Rig Rundown - The Dear Hunter

Article & photos: http://bit.ly/TheDearHunterRR Premier Guitar’s Chris Kies swooped into Nashville’s Cannery Ballroom right after soundcheck to see how Casey Crescenzo, Rob Parr, and Maxwell Tousseau reproduce their epic concept albums that will tell a narrative over six albums (five have been released this far). Casey Crescenzo, the former member of The Receiving End of Sirens and current leader/guitarist of The Dear Hunter, is a part-time luthier when he’s not rocking onstage or locked in the studio. His fascination with building guitars can be drawn back to two things: his reluctance to cave on his ideas while collaborating with guitar companies (plus not wanting to pay over $4k) and his love for 3D CAD design work. He bought a few Fender Starcaster reissues (his preferred body shape) to reverse engineer the instrument and to further understand the finishing process. And his brand Cave and Canary was born. Above is a Cave and Canary Solaris semi-hollow—his only touring guitar for this run and it’s the first body style that he drew. While he is a builder, two weeks before this tour he realized he didn’t currently have a guitar to play onstage, so this particular Solaris is a “parts” guitar from all the items laying around his shop. Some appointments include a Fender-style scale length, Mastery bridge and tailpiece, OX4 Humbuckers (PAF-style), and ’70s-style Schaller tuners. Guitarist Rob Parr is an active user on the Offset Guitars forum and worked with another member and co-designed this contoured Jag-Stang offshoot that has come to be a Cave and Canary Auriga model. (Parr has said on the record—and in the video—that The Dear Hunter leader, Casey Crescenzo, did not make it mandatory for him to play a Cave and Canary instrument.) It has a short scale (24”), Mastery bridge and tailpiece, and is outfitted with custom-voiced McNelly Pickups that’s base point was the company’s gold-foil set. And from all his time spent playing on Jazzmasters, he incorporated those familiar switches—the knobs are master tone and volume. One of the knobs is a 3-way pickup selector and the other rocks between standard, mute, and a low-pass filter used for more rounded sounds. He strings up this bad boy with Ernie Ball Power Slinkys gauged .011–.054 and plays with Dunlop Tortex .73 mm picks. Continue reading: http://bit.ly/TheDearHunterRR