Modest Mouse hardly need an introduction. After 30 years of releasing critically acclaimed and best selling albums, the band has amassed a stash of gear that's been around the world a few times over. Now, they're passing on that same gear to their fans in The Official Modest Mouse Reverb Shop, launching September 21.
In the shop, Modest Mouse are selling gear from almost all of their studio albums and tours, including records like This is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About, The Lonesome Crowded West, and more.
Among the gear, the shop will include a pair of Fender Super Six guitar combos, which provided the definitive sound of everything Modest Mouse up to 2001. "These were easy to find in the 1990s as they are the most awkward combo amp ever made," said the band.
"We dragged these amps all around the world for the first 10 years of the band, and they were used on the This Is A Long Drive, The Lonesome Crowded West, Interstate 8, and Building Nothing Out Of Something recordings and tours. If these two Fender Super Sixes could speak, they would be advised to keep their mouths shut."
The shop will also feature:
- A Magnatone M20 amplifier that the band picked up on a US tour 10 years ago. "One of the most complicated guitar amplifiers anyone has ever seen," said the band. "It is believed that this is actually the prototype of the first Magnatone M20 from the factory. The multi instrument amp features five separate channels, reverb, vibrato and stereo vibrato. This was a tool that was used when we were cooking up the sounds for 'Fuck Your Acid Trip' from The Golden Casket."
- A set of Tannoy Super Gold monitors that came to the band from legendary mastering engineer Doug Sax at the Mastering Lab. "Doug liked to spin a tale about the special sauce that he modified his sets of monitors with to get them to his high specifications," they said. "This pair had just come out of Ed Cherney's 'Studio Ed' at The Village in Los Angeles where Ed worked with Iggy Pop, Bonnie Raitt, Sting, Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Wynton Marsalis, Buddy Guy, and many more."
- A Wunder Audio console purchased new from the company in 2012. "We have used the console in one way or another on everything Modest Mouse has done in the last 10 years from Strangers to Ourselves to The Golden Casket," they said. "There is no better feeling than moving physical faders up and down or turning the big red knob 'til it makes your ears bleed, which is why we bought two of them."
- A pair of Line 6 Variax Acoustic 700s, which were used extensively on the Good News For People Who Like Bad News and We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank tours from 2005 to 2010. "There was always an effort to get the best acoustic tone live on stage, and these offer lots of options and adjustments as the venues changed," they said.
- A Yamaha DS-49 that's been painted teal and has "Modest Mouse" stenciled on the top.
"Much of this gear is vintage and we are not the first owners," said the band. "All of this gear is worthy of someone's time and effort to extract the art from its core. We gave it some time and energy, some pieces produced success, some did not. It's someone else's turn now to have a go."