Many musicians cite many players as influential; many players develop their skill and talent from an early age, many people look at another guitarist in awe, simply dumbfounded at how someone can play a guitar in the way they do.
Alex Hutchings is a player who is all the above.
Regarded as one of the most unique players of his generation. A man who has travelled the globe for nigh on 20 years, playing, showcasing and performing his unique and incredible talent. So, we thought, no time like the present for us to showcase Alex and his skills across a three date UK tour in association with Ibanez UK and UK retailer GuitarGuitar.
Starting at GuitarGuitar Birmingham, then on to GuitarGuitar Epsom and finally up top to GuitarGuitar Edingburgh.
Starting with a rain drenched night in our hometown of Birmingham (we promised Alex that it doesn’t always rain in Brum), the audience still arrived in their droves to see the guitar master at work. In Epsom the crowd were eager and packed the space for 90 minutes of tone and talks and not to be outdone by our cousins across the border, the crowd in Edinburgh were queuing around the building in anticipation to see and hear the man himself play into the night. Alex has played different Laney Amplifiers across his decade as a Laney artist, something he wanted to show to the attendees.
So, Alex had two rigs, firstly his main ‘go-to’ rig consisting of a Laney Ironheart IRT120H, a head usually matched with a 4×12 cabinet (GS412VR or GS412IA) but for these clinics matched with a 2×12 Laney GS212IE (loaded with Custom Designed HH 12” Drivers) seeing as we didn’t want to blow everyone’s heads off after the first note.
The second rig was another of Alex’s favourite Laney rigs, the Laney Lionheart L20H with a LT212 cabinet (loaded with Celestion Greenback 12” Drivers), but we will come back to the Lionheart and how he uses it a bit further down.
For the Ironheart rig, the head Alex used is the actual one toured with Steven Wilson on his world tour where Alex was the lead guitarist. We wanted to use this exact head as it has been serviced just two times in the ten years Alex has had it, proving that if you want reliability in a real valve amp, then Laney is the choice! The phrase ‘a real workhorse’ is far overused in the music trade but the proof is in the pudding when it comes to the Ironheart, they just go, and go, and go!
Alex used his Ironheart with a Roland GT1000 pedalboard, the tech-savvy reader may think “hang on, that’s a board that offers tones, is Alex cheating?” the answer is he uses the GT1000 as a MIDI controller, along with a Voodoo Labs switcher to replace the Ironheart footswitch (FS4-IRT) and the fabled ‘Four Cable Method’ out of the board, this allows Alex to control the three different channels on the IRT120H and the built in boost across any of the channel tone options he chooses. Sounds complex, but it essentially gives the option of one button/switch on the board per channel (Clean, Rhythm, Lead) with a separate button/switch for the boost which can be activated on any channel.
You’ll also notice atop of Alex’s Ironheart IRT120H is a Boss Waza Tube Amp Expander, this is an attenuator for the Ironheart, allowing Alex to push the head at high power, tricking the head into thinking it is needs to push to the cab harder than it actually does, a smart way of getting a big half stack ‘loud tone’ when playing smaller spaces like a clinic tour inside music shops!
Across to stage left and we have the beautiful Laney Lionheart half stack, comprising of an L20H and LT212, the L20H is the 20w two channel valve head with built in reverb (little known fact, it’s actually the plate reverb from the Black Country Customs Secret Path Reverb Pedal), this amp is used in a unique way during the clinic. Alex explains the complexity of the Ironheart rig and then unplugs, takes a single guitar cable and plugs directly into the Lionheart head. This showcases the pure and raw potential that the Lionheart offers, a traditional amplifier without overcomplication. Two channels, slight break-up, large headroom and some luscious reverb.
It wasn’t just the pure tones of the Lionheart and Ironheart on show, Alex wowed the crowds with some fine examples of tone and timing showcasing the new Black Country Customs The Difference Engine Delay Pedal. Offering its sounds from Analogue, Digital and Dynamic along with a fun routine and lesson in timing.
All in all, a great tour was had, and for those who attended a huge thank you for coming along, we hope you learnt something and got to expand your musical thinking thanks to the genius that is Alex Hutchings.
A massive thank you to all involved at GuitarGuitar at each of the respective stores and the guys back at head office for helping with so much more than just the clinics.
For those who didn’t get to come this time, we hope you got to come along at a future clinic with Alex if not in the UK, somewhere in the world near you!
