The Frights’ Mikey Carnevale - GEAR MASTERS Ep. 598 - video Dailymotion

Digital Tour Bus

Subscribe to DTB at http://digtb.us/subscribe Become a member (it's FREE) at https://digtb.us/signup Buy official DTB merch at http://digtb.us/merch  On this episode of DTB’s “Gear Masters”, Mikey Carnevale, vocalist/guitarist of the surf punk band, The Frights, shows off the gear that he uses onstage, while on the Ready When You Are Tour with Flycatcher, Remo Drive, Liily, and Buddha Trixie. The Frights is currently supporting their newest album, Ready When You Are.  PLAY THE SAME GEAR: Rosewoodgod Electric Guitar - https://rosewoodgodguitars.com/ Fender Twin Reverb Guitar Amplifier - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/WyjjbO Fender Acoustasonic Series Acoustic Amplifier - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/09rrbY Fender Paramount Series Acoustic Guitar - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/EEnnk9 Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner Pedal - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/bOZZLm TC Electronic Polytune Tuner Pedal - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/6yaavE Fulltone Full-Drive 2 V2 Overdrive Pedal - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/OeNNXK MXR Reverb Pedal - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/4Gkk3L Voodoo Lab Pedal Power - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/7aAA4V  VIDEO INFO: Film Date - November 8, 2025 Location - Bottom Lounge in Chicago, IL  KEEP UP WITH THE FRIGHTS: Facebook - https://facebook.com/frightsband Instagram - https://instagram.com/thefrights  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 00:38 Skip Intro 00:56 Acoustic Guitar 03:12 Pedalboard 04:47 Electric Guitar 06:25 Amps 09:28 Picks  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, MGK, Papa Roach, AJR, Pierce The Veil, Simple Plan, A Day to Remember, 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, "Gear Masters" unveils the equipment musicians use on stage, and "Stage Threads" dives into the meaning and inspiration behind the clothing artists wear during their performances.  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!

Transcript

00:00Are you interested? And I was like, yes, this sounds like a scam. It's been half step down

00:04since I turned 22 because this don't work as well as it used to. I play whatever picks

00:09Jordan has in his pocket because I'm always forgetting mine.

00:30I'm Mikey Carnevale from the Frights. We are on tour right now in Chicago. We just put

00:43on a new record, Ready When You Are. We're out here. Where are we at? Bottom Lounge. And

00:47we're going to show you some gear. I got an acoustic guitar, some silly little pedals, and

00:51some very, very popular amps. That's it, baby. Rock and roll. So this is actually probably

00:57the only thing I have some serious business to say about because this was a, uh, I got

01:02this guitar from Fender in 2017, 2018. And at first I was very hesitant to play a Fender

01:09acoustic because of the, you know, just, you know, wanting to play a Martin or something

01:13kind of cool. Not to say this isn't cool, but you know what I mean. And so I bought a shitload

01:18of other acoustic guitars and I had a big collection and I've tried every acoustic guitar in a live

01:22setting and nothing has ever come remotely close to feeling this good or playing as well

01:28as it does. And it frankly pisses me off. Um, so I've played the hell out of this for the

01:33last almost 10 years. I just got it fixed. There was a crack down the back. I can't think

01:37they did such a good job. You can't even see anymore. But I went through a phase of treating

01:41this guitar poorly. I dropped it a bunch. Um, now I take good care of it because I recognize

01:46it's my soulmate and it'll be with me forever. And, uh, it's just, it's just my little baby.

01:51I love it. I don't even know if they make this. Yeah, this is the Paramount PM2E.

01:56I don't know if they make this exact guitar anymore. I think they still do the Paramount

01:59series. I could be wrong, but, um, great guitar. Love it. Strings. Usually I am playing

02:06D'Addario's, uh, custom light. I think I've changed now to just regular old light. Um, and

02:13as far as changing, we started this tour, we're doing it in legs. We started this tour back

02:18in September. I haven't changed them since we left. Because for me, there's like this,

02:22um, there's this fine line where when you change acoustic guitar strings, it's very churchy,

02:27is the worst way I could put it. Um, and so after about a month and a half of like good

02:32playing is when you get that kind of like, it starts to feel like it has like a story

02:36to tell. As stupid as that sounds. Um, and that's when it starts to feel good to me.

