Sound Garage Tales

It is a special thing to have the amps I build with a guitar player in a major band but it is really special to have all guitar players of the same major band using them! You know that people out there appreciate your amps when my good friends and guitar players Mike Scheuchzer and Barry Graul of MercyMe, surprised me one day with a package at my door with this superb Gold Commemorative Disc presented to myself! HUGE THANKS Mike, Barry and MercyMe folks!

Michael plays one of the very earliest (2005) Gabriel V18 heads and glad to report that it is still going strong after miles of sound and road logged on it! Later on (2007), Barry Graul, the other guitar player in the band, got his Gabriel V33 Heads so now literally all guitars you hear on MercyMe’s records (and majority of their live concerts) from “Coming Up To Breathe” have Gabriel Amps written all over them.

Michael Scheuchzer’s Amps

Michael owns one of the first Gabriel v18 heads driven through a 2×12″ open back cabinet loaded with a Celestion AlNiCo Blue G12 and a Greenback G12M. He is using this as his tour rig, so, stay on the lookout if you happen to go to one of their concerts, chances are that the Bumblebee color scheme of the V18 Head will stand out on the stage. He also owns a 1×10″ custom made Gabriel V18 LowCarb combo that features the Normal Channel of the full V18 amps. Same versatile character as the full V18 amps packed in a light-weight 1×12″ combo box, Mike is using this one for recordings.

In Michael’s earliest shows (2005) he was using the V18 rig for all things overdriven in conjunction with  a Green amp responsible for all clean tones:

Listen to one of Mike’s phone messages about the amps:

These amps are so great to record with…we’re in a studio FULL of great amps at our disposal. So far I’ve only used my ’66 AC30 on 1 song and everything else so far has been my V18, or my new LoCarb 1×10!!! We actually used the little guy on Jim’s Wurli too and it sounded amazing!!!!
thanks for getting that amp to me so quick!!!

Barry Graul’s V33 Gabriel Amp

Barry Graul (Halo, Whiteheart, DC Talk, Michael Sweet), who joined MercyMe in 2003 is using a Gabriel V33 Head driven through a 2×12″ Marshall bottom. The V33 has a tad more bite to the tone with a little more headroom compared to the V18. He is using a 1969 Marshall head in conjunction with the Gabriel V33 head.

Here is Barry’s current tour rig (image courtesy of Steve Kneprath of KPS Media):

Being a fan of higher wattage amps, I was extremely excited to hear Gabi was making the V33. I was not let down. I love having 2 usable channels and really being able to hear the difference between them. This amp rocks!!! When I want a chimey sound it’s there. When I want a little more beef that’s a bit more round in tone, I have that too. And to make it even sweeter, my physical make up is 2/3 coffee, so I had to go with the cappuccino. Thanks for an awesome amp!

Read more: Bands and Artists, Head Amps, Voxer 18, Voxer 33. Subscribe to RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response.