Whether he’s scoring Hollywood blockbusters, touring with Marilyn Manson and Jerry Cantrell, or jamming at home, one amp never leaves Tyler Bates’ side. And he got it for free.
Before he made his name penning thousands of hours of TV and film, from Californication to Rob Zombie’s horror films and John Wick, Bates was a struggling guitar teacher. So when he was offered some gear, free of charge, he grabbed it with both hands.
“In the early ’90s, when I was playing clinics and NAMM shows, I met this guy who worked at Peavey,” he says in a new conversation with Guitar World. “He offered me some stuff, and I was broke, so I really appreciated it.”
Among his haul was a Peavey Classic 50 combo amp. The unassuming amplifier did little for him at first, but when he assembled his alt-rock band, Pet, it suddenly became his secret weapon.
“In Pet, I found it was the only way to get a distorted sound with some chime on top,” Bates continues. “Often I’d be playing two different guitar parts at once; one in the bass range with broken melodies on top. I’d split the signal with a modded Marshall stack, playing a Schecter Hellcat prototype.”
The combo shone in ways other amps couldn’t, and it’s carried through with him throughout his journeyman career, including a stint in Jerry Cantrell’s solo band.
“The Marshall didn’t serve the more ethereal guitar stuff,” he says of his scoring work. “So I always had this amp by my side. There’s no time to experiment, but I found a way to explore the versatility of the amp.
“But because the Peavey’s not super-saturated, all the little artifacts and weird kinks that I want to pop out are there,” he adds. “And it's really well articulated when it's not super-distorted. It’s on every Manson album I’ve done.”
Bates has played on four Manson albums, with the second part of the One Assassination Under God album series and his final record with the Pale Emperor set to release later this year. After that, he's stepping away to work on new projects, where his Peavey, as ever, will not be too far away.
“The music I’m making right now, I’m creating a story in my mind, and the visuals are going to follow me,” he explains. “So it’s an interesting role reversal. It’s not a score, and it’s not songs; it’s somewhere in between.”
His championing of the amp is another win for blue-collar champion Peavey, coming off the back of the Decade Too, a reprise of its tiny combo amp that has been fueling Josh Homme’s sound for years.
Guitar World’s full interview with Tyler Bates will be published later this month.