02:40So if I'm lucky, I only have two acoustic songs in this set. I shouldn't break a string

02:44until the tour is over and then I'll have that perfect tone in about a week. So, um, yeah,

02:50very, as, as rarely as I can change them without feeling like I'm playing a piece of shit is how

02:55often I change my strings basically. Tuning. Oh, uh, half step, half step down for pretty much

02:59everything. Um, I think amongst the band, we have maybe one or two guitars that are in standard,

03:05but other than that, it's been half step down since I turned 22 cause this don't work as well

03:10as it used to. So this is my pedal board. As you can see, we have four pedals, two of which are

03:16really special. They're what we call tuners. And I, and I really, I, I vary them up here with a

03:22one analog and one poly tune, fully electric. Look at this. This is very nice. I'd use this one

03:28as you should for electric and this one for acoustic just for the vibe. Okay. So then the rest of these

03:34here, we have two. Now this reverb, I don't really, I'm not in love with it. It just happens to be,

03:39uh, again, kind of a part of, uh, my setup at this point because I'm lazy. Um, but it's great. I just

03:46keep it on the plate setting and, uh, I use it for some of the older Fright stuff that requires that,

03:52uh, like that dirty doo-wop they used to call it, uh, sound. And so I, it's fine. I have nothing,

03:59no problem with this pedal. It's great. Love it. But I don't know much about it besides what I

04:04currently use it for, which is minimal. Um, this however has been similar to my acoustic,

04:10the pedal I cannot escape. I have tried so many times to find a, another exciting, uh, overdrive

04:17distortion pedal. But every time I go to the guitar store, I'm like, Hey, can you turn me on to

04:21something new? They're like, what do you have? I'm like the GT 500. Oh, that's the best one.

04:26That's the one. I was like, all right. So again, I just fully accepted this. Like I did my acoustic as

04:31this is my way. And now I love it to death. It's a part of me. And, uh, I pretty much run it all

04:37show on the booster overdrive setting. And then occasionally for some, uh, heavier stuff,

04:42I'll throw on distortions, but for the most point, most parts on the overdrive. This is the

04:47electric I have right now. This is a guitar made by this gentleman in San Antonio called

04:52Rosewood God guitars. And he hit me up, um, about a year and a half ago. And he said, Hey man,

04:58I want to make a guitar for you. Uh, are you interested? And I was like, yes, this sounds

05:03like a scam. So I was like, let's see how this goes. It's like, well, you're coming to San

05:06Antonio. I'll come out to the show and I'll bring, this is what he usually makes. He's

05:09like gold, uh, crazy, you know, multiple, uh, parallel settings on the pickups, uh, tellies.

05:16He does a bunch of stuff for, uh, specific artists. And I saw this. I was like, that's cool.

05:21It's not necessarily my style, but I'll check it out. And he brought it to the show and I played

05:25it on the next tour and I just like fell in love with it. And I ended up using this guitar

05:28solely, this electric guitar on the record we just made running with you are. Um, and

05:34just fell in love with like how gnarly it can sound point being, it sounds sick. I love

05:38it. He did make me a custom guitar. That's even sicker. And, uh, I left it at the venue

05:43yesterday. So perfect time for my rig rundown. Don't have my fucking custom guitar, but it's

05:48being shipped back to us in San Diego. So that's cool. Um, but this guitar rules, he rules

05:52Rosewood God, check them out. Great guitars. Love it. Ernie ball, regular slinkies. Yeah.

05:58I don't mess with the electric guitar strings for some reason. It's just the way it is. Again,

06:02I'm not too particular. I'm way more particular about my acoustic guitar and my acoustic guitar

06:06playing that I am with electric guitar for whatever reason. Always maxing my volume and tone

06:11out. I never mess with it. Um, it hurts my brain to mess, especially with the volume. It really

06:17hurts to like imagine that there's a louder possible setting here. So I've never, ever, ever

06:21been messing with my volume or tone. Yeah. This, I don't know if you'll recognize it.

06:26This is a very rare, um, 2020 twin reverb by a little company called Fender. And they've

06:33been making some good stuff for at least a couple of years, at least. Um, I can't complain.

