Mark Tremonti may be a sucker for Dumble amps, but the Alter Bridge and Creed guitarist has succumbed to the pull of digital amp modelers.
Revealing his newly devised live rig in an interview with American Musical Supply, Tremoti has revealed that the Dumble-inspired tones of his signature PRS head, which remains a key part of his Creed setup, are now augmented by a Neural DSP Quad Cortex.
At the heart of the rig is a trio of tube amps, which run simultaneously. That comprises his PRS MT 100; a “great-sounding” EVH 5153, which is a 50-watt version of Eddie's famous head; and a rack-mounted Synergy Amps creation that he describes as his “best find in the last five years”.
The real surprise, though, comes when the camera pans to his QC, nestled in amongst his rack-mounted pedalboard.
“That we just brought out for this tour as an experiment to maybe put it on top of the lead tone for the front of the house,” he says, referring to the Quad Cortex. “But it's still in the early stages of us messing with it.
“I'm a very tube-driven guy,” he adds, ensuring that this isn’t a huge change of tonal heart. “This is just a, ‘Can't beat them, join them,’ kind of thing to see how it sounds when you add it to to the arsenal.”
Tremonti is the latest in a long line of tube amp loyalists to have waded into digital waters. John Mayer was spotted using a Quad Cortex at Coachella, and Slipknot’s Jim Root has gone “sacrilegeous” with a QC, too. Meanwhile, The Edge dropped Universal Audio pedals into his rig to work around the Las Vegas Sphere’s volume restrictions.
Notably here, Tremonti is proving that the two amp styles can co-exist. It doesn't have to be one or the other.
Elsewhere in Tremonti’s rig, pedal picks include a Wampler Audio Tumnus overdrive “for lead tones,” a Boss OC-5 octave pedal, and a G-Lab SD-1 delay. He also employs a Kikusui adapter for power conditioning – a “vital safety” net found in Angus Young and Joe Bonamassa's rigs.
“When you travel around the world, power is gonna be drastically different,” Trremonti explains. “If the power's off, your tone's off. It could be one of the most important pieces in your entire rig.”
In related news, Tremonti has reflected on the honor of using Eddie Van Halen’s 5150 Studios as a base for the writing and recording of Alter Bridge’s forthcoming new album. The band was afforded the rare chance to utilize the space thanks to their connections to Wolfgang Van Halen.
And the digital modeler game is getting hotter by the month. Line 6 announced its potentially game-changing Helix Stadium in June, while the QC just got some big new updates to strengthen its position in the rapidly expanding modeler market.
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