- 1 year ago
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On this episode of DTB’s “Gear Masters”, Rich Tschirhart, bassist of the ska punk band, The Suicide Machines, shows off the gear that he uses onstage, while on The Summer Circus Tour with Less Than Jake, Fishbone, Bit Me Bambi, and Catbite. The Suicide Machines is currently supporting their newest single, Never Go Quietly.
PLAY THE SAME GEAR:
Fender American Original '50s Precision Bass - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/Bn9v6W
Squier Affinity PJ Bass - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/zxvo7W
Shure GLXD16+ Wireless Tuner - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/EEPM3Q
MXR M87 Bass Compressor - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/nXv579
Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Driver DI - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/OeZMgr
Fender ABY Pedal - https://guitar-center.pxf.io/2aevEa
Fender Power Supply - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/RGoMBR
Peavey T-Max Bass Amp Head - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/4GAvbr
Ampeg 6x10 Bass Cabinet - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/dOvMQ7
Mono M80 Dual Bass Gig Bag - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/N9JMZb
Ernie Ball Super Slinky Bass Strings - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/YRYM6B
VIDEO INFO:
Film Date - June 26, 2025
Location - Metro in Chicago, IL
KEEP UP WITH THE SUICIDE MACHINES:
Facebook - https://facebook.com/suicidemachinesdetroit
Instagram - https://instagram.com/suicidemachinesdetroit
FOLLOW US:
Website/Email List - https://www.digitaltourbus.com/#/portal/signup
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/digitaltourbus
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/digitaltourbus/
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@digitaltourbus
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/digitaltourbus/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/digitaltourbus
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/digitaltourbus/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/digital-tour-bus-llc
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/user/digitaltourbus
VIDEO SUMMARY:
00:00 Introduction
00:39 Bass Guitars
04:38 Amp
08:56 Pedals
10:33 Cabinet
ABOUT DIGITAL TOUR BUS:
Digital Tour Bus is your backstage pass to your favorite touring artists! With daily video releases, we cover all genres, and have had the pleasure of featuring the likes of Matchbox Twenty, Twenty One Pilots, Megadeth, Machine Gun Kelly, Papa Roach, and thousands of others, over the past 15 years. "Bus Invaders" takes you inside an artist's home on the road, "Cooking at 65mph" showcases the culinary skills of artists on tour, and "Gear Masters" unveils the equipment musicians use on stage.
Affiliate Disclosure:
Some of the links in this description are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you if you make a purchase. Your support helps me continue to create content like this. Thank you!
Buy official DTB merch at http://digtb.us/merch
On this episode of DTB’s “Gear Masters”, Rich Tschirhart, bassist of the ska punk band, The Suicide Machines, shows off the gear that he uses onstage, while on The Summer Circus Tour with Less Than Jake, Fishbone, Bit Me Bambi, and Catbite. The Suicide Machines is currently supporting their newest single, Never Go Quietly.
PLAY THE SAME GEAR:
Fender American Original '50s Precision Bass - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/Bn9v6W
Squier Affinity PJ Bass - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/zxvo7W
Shure GLXD16+ Wireless Tuner - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/EEPM3Q
MXR M87 Bass Compressor - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/nXv579
Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Driver DI - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/OeZMgr
Fender ABY Pedal - https://guitar-center.pxf.io/2aevEa
Fender Power Supply - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/RGoMBR
Peavey T-Max Bass Amp Head - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/4GAvbr
Ampeg 6x10 Bass Cabinet - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/dOvMQ7
Mono M80 Dual Bass Gig Bag - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/N9JMZb
Ernie Ball Super Slinky Bass Strings - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/YRYM6B
VIDEO INFO:
Film Date - June 26, 2025
Location - Metro in Chicago, IL
KEEP UP WITH THE SUICIDE MACHINES:
Facebook - https://facebook.com/suicidemachinesdetroit
Instagram - https://instagram.com/suicidemachinesdetroit
FOLLOW US:
Website/Email List - https://www.digitaltourbus.com/#/portal/signup
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/digitaltourbus
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/digitaltourbus/
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@digitaltourbus
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/digitaltourbus/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/digitaltourbus
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/digitaltourbus/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/digital-tour-bus-llc
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/user/digitaltourbus
VIDEO SUMMARY:
00:00 Introduction
00:39 Bass Guitars
04:38 Amp
08:56 Pedals
10:33 Cabinet
ABOUT DIGITAL TOUR BUS:
Digital Tour Bus is your backstage pass to your favorite touring artists! With daily video releases, we cover all genres, and have had the pleasure of featuring the likes of Matchbox Twenty, Twenty One Pilots, Megadeth, Machine Gun Kelly, Papa Roach, and thousands of others, over the past 15 years. "Bus Invaders" takes you inside an artist's home on the road, "Cooking at 65mph" showcases the culinary skills of artists on tour, and "Gear Masters" unveils the equipment musicians use on stage.
Affiliate Disclosure:
Some of the links in this description are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you if you make a purchase. Your support helps me continue to create content like this. Thank you!
