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On this episode of DTB’s “Gear Masters”, Richard Dotson, bassist 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:
Fender American Professional Precision Bass - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/6y013N
Ernie Ball Super Slinky Bass Strings (.045–.100) - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/OekZVA
Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/2aoebD
Darkglass Microtubes B7K Analog Bass Preamp - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/3JBa6v
Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Bass Big Muff Pi - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/RGAog7
Pedaltrain Metro 16 Pedalboard - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/vP5vGA
Walrus Audio Canvas Power 5 Isolated Power Supply - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/4GzAO1
Fender Bassman 800 Bass Amplifier Head - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/dO2vNQ
Fender Bassman Pro Neo 410 Bass Cabinet - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/yqavJD
Dunlop Tortex Green Picks (0.88 mm) - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/YRXYEO

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:
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Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/user/digitaltourbus

VIDEO SUMMARY:
00:00 Introduction
00:39 Skip Intro
00:53 Bass Guitar
02:46 Pedalboard
05:20 Amp & Cabinet
08:01 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.

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Category

🎈
Fun
Transcript
00:00I sort of feel like an iPad kid or something like between songs. I can't help myself. I'm staring at this fucking thing
00:05That'd be really embarrassing if I'm the only one half sat down and I had no idea. Could you imagine?
00:11Boom
00:13Look at that
00:30Hi, I'm Richard from The Frights. We are in Chicago, Illinois, touring our new record, Ready When You Are. Okay? Big deal. It's a big fucking deal. I play the bass in this band. This is my bass guitar. It's a Fender Precision Bass. It's extraordinary.
00:59It's extraordinarily precise. I think I got this in 2018. It was brand new. I want to say it's an American professional. It is an interesting color. I believe they called this olive or maybe sage. I have no idea to be honest. I don't know. I don't know the first thing about this thing to be honest. Although I do like the way it sounds. I like the way it plays. Currently I have no knobs on here because I had to take this
01:29pick guard off to repair something and when I was tightening the fucking knob on here I broke the screwdriver in
01:37I broke the screwdriver in the in the fucking knob. Is that making any sense to you?
01:42And so I just took them off and now which is good because I you know I'm always fiddling with these things anyway and I don't need to be it's fine
01:49even without the knobs I still find myself doing this. I think it's a nervous tick at this point but whatever. They're always dimed out anyway.
01:57These are Ernie Ball Super Slinky Bass Strings. I believe that's what's in the pink package. I just changed them right now. They're brand new strings on tonight. I change my strings like every I don't know.
02:11I don't know. Four-ish shows. It's kind of a feel thing. I like the strings to be really crispy and kind of bright and metallic and round and you know.
02:27So I like them new. Sue me. Everyone in the band as far as I'm aware is half a step down. That'd be really embarrassing if I'm the only one half a step down and I had no idea. Could you imagine?
02:39No, we're all half a step down and myself included. Check this out. This is my rig. I'm about to rub my rig down for you. Tuning pedal.
02:51Honestly, if I'm just being real, this thing kind of pisses me off. It does what it's supposed to do. It'll tune the guitar.
03:00But I sort of feel like an iPad kid or something. Between songs, I can't help myself. I'm staring at this fucking thing. And I know I'm in tune. I know that I'm in tune.
03:11But between every song, even between sections of the same song, if there's more than two seconds of silence, I'm gonna check my tuning. And I don't need to be doing that.
03:21So I wish that this were gone. I wish I didn't have to have this on here. But alas, here it is. Anyways, after this, this is a, what is this company called?
03:33Dark Glass Microtubes B7K. This is like a preamp. It just kind of pushes the amp a little harder for me. It doesn't, well, there's a little bit of drive that comes through on this thing too.
03:45It's mostly just like a tone shaping, volume giving little son of a bitch. And this is always on. I just have it on all the time. It's kind of part of the whole thing for me.