06:37I'm giving them a shot. I feel like they're like a nice new, uh, startup. So I don't know.

06:42I'm just help the little guys out. Right. So this is, this is my amp. I keep it as you

06:46can see five, five, five, five, five, and then two and then zero. So I keep it pretty

06:51much straight across the board because I'm just a middle of the road kind of guy. And

06:56sometimes the sound guy will make me do this. And I'll go to four. And that is frustrating,

07:03but that's okay. I get it. It's for the good of the people. So I keep it at five until someone

07:07tells me otherwise. And I keep it no bright because this guitar is bright as fuck. And I

07:12used to, when I played Strat, which was my guitar for years until I got this, uh, throw

07:16it on bright, treble up a little bit, keep it a little, uh, get a little for Shantae feeling

07:20with it. Now I just, I'm pretty run the mill. So that's my, that's my Fender twin reverb,

07:26which, uh, blew out its tubes, uh, right before a big show we had back home. I tried, I borrowed

07:33a Friends, those tubes blew, borrowed another Friends, those tubes blew. I eventually went to

07:38Guitar Center and I picked up one of their new ones, Solid State Twin Reverb.

07:41And, uh, so I was actually super into that for a second, but I feel like I would lose

07:45some, uh, street cred if I, if I ditched the tubes. So here we are risking blowing tubes

07:50again. This has been here since probably 2016. And this is what my old tour manager used to

07:55use when I would use this, uh, the normal channel. And now I, I do want a little bit of

08:00verb. So yeah, this is just a part of the story, I guess. This is the brother to the sister

08:07of the guitar. This amp has been with me as long as this guitar has been with me. And I, again,

08:11ordered this from Fender. Um, I liked the way it looked mainly. I needed an acoustic guitar

08:15amp. I've been going DI for years before that. And I really, really hated that. I was going

08:20DI with a J45 Gibson and it just sounded fucking terrible. So this came and I was like, again,

08:26skeptical, unbelievable. And I, this sounds crazy, but I don't want to say it too loud so he hears

08:32me, but a lot of sound guys give me compliments on this. If you get a compliment from a sound

08:36guy, that's the craziest thing that's ever happened. So that's really cool. These guys

08:40just, again, a perfect combo. Um, and it looks cool. And I don't believe they make this anymore.

08:45I think they make a smaller one if I'm not mistaken. Um, but I love this amp. I love this

08:49guitar. I hope nothing ever happens to either of them. They rule. This guitar is pretty warm

08:54for the most part. So I, I, I try to, I used to actually like, again, I would keep everything

08:59right down the middle and now I just started dialing the highs back because with the new

09:03strings or new ish strings, it comes in a little bright. So I've toned that back a touch. Um,

09:08otherwise the reverb on this sounds really nice. I give a touch. Um, again, I used to go more ham

09:13with it. I keep it pretty mellow these days. I try to, that's kind of like the story of my life is to

09:18try to tone myself down the older I get and mature and not blast everything out to a hundred. So yeah,

09:25that's where we're, that's where we're running there. So picks, I play whatever picks Jordan has

09:30in this pocket because I'm always forgetting mine. So these are my preferred ones. Ernie Ball

09:34mediums. I love those. I will settle. Oh, I didn't know what this is. This one doesn't have a label

09:39anymore. I thought this was good. Oh, it is. Yeah. Tortex. Um, just again, the mediums, the little

09:44orange boys. Um, but I do prefer these just, I don't know why I like the way they look and they feel

09:49great. And, uh, the Ernie Ball logo gives a little grip, but again, I usually walk on

09:55stage a sound check and I'm like, Jordan, what you got? Like I need, I need a pick and he has

09:58something for me. So that's what I got today. So like I said, we released a Ready When You Are

10:02back in August and, uh, it's on Spotify, Apple Music, uh, fucking title, whatever you want to

10:09listen to. Uh, we took two months of our last year, just busting ass making this record. We're

10:14super proud of it. So give it a listen. I like it. You might too.

10:25Uh.

10:30uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, USDA, USE, nya, U. My name is

The Frights’ Mikey Carnevale - GEAR MASTERS Ep. 598

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