Hot Spoke are a promising Sydney indie-folk outfit and newest signing to Mercury Records have already supported The Preatures, Olympia, and Why We Run, and have just dropped their new track ‘Outlines’, taken from their upcoming EP Calm Down.
The band have a passion for gear – and as you can see below, can get just as enthusiastic about a guitar case as they can about the guitar itself – so we’ve taken the opportunity to chat with guitarist Seb and singer Ness to find out a bit about the gear they adore.
If you’re digging the sounds of ‘Outlines’ below, you’ll be able to catch Hot Spoke at BIGSOUND next week, playing the Black bear Lodge on Wednesday September 7 from 10:50pm.
Fender Custom Shop 1952 Telecaster
I’d been looking for a really good Custom Shop Telecaster for about 3 years, but the one I wanted in my head was an updated better version of the Fender Japan I already owned and played for years since high school. I knew I wanted a ’52 style Custom Shop with vintage style pickups, a big neck and some relicing.
I walked right into my local guitar shop (Shoutout to Guitar Factory Gladesville!) last year and a guitar exactly like what I was imagining was sitting on the wall right in front of the door. I played it for about an hour…it was exactly when Harry picks his wand in Ollivanders and the wind blows and the lights flicker on and off. Bought it the next day. It’s easily the best guitar I own.
With most of my bigger gear purchases, I tend to get paralysed by indecision and then call all my friends asking ‘So should I do this??’ But that didn’t happen with this one.
I also love my Fender Johnny Marr Jaguar, and my Gretsch Double Anniversary, and I’m looking at Jazzmasters…the torture never stops…
Fender Princeton
American-style amps work best for me playing live with Hot Spoke. The spongy, glassy Fender thing works the best with the rest of my setup. After trying a bunch of different amps through my earlier years the Fender Princeton ’65 Reissue was the first amp that I really fell in love with the sound of.
I also have the ’68 Custom Princeton, which every once in a while I’ll use together with the ’65- they’re voiced pretty differently but with the two of them together you get a really nice yin yang balance.
Sometimes depending on the size of the room I’ll use my Fender Super Reverb instead which sounds amazing- but most of the time it’s way more headroom than I need with Hot Spoke.
Klon KTR Overdrive
Believe the hype…To an extent. We’ve all tried a million overdrive pedals and vacillated wildly over which ones sound better on that particular day. I’ve had my Klon KTR for a couple of months now and I love it. Out of all the overdrives I’ve owned I think it sounds the most like part of the amp and less like a pedal.
It’s also super dynamic- you can play really quietly or roll down your volume and get a lot of different shades of gain in between clean and dirty.
Shoutout to the Analogman King Of Tone as well- I’d like to have it on my board too but not enough real estate! I also love my Ramble FX Twin Bender. It’s a Tone Bender Clone made out of Minnesota- it has a switch between Mk. 1.V and MK.II, and an external bias control. Only used when I want that Nigel Tufnel ‘extra push over the cliff’.
Delay/Reverb
In Hot Spoke my job a lot of the time is to fill the sound out, and delay/reverb are often the quickestways to make things sound bigger.
I have lots of delay pedals- and they’re all really good and slightly different. My main delay pedal at the moment is the Strymon El Capistan and it is GREAT. I also have the EHX Stereo Memory Man with Hazarai on my board for looping/reverse sounds. I also really like the MXR Carbon Copy, and the Catalinbread Belle Epoch and Echorec.
For reverb, I have the Strymon Flint that stays on pretty much all the time, and a TC Electronic Hall Of Fame for super washy stuff, like the big tremolo part in ‘Outlines’.
Mono Cases
If you’re on the fence about Mono Cases, just get one. Thank me later!! I own a bunch of their guitar cases and pedalboard cases. They’re the best. They’re made for international travel so the protection is amazing but they’re super light. I’ve had to convince airport staff that they’ll be totally fine to check in several times!
I love being able to chuck my stuff in the boot of the car, or put it on my back and take public transport, whatever. And they look the coolest! You don’t have to be as concerned with hurting yourself or breaking things with big heavy cases knocking around. All my friends love Mono. How can something as inanimate as gig bags/cases be inspiring? But they are! I’ll never go back!
