Rig Rundown - Royal Thunder

Article & photos: bit.ly/RoyalThu...
Never miss a Rig Rundown: bit.ly/PG-RRnew...
Premier Guitar swooped in on Royal Thunder after their soundcheck at Nashville’s the End to learn about the roadworthy, tour-tested gear Josh Weaver, Mel Parsons, and Will Fiore rely on to pull off their live shows.
Lead guitarist and band co-founder Josh Weaver recently got this Gibson 1961 Les Paul Tribute-which he received in a trade for his SG Custom-and hasn’t been able to keep his mitts off it. The previous owner put on the Crazy Parts Vibrola tailpiece, but Josh has since dropped in a set of Bare Knuckle Stormy Monday humbuckers. For all his rides, he uses Dunlop Nickel Wound strings (.011-.050), hammers away with Dunlop Tortex .73 mm picks, and plays strictly in D-standard tuning.
Bassist and lead singer Mel Parsons was a longtime lover of Guild B-301 basses, but has always had the Yamaha card in her back pocket with this Yamaha BB Series 2024X that was never released in the U.S. and comes with a maple neck (which was not offered on U.S. models when it was originally introduced). This monster had the original pickups swapped for a Lollar Jazz in the bridge and a Lollar Precision Split-Coil in the neck.
Article & photos: bit.ly/RoyalThu...

[@ryangunwitch-black]

This band is so good. I’ve gotten to open for them a couple of times and they can absolutely do it all live. They are fantastic.

[@Les537]

..and this is my clean sound. SQUAREWAVE

[@UmbrellaPetePlaylist]

Thanks for introducing me to this great band!

[@ipdjbt]

Finally got to see this group the other day and first thing I do afterwards is search for a rig rundown. Thanks Premier Guitar!

[@juanvaldez5422]

That’s the coolest Yamaha Rev ⭐️ I have seen. It’s def not factory stock. I wish they would put that one in production

[@MPNNag]

I wanted to buy one of these Gibson SG Standard '61 Maestro Vibrola in Vintage Cherry for a while. After watching your video on this guitar i was totally discouraged from making my purchase due to you not being able to keep it in tune. But I went down to my local Guitar center here in Las Vegas and they had one in stock. I held it, the neck is outstanding the fret work is wonderful, the wood grain and color were so beautiful. I tuned it up and played a few cords and check the tuning, for sure it was out of tune. I fooled around trying to keep it in tune for three hours and became totally discouraged because this guitar was beautiful. So I did the only reasonable thing, I said to the salesman I am going to flip this Guitar Center pick, "blank side it stays here written side I buy it". It landed on written side so home with me it went, and boy am I glad it did. The next day I set out to find out why it wouldn't stay in tune and I discovered why, (fixed it) and now it's hard to knock it out of tune. First the tuning keys were lose and the screws holding the tuners on were striped from the factory, so i fixed that. Second the angle on the Vibrola is wrong from the factory, you need to tweak the angle and shim the Vibrola slightly, the E-string should not be touching the trem bar while in the resting position. Now polish the frets and do a complete set up. This guitar now when using the Vibrola as intended will stay in tune wonderfully. This guitar is a great guitar and if you take the time and put in the work to set it up properly, YOU WILL LOVE THIS GUITAR! I think that from the factory they just assemble the parts and are done, not realizing or having the time that it needs to make this fine guitar function together as a whole instrument. Glad I took the time and made the purchase. Please let your viewers know this is an amazing Gibson Guitar after the corrections are made. I Have no connection with Gibson and I am not a professional Luthier, so if i can fix it this guitar is fixable. Thank you

[@TheCreativeYeti]

This was an awesome one, keep doing the bass rundowns!

[@wcosten522]

Nice, the unknown pickup in that beautiful Tele is a Victory Lowrider gold foil pickup!

[@bak1386]

That SG is seriously a work of art

[@Kasper911band]

What up Josh!!? Dude! You did a rig rundown!!? You are really famous now!! Proud of you bro!

[@ErichWK]

I agree with Mel's philosophy on throwing basses.

[@AdamAarts]

"It's got glory holes on the side..." "Oh Jesus"

[@FrostByte_AC]

I CANNOT get over how cute the mini wah is.

[@nickp440]

This dude really asks the best questions and knows his shit

[@atthegates92]

One of the best rundowns so far!

[@Andrew-Gomez904]

please more STONER/DOOM Bands!! love this stuff, great video

[@bobbyberetta4206]

Fantastic Rig Rundown! Y'all guys are the best, thank you!

[@ooinvsaoo]

i am now in love with Mlny Parsons..

[@waynetowers5046]

I love it that he doesn't use a pedalboard switching system. All you really need is a bunch of pedals, who really cares about seemless switching. Perfect imperfections, it has an human element to it.

[@lachlanpilgrim3603]

Wayne Towers what weird beef to have

[@Hawthorneeffect1]

Love rig rundown.

[@premierguitar]

We LOVE that you love 'em.

[@ITheFight]

awesome run down, great to hear awesome tones too!

[@billl.4410]

thanks for doing this. I am a big Royal Thunder fan. Was the camera mic distorting? some of the clean tones he showed did not sound clean at all.

[@umanile]

mmmh I think so, it sounds like a "digital" mic cam distortion.

[@guillll]

Owl Force One It does. Too bad, it kind of spoils the whole thing 😥

[@yobhsiFehT]

Yeah, that's definitely mic distortion. Trying to listen "through" that, tho, it does sound like it'd be a nice clean tone.

