Aaron North

In this photo, we can see Aaron North playing a Hagstrom III.

On First Act's official website, North is listed as a Custom Shop Artist, and his First Act Custom Guitar is described.

In this photo, North is using Hagstrom II 2-pickup model.

Aaron North about the Reverend Clubking 290 Goldtop on a post made December 07, 2009..

"This guitar is AWESOME. I got this one after a very memorable experience of having the opportunity to "hang out", and "talk shop" with none other than the late, great Ron Asheton of The Stooges... Somebody I've surely ripped off more than any other. There's an amazing tone knob on here that can make the guitar produce a massive, chunky humbucker type sound, or even a thinner, twangy Telecaster sound... And everything in between! Seeing as how I was a bit more precious with this guitar than a lot of the others, it wasn't brought out as much live. So I usually used this one on special occasions. For instance, when we were only recording. This way I knew it wouldn't end up getting snapped in half. I recall using this guitar when we recorded a bunch of Joy Division covers with Peter Murphy, and also when we did a BBC Radio 1 session in London. I've also used this guitar quite a bit recently with Jubilee... And recorded all of my guitar parts for "Rebel Hiss" for instance with it. "

Aaron North on the Hagtstrom f-200p white on a post made December 07, 2009...

"This was one of the smaller guitars with a P-90 style pickup that I used for songs where the tuning was down half a step, or even down half a step and then drop-tuned. This guitar saw a lot of action on songs such as "Closer", "Getting Smaller", and "Piggy". This particular guitar, is the exact same one I'm seen playing first on the "Beside You In Time" DVD in "Love Is Not Enough"."

Aaron North on the Hagstrom Swede in black on a post made December 07, 2009..

"I used this model of Hagstrom guitars quite a bit with Nails. The couple of Black "Swede" models I had out on the road were designated as those for "Drop D" tuning. I used these on a ton of songs... "The Wretched", "Eraser", "Reptile", "Burn"... This particular guitar, is the specific one I'm playing in "Somewhat Damaged" on the "Beside You In Time" DVD, and even on there in the song "Beside You In Time". "

Used an old silverface "twin" in "the hand that feed you"

Aaron North about the Ehx Pog pedal, admist a post made December 07, 2009....

"What Nails song didn't I use this thing on? I got a couple of these from Electro-Harmonix quite awhile before they hit stores, and went hog-wild with 'em... Put 'em on any tune I possibly could: "The Line Begins To Blur", "Somewhat Damaged", "The Day The World Went Away", "Into The Void", "Mr. Self Destruct"... and on and on and on... If yer a guitar player, I don't need to explain how killer this pedal is."

Aaron North about the Ehx Holy Grail pedal, admist a post made December 07, 2009....

"Again... I used this pedal on more NIN songs than I didn't... So I'm not gonna sit here all day listing every song we played. This exact pedal even goes back to the "Penance Soiree" Icarus Line album, on which it was used a ton. Best and simplest reverb pedal available. Period."

Aaron North about the Snarling Dog "Super Bawl whine-o" wah pedal, admist a post made December 07, 2009....

"These have been the only wah pedals I've used on stage or in the studio for the last 8 or 9 years. This particular pedal was one that was impossible to be housed off-stage, and controlled via midi with Nails... So I had a rotation of a few of these going, which would all receive endless amounts of abuse night after night up there on stage with me. Again, I don't know which songs I DIDN'T use this pedal on. The first note you can hear me play on the "Beside You In Time" dvd, on "Love Is Not Enough", is me using this pedal. Practically every "solo" utilized this thing as well. "Gave Up", "Closer", "You Know What You Are?", "Starf---ers", "Ruiner", "Non-Entity"... and on and on all featured this pedal quite prominently."

Aarno North on the Line 6 Tap Tremelo pedal admist a post made on December 07 2009.....

"The best Tremolo guitar pedal available. Easily. Screw all that "boutique"/"vintage" nonsense... This does whatever you want it to. "With Teeth", "The Day The World Went Away", and a whole lotta noise after the ending of "Head Like A Hole" put this pedal to good use. A lot of other tunes did also, I just can't seem to remember many of them off the top of my head."

Aaron North on the Digitech Whammy pedal admist a post made December 07, 2009....

"Apart from using it on songs like "Reptile", "Heresy", "Down In It", "With Teeth", etc... This very pedal was also responsible for all the ruckus at the beginning of the Icarus Line "Penance Soiree" album. The sound of about 47 different pedals feeding into this one, and then "dive-bombing" in time with the drum hits came courtesy of this lil sucker."

Aaron North on the Boss PH-3 phase-shifter pedal, on a post made December 07, 2009....

"I used this pedal on songs such as "The Wretched", "Please", and "We're In This Together". I also used it quite a bit in The Icarus Line on songs including "Feed A Cat To Your Cobra", "You Make Me Nervous, "Spit On It", and "Caviar". "

Aaron North on the Boss SD-1 Super OverDrive pedal, on a post made December 07, 2009...

"The only Boss distortion pedal I've ever found a need or a place for. At subtle settings, it gave me that extra grit I needed on songs like "Eraser", "Hand That Feeds", and "Burn"... including many others."

Aaron North on the Boss DD-3 Digital Delay on a post made December 07, 2009..

"I actually used two of these live with NIN. One of them was set up as a short delay for a "slapback" effect, and the other as a longer delay. I used this pedal on many, many songs with Nine Inch Nails, including: "Head Like A Hole", "Terrible Lie", "Eraser", "Only", "Wish", and "Burn". I also think I used this on just about every Icarus Line song I can think of. Ha. "Feed A Cat To Your Cobra", "Spit On It", "Caviar"... Damn, all of 'em? I always felt kinda silly for being so devoted to this particular delay, until we did a tour with Bauhaus, and Daniel Ash had the exact same one on his pedal-board, and swore by it too. Actually... Because I've always kept the long delay settings in the exact same position for years... Occasionally, when it was time for me to play a "shoegazey/psych" solo type thing in a Nails song... I'd just play a solo I wrote for The Icarus Line over it, just to keep myself entertained. I think I did that quite often on "The Day The World Went Away"... Just playing my solo for "Getting Bright At Night" on top of it. On other songs, I'd slip in some Love And Rockets, The Stooges, or 13th Floor Elevators parts here and there. Nobody ever seemed to notice or call me on it. Hmmm. Anyway, whatever... This is a cool pedal. Ha."

Aaron North on the Zvex Octance 3 on a post made December 07, 2009...

"About as over the top of a fuzz pedal you can find... Kinda like an old Octavia, but on steroids. This pedal toured the world with me many times over, yet is still in EXCELLENT working condition. In fact, because like all of my other pedals, again, they were housed in that large rackmount case off-stage, and then switched on and off via midi on my "Ground Control" unit on stage, it looks almost BRAND NEW. It even includes the original box. I used this pedal on many, many songs, including: "Wish" "Only", "The Hand That Feeds" "Gave Up", and "Closer" just to name a few. You can also distinctly hear me using this pedal on some Icarus Line tunes such as "Party The Baby Off", and "On The Lash"."