This article series is about the tools of popular guitarists. What are their favorite guitars and how is it related to them? This time with Matt Sutton (bass) & Tom (guitars) from the band TAYNE.
Tom and matts TB with toms old pedal board
Who am I interviewing?
Matt Sutton – Tayne
When you start bass playing and do you remember your first bass?
I considered myself a guitarist until we started Tayne in 2018. It was easier to find guitarists than it was bassist so I just took the role of bass and found Tom. It was probably the right choice, singing and playing can be tricky so the less responsibilities for me the better. First bass I ever owned I still own, fender jazz modern player – bought it when I was 27 and still have it as a back up.
What are your influences and which bass players are your favs?
Hmmm… we don’t have a lot of super bass or guitar driven tracks and I wouldn’t think we are massive on the riffs. I think any bass or guitars in our songs are purely functional so we tend to serve the songs rather than instruments. Fav bassists players would be Brian Cook of Sumac / Russian Cirlce & Bob Weston of Shellac.
How many basses do you own and what are your favorite models?
Just 2. White fender jazz modern player & ECG replica Travis Bean TB2000. The TB replica slaps, it’s heavy and the neck is short scale but pretty wide so it’s easy to get around. I love it cause it has so much high end attack from the aluminium neck so it really cuts through live, we’ve got so much low end sun stuff from the synths etc that we just need the guitar and bass to cut through that live and it really does.
What do you think makes the perfect bass and amp?
Hmmm depends on the band, for me being a guitarist playing bass I always lean more toward amps with a high reg gain output that chomp! My dream bass amp would be treynor YBA bass master. It, really bites and sounds great. Recently playing gilen Krueger was absolutely killer.
Which basses and amps were used on the new album or for recordings?
A couple of amp sims but mainly the Kruger and a rusty box for the main tone. We recently switched all digital to the quad cortex, Both Tom and I run into the same one and it operates our rigs individually. I am still amazed by it, before that my main tone was a boss oc3 with the gain maxed out
When you only can choose one bass, which one will you take?
For ever TB
in studio guitar recording amp and rig
Who am I interviewing?
You are interviewing Tom from Tayne, on a mission to get sea therapy in Cyprus.
What are your influences and which guitar players are your faves?
That’s a funny question right there, it’s like picking my favourite soup, I love all soups man. But growing up the guitarists that influenced me were Nick Drake, Steven Stills, BB king, John Renbourn, jimmy page, Jimi Hendrix, then I started discovering bands like Motörhead, pearl jam, Nirvana so It’s been a nice journey of favourite artists and it keeps changing and developing.
tom board – volume pedal / tuner / midi controller
When did you start guitar playing and do you remember your first guitar?
My first guitar was a little red Squire starter kit, complete with a tiny little amp, but after trying to play it a couple of times I quickly realised I actually wanted to be playing acoustic guitar. So I put the squire aside and found a crummy old acoustic in my loft, That felt right at the time. Later, I transitioned to electric and bought a dan electro, inspired by jimmy page, from an old video I saw of him playing misty mountain hop on one.
How do you feel about the question of modular or tube amp?
Arrrrr man I’ve always been drawn to the warm tone of tube amps. There’s a certain tone and character that they bring to its sound. But when it comes to practicalities, modular amps offer a lot of versatility. So while I prefer the sound of tube amps, I appreciate the flexibility that modular amps give if that make sense.
bass board / delay/ thunder and tc helicon vocal pedal
Matt -We recently switched our entire guitar and bass set ups to operate out of one Neural quad Cortex. We’ve always lugged around our guitar and bass amps for gigs but with travelling more and playing the kind of music we play in TAYNE we final told our egos to pipe down. The result sounds petty good, we cloned all our old set ups and just run that on the cortex via midi controlled foots switches. It’s weird to see it but works great. We run 2 lines out of each of our chain. One goes direct to FOH and the other runs into a palmer’s 2 channel power amp and then into cabs on stage, they’re mostly just for stage volume.
neural quad cortex rig and power amp
How many guitars do you own and what are your favorite models?
I currently have 4 guitars. a Gibson Les Paul, a Danelectro, a Martin & Co D15, a travel-sized Martin & Co, two and two. Well I love them all for different reasons, so no favourites.
I like to share the love in my guitar family.
Matt – 1 guitar Travis bean TB1000S. It was my dream guitar I bought in my 20s and I’ve never looked back.
What do you think makes the perfect guitar and amp?
At this present moment, Tune wise, One that in one hand can crush your skull but with the other gently piece it back together!
ECG Travis bean replica
Which guitars and amps were used on the new album or for recordings?
Matt – I recorded the guitars on the record. As much as we just hyped modular in the studio it’s all the real shit, proper amps / mics and cabs, no compromise. We used my travis bean for all the guitars on the album. Amps wise was a teen different ones. We used a Mesa boogie triple rectifier for all the chomping heavy riffs and rhythm guitars. A bit of a 5150 peavy We used a traynor YGL mark 3 for more top line / scrappy bits / texture. Picked is a Marshall that was taken out for lead but never made the cut. Abrasive and chonking is the guitar vibes.
When you only can choose one guitar, which one will you take?
Hahahaha hummmmmmmm, Matt’s Travis bean please
