Scott Holiday

Scott holiday said in an interview "A lot you might have seen this, I used it all over [Rival Son's second album, 2012's] Head Down, for the tour. It's by my favourite builder and it's one of my favourite guitars.

These pickups were actually wound for me by a great guy named Chris Klein [of Klein Pickups] and they've got original '50s Gibson magnets and they're also like a mini-humbucker. It's also got custom pinstripes, which are kind of fun and kind of cool."

Scott Holiday says in this video, “This firebird, I actually bought it before I ever touched it, which is never a smart thing to do, but I had finished our first record, Before the Fire, and used a gaggle of guitars, old Teles, and Esquires, and Strats, and Les Pauls, and just a whole bunch of instruments, never a Firebird though. When I went to go back and play the songs on the record, nothing I had was really defining what I wanted to do. Like it wouldn’t make the sounds of the record. So I started to look for a new guitar and I came across this one. I live in California and I found one online in T-Neck, New Jersey.

It’s a 1999 Custom Shop historic of a 1965 Firebird. And I’ve replaced the pickups with a friend of mine’s pickups. His name is Tom Short. Kind of puts a, it’s not quite a firebird, it’s like a mini-humbucker version in a Firebird cap that he does. He does them for Mark Ford and quite a few other guys.

I use all the settings on all the pickups. I had all the wiring redone, it’s basically like a Les Paul. So I can turn the middle pickup on at any time, off a pop, and then I have one volume for the other two. At any time I can get all three going, or any two, or any configuration. I use all the configurations and kind of change it up nightly with how the room feels and how things feel.

As much as I want to use that vibrato, I just really don’t trust it. The maestro is one of the most tuneful vibratos, and definitely the coolest looking, but probably not the trustiest, so I never use it. I just tuck the bar back.

That Firebird is a real man’s guitar. My wife plays as well, and this guitar just feels like a gigantic machine to her. She can’t really touch it. It’s got a really big neck. It’s quite heavy, the instrument. It’s not really long scale, but it feels long scale from the scale of how the guitar is. It’s a real rock and roll machine. I love it. It’s my number one. This is the guitar I use the most on stage, definitely.”

Scott Holiday says at 1:46, “This is my number two. It is a 1962 Fender Jazzmaster, obviously refinned. Probably in 1963. It’s really road-worn too, it actually came with these knobs and as you see it. I love this guitar. She is very lovely. I play a lot of slide on it. The only thing I’ve done to this guitar, aside from beat it up more than it already is, is I put a set of Lollar P-90s in it, which are lovely. I have the originals, but they are quite thin and kind of like surf guitar sounding. I used them for a while, but right when I dropped these in, it was wonderful.”

In a MusicRadar video, Scott Holiday mentions at 3:57 that he uses a Gretsch G6134 White Penguin in the studio, which belongs to his producer. Despite this, he identifies himself as a Firebird enthusiast, reflecting his personal guitar collection.

Scott holiday said in an interview: "I used a good portion of my live rig in the studio but there were some specific pieces that we used on the record that I don’t use live. It was because our producer (Dave Cobb) owned it and it was great stuff. Just before we came into the studio he came in with a Gretsch Masterbuilt White Penguin. It was aged from the custom shop and I used that all over the record. It’s a wonderful guitar."

"The first track you hear is a ’66 Telecaster into a mid-’60s Vox Berkeley, which is a solid-state Vox with reverb."

In this source video, Scott Holiday recalles the usage of the 1965 Non Reverse Firebird I guitar.

In this photo, Scott can be seen playing a Meloduende Custom B-Bones

In this photo, Scott Holiday can be seen playing a Fano GF6.

"He’s got a stellar guitar collection. I’ll use his 1960 ES-335 as well as his Gretsch White Penguin, along with all my stuff. In the beginning, we find the guitar/ amp setup that is the general sound of the record and we’ll go from there. We work with that setup until we feel something needs to be changed. It’s really easy, actually. I can pretty much stumble and fall on a great guitar."

"I also played an old Harmony Rocket—Dave Davies used one with the Kinks—with the DeArmond screen pickups. It’s a great, coolsounding 335-style guitar, but totally hollow."

I am so pleased to introduce this beautiful new instrument presented to me by my good friends at @meloduendeguitars . Appropriately named "Penny" by my daughter. We worked on ideas and details over the last year to come up with this beautiful and exquisite design. These guys are truly in a league of their own. #mightbethecoolestguitarever

Scott is seen playing this guitar on Rival Sons' Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=407221850769080&set=a.288620075962592

Full story about how Scott initiated this guitar one Kauer website: https://www.kauerguitars.com/double-the-fun

This new semi hollow features our biggest ever 15.5" wide semi hollow body featuring our I beam internal construction, Spanish Mahogany core and neck with Maple or Spanish Mahogany front and back plates. Huge, giant sound that is both unrivaled in lineup for clarity and punch.

Specs:

Spanish Mahogany core and 24.75" scale neck. Wenge fretboard, Kauer "script" logo headstock

Available with Wolfetone, TV Jones or Lollar pickups

Sperzel Locking Tuners, Emerson Custom Pots, Dunlop Straplock ready buttons standard

Kauer Super Chief Artists

• Scott Holiday / Rival Sons
• Josh Ramsay / Marianas Trench
• Will Swan / Dance Gavin Dance

Source here.

I saw them live on the Feral Roots Tour in Atlanta and he used this guitar multiple times. He seems to prefer it for the more pulled back stuff, namely Feral Roots and Face of Light. Leading into Face of Light he jammed on the guitar for probably around two minutes while the rest of the band took a break. Switched between both necks rather often, getting good use out of the functionality of this guitar. He was not playing the acoustic parts to Feral Roots on this though, Jay had an acoustic guitar and was playing those parts.