

I'd love to know how they get their vocal tones (the few there are). Are they just triggered samples? or are they running through a rig?

[@johnmotherfuckincoltrane1242]

What God Is An Astronaut song uses the Rainbow Machine?

[@coleg.2086]

When are you guys doing a rundown with James Duke? Can you please make it happen, PG?

[@leavemealoneyouprick]

thank you for doing a post rock band xD

[@TheSunBurnsBright]

❤

[@tarkenton3895]

Every rig rundown with a modeller needs to feature the signal chain. Sucks when all we get is "oh you use axe fx? Cool?"and nothing more.

[@zigmeekane4361]

Wow!!!!!

[@xKYLAFORNIAx]

RIP front of house...

[@secawanberdua7241]

Anybody know what keyboard and synth jamie's used?

[@benthornton7382]

Anybody know the tuning for this, I really want to learn some of their stuff

[@lordhenromanin]

Does anyone know of any bands that look like them? The best for me.

[@Pr3mition]

Luiz Henrique Romanin two step from hell,

[@RodrigoMuleyro]

11:47 that spit! looool

[@heyndre]

11:13 what is song? Sound is blow my mind

[@IPTKI]

'Echoes'. One of they're best songs

[@kuringmundo]

copying these settings from his screen. anybody know if theres an axe fx preset of this rig out there in the wild?

[@nataliagonzalez1698]

silent planet rig rundown?

[@MichaelBogomolny]

so how do they change tunings all the time? or the axefx does that too?

[@godsfavoritecustomer]

You can change up to 24 semi-tones up or down but it isn't REALLY usable as a polyphonic tuner more than 1 imo. Though, I use it for writing, but not really for anything live.

[@hosoiarchives4858]

If you practice tuning you get better at tuning

[@povvaiv]

Do ghost BC please

[@ruthlesscutthroat4030]

fractal

[@hosoiarchives4858]

He doesn’t use them anymore

[@airjamin8tor]

12:23 mark....what's that??? sounds Ominous!!

[@premierguitar]

It's from their song "From Dust to the Beyond" off the band's first album 'The End of the Beginning.'

[@airjamin8tor]

Cool Thanx!!

[@harmanfarwah3208]

what was the intro song?

[@premierguitar]

"Pig Powder" off of Helios/Erebus.

[@imthewitchfinder3741]

At 17:23 the gears starts to burn

[@user-kf8wx9oh7g]

drop c?

[@stubhead]

Golly gee whillikers! I'll have to buy something from these gents, here. Drastic sounds... I've tried to convince other six-string/bassist/steel guitarists that when it comes to modeling, the HiWatt or a clean-ish early Marshall model into hi-power P.A.speaker model cabs gives you a MUCH better, less-pinched clean range than any combination of Fender models - (the engineers designing models tend to treat all Fenders as tonally-identical, just with different break-up points) - I draw a blank They ALSO treat all Marshalls as identical, just with different distortion ranges.... Amp model choices are also closely-tied with patriotism, penis size and moral depravity, but it _varies_ from genre to genre - gotta tippy-toe a bit there.

[@josephlara2339]

Real scientists

[@TomPark1986]

Ive never heard a hollowbody that didn't sound good.

[@josephstarns4609]

Well I have a Marshall but it won’t do that. That is pretty impressive.

[@stvn9728]

song at 4:07 ?

[@premierguitar]

"Pig Powder" off of Helios/Erebus.

[@MrAsda64]

what's with all the big irish instrumental bands these days

[@Julius_Seizure]

ES-TREE-4-5

[@Papasconpasas]

You should do a "Rig Rundown" to Tame Impala.

[@ShabbyOverPowa]

What Is the name of the Song at the start of the video?

[@lancem8713]

Pretty late reply here, but that is the beautiful intro to Pig Powder

[@ShabbyOverPowa]

@@lancem8713 Thank you man! :)

[@dovanmera6117]

0:54 really??

[@AscendingInSequence]

would like to see this band without the axe fx, they geratet their sound with "analog" padals, right, but such gorgeous tones, OMG

[@eoinbyrne9538]

Does anyone have any idea what the reverb effect with that ethereal, almost choir-like backing harmony Torsten is using in the intro of the video?? Please and thank you!

[@Faradday108]

It's a reverb with shimmer function

[@stewartparker2063]

Try the digitech polara

[@jasoncarraway966]

I love these guys, just wish the bass player was a bit more of a gear nerd ha.. not knowing he’s using a Darkglass Microtubes vintage killed me. Solid pedal and brand but one can only imagine how they would sound with a bass player equally as interested in his tone as the guitar player

[@sniperturtle1]

Agree! The wall of guitars PLUS the bass that goes into a delay/modulation/? to layer it even more. 🤔

[@gavrilopricip11]

The big difference is astronauts actually exist

[@pureguitargear3935]

soooooooo you took original PAFs and put some other ones in lol ?

[@platipuce8193]

just the neck one

[@pyphus]

Man! 7 months to replicate pedal sounds. Uffff!

[@paulwhitelaw7131]

tree four foyve so it is

[@tremolo664]

Goatkeeper! 272 views. lel

[@1alexanderkup1]

now these dudes use multi-effects rig.. i know that it's much more convenient for transportation and setting up good sound but personally me would like to, at least, see or know that the sound on stage comes from real amplifier, warm tubes, and the guitar signal passing through circuit boards changing character of the sound. Just imagine how cool and romantic is it. honestly, seeing the band with empty stage and rack with green screen behind makes just duhh... not saying about the sound, just from the "spiritual" perspective

[@carloslozada2121]

this music puts people to sleep

[@javierarias1199]

Beautiful sounds but boring rig =)