Dylan Carlson

The Earth leader relies upon a wild assortment of affordable, convention-busting gear

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Seeing sonic conjurer Dylan Carlson live is a meditative experience. His show is one man, a guitar and cyclical waves of gritty textural playing – there’s no looping, no vocals, nowhere to hide. It’s a scenario where every tonal articulation counts, yet for the Earth drone-metal pioneer, gear is always secondary to his individuality on the instrument – and, at this stage, practicality. “I figured out a couple of years ago, whatever I play, I’m gonna be me,” Dylan muses. “And so I started downsizing and getting smaller gear, just because I’m getting old and tired of carrying it!”

It’s an especially honest and sobering ethos, and one that eschews the learned rig rituals: there aren’t many guitarists self-assured enough to fit Tele bridge pickups into SGs, or rely on a ridiculously tiny bass amp for their guitar tones. With plenty more revelations in store, let’s dive into how Dylan produces his mesmerising soundscapes...

GUITARS

1 EPIPHONE SG

“It’s in the ‘61 style. I like DiMarzio pickups, so all my guitars have ’em. I took out the stock ones, and then – because I’m really into Teles, I like a Tele bridge pickup – I gave it a [DiMarzio] Tone Zone Tele bridge pickup and a Super Distortion humbucker in the neck. I got that one a little while back, around when we did the Bees Made Honey [In The Lion’s Skull] album [2008], and I was on a big Jerry Garcia kick, so it has the OBEL (On Board Effects Loop), which I’ve almost never used.