Rig Rundown - God Is an Astronaut

Article and photos: Premier Guitar’s Chris Kies visits Nashville’s Exit/In before God Is an Astronaut’s gig to hang with guitarists Torsten Kinsella and Jamie Dean and bassist Niels Kinsella to talk semi-hollowbodies, complex modeling rigs, and why felt picks rule. The only guitar that Torsten Kinsella brought on the road to the U.S. is this 1968 Gibson ES-345 that he modded by putting in Curtis Novak humbuckers with a switch mounted under the pickguard so he can split the neck pickup for single-coil tones. In the past, Torsten has been associated with Gibson Les Pauls and Fender Strats, but feels his 345 gives him the aggression of a LP but still allows him to get sparkly clean sounds like a Strat. For strings, he goes with Ernie Ball Slinky Skinny Top Heavy Bottom .. Like Torsten, guitarist/keyboardist Jamie Dean travels light when it comes to his road-dog 6-string, a 1985 Yamaha SA800 that he bought b