Cold Cave, the post-punk and darkwave project of Wesley Eisold, will be selling their eclectic and well-loved gear on May 17. The gear spans Cold Cave’s lifecycle, from the studio to the stage. Each piece was chosen for a reason—from aesthetic to sonic—and has played a role in the band’s look and sound, which is heavily inspired by groups like Depeche Mode and New Order. Check out the The Official Cold Cave Reverb Shop here.
Cold Cave has never sold a cache of gear before. With a new studio in the works, though, Eisold and his partner and longtime Cold Cave member Amy Lee have decided to reassess their collection.
“We're thinking about what's going to fit into this new room aesthetically and what's gonna work for us,” said Eisold. “Plus, the shows that we've been playing post-pandemic are mostly fly-ins. We haven't done a normal tour in forever. We're just flying in somewhere once a month. It's changing the way we're thinking about our gear.”
Among the gear in the shop is a beautiful collection of Italian-made 1960s Vox guitars, including a Spitfire, Country Western, and a Panther bass. Originally attracted to these models because of the black headstocks, the band has come to love them for their built-in effects and thin necks.
“We do a lot of our stage sets direct, so those kinds of effects help. You can just turn on distortion with a little switch. If you're going direct, it's a rich sound.”
Other gear in the shop includes:
- An ARP Solina String Ensemble— “The Solina is my favorite thing I've ever owned,” said Eisold. “I've used it on pretty much everything. I can just hold a chord down, and it sounds angelic.”
- A rare red variant of the Roland SH-101—”I bought this in 2008, opened it, and 20 minutes later had the song ‘Cebe and Me’ that opens the Love Comes Close record,” said Eisold. “It was also used on tours around then and again in 2014 on tour with Nine Inch Nails.”
- A Roland Space Echo—”This is one of our favorite pieces from the last decade,” said Eisold. “We ran synths and vocals through it on several recordings and was last used on the song ‘Psalm 23.’”
- A Korg MicroKorg— “Amy and I used this live for years,” said Eisold. “We used to put them in a shoulder bag for fly-in shows. It’s been to China, Nepal, and Thailand and was used on the tour when we supported Nine Inch Nails.”
- A Casio SK-1, which was the main synth for Cold Cave’s 2014 full-length . ``We've never found anything that replaces [the Casio’s] terrible sound,” said Lee.
- An original EDP Wasp, which Cold Cave used for live noise generation from 2013-2014 and on several recordings over the years.
Check out the The Official Cold Cave Reverb Shop here.