03:58From here, bass, or deluxe bass, big muff, pie. I've gone through five or six of these over the years. They are easily destroyed. No offense, electro harmonics, but maybe I just have a heavy foot or something.
04:16But it's just a fuzz pedal. I use it like three times in the set. Oh, but it's, these are highlight moments for me.
04:27It's always pissing sound guys off because it's three to six times louder than my regular tone. And it's just the only setting that it has. I do this usually. Boom. It's all the way up, baby.
04:41And it doesn't need to be, you know, tinkered with beyond that mostly. This is a power supply that our tour manager Chris is letting me use because I usually use a one spot in a daisy chain.
04:55But the daisy chain is built for pedal boards that have like nine or ten pedals on it. I only have three.
05:01And so there's all this extra cabling and then when I put it in the pedal board box, I close it and it's like a guillotine.
05:07And it just snaps the fucking thing in half. And then, and then I'm shit out of luck unless Chris has one of these things, which he did.
05:14And now look at me. I'm all juiced up, baby. This is a Fender Baseman 800. This is my amp. This goes into this guy. This is a Fender.
05:28This is called a Fender Baseman 410 Neo enclosure. It has four ten inch speakers. I'll even let you see under the hood. Boom. Look at that. Four of these things. Extra loud.
05:49We used to have stacks in this band. We used to, we used to have a saying, stack up or pack up. And it was, we had to have stacks at least two amps high.
05:59Everywhere we went, no matter how small the room. And we said stack up or pack. I'm pretty sure we said stack up or pack up nearly every day.
06:08I have like a starting point, which is kind of what I have going on here. I stick on this vintage channel.
06:17I dial the bass back a little bit. I dial the mids back a little bit. I bring in a little bit of treble.
06:22And then volume is kind of middling. But honestly, it's kind of a from scratch thing every night.
06:31Every room is kind of a different thing. And so I use this to start with, but more often than not, I play a note and immediately it's like, oh, this sounds like shit.
06:40And I have to tinker around on my hands and knees for 20 minutes and just pissing everybody off until it sounds the way I like it.
06:48But this, this might work because of the new strings tonight. I'm pretty hopeful.
06:53But yeah, otherwise, not much else. Actually, this head is not even mine.
07:01This belongs to a venue called Genghis Cohen in Los Angeles. It's true. It's true.
07:07This is a big, like unknown secret. I have the exact head. I had the exact same head.
07:16And I was playing a show at, or a friend of mine was borrowing it, playing a show at Genghis Cohen in Los Angeles.
07:24And at the end of the night, he hot swapped the heads. And so they have my beloved amp head.
07:30And I have this piece of shit that came from some venue as a house amp. Who knows how many jabronis played through this fucking thing.
07:37It sounds terrible. And the direct out, it hisses. Mine never hissed. This one hisses. That's a heads up for you tonight.
07:47It's not.
07:49But it's been, it's been like two years now and it still turns on at work. So I guess, you know, it's a wash at the end of the day.
07:58I use Tortex Green. They're kind of thick. They're kind of hard to bend. I like a really thick pick.
08:06I don't know why. I guess I figure you can always pick lighter. But you can't pick heavier with a thin pick.
08:14I don't have much else to say about the picks, but here you go.
08:20So, Frights. New record. Ready when you are. It's available now. Listen to it.
08:26Spotify. Deezer. CoBuzz. Get on CoBuzz. It's a good platform.
08:34I think it's on Tidal, but it might still be missing the first track. I sent them an email, but they haven't gotten back to me about it yet.
08:40Fucking come to the show. Buy as many tickets as you can to the shows.
08:46And go to our Instagram and fucking follow us on Instagram and fucking like us and comment and go to our YouTube and follow us on YouTube as well.
08:58And comment on the videos and share the videos and then buy tickets to the shows.
09:02Share links to the shows with your friends so they'll buy tickets as well. The tour doesn't go on forever, so this is urgent.
09:08We need you to do this quickly. This is going to be up probably tonight. No? Okay. Then, um, okay.
09:16We might have to adjust some of this a little bit later. No? Okay. Everything I said still stands.
09:22Record is still out. Share it. Is this enough? Should I keep moving? Keep going with it? Okay.
09:28Let me show you drums. They're over here.
09:38.
09:50.
09:52.
10:00.
10:01.
10:02.
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