THE WARNING - Equipment
PRS guitars are one of the most prestigous guitarmakers worldwide. Founded by Paul Reed Smith in 1985 they soon found their way into a lot of genres from Blues, Latin Rock and even Bluegrass to Hard Rock and Metal. Many well known guitarists like Carlos Santana, Johnny Hiland, Ray Davies, Joe Walsh, Orianthi, Chad Kroeger, Mark Tremonti or Zach Myers have chosen PRS guitars as their weapons of choice. Characteristic features of PRS guitars include classic tonewoods like mahoghany for the bodies and necks and highly figuered maple tops and real abalone fretboard inlays in the shape of birds. The slightly longer scale of 25" compared to Gibson's 24 3/4" give the guitars a slightly quicker and more articulated attack than a Les Paul. PRS' own pickups, that deliver a high yet defined output, are another reason, why these specific instruments gained enourmous popularity in modern rock styles throughout the last two decades.
Dany uses a "35th Anniversary Custom 24-08" model with mahoghany body and neck, figured maple top and rosewood fretboard. It is equiped with two splitable humbuckers, which are capable of producing single-coil-like sounds as well. Altogether, this leads to eight distinctively different sounds from glassy to chunky, that can be chosen by the flick of three toggle switches.
Watch Dany play her PRS in the music video from "Choke", the leading single from The Warning's third album.
Spector basses have set a landmark for ergonomics and sound in electric bass guitars. Designed by the legendary luthier Ned Steinberger in the late seventies, they feature a concave body design, that sits on your belly as if it was nailed to it, and an immaculate balance, furthering a technically correct fingering of the left hand, as you don't have to use your palm to prevent the neck from nose-diving. Being part of a power trio, where the bass has to fulfill several tasks from playing along with the bass drum to playing along with the rhythm guitar to adding some spice to the songwriting by playing independent licks and runs, Ale appreciates the outstanding punch and clarity, that Spector basses provide and that never get lost in the mix. Ale uses a four-string Euro4 Rachel Bolan signature bass, that was upgraded with a HAZ 9v preamp, and has just received her first US custom made five-string bass.
See below, how Ale was presented her new five-string and a little excerpt of Muse's legendary Hysteria bass-line, played on her Rachel Bolan.
Rick Toone is a luthier from the USA, who builds highly innovative premium quality guitars and basses, using modern features and materials combined with classic wood tones. Daniela plays two handcrafted models of the "Spearfish" series. They both feature lightweight ash bodies and an aluminum neck. Thanks to the high rigidity of aluminum, the necks are almost completely insensitive to climate changes (temperature and humidity), making the guitars stay in tune excellently even under harsh conditions. They have a very flat geometry, that furthers an ergonomic and fatigue-proof playing style and reduces the risks of a tendinitis. Another more practical advantage of the aluminum necks is, that they are easily detachable, so the guitars can be carried on board during flights. The guitars use a multi-scale with fanned frets, so the bass strings are longer than the treble strings, similar to a piano. This gives more definition to the the bass strings without making the treble strings feel unnecessarily stiff during the solos. The guitars are lightweight and don't put too much strain on the shoulders and back muscles during long shows.
See below a video of Dany receiving her first Spearfish from Rick Toone himself.
Manson Guitars started business in the sixties, when the brothers Hugh and Andy Manson opened their guitar shop in Crowborough, Sussex in Great Britain. Nowadays, they are widely known for the guitars, they developed for and with Matt Bellamy from Muse, one of The Warning's biggest influences. The Matt Bellamy signature guitars feature characteristics of Fender guitars (Tele bodyshape, wood tones, 25.5" scale, bolt-on neck-construction) and Gibson (humbucking pickups, Tune-o-Matic/Stoptail bridge construction). Dany uses a MA-2 model, that also features an onboard Fuzz Factory effect and a Fernandes Sustaniac pickup. The latter is a pickup with a kind of reversible function: It cannot just only pick up string vibrations and transform them into electric signals, in reverse mode it can be fed by a battery to make the strings vibrate virtually endlessly, making the guitar sound like a violin played with a bow.
You can hear Dany use the Sustaniac in the intro of The End (Stars Always Seem to Fade) in the video below.
Orange Amps is one of those classic tube amp manufacturers from England, that heavily shaped the tonal perception of rock music listeners in the 60s, 70s and 80s. One thing, that makes them stand out from the rest is their very loud and precise clean sound, which is a godsend, if you have to rely a lot of effects to achieve different sounds and moods, like Dany does. If you turn up the gain however and slowly drive the tubes into saturation, the mids suddenly fatten and warm up and deliver this delicate overdrive sound, that Orange is famous for, never harsh or shrill, but very musical and rich in harmonics. Twist a little further and the amps enter the heavy zone with a fat and full-bodied lead sound, that has some sort of velvety quality to it, smooth, dense, warm and delivering a tremendous sustain.
From their early beginnings in the 60s, the sound of Orange guitar amps has left its mark in the classic rock genre. However, a fact, that is often overlooked is, that they also build excellent bass amplifiers. They became Ale's weapons of choice as well, although she often has to use other brands live, as Orange bass amps are not so widespread (yet?), but at home and in the studio, she prefers her Orange setup.
Sabian is a Canadian cymbal maker, that was founded in 1981 by Robert Zildjian, a descendant of Avedis Zildjian, founder of Zildjian cymbals in 1623. With centuries of knowledge within the family, the young company achieved growing success during the 80s due to their new AA (Automatic Anvil) and HH (Hand Hammered) series and soon became one of the big four in cymbal making (Paiste, Meinl, Zildjian, Sabian). Sabian proudly claims, that they are more than just a manufacturer, but build cymbals with character, none being exactly the same as the other and as unique as their players.
See Pau below as a ten year old already using low budget Sabian cymbals, although she has since upgraded to AAX and HHX series with the 18" HHX Evolution O-Zone Crash being her favorite, as seen in the pic on the left.
Using lots of vocal harmonies in their songs, Dany, Pau and Ale are reliant on a perfect monitor sound in order to be able to hear all the instruments and the voices clearly everywhere on stage. Also, being still young but strong-willed to stay in the business for decades, protecting their hearing from the loud stage sound is inevitable. The wireless in-ear monitor systems by InEarz Audio fulfill both of these tasks in an excellent manner. Dany, Pau and Ale use custom made ear-pieces in their own designs (including the Lightning Bolt logo), that have been fitted to their individual ear canals by InEarz. They feature multi-way balanced armatures for a defined sound across the whole spectrum of hearing and a special venting technology called ADEL, that further reduces the strain on the ear-drums. So they are perfectly protected from hearing damages and are still able to move around everywhere on stage while retaining the perfect monitor sound, they need to perform their music.
See below a few pictures of their custom earpieces.
