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 Adam Smith (Shadow Smile).
When you start guitar playing and do you remember your first guitar?
I got my first guitar when I was 12 after being hugely obsessed with Guitar Hero and imagining myself being James Hetfield and Zakk Wylde. The first model I got was a branded Gears4Music guitar in electric blue. When I first started out, I would get stressed out and give up constantly always blaming the guitar for my mess ups. As a result, I ended up getting an ESP Ex-50 in the shape of James Hetfields snakebite and felt more like I was on the path to becoming a true rock god. I’d class the ESP as my first guitar as that’s when I started to take guitar more seriously.
What are your influences and which guitar players are your favs?
My parents were a huge part of my musical upbringing as I had been listening to rock and metal music since I was very young. They would often blast out bands like Metallica and Pink Floyd around me and that heavily influenced my musical taste. The feel that David Gilmour had was something I was so desperate to replicate and the raw aggression from James Hetfield and Kirk Hammet was how I developed a taste in the heavier side of metal. The first album I got was Linkin Park’s Meteora album which I played religiously and their sound really swayed me into an even bigger passion for metal music. From discovering Linkin Park, I found a love for guitarists such as Synyster Gates from Avenged Sevenfold and Andy James who are probably my biggest inspirations to this day.
How many guitars do you own and what are your favourite models?
I’ve started to lose track of how many guitars I own. Every pay day or allowence from growing up would be saved to buy new amps and guitars as that’s all I cared about.
In total I think I have around 10 guitars now. Some I cant let go of as its a reminder of how I started out on my musical venture and some which I can never put down.
From growing up with a love of ESP guitars, I started to purchase more expensive models such as the ESP Ec-1000 and as far as comfortability and durability, this is by far the best in my opinion. Although recently I purchased a Solar S1.7 and it has similar qualities for me as an ESP and sounds killer in the studio and live!
What do you think makes the perfect guitar and amp?
The perfect guitar firstly needs to have the comfortability to be able to play for hours without feeling like I need to hold back. Secondly, the pick ups are a huge factor for me. I’ve been through countless models but always fall back to EMGs for the dark gritty heavy tones.
With amps, I had always been trying to find the perfect tone for cleans and distortion but there was something I always felt like I needed to tweak but never could.
I bought a Kemper 4 years ago and hands down that’s my best purchase. The amount of detail you can go into with tones and pedals are phenomenal! I mainly use the Andy James Tonality bundle as the presets are beautiful!
How do you feel about the question of modeler or tube amp?
In all honesty, I feel like the question is futile. When first switching to a digital amp simulator, I was confused but blown away by the endless possibilities you have. For both a live and studio environment, the Kemper is so handy as you have every tone you could ever want at your fingertips without having to carry too much equipment to the venues that you play.
Which guitars and amps were used on the new album or for recordings?
The main guitar used for tracking on the album was my ESP Ec-1000. When I play that guitar, I always feel like my guitar playing improves and ideas for song development become clearer.
As for amps, it was all done using STL Tonehub as I can replicate those tones into my kemper due to having the same presets installed. Plus it’s easy to adjust if I decided the tone wasn’t exactly how I wanted it to be.
When you can only choose one guitar, which one will you take?
Hands down it’s my ESP EC-1000. I love to play all my guitars when I get the chance and I’d be lost without the others but my ESP model has everything that I love.
Ps, I’d love an ESP endorsement!
