Paul Masvidal

Q: You have been playing Steinberger's for quite a while. You have some older models along with the new ZT3. Can you give us a little information about your Steinberger's and what you like about them?

GR4R - I customized this one with an internal Roland synth pickup and a Bareknuckle Miracle Man in the bridge and Trilogy Suite single coils. It's my 'Stein-Mod' guitar that's kinda of a constant work in progress. The guitar is really 'broken in' now and feels great. I have 11's on this one which makes for a solid rhythm instrument for Cynic's complex riffs.

"Selling my handsome red ZT3! I ?? this guitar but already have another in my collection. DM me if interested!"

In the Instagram comments section of this post, Masvidal confirms that the pickups on his Strandberg are the Dunable Direwolfs.

FEATURED ARTIST PEDALBOARDS:

"Paul Masvidal will now be touring using BIAS FX and his trusty Strandberg for all his live performances with Cynic.

Paul Masvidal’s custom presets: • Paul Cynic clean 1 • Paul Cynic dirty rhythm 1"

-Positive Grid

"I pretty much borrowed the rig from Tosin [Abasi] and Javier [Reyes] of Animals As Leaders [laughs]. I actually used the Axe 2, which I also borrowed from a friend of mine. He had this cabinet set up with different things that were kind of interesting."

"I have a new signature guitar from Varberg called the Masvidalien. It’s just coming out now. I used that on the whole record. Then there’s another Varberg, the Warbird model, which I also used. But it’s a different guitar setup for this album, which was big for me because I was a Steinberger guy for many years. Now I’m totally in a different place with that, and that definitely affected things."

Q: You have been playing Steinberger's for quite a while. You have some older models along with the new ZT3. Can you give us a little information about your Steinberger's and what you like about them?

GM4T - Black w/ white binding, TransTrem and EMG's. For me this is the classic Steinberger and it just feels like the equivalent to a Steinway Concert Grand in the piano world. A precious guitar that sounds and feels like a million bucks.

Gear Gods: Whenever I get the chance to talk to bands that were playing years and years ago, I think about how the tones that were available then were so different, and so much more limited. Cynic was trailblazing the ability to jump between so many different genres, which was a lot harder to do back in the early ‘90s. What were you and Jason playing through on the Focus tours? And how difficult was it to achieve the breadth of tones?

Paul Masvidal: Was I running an MP-1? I think I was. Yeah, at that time I was a rack guy. I had a 15-space rackmount. My main preamp was an ADA MP-1 and I used an ADA midi controller. I had a Roland GM-70 guitar synth, which was really cool back then because it had Portamento [pitch glide between notes, instead of set intervals]. You could assign custom midi controllers to the unit on your guitar. It was just really hip for its time. It was very clunky in terms of a big, bulky thing, but what you could do with it was phenomenal. It just had this natural, flawed, organic kind of thing that was very cool at the time.

Paul Masvidal from Cynic demonstrates his signature chorus pedal by Pro Tone.

Masvidal played this guitar through his teenage years. This is the 1980 Gibson V2 and Masvidal still owns the guitar!

You’ve been around in the scene for a number of years. There have been advances in technology, especially in live performance. Has that aspect affected your musicianship in any way? I’ve always been a gearhead and a technology nut. So I did use the Ultra on this record for a lot of it. I also used some organic amps. I pretty much borrowed the rig from Tosin [Abasi] and Javier [Reyes] of Animals As Leaders [laughs]. I actually used the Axe 2, which I also borrowed from a friend of mine. He had this cabinet set up with different things that were kind of interesting.

Gear Gods: Whenever I get the chance to talk to bands that were playing years and years ago, I think about how the tones that were available then were so different, and so much more limited. Cynic was trailblazing the ability to jump between so many different genres, which was a lot harder to do back in the early ‘90s. What were you and Jason playing through on the Focus tours? And how difficult was it to achieve the breadth of tones?

Paul Masvidal: Was I running an MP-1? I think I was. Yeah, at that time I was a rack guy. I had a 15-space rackmount. My main preamp was an ADA MP-1 and I used an ADA midi controller. I had a Roland GM-70 guitar synth, which was really cool back then because it had Portamento [pitch glide between notes, instead of set intervals]. You could assign custom midi controllers to the unit on your guitar. It was just really hip for its time. It was very clunky in terms of a big, bulky thing, but what you could do with it was phenomenal. It just had this natural, flawed, organic kind of thing that was very cool at the time.

And I had a Digitech, and then a Rane: different EQs that were programmable. So the EQs were constantly changing the guitar synth. And then with the guitar synth I had a, I think, a Yamaha TX 81Z, which was an FM analog old-school synth module. And I think I was using a Rocktron Intellifex back then. I had a bunch of different stuff, and it was all interacting. It was kind of a midi nightmare, but it was functional.

Gear Gods: Whenever I get the chance to talk to bands that were playing years and years ago, I think about how the tones that were available then were so different, and so much more limited. Cynic was trailblazing the ability to jump between so many different genres, which was a lot harder to do back in the early ‘90s. What were you and Jason playing through on the Focus tours? And how difficult was it to achieve the breadth of tones?

Paul Masvidal: Was I running an MP-1? I think I was. Yeah, at that time I was a rack guy. I had a 15-space rackmount. My main preamp was an ADA MP-1 and I used an ADA midi controller. I had a Roland GM-70 guitar synth, which was really cool back then because it had Portamento [pitch glide between notes, instead of set intervals]. You could assign custom midi controllers to the unit on your guitar. It was just really hip for its time. It was very clunky in terms of a big, bulky thing, but what you could do with it was phenomenal. It just had this natural, flawed, organic kind of thing that was very cool at the time.

And I had a Digitech, and then a Rane: different EQs that were programmable. So the EQs were constantly changing the guitar synth. And then with the guitar synth I had a, I think, a Yamaha TX 81Z, which was an FM analog old-school synth module. And I think I was using a Rocktron Intellifex back then. I had a bunch of different stuff, and it was all interacting. It was kind of a midi nightmare, but it was functional.

"The wondrous U47 mic, a library, and a great songwriter. Producing a record for NYC artist Jacob Benson!"

In the video you can see the review of the guitar by Paul himself

In a YouTube video by Positive Grid, Paul Masvidal from Cynic discusses his use of the Positive Grid BIAS AMP 2.

"UAD's Apollo & Bias FX in the studio sounding killer!"

Although Masvidal didn't say which Martin model is that, after some research, this turned out to be the 1953 Martin D-28.

"I love @cleartonestrings! These strings are the best, seriously. Thnx guys!!"

"Loving this 80's Casio midi guitar!"

In this photo, Masvidal's Carvin CL450 acoustic nylon guitar can be seen.

According to D'Addario's website, guitarist Paul Masvidal uses D'Addario XS Nickel Electric Guitar Strings 10-52.