[@crackedspyglass]

I remember seeing them open for Baroness in 2012 and Mlny had a maxon OD808 pedal in her bass chain

[@poggiloo]

Josh is one cool cat !

[@carvinblack]

I think we know what the yellow hankie is for. Wink wink, nudge nudge. 🤣

[@jimiraybeckton]

“Do you enjoy having low output pickups?” “Nope. Hate em. But I enjoy making myself angry” 🙄😂

[@FirstNameLastName-kt3zn]

That Yamaha Revstar looks great. I wish that was a production model.

[@andrewpappas9311]

Can we eventually try to get one for Royal Blood if they ever do anything new? Those guys are cool and have a killer sound for just a bassist and a drummer

[@premierguitar]

We've tried numerous times but Mike is notorious for keeping his pedalboard a secret...

[@andrewpappas9311]

Premier Guitar Hey guys, and is he really that secretive about it? That's interesting, it'd still be cool though

[@thesincityslickers3874]

Why does the interviewer have a banana hanging out his back pocket ?

[@jefflitchfield4950]

That's not a banana, he's happy to be there.

[@Spectreman]

Mlny is hilarious.

[@rphlprnt]

Chris was definitely not ready for that gloryhole joke

[@scarymike51]

Wish you would have asked him what pickup he had in the neck spot on the tele...

[@lukepowell1201]

Is he actually left handed playing righty? He's holding the guitar and playing right handed, but doing everything on his pedalboard with his left foot. Nice of him to demonstrate his tones.

[@SeeMick1]

Luke Powell you're probably right. He gestures with his left hand too.

[@tomigunn777]

Love Royal Thunder but this conversation is WAY to geeky for me. Good job though Premier Guitar!

[@ramsayperez6523]

We need a in flames rig rundown.

[@dhowellbassist]

lol @ "here's the clean tone."

[@cheeher3212]

with the amount of pedals this guy has idk why he hasnt gotten himself a looper

[@overdramaticmusic]

Would love to see a Blink-182 rig rundown

[@eflizotte]

It's the non-R version of the super trem

[@parkerhatcher224]

At first I was like... These people are bugging the shit out of me. And then I was like. What was I thinking. These people are the shit. And Mlny was ridiculous and hilarious and I love it.

[@ryangunwitch-black]

I love MLNY. She just does not give a f$k. Lol. I’ve talked to her a couple of times and she’s just like “Whatever, dude!”

[@Disharmonikash]

this dude plays LOUD

[@HardcoreSexTexMex]

love rig rundown but they typically don't do a good jub micing the amps. should have a separate mic set up.

[@prestonburch2105]

What song is in the beginning?

[@premierguitar]

Mouth of Fire.

[@aaronbourbonnais2555]

He needs to keep it pinned up forget only indication is parameter no lead older some jump real high for it too.

[@Pinko_Band]

That sure was a bunch of words.

[@cketelae]

Probably didn't pay enough attention, but why is Josh using 2 amp heads?

[@premierguitar]

He's not. The white Marshall is a backup.

[@Jakeman90210]

I think your mic is clipping

[@grewejames1]

Love the spit,n stuff

[@lordsoup4287]

Daron Malakian, System of A Down ?

[@ripnlip33]

This amp is so bad ass.....Here's my clean unaffected tone. I've had diarrhea that sounded better than that.

[@nikdsh]

Josh is a great guy and everything else is great, but the sound demonstrations are worthless with the clipping audio, shame :/

[@StephenNaveed]

Volume on camera ruined this one.

[@neurobits]

He scared me when said he can get enough power from the Marshall and humbuckers not working on the neck. Looks like some kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Better I run from here.

[@davidkieltyka9]

Non-LED Rat = a Rat with no indicator light to tell you if it's on or off.

[@MrChuckd6]

David Kieltyka I always preferred the term un-led'ed Rat

[@JM-bg2ts]

Bass cab Bukakke, yuck!

[@rocknrollresignation93]

The bass cabinet makes me want to puke wtf gross

[@FreddyFuFu]

here is the clean tone... tweerrggg... If that is clean, then Islam is the religion of Peace.

[@bobolsen8067]

This dude cant really play can he?I mean"for real?"

[@jerbear1601]

Yuck. Nothing like taking a nice marshall and making it sound like shit and putting a bigsby on an SG?

[@jakekroontje]

Jerry Robitaille I completely agree I hope some day these professionals musicians will pull their heads out of their ass' and take the advice of a guitar legend such as yourself.

[@jerbear1601]

Nobody likes a smart ass. I'm just a purist and like my classic instruments to be for what they are intended and this isn't music anyway, it's wanking. Just because you play in a band doesn't mean you aren't shitty, just look at Nickleback, Gwar, Slipknot and all that shit you and your buddies listen to. Led Zeppelin could play circles around these idiots on their worst day.

[@jakekroontje]

Jerry Robitaille I would wager that more people dislike "purists" such as yourself who bash anyone who doesn't fit their cookie cutter mold for what's right or wrong. I have never listened to any of thoes bands you listed (except Nickleback unfortunately). I think it's time you grow up and realize that people have different preferrences, quit assuming things about people, and open your mind to music and gear that isn't strictly "classsic".

[@jerbear1601]

As long as it doesn't sound like dying cattle.

[@jakekroontje]

I'll agree with you on that