Swan Dive

CATCHING UP WITH DANCE GAVIN DANCE’S WILL SWAN: “I DON’T WANT TO SOUND LIKE LIAM NEESON HERE, BUT I REALLY DO HAVE A SPECIFIC SET OF SKILLS!”

- Amit Sharma

“KIESEL INSTRUMENTS ARE so versatile, they can cover all styles and extremely well,” says Will Swan, guitarist in Californian post-hardcore quintet Dance Gavin Dance. The last year or so has kept him busy — not only with writing, recording and releasing his group’s ninth full-length, Afterburner — but also finalizing his own signature Kiesel, which was announced back in February.

Available in five finishes, it’s a single-cutaway curved top featuring Kiesel’s Beryllium humbuckers and a white acrylic swan inlay around the 12th fret. For Swan, the main attraction with the Beryllium pickups was the fact they weren’t overly compressed. Instead, there’s more clarity coming from Alnico II magnets and vintage-style windings, voiced more like the classic guitars of old than the maximized output typically appointed to modern instruments.

“I’ve always been into a really clean tone, even when I’m distorted,” Swan says. “The same goes for my approach to gain. I’ve never used distortion pedals. I like to get the distortion from whatever head I’m using. I was using Orange for a long time and just recently switched over to Friedman. With those amps you get a crunch and heaviness but you’re also able to hear every single note. I think the higher output your pickups, the more it will cover up the nuances in what you’re playing. I prefer pickups that let you hear everything, even the mistakes!

Despite not using distortion pedals, you have long been known to keep a fair few effects on the board. Tell us a bit more about how they work for you…