Kurt Ballou (Converge) talks gear and guitars

Guitarist Extra: Kurt Ballou (Converge) guitar interview

Josh Gardner, Thu 22 Jul 2010, 10:52 am UTC

© Apeshit

Did you take any new guitars, amps and effects into the studio?

I recorded most of the album with my First Act Sheena guitar, I used that on the last record as well. Oh, for this album I did use Emperor cabinets, which was new, and I don't think there was any new effects.

Actually, y'know what, there was one new pedal with the Foxrox Octron, which is a really cool octave fuzz pedal. It lets you control the level of octave down, octave up, and direct - its sort've become a go-to lead guitar sound for me now.

You seem to like using guitars that are a bit different - your Sheena and the Warmoth Jazzmaster for example – that aren't necessarily stock, is that intentional or do regular guitars just not do the job?

I built the Jazzmaster before I was offered the First Act endorsement and it was actually the closest I could get to what my Sheena is before I realised I was going to be able to get the Sheena.

For me, it's just kinda cool to have guitars that look different from everything else out there. And also, I'm a pretty big guy, so it's good to have a comfortable guitar, not just the size and the weight, but also the fingerboard; I have really big hands so I use a 1.75-inch fingerboard and I also have a certain type of fretwire that I like, Dunlop 6130.

We tend to use a lot of different tunings and the order we choose the songs in have a lot to do with what tunings they're in, so I'll need three or four guitars at a show, but I don't want to be changing amp settings from song to song and I also don't want to have a guitar that feels radically different from song to song.

So despite the fact that my guitars look different I have them all set up with the same woods, the same pickups and the same fretwire, so I can go from song to song in all these different tunings.