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The Contenders

June 2, 2019

The Contenders
The Contenders

Fotis Tzanakis (The Contenders – guitar)

SPB: Can you walk us through your guitar gear?

Tzanakis: Here's a more detailed way of how I come to the sound for my guitar playing for Contenders: I play a Peerless solid body. I treat recordings and gigs quite differently when it comes to how my guitar will sound. 

Both at recordings and gigs I aim to keep my sound as simple as possible. This means no effect pedals. I tend to record with a Fender Twin Reverb '65 reissue. It is a very "classic" amp that comes the closest to the sound I want to approach with my songs. When it comes to gigs, given the fact that we very rarely tour outside of Athens, Greece, I opt to choose the amp I'll play keeping the space we'll be playing in mind. 

Now as far as how I go approaching the sound is this: Having the role of the rhythm guitarist in the band I want my guitar to have more mids and less bass, but not to the point it sounds "too thin." So I usually set treble: 3.5, middle, 6,, bass: 4,5, reverb: 2. These settings work for me on Fender Twin Reverb '65 but they might slightly vary. Then I also play with knobs of my guitar to add a little more details.

— words by the SPB team • June 2, 2019

The Contenders
The Contenders

Series: What's That Noise?

One-question interviews with artists where we find out about the gear and equipment they use to achieve their sound.

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