From haunting laments for deceased lovers to odes to long-distance relationships, Death Cab For Cutie’s brand of emotion-pulling indie has etched its way into the consciousness of millions over the last three decades.
Nerdy fans ourselves, it was a sheer delight back in 2019 to spend some time with vocalist and chief songwriter Ben Gibbard, guitarist Dave Depper and multi-instrumentalist Zac Rae as they took us on a tour of the rigs they relied upon for their respective roles. Then touring their ninth album, Thank You for Today.
Before we began however, an apology for the lack of aesthetic appeal that their trusty profiling amps had…
“Whether it’s Fractal or Kemper, the one thing they do not have going for them is they are not sexy-looking,” Ben chuckled.
“We could bring a bunch of cool-looking and unique collectable amps on tour with us, but that really would just be for the sake of the people who knew what they were!”
But, as we discovered, there was plenty to appease our gear-lust within their set-up.
Firstly, a series of ‘70s Fender Mustangs, the guitar most associated with Gibbard;
“I got a Mustang in a trade, and I just really liked that the neck was so easy to move around on; it was very similar to the Fender Bullet I played when the band started, so I found my hands moving around the neck in a similar fashion as I did in some of the older material and that re-inspired me to play more guitar,” explained Ben.
“I have a fleet of ’70s, maple-necked Mustangs where I’ve taken out the pickup-switchers and I’ve removed the tone knob, and I’ve just wired them in the middle position.
“I have one capo’d into position, but it’s all standard tuning; there’s one song called You Moved Away where the low E is tuned up to an F, just because there’s a hard chord voicing. I’m 42 years old; I’ve only just realised you can change the tuning to make it easier to play stuff!”
Back then, guitarist Dave Depper was particularly keen on the Fano Alt De Facto PX6.
“This is the sort of non-reverse Firebird guitar that I’ve been playing. I also have this lovely Novo Serus J that Denis Fano himself built for me, and I put Lollar Firebird pickups in it to match the PX6s.
“On the last tour, I had six different electric guitars out, and then all the pedals would respond differently to them, and I kind of got in over my head with all that stuff, so I just wanted a very consistent thing to build off of,” Depper told us.
“That guitar is the perfect one for me, because in the neck position, those Firebird pickups can do a very convincing bell-like Strat kind of sound. Also, the middle position, you get that lovely out-of-phase thing. But the bridge pickup breaks up just like a Gibson with the humbucker. It’s like a Swiss army knife of a guitar.”
Then of course, there’s a particularly sexy Rickenbacker 330, handled by Dave and tuned to open F specifically for the Thank You for Today single, Gold Rush;
“That song was the first single, and there were a ton of promotional appearances and stuff, and it just seemed easier to have a guitar dedicated to playing that song. It responds really well to slide.”
