Chuck Garvey
Cincinnati, OH
moe. www.moe.org
Ha Ha The Moose
@chukg on Twitter
moechukg on Instagram
How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place?
I started playing instruments when I was young, just hammering stuff out by ear on acoustic guitar and piano, but started lessons for Tenor saxophone when i was in 5th grade. Played sax for 8-9 years and also started to play more acoustic and electric guitar as a teenager. Before graduating high school, I played in a cover band playing sax and a tiny amount of guitar, taking on the lead or vocal parts instrumentally. I also played with some of the same guys in Jazz trio settings – playing from “The Real Book”, etc., but I guess being a “real” musician came later. moe. just celebrated it’s 25th Anniversary, so I guess that’s how long I would say “the realness” ( whatever that is ) has been in effect!
Who have been some of your major musical influences, past or present?
Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley and others helped me get really fired up about playing music on a horn. At the same time, Steely Dan, The Police, David Bowie, The Who, Talking Heads, Frank Zappa, King Crimson, Jeff Beck, Hendrix and more all made me want to play loud guitar in a band!
The list is pretty long, but recently I have been going back to early Blues, New Orleans Jazz, Ry Cooder, Bill Frisell, Chris Whitley and a million others that I look up whenever I get the chance or if I hear something interesting by chance. It doesn’t seem to matter what style, genre, instrumentation, etc, If it sounds cool, I try to remember and listen later. There is so much music to choose from now, I don’t see how anybody can have a “short list of influences”. Maybe I’m just an all-over-the-map mongrel.
What drew you to using pedals initially? Have you been using them throughout your playing career? How have pedals helped to shape your sound, or influence the style that you’ve created?
I think the first pedal I used was a compressor made by Arion. I didn’t “get it”, so I sold it pretty quickly. An MXR Distortion+ and Vox wah were my first real keepers in high school. After High School I lived abroad for a year, so I bought a Scholz Rockman and headphones to keep me company. It had a clean, compressed sound, a super high gain and very compressed sound, as well as chorus built in. That was great to teach myself a bit more how to play. Overdrive is a constant search for clarity, sustain and drive in the perfect proportions. It never ends…
I have gone through MANY different boxes to try to find the right stuff. moe. has always had lots of changes, styles and dynamics in our songs, so using pedals was the easiest way to make quick changes while singing and playing. Getting the sounds of my favorite musicians was one of the main reasons I started using effects, but it soon turned into the quest for making new sounds. An Ibanez Bi-Mode Chorus and two amps in stereo was mind blowing! Whoah. I think that the sustain, harmonics and tone of my favorite sounds are influenced a lot by trying to sound like a voice or a horn. Pedals definitely help with that!
What’s your current setup look like? Take us through your pedal rig (feel free to include amps and instruments as well if you’d like):
Guitars:
Becker Retro Grad Guitars
Collings I-35LC
Pedal Chain:
AnalogMan Beano Boost
TC Electronics Polytune
Area 51 Wah
Foxrox Octron
ARC Effects Klone V2
Klon Centaur
AnalogMan BiComp
AnalogMan ARDX20 Analog Delay with Amaze0 controller
Lehle 1@3 switcher ( three outs go to three different amps )
Amps:
Lehle Switch #1: Tony Bruno UG30 with 3×10” cabinet ( main gtr sound )
Lehle Switch #2: Tony Bruno 5F8-A 2×12” Combo ( driving a Leslie Vibratone, or backup )
Lehle Switch #3: THD Univalve ( driving a Framptone Talk Box )
Favorite type of pedal (drive, delay, fuzz, etc. – more than one answer is always acceptable!):
I love Fuzzes and Boosts that clean up well, so you can go from sparkling clean to meltdown.
Also love me a Wah pedal! I really like to slowly filter through frequencies while playing with drive from the Klon.
You’re stranded on a desert island – which three (3) of the following do you want to have?
Instruments: One of my Fender Strats
Amps: Bruno UG30 or my modified Fender Deluxe
Pedals: Wah, Analogman Delay
What’s up next for you/your band(s)?
More touring, writing a bunch of new songs for live and studio release, acoustic shows, festivals…
The Klon hype: Love it or Hate it?
As you can guess, I am in the former camp! I own and have used lots of overdrive pedals, including another favorite, the Analogman King Of Tone. I always come back to my original gold, long-tailed horsie model. With a slightly opened-up amp, it rules. It’s not totally “transparent”, not the end-all, be-all, but it’s the one that makes me happiest. At different times over the past 25 years+, I have used different amps, guitars and other drives. It seems that each combination has a better choice:
1994 – Strat, Butler Tube Driver, Mesa MK 3
1997 – Strat, 2 Tube Screamers, Bruno 5F8-A.
2006 – McInturff Taurus Standard, Beano Boost + Klon, Matchless Lightning through 4×12” cab
right now:
Becker Guitars and Collings, AM BiComp, ARC Effects Klone ( yup! Not 100% exactly the same with my setup, but awesome ), Klon, Bruno UG30 or 5F8-A.
I’m still trying stuff ( Klones, Timmy, etc ) and trying to find something to justify kicking my $2,500 gas pedal off the board for a cheaper, better option. Haven’t totally done it yet, but amps and guitars change, stage volume levels and technique must improve ( hopefully ), so you never know.
Thanks so much to Chuck for taking the time to answer some questions! Make sure to go check out moe.org, and catch them on tour in a town near you. Cheers!
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