The band was pulled off the
road during a particularly unique
tour. Not only were they showing
off the new material; they were cel-
ebrating their 20 th anniversary as a
band by playing their classic soph-
omore album, Discovering the Wa-
terfront, in its entirety. As if the set
wasn’t packed enough, there was
also an extended acoustic portion,
during which Rousseau realized one
of his biggest challenges was learn-
ing how to not play.
“The hardest thing about those
arrangements was we featured the
lead kind of guitar I’m playing more
sparsely than on any other tracks
we’ve been playing. There would be
full stretches of a verse or bridge
where I literally wasn’t playing any-
thing. That was a weird feeling to get
used to, just standing on stage not
really doing much and trying not to
look too bored.”
Those acoustic sets saw singer
Shane Told picking up a guitar for
some songs, but it’s Rousseau’s re-
lationship with fellow guitarist Josh
Bradford that shines on A Beautiful
Place to Drown. Guitars are layered
throughout the mix, from the brash
power chords you’d expect from a Sil-
verstein record to highly processed
bleeps and bloops. While Rousseau
has been handling lead guitars for
eight years now, his relationship
with the band’s older material is still
evolving thanks to some of Brad-
ford’s more iconoclastic tendencies.
“We’re pretty different players.
Josh really gets a lot of pleasure
from playing big and full chords.
He’ll tell you that any time. He wants
to hit all six of the strings at the
same time. We would go back and
he would show me what he plays so
I could figure out what I’m supposed
to play. They had weird stuff going
on where they would jump around. If
there was a lead, they’d switch who
was harmonizing at what point. It
didn’t really make sense to me. We
had a long run at the beginning when
we first did Discovering the Water-
front of sitting in front of Pro Tools,
hard panning the stuff and figuring
out who was going to play what. I
think that made us tighter together.”
One other challenge presented
itself: A Beautiful Place to Drown
features a wide array of guest
stars from bands like Underoath,
Beartooth, and Simple Plan. While
covering those vocal parts is Silver-
stein singer Shane Told’s problem,
Rousseau found himself having to
figure out how to play the guitar
solo contributed by math-rockers
KEEP YOUR AXE IN TOP SHAPE
Here are some pre-performance guitar care tips from veteran guitar and bass
tech HooGie Donais (Shinedown, Lamb of God):
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Check over the entire instrument for any glaring issues.
Check the string action.
Check all of the parts – input jack, strap locks, pickup heights etc. –
and make sure they’re tight and working.
Check the neck of the bass. Travel, weather changes, humidity
changes, etc. – the instrument will react to all of those, so I want to
make sure everything’s working properly.
Wipe down the strings or give them a good cleaning with some string
cleaner.
If I’m restringing the bass that day, I’ll give the whole bass a really
good cleaning, getting down to the frets, oiling the neck, polishing
the body, cleaning the saddles and bridge, etc.
Once the strings are on, fully stretched, and in tune, I’ll check the in-
tonation across the instrument to ensure it’s accurate throughout the
entire neck.
For more advice on “Keeping Your Guitar or Bass in Top Shape,” check out
our hour-long webinar with HooGie at: www.nwcwebinars.com/archives.
At-Home Tracking Tips:
BASIC MIC
TECHNIQUES
By Adam Gallant
(Paper Lions, Sorrey)
Electric Guitar (Cabinet)
A simple and effective technique
here is to use a Shure SM57 on the
centre of the speaker (or just off
from the centre if the guitar sounds
harsh or brittle). Engineers will of-
ten use an SM57 in tandem with a
Sennheiser MD421. If you attempt a
dual microphone set-up on a guitar
or bass cabinet, pay close atten-
tion to where the capsules on the
microphones are positioned and
line them up as close as possible
to each other. This will ensure the
phase coherence is matched and
all frequencies are properly repre-
sented.
Acoustic Guitar
Traditionally, small diaphragm con-
densers are used and often a stereo
technique is implemented to set the
left and right stage surrounding the
voice. Start by pointing the micro-
phone at the 12 th fret, or where the
neck meets the body of the guitar.
Then, while the musician plays,
rotate the mic around to find a bal-
anced sound. Keep an ear out for
too much low end or an imbalance
in low end on certain chords. Much
like the human voice, acoustic gui-
tars come in all shapes and sounds,
so there is no real one-size-fits-all
when it comes to this instrument. If
using a condenser, try a reflection
filter to get a more focused sound.
Shure SM57s can also lend a fo-
cused sound with a meaty repre-
sentation, which can be great when
used on an aggressive strummer.
CANADIAN MUSICIAN 53