Rig Rundown: Alluvial’s Wes Hauch & Tim Walker

Full Rig Details: Subscribe to PG’s Channel: Being in a band can be a mercurial experience. Internal combustion and outside factors can make any promising group crash and burn before reaching cruising altitude. Plus, it’s never been easier to replace bothersome bandmates with plugins and software. So in 2015, Wes Hauch paused all his various death-metal day jobs (formerly with the Faceless, Thy Art Is Murder, Glass Casket, and Black Crown Initiate) and started Alluvial as a brain break and artistic challenge to scratch itches previously unreachable. “I started to think about putting a band together that was everything that I missed about what wasn’t going on in heavy music,” Hauch told PG in 2021. He teamed up with fellow shredder Keith Merrow and the duo put their darkest emotions into the instrumental project. They built everything from the ground up and The Deep Longing for Annihilation was self-released in 2017. It (beautifully) bludgeoned the ears of Animals as Leaders’ Javier Reyes, who wanted to take out Alluvial on tour. And now Hauch needed a band… his band. While writing his next batch of material that would ultimately evolve into 2021’s Sarcoma (released on Nuclear Blast), Hauch recruited singer Kevin Muller (Suffocation and The Merciless Concept) and drummer Matt Guglielmo to fill everything out. The results are like someone dropped a Shelby GT500 inside an excavator primed to pummel granite. Death metal might be its blanket, but there’s more lurking under the covers. The second album has moments of blitzkrieg (“Sarcoma”), allusions to Greg Ginn playing in an extreme metal band (“The Putrid Sunrise”), and even hallucinatory respites (“40 Stories”). “I’m always trying to find something that’s a different sort of rhythmic motif for metal, just to see if it’s going to work, and if it’s going to make people feel it, or if it’s going to make me feel it,” stated Hauch. Now Alluvial is a full four horsemen with bassist Tim Walker and drummer Zach Dean, who both have been playing live with Hauch and Muller and contributed to their forthcoming EP Death Is But A Door. “I wanted to have a band where we can write meaningful yet action-packed songs. Something that is terrifying but breaks your heart at the same time. I think we’ll always chase that, but we want to find new ways to be heavy” Hauch reflected. Alluvial seems to be avoiding any turbulence during their ascent with just one thing in mind: gatherings through gain. “I want to go play with everyone … all the people that enjoy the message that’s usually coupled with that distorted guitar,” said Hauch. “And for anyone who’s checking this out, I want to say thank you, because it’s hard to get anyone to participate in your art these days. The fact that people are, I’m very grateful.” Ahead of Alluvial’s opening slot supporting Intervals and Tesseract at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl, founding guitarist (and lead headbanger) Wes Hauch and bassist Tim Walker welcomed PG’s Chris Kies onstage to explore their tools of destruction. Hauch highlighted his main 7-string Ibanez shred sticks—including his signature set of Seymour Duncan Jupiter Rails humbuckers—and detailed the great lengths he went to capture his favorite Boogie and Friedman sounds in his Kemper for the band’s “get-the-fuck-out-of-the-way rig.” Then Walker quickly spotlighted his Ibanez blackout 5-string bass—and the mods he’s made—plus explained the motive behind matching a rackmount Helix with a fridge-sized Ampeg 6x10. Full Rig Details: Subscribe to PG’s Channel: Win Guitar Gear: Don’t Miss a Rundown: Merch & Magazines: PG’s Facebook: PG’s Instagram: PG’s Twitter: PG’s Threads: @premierguitar PG’s TikTok: @premierguitar [Brought to you by D’Addario: ] 0:00 - D’Addario When You Know You Know 0:15 - Alluvial Wes Hauch Playing Intro 0:37 - Chris Kies & Wes Hauch Introduction 1:09 - Ibanez LA Custom Iceman 7-string 27“ 3:01 - Seymour Duncan Wes Hauch Jupiter 5:01 - Wes Hauch’s Strings 5:58 - 27“ Scale Length & Iceman Shape 8:47 - Designing Jupiter with Seymour Duncan 12:04 - Ibanez LA Custom Iceman 7-String 25.5“ 14:00 - Sustainiac Neck Pickup 15:27 - Wes Hauch’s Ibanez Prestige RG2027XL 18:30 - Wes Hauch’s Kemper Models & Settings 23:10 - Tim Walker’s Ibanez Iron Label BTB652EX 24:29 - Tim Walker’s Strings & Picks 25:49 - Tim Walker’s Helix Settings 28:11 - Tim Walker’s Ampeg 6x10 © Copyright Gearhead Communications LLC, 2023 #guitar #rigrundown #deathmetal #heavymetal #guitarist #guitarplayer #guitarrig #rig #weshauch #seymourduncan #alluvial