Greg Ginn's Gear

Llevo una buena temporada "investigando" sobre Black Flag. Fueron un grupo clave en los ochenta e influyeron enormemente a la "generación grunge". No solo en la música, sino en cómo hacer las cosas. Hay miles de lecturas sobre Black Flag, así que no voy a hacer una "presentación" del grupo, pero sí me gustaría decir que influyeron muchísimo a Melvins, Nirvana y a muchos de los grupos del "desert rock", especialmente a Kyuss-Queens of the stone age. En su sello sacaron discos Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Meat Puppets, Minutemen, Soundgarden y fueron pioneros en organizar conciertos por sí mismos y crear un circuito independiente.
A lo que venía, un pequeño resumen (textos "robados" de distintos sitios) de los cacharros que usaba-usa Greg Ginn:

Greg Ginn

     
"He (Greg Ginn) had no volume setting on his guitar, just an on/off switch.  That's how the guy is-either asleep or all over you like a cheap suit.  Whenever he turned the switch on, it'd feed-back.  If you hear those early Flag records, every time a song would begin, you'd hear that screech because that was him turning his guitar on....."

Henry Rollins on Greg Ginn

"American Hardcore: A Tribal History"

by, Steven Blush

Photo courtesy of Glen E. Friedman

"Fuck You Too"

 "Robo's drum kit itself had also impressed his new band mates; made of transparent Perspex, not only was it visually striking, it made for a perfect match with Greg's guitar.  Fashioned in Lucite, Ginn's Ampeg Dan Armstrong six string would, in time, become iconic, indelibly linked with the guitarist."  But, says Joe Carducci, "Greg's guitar was one of the derelict models, no one seriously used that kind of guitar back then.  It was considered a piece of shit.  Greg had to customize it, for a number of reasons.  They played so often, and Greg exerted himself so much, that he had to caulk it so his sweat wouldn't seep into the eclectronics."

     The Dan Armstrong gave Ginn an opportunity to indulge both his passion for music and for electronics.  "I remember seeing him soldering on his guitar during the gig once," continues Carducci.  "Something went wrong, and so he opened the guitar up while the band jammed along with whatever song they were playing.  He was soldering a live guitar, so it was making all kinds of crazy noises.  It was accidental, but it was a testament to his skill at operating on his own instrument, and getting it into gear.  He had to hard-wire the cord into the guitar, so if kids ran behind him onstage, they'd pull the cord out of the amp instead of out of the guitar-because that would break the guitar, pull the socket out and wreck the electronics inside.  He'd much rather lose an amp-head than a guitar."

Joe Carducci on Greg Ginn

"Spray Paint The Walls: The Story of Black Flag"

by, Stevie Chick

November 21, 1981-Riverside CA

     "This was one of Greg's bad equipment nights.  He would often have problems with his gear- amps smoking and shorting out: His shit started frying during the middle of the set on this night.  He sat down on the stage with a soldering iron and started to work while the rest of us kept going.  We were doing what we called the "Trudge Riff" at the time.  It didn't have any lyrics.  I looked over at Chuck for some advice as to what to do.  He said, "Just scream!"  So I started screaming.  Greg wrote real lyrics to the song later on and the song title was changed to "Scream".

Henry Rollins

"Get In The Van: On the Road with Black Flag"

Photo courtesy of Glen E. Friedman

"Fuck You Too"

Saw Black Flag last night... (Greg Ginn's gear  http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=1313774)

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Yep, can't believe Black Flag made their way to my neck of the woods. They played at a club that holds maybe 250-300. The opening band was Good For You which consisted of pro skater Mike V on vocals and the musicians from Black Flag. It was interesting (in the best possible way) to watch the band play two sets with two different singers. Fun times.

Here are some (blurry)shots of Greg Ginn's guitar rig. He used a Theramin a few times throughout the show to make crazy feedback noises. 
His pedal setup was just an A/B switcher and a Sans Amp Bass Driver. 
The speakers looked like no name pawn shop speakers and his amp was just a Sans Amp Head of some kind. Not sure of the exact specs. 
I asked him about his guitar after the show and he said it was basically a partsocaster with a graphite neck and a single humbucker pickup with only a volume knob. Enjoy!