Hello. Welcome back to the Loud Fast Gear Report. It’s been a good while since I’ve done this. I know, you know, Clint knows. It’s okay. It’s not because I’ve lost interest , it’s because I’ve decided to rope this into my radio show called Loud Fast EAR Report. You can catch that and many many other great shows on KWNK 97.7.

It’s been a long time since this interview was recorded but I still remember the day very clearly. I met the interviewee at Piñon in Midtown, a place which I’d never been. I was anxious about walking into the wrong building but I found it and was greeted with a smile and a cold beer. It was a beautiful sunny day and I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to a Reno musician a lot of us know and respect a lot. Let’s get to it.

What’s your name and what bands are you in?

My name’s Clint Neuerburg. I’m the founder of Humaniterrorist Record Collective, owner of Piñon Bottle, and I currently play guitar in Elephant Rifle. Before that I played bass in a band called Short Hair and a band called Maniacal. Before that I played guitar in a band called Think In French, before that I played bass in a band called Name Followed by Number, and before that I played guitar in a band called Simple, before that my first band was called Sea Food Buffet in high school. I played in a lot of bands.

Damn dude, that’s a lot of bands. Currently, what gear do you play on?

Currently, I play like a 2012 or 2013 Fender Jaguar. It’s the HH model, which is the model that has humbuckers. I also play the Fernandez Decade, which is a guitar the Fernandez made in the mid to late 90s which is like a Jazzmaster knock off, it has humbuckers. It doesn’t have the stock pick ups on it. I changed it out to just a bridge, a DiMarzio pick up. I played that guitar for a long time, I played it in Think in French also. It’s kind of a similar guitar on the same plane of the Jaguar. The Fernandez is a bit hotter. I play those through a 5150 combo, a 2×12 combo which is my main rig. I bought that for Think in French in 2004 I think. I think it’s mid 90s. It’s my favorite piece of musical equipment I’ve ever bought in my life. In the past couple of years I started having problems with it. It’s old and I’ve beat the hell out of it. Its one of those things that when it goes out I don’t know what I’m going to do. It’s such a perfect amp and it’s really hard to come by. There was a sweet spot for those things in the early 90s. The new ones are just way too hot, it’s too much. You can’t get the volume past 2 and the 60 watt you can crank it and it sounds great.

What are some effects you use?

My current pedal board, I have a Peterson Strobe tuner. Remind me to tell you why I use that tuner (never found our why). I have a Russian Big Muff going into a Boss DD6. Which is a delay pedal they started making in the mid 90s and probably in 2007 or 2008 they stopped making them. It’s a delay effect but it doesn’t sound like a delay pedal like you think it sounds. It’s weird and fucked up and it’s glitchy and that what I like about it. It’s kind of not a good pedal but I fucking love it. One of the things I like about it is that it has trails. It’s so hard to find a delay that has trails now. I get that you turn an effect off and you want it off. I’ve had a delay pedal that has trails for so long that I’ve worked in my sound. For anyone reading this that doesn’t know what trails are on a delay, when you turn it off the pedal stops working and the note keeps going like “bah bah bah bah.” I’ve got that into a Dunlop Crybaby Wah, into a Electro Harmonix Bad Stone Phaser, into a Mor Gain Amp Tube Depressor, which is an over drive pedal my friend Morgan makes. It’s a tube amp overdrive, so it’s got got a high frequency EQ overdrive and a low frequency EQ overdrive. In a lot of heavy music you’ll see guitar players using bass overdrive effects because that’s something that allows a lot of low end to pass through. It almost operates as a bass overdrive pedal because you have a multiband control of your overdrive.

What are some of your influences?

The main reason why I play Jaguars, why this all started is Nirvana. It was one of the handful of guitars Kurt Cobain played. Thurston Moore also played one. That’s basically what got me started on that path. When I got the Fernandez, I think I was in high school. I liked the look of it. It has that like sleek 50s style to it. When I was 16 or so, I discovered Fugazi. They’re still a favorite to this day. Ian in particular in that band, his guitar playing was something that was really influential to me. For a long time solos weren’t really important to me. I liked banging on chords and playing fucked up rhythms. Like listening to Nirvana and bands that didn’t have the luxury of two guitar players, the guitar player had to hold down the rhythm. The band I was in in high school, I was the only guitar player. I wasn’t playing solos, it was a punk band so I had to play the chords. Punk in general was a huge influence. I was talking about this a while ago. A huge influence on me guitar playing-wise, subconsciously, that I didn’t think was such an influence, going back and seeing how he does stuff and how I do stuff is Larry LaLonde, the guitar player for Primus. I’ve always been a huge fan. Another guitar player that I love but don’t think I come anything close to is Alex Lifeson of Rush. I’m a huge Rush fan. But I also just love big, dumb, fuckin rock and roll guitar playing. I love how John Reis, guitar player from Rocket from the Crypt, plays. There’s nothing subtle, there’s no finesse just heavy handed-beat you over the head with this guitar. I love that. Another person who’s falling under this heading of I admire who I don’t playing anything like is Nick Reinhart. He’s a good friend of mine, he’s got a god damn spaceship of pedals.

Knowing you all are a pretty rock and roll band, what are some of your favorite gigs?

We have a lot good gig stories, we don’t have too many bad. We had a bunch of good ones. When we played at The Holland Project with fall silent, like they’re first time coming back, that was a great show. The first time we played Seattle as a four piece, we played in the basement of this art commune that I think used to be a psyche ward and they had shows in the basement. It was crazy. There was kids crowd surfing and spraying beer everywhere, it was like a Van Halen video, Those shows are always fun. The cool stuff for us is like, “We got to eat or this cool restaurant” or we got this cool record we’ve been wanting. We don’t drink all that much, we’re all dads.

You can catch Clint playing in Elephant Rifle April 15th at The Holland Project and their new album is released digitally may 4th.