Dan Clermont and Zach DeWall of Set It Off Discuss Gear, Sing Telecaster's Praises

Dan Clermont: I think it's safe to say your rig and setup is your identity as a guitar player.

How much gain you use, if you like your action nice and low for speed, even down to deciding if you wanna play on 11- or 13-gauge strings.

As far as my setup goes, I'm using a Fender Telecaster '72 reissue Thinline as my primary guitar. I’m running an A/B switch through a Roland Jazz Chorus 100 for my clean channel and a Egnater Tourmaster 4100 for my distortion with a ISP Decimator for noise reduction and a MXR Carbon Copy Analog Delay for all my delay effects. Having that kind of setup gives me the ability to sit in the pocket if I need to play rhythm or really bring the heat if I'm playing a solo or a lead that needs to stand out.

I'm a big fan of Fender guitars because the single cutaway helps me get to those higher notes and the tone all the way up to the neck pickups is nothing but a warm, full sound.

Zach DeWall: I am running a Marshall JCM 2000 with high gain to give it that really beefy sound for all the rhythm I play. I’ve always loved the sound of Marshall. It’s what my favorite bands use and I love the sound I get out of it.

I’m playing out of a Marshall cab (soon to be an Egnater 2X12) and I’m using a baby blue Mexican Telecaster and loving every second of it. I’m pretty sure I will play Teles 'til I die. Like, for real, I'm going to be dead and still holding a Telecaster. The action is amazing on them and they hold tuning so well. That’s really great for how much I throw my guitar around. So that’s pretty much my gear.

I hope you guys enjoyed learning a bit more about what's behind our sound as a band. Make sure when you’re doing your own personal setup that you don’t settle for less and you take your time. You may even end up spending hours setting your EQs, but in the long run, I promise it’s worth it!

We’re out headlining the “Hello My Name Is…” Tour with City Lights, so please come out to a show and hang out! We’d love to meet all of you.

• Thanks for reading,
• Dan & Zach

Dan Clermont and Zach DeWall play guitar in Set It Off. They are headlining the “Hello My Name Is…” Tour with City Lights.

Photo: Natalie: Bisignano