You get a little nervous when legendary bassist Nathan East says he’s going to visit your studio for a jam, but that’s exactly what happened at the AMS Tone Labs! So we had to pull out the best of the best to prepare for such a gig.
Want to know what it takes to jam with Nathan East? Here’s a quick rundown of all the gear we used to play this funkadelic version of Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky.” And if you haven't seen the jam yet, what are you waiting for!? It's live on the AMS YouTube channel right now!
Nathan East Signature Laney Amp
The big news on the set was the release of the brand-new Nathan East Signature Laney Amp — which is actually called the Laney DB-East Signature Bass Head. This thing is a monster, pumping out 1,000 watts of finely tuned and infinitely customizable bass tone.
Now, a lot of artist signature models are just a regular old standard model with a fresh paint job and the artist's signature slapped on it. However, that's NOT the case with the Nathan East Signature.
The Laney DB-East is a true collaboration between Nathan East and Laney. It features two independent channels with individual controls and outputs, dual DI outputs with IR capabilities, blendable tube and FET preamp stages, and tons of tone-shaping with three-band EQ, parametric mid section, and mega-powerful tilt function.
Pair it with Nathan East's, dual-cab setup with a 4x10 and 2x12, and you have a serious bass rig that can handle literally any genre. If it's good enough for a bassist with over 2,000 record credits spanning four decades and nearly every genre imaginable, it's probably good enough for you!
Laney Digbeth Nathan East Bass Head 1000 Watts
Special Price $1,499.00
Guitars and Amps
Stage left, you’ll find Russ. He’s under a helmet, so you might not recognize him. However, you might recognize his PRS Fiore in lovely Larkspur (which apparently means bright blue) finish.
Russ chose the Fiore because he read that it was Paul Jackson Jr.’s “desert island” guitar because of its versatility. It’s also what Jackson used in the original recording of “Get Lucky” with Nathan East, so it seemed only fitting to use it for our jam.
The PRS Fiore goes right into the almighty Line 6 Helix. Russ set up a simple patch for this jam that has a Dynacomp up front, going into a Fender Twin Reverb emulator, and finally through a basic reverb patch to wetten up the signal.
All those lovely funkalicious tones go straight out to the Laney LFR112 200-watt cabinet. Not only can you put it on FRFR mode to keep all your modeled tones true and uncolored, but it also has a nifty LED light shining down on the logo. That way if your playing doesn’t stand out, at least your cab will!
Just because he’s in the back doesn’t mean he’s “in the back.” Keith takes a backseat to no guitar player, shredding through solos with ease! Of course, he uses a custom T-Style guitar that he’s modded over the years — which is no fun if you’re trying to emulate his gear… But he does use some fun amps and pedals.
Sending Keith’s soulful licks to the masses is the Laney Lionheart Studio 5-watt amp attached to a matching Laney 1x12 cabinet. He also uses a few pedals, including the PRS Horsemeat Overdrive and Fuchs Audio VALVE JOB to rip through solos.
Keith also used the Digitech Drop Tune at the end of his solo to get down into Nathan’s bass territory, just to see what would happen. He also uses a Digitech Hardwire Tuner to stay in tune with the rest of the band, but tuners aren’t as much fun as overdrive pedals…
Recording Equipment
Jake, the Master of Audio here at AMS, also gives a quick rundown of all the mics he used to capture this jam sesh.
This jam is brought to you mostly by Shure mics. They’re scattered basically all around the studio. The Shure Nexadyne mics are gamechangers with their dual transducers. We have the Nexadyne NXN8 for the vocals and the NXN6 on the toms. There’s also the obligatory SM57 working hard on the guitar amps.
To get the lovely kick sound out of the drums, we popped a Lewitt mic down on the ground to get all that bassy goodness!
Coupled with the SM57 on the amp cabinets is a Royer R-121ribbon mic. Used in tandem with the SM57, the R-121 really captures the full frequency of any guitar cabinet. It’s our go-to setup for mic’ing guitars.
Flying high above it all is the AEA R88A active ribbon mic. This mic has quickly become a favorite for room mic’ing. We love using AEA mics here in the studio. They just sound so good and can work for just about any application.
Shure NXN8/S Nexadyne Dynamic Supercardioid Microphone Black
Special Price $329.00
Keys and Synths
What’s a Daft Punk song without synths!? Well, we had two on this jam.
The first synth you’ll find on the right of the screen is the KingKORG Neo Virtual Analog Synthesizer. It might look small, but it’s packed with tons of tones and presets that sound great right out of the box. In fact, the sounds you hear in the jam are just from the presets! We used the “Robot Vocoder” for the vocal synth parts you hear at the end.
On the other side of the stage lives the Roland Fantom 06. We had the keyboard split between synth sound on the right and piano on the left to give us some flexibility throughout the song.
Drums and Percussion
Bringing the beat was Tommy on the drums. And he was playing a Ludwig Classic kit in a lovely black sparkle finish. This blinged-out kit rocks Standard Series hardware and double pedal to keep everything in place AND look good doing it. Up top, you’ll find an assortment of Zildjian K Sweet Cymbals.
Since electronic music is, well, electronic, there’s only so much an acoustic drum kit can do. That’s why we added an Alesis Strata Prime drum module with a side pad to give Tommy the classic 808 and clap sound to really drive the rhythm.
Now You’re Ready to Jam with Nathan East
It might not be ALL about the gear, but let’s face it; that’s a big part of it! Now that you know all the gear we used on our amazing jam with Nathan East, it’s time to build your ultimate jam rig with gear right here from American Musical Supply.
A huge thanks to Nathan East for coming out and to Laney for putting it all together! And, of course, thank you for watching! Don’t forget to subscribe to the AMS YouTube channel for more amazing content just like this.