Category
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MusicTranscript
00:00Hello, my name is Rich Sherhart. I play bass in the Suicide Machines. We are on the end of leg one for a full U.S. tour with Less Than Jake. Fishbone, Bite Me Bambi is doing leg one, Cat Bites doing leg two. The opener has to have bite in the name is what they told us.
00:27But we're at day two of Chicago. Tour's been going great. So hopefully you've come to it or will on the next leg. But we're going to talk about my bass gear today.
00:36So I play Fender. This began its life as an American original 50s P bass. So it had the original full like one and three quarter nut and I got it and I loved how it sounded and everything. But the neck was like just wide enough. And I was like, I got it.
00:55I was thinking about it too much when we were playing. So I opted for the Vintera Made in Mexico Jazz Bass Neck with the roasted maple, which I love the roasted maple. It's very like sturdy. So you don't have to do neck adjustments very often.
01:10And has the vintage fret wire, which is low. I love that. I don't like tall frets because I grip hard so I bend things sharp. But love the combo. The reason I picked this color is because I showed it to our drummer and I said, look at how ugly this thing is.
01:28And he said, it's so ugly, you have to buy it. And I did. And what's funny is I get it. And now with the roasted maple, everybody is like, is that a custom shop? That thing's beautiful and whatever.
01:37And I was like, well, I customize it a little bit. But the pickups are the 58s. And I was all excited because it came with the covers.
01:46I'm like, I finally got one with the covers and the tug bar and then took all that shit off because it just gets in the way.
01:50Yeah, I keep both at 10. I never touch the tone knob, but I haven't learned from in another bass at home. I have a no load tone pot.
01:59So when you go all the way to 10, it just takes it out of the equation. And for me, it actually makes it too gritty, like too harsh.
02:07But I like run like high mids. That's like kind of my thing. So it's already pretty aggressive.
02:12But I know some people will just take them out or unhook them, but I know that's just a little too much for how I have everything else dialed in.
02:20Ernie Ball Strings. We'll talk about that in a second. But yeah, keep these both at 10.
02:24And then, where's my backup? Use Enki cases. Once you start using the double case, you never buy a single case ever again.
02:32They're super convenient. Got my little like tool pack in here. All that if something breaks.
02:38Got all the like screws, little tool thing. This lives in here because we can fly with this.
02:45Keep a tuner in here. I always take the backup to the dressing room to warm up before we play.
02:50But this guy here, this began its life as a Square Affinity PJ, but I don't like mixing the two.
03:06I have some jazz basses at home that I really like, but I still don't really care for this combo.
03:10So this was always kept off. And then the reason I changed it is we played a show and I broke a string and I had to grab the Square as the backup.
03:18And it sounded good, but it sounded just too different from the gold one. We were in the middle of a hometown show.
03:25I'm like, I can't re-EQ everything. And I was like, I got to fix this problem. And that was, I bought the same neck.
03:31So this is the same as the one that's on there. And these are the 62 Custom Shot P-Bass, which I've tried almost all of the Fender pickups.
03:39And these are absolutely my favorite. Aftermarket pick guard and tug bar, just because I wanted to, I don't know, make you look cool or something.
03:49So I just covered up the jazz with the sticker.
03:52Justin and I used to, for a very short time, used to throw our basses, like we used to throw our guitars at each other at the end of the set.
04:03And we were like, it just broke too much, so we stopped doing it. But this was a casualty of that.
04:10Because when it still had the P-Bass, it was three knobs and the jack was here.
04:13And the way it fell, it cracked all this off. So I'm like, eh, I'll just go back together. It's fine.
04:17So that's the backup.
04:22Got you.
04:24Going back to, same thing, I keep both of those, you know, tone volume at 10.
04:29Just standard tuning. There's a few songs on our last full-length Revolution Spring where we down-tune on the recording.
04:38We play one of them live, and we can get around it without having to change the tuning.
04:41It's just a half-step down.
04:43Another one we're talking about adding back into the set.
04:46So for that, I would need, I would probably just tune the backup bass to the half-step down so we're not taking up time on stage and whatever.
04:55But strings, we are big fans of Ernie Ball.
05:01It's my favorite string, honestly, since I was a kid and started playing.
05:04Because I used to play everything, and these just, these are my favorite.
05:10Super slinky.
05:11I used to play the thicker gauge, but I can play these a little faster.
05:14And, you know, I don't know.
05:16I'm older now, so I need to cheek wherever I can to keep that speed up.
05:21You know, we do the, I like the string cleaner.
05:25It seems like it helps to me.
05:26Got the, you know, standard Dunlop polish.
05:31Deoxit in case we need it for something.
05:33And, Gorilla Glue for everything else.
05:40Let's put this right back in here.
05:43Um, sometimes I kill the E-string before I kill the rest of them.
05:47So I do, just started doing, I keep a single E-string in case I don't want to change out the whole set.
05:52Like, varies depending on how sweaty or how much crud gets on the guitar.
05:56You know, backups of all the cables and stuff I need for plugging all this stuff in.
06:04You know, got the two wireless packs.
06:06You know, one main, one backup.
06:07Two mics, one main, one backup.
06:09Spare.
06:09Got one spare of everything, so if anything breaks, um, do that.
