Their debut album, Facelift, spawned “Man in a Box,” which was in heavy rotation on MTV. AIC was much heavier, yet also featured rich vocal harmonies, and even folk and acoustic elements. Formed by guitarist Jerry Cantrell, vocalist Layne Staley, drummer Sean Kinney, and bassist Mike Starr, the group had a different sound from other alt-rock bands that emerged from the Emerald City. One of the biggest bands to emerge out of this scene was Alice in Chains. Gone were the big-hair bands, their spandex and pointy- headstock guitars swept away by groups offering a more blue-collar approach to rock. “They are heard on every record that I’ve ever done, and they are the guitars that I play the most.During the late ’80s and early ’90s, the focus of the music industry shifted towards Seattle and the grunge movement. “I’ve bought plenty of other Rampages over the years, but the original two are still my favorites,” he says. One of the most striking elements of Cantrell’s Rampage guitars is his custom artwork, which includes two stickers bearing the word “rock.” Cantrell says, “Some of the Cantrell Signature guitars will be released looking like mine did when I first bought it, and a limited run will be weathered to look as close as possible to the way mine look now.”Īs you can probably guess, Cantrell remains as dedicated as ever to his original Rampage guitars. “Whenever I’d mute with a Floyd, I’d always push down too hard and inadvertently raise the pitch of the strings. The solution was to countersink the tremolo, which put more tension on the strings and kept the E string sitting securely in the saddle.” While many guitar players have shown a preference for Floyd Rose trems, “that never really worked for me because I’m a very heavy-handed rhythm player,” Cantrell says. “In addition,” Cantrell says, “the guitar came stock with a Kahler tremolo system, and the low E string would fall out of the saddle when you pushed the tremolo bar all the way down. He also modified the pickup, replacing the original Schaller pickup with a Seymour Duncan Jeff Beck model. So I replaced the nut with a Floyd Rose, which is a lot sturdier and more stable.” The locking mechanism at the nut was basically just a couple of plates that clamped down, but they would snap off every time you put pressure on them. Cantrell says, “The signature model will feature a few tweaks I came up with simply because some elements of the original design were weak. “I love that sound: clear low end with a lot of growl that doesn’t come at the cost of definition.” Cantrell also used a range of smaller amps, such as Orange, Laney, Matchless, Vox AC30s and a Bogner Fish preamp.Ĭantrell fans will be happy to learn that the guitarist has teamed with G&L to create a Jerry Cantrell Signature Rampage. “I used a Reinhold Bogner–modified Marshall exclusively on Facelift and Dirt,” he says, referring to the Alice in Chains albums. For just about all of the Alice in Chains records, my guitar sound has been a combination of that Les Paul with the G&L.”įor amplification, Cantrell stuck with his tried-and-true Bogner Ubershalls. “I had a lot of fun with a torch for a couple of days,” Jerry says with a laugh, “burning a design into the face of that white Les Paul. On the new AIC album, Black Gives Way to Blue, Jerry combines the Rampages with his other main ax: the infamous white Les Paul with burn marks all over the front. A second Rampage that he purchased shortly after he acquired the first is in drop D tuning down one half step (Db Ab Db Gb Bb Eb). I’ve never had the need for a lot of knobs or switches, so the design has suited my needs perfectly.”Ĭantrell’s primary Rampage is tuned to what he calls “standard Alice in Chains tuning”: standard tuning one half step down (Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb). Also, it has one pickup with one volume knob. “The neck is hard rock maple, and the body is maple, too. “It was designed to blend the playability and high-end sound of a Strat with the darkness and full-bodied sound of a Les Paul.” Though some Rampage guitars were built with bodies of ash or poplar, “my Rampage is an all-maple guitar,” Cantrell says. “From the very first time I picked it up and played it, it just felt right to me,” he says. One of his buddies at the shop had a Rampage, and Cantrell fell in love with it right away. “It was a really great job for a 19-year-old kid.” “We could just smoke pot and play guitars all day long,” Cantrell says. The guitarist soon landed a job at Arnold & Morgan Music, a store in Dallas. Cantrell discovered a burgeoning hard rock/metal scene in Dallas and, especially, in Houston, where his favorite club, Cardy’s, featured early incarnations of Pantera.
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