06:15This is just more tools and random stuff in case we need it.
06:18And then, um, I'm using my old PVT Max.
06:23I have two of these.
06:24The second one actually tested fine before we left, but something happened.
06:28I don't know if something rattled loose on the drive to the first show.
06:31Um, so I pulled that one out.
06:32That was a guy going for service.
06:33But I use the Mini Max for when we do fly gigs.
06:36I have, like, a smaller Pelican case at home.
06:38So I can fit a scaled-down version of this in one bin.
06:43Um, and then we can just take that on the airplane and it's, you know, all dialed in, good to go.
06:48So I pulled that out and put it in here.
06:49So this is my backup for this rig on this run.
06:53But when we do, you know, shorter stuff, that's, that's my main one.
06:56But, um, this doesn't have the tube preamp.
06:59These do, sometimes people get a kick out of, like, who plays PV?
07:03But I really like their bass stuff.
07:05It was, like, the first thing I bought when I was, uh, when I was, like, I think I got the first one when I was 17.
07:11And then I, my buddy had one and he was selling it.
07:13And I bought that one.
07:15Um, and, like, they sound good.
07:17But I recorded, uh, we did two records with Bill Stevenson at the Blasting Room.
07:21Um, I'm matching some gasoline and more profiteering.
07:24And, uh, I actually used that.
07:26I took him out there and, you know, we lined up all the bass stuff Bill had and did some tests.
07:32And he's like, damn, that thing actually sounds really good.
07:34So that's what we ended up using on the record.
07:36So, you know, passive bass.
07:39But, um, it's got the tube preamp.
07:42And, like, this, the, I just dial in the pre and post gain the same.
07:47And, like, it just, you know, for, like, my tone, like I said, it's kind of, like, aggressive, like, hot, little gainy, you know, like, keep the mids up.
07:56Um, this just adds a lot of output.
07:59Even if I tick it up a little bit, uh, it's, I usually keep it around five.
08:04But it's just, this setup, it's just loud enough that it's, like, um, when I want to make it quieter, it's, like, if you get too far below two, it kind of, like, it's not hitting the gas hard enough on, like, the preamp and all that.
08:18So it's almost like I'm using these more, like, a volume for the lower thing.
08:22It's still loud as hell.
08:23But, um, I'd keep the solid state off for the, um, preamp, sorry.
08:31Keep the solid state one off.
08:32Um, I do use the EQ, so I push the mids.
08:35And, uh, this, this stuff is for if you have two cabinets, you can make one cabinet the low end, the other the treble.
08:42And I don't, I don't screw around with it.
08:44Um, but, yeah, I love these things.
08:46So, uh, power conditioner is something I, like, got for free.
08:50Worked my old job was throwing stuff away.
08:51And I was like, that's a power conditioner.
08:53I'm taking that.
08:53I don't know what brand it is.
08:54So, uh, my main, even, and, like, I, you know, got the Velcro on here.
08:59Uh, even when I do the fly rig with this, it's these, uh, those Shure GLXD 16 plus or something.
09:06These things are amazing.
09:08Because it's just this in the foot pedal.
09:10You don't need the rack and all that other stuff.
09:12They work great.
09:13Um, so we have a backup, you know, backup of this too.
09:18Into the, uh, multi-comp.
09:20Because the way I, like, hit the strings hard enough.
09:22Like, compressor, compressor benefits me.
09:25Um, just kind of smooths everything out a little bit.
09:27And then into the SANS amp, which, it's the programmable one, so you can have three different things dialed in.
09:34One is, like, my main sound.
09:36This is the DI I use that goes to front of house.
09:39Um, sometimes front of house mics, and I'm not particular about that.
09:43I know I got this dialed in.
09:46And it's a little gritty.
09:48So, three is, like, they're kind of dialed in for different cabinets I have at home.
09:51But, when we're out on the road, three is, you know, a little less gritty.
09:56And two is really quiet and boring, so I never use it.
10:01So, on this run, depending on what it sounds like in the room, I go between one and three.
10:06I have the ABY pedal, so if one of these goes down, it's wired up where I send a signal to our stage manager, Mark.
10:15We can just switch to the second head, and all he's got to do is switch the speaker jack.
10:18Everything else, or switch the speaker cable, go into the cabinet, and then we're good to go.
10:25Fender power supply.
10:28Like I said, I love Fender shit.
10:29That's my favorite thing.
10:31And then I got the Ampeg 610 cabinet.
10:36I kind of prefer the 610s to the 810s.
10:39They're a little, like, more, like, mid-range-y, which is what I'm doing with all this.
10:43And, yeah, they're just a little easier to move around than the 810s and whatever.
10:49So, that's the rig.
10:52Thank you for checking out the rig.
10:53If you want to keep up with everything that the man's doing, our main thing is Suicide Machines Detroit on Instagram.
11:01And then we also have SuicideMachinesDetroit.com.
11:04All information about all the stuff we're doing is on there.
11:07So, if you want to know what we're up to, check out those two things.
11:09My Instagram handle is FilthyStinking.
11:12If you want to see me tinker with base stuff, I'm always, like, screwing around in my workshop in the basement.
11:17But, yeah.