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Artist Spotlight :: Tony Ash

Bio

Growing up in the Louisville, Kentucky area, Tony Ash was quickly immersed in the city's storied underground rock scene at a relatively young age, having caught legendary D.C. band Fugazi as a teenager and being immediately hooked. Picking up the guitar and playing in numerous local bands, including being one of the founding members of Louisville's own Coliseum, he eventually also picked up the bass and has since played in many notable acts, including Trophy Wives, Conan Neutron and the Secret Friends, and even Flipper for a one-off show. Currently he is playing bass in the Indianapolis-based band Service, which features Jilly Weiss-Simins (of We Are Hex) and Russell Simins (of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion) along with Brandon Beaver (also of We Are Hex) and Erica Strout (of Motherfucker and Gorgeous Beast), who are currently playing shows and working on their second album. He is also the guitarist and chief songwriter of the Louisville-based band Live Knives, which has just begun playing out and is heading into the studio soon.

What/Who inspired you to pick up your instrument?

I started out playing guitar, as so many do, when I was about 12 or so, so early 90s. Gradually, towards the end of high school, I started playing in various punk/hardcore bands in and around Louisville, Kentucky, on guitar. Sometime in the very early 2000s, some friends and I were trying to form our next band, but we couldn't seem to find a bassist who was available. So my bandmates kindly suggested that I, someone who had pretty much never touched a bass in my life, should switch to bass. I'm paraphrasing here, but when I argued that I didn't know how to play bass, the other guitarist explained 'It's easy. Whatever chord or note I'm playing, you play the same note but play a scale around it.' That was my one and only "lesson" ever, haha. He hung his bass, one of those insanely heavy Kramers from the 70s with the aluminum neck, on me. And I've been playing bass ever since.

What piece of musical advice would you give yourself if you could go back in time to the beginning of your musical journey?

That's hard to answer, because I truly feel like all roads I've taken, both good and bad, have led me to exactly where I am today, and, from a musical standpoint, I'm pretty thrilled with where I'm at currently. If anything, I might tell my younger self not to invest so much time in projects where all of the members involved don't necessarily have the same goals in mind.

What keeps you excited about playing?

Is there anything more exciting than getting loud onstage with your friends and having people actually get into it? If so, I haven't discovered it yet. As a fairly reserved and socially awkward person, playing music onstage is one of the only times in my life when I actually feel at home and all of my reservations and hangups just melt away. It's really intoxicating. As long as that feeling doesn't fade, I won't ever stop.

Desert Island 3 pedal pedalboard (not including tuner)

I feel like I have to give both the bass and the guitar version. Although, to be honest, I'm not a huge pedal guy, so this will be pretty easy. If we're talking bass: a Tech 21 Sansamp Bass Driver, a Proco Rat or clone of some sort, and any sort of Russian Big Muff variant that's not an actual EH/Sovtek model, because in my experience, they tend to break. That basically describes my current bass pedalboard exactly. For guitar: I'm currently way into this Klon clone by Piedmont Custom Electronics called the Aluminum Falcon. It has kicked so many wonderful-sounding overdrives off my board. So that's for sure. And...I occasionally like a little bit of tape-style delay, so I'd go with my favorite, the Catalinbread Belle Epoch. And maybe a Mosrite Fuzzrite, just for fun because I love that nasty '60s-style fuzz. I do own the Catalinbread version and it's really great.

When you find yourself in a musical rut, what techniques do you do to break out of it?

Sometimes you just have to know when to take a step back and do something else until the inspiration returns, because nothing good ever came from forcing anything. Honestly, if I'm not feeling particularly inspired, I'll just watch a movie, go swimming, anything to avoid dwelling on the musical dry spell. However, sometimes just going to the practice spot and playing fun riffs by other bands I like will get me inspired and will eventually lead to something totally new and unique. Inspiration can strike at the most unexpected times.

Who is your favorite artist/band today? And who was your favorite artist/band 10 years ago?

My favorite band right now is probably the Hellacopters. I'm always getting into all kinds of stuff (my most recent obsession is the album Pure Mania by the Vibrators), but I consistently listen to and enjoy the Hellacopters. Every component of that band, in my opinion, just works together perfectly, and the songs are SO good. Ten years ago, I was listening to the Stooges religiously. I mean, I still do, frankly! The self-titled debut, Funhouse, and Raw Power (my personal favorite) are ground zero for just about everything cool that followed.

When you find yourself in a music store, what is your go-to riff when test-driving gear?

If I'm picking up a bass in any store, the chances that I'm going to start playing either "Snow Job" by Rye Coalition, "Then Comes Dudley" by the Jesus Lizard, or a way sloppy rendition of "Nice and Sleazy" by the Stranglers are astronomically high, haha. If I'm grabbing a guitar off the wall, I'm probably playing AC/DC. "Live Wire" and "Riff Raff" are my usual go-tos.

What is your most prized/cherished piece of gear? And why?

My most cherished item is my 1983 Marshall JCM 800 2204 head. I've never heard a better-sounding amp. Many years ago when I was playing in Coliseum I owned a 1981 2203, and I very stupidly sold it after I left the band. I just figured I'd never own another since the prices have skyrocketed so much over the last few years. But I found this one a couple of years back on a road trip to Wisconsin, and I'm never letting it go.

What is the next big musical purchase you're hoping to save for?

Truthfully, there is nothing that I am lusting for at the moment. I've somehow managed to acquire all of my dream gear for both bass and guitar. If I were going to try for anything down the line, it might be a '70s Fender Precision Bass, one of the stupidly heavy ones where the necks are closer to Jazz Bass specs.

Gear Breakdown

For bass, I'm using an early 70's Ampeg SVT head into a 1979 Ampeg 8x10 cabinet. I love and play Fender basses pretty much exclusively, so I always go on the road with a sunburst Fender American Professional II Jazz Bass (my main) and a sunburst Fender American Professional II Precision Bass (my backup). For pedals, I plug into the tried and true Boss TU-3 tuner, into an Earthquaker Devices Cloven Hoof fuzz (the best bass fuzz I've ever used, can't believe they discontinued it), into a Proco FatRat, and finally into a Tech 21 Sansamp Bass Driver DI. The Rat and BDDI stay on all the time and sound awesome together.

For guitar: I'm using a 1983 Marshall JCM 800 2204 head into a Mojotone "British" slant 4x12 loaded with two Celestion Vintage 30's and two Celestion G12M-65 Creambacks in an X pattern. My two main guitars are both Burny RLC-70 Les Paul Custom replicas made in Japan, the main one is black and the backup is white. For pedals, I plug into a Fulltone Clyde Deluxe wah, into another Boss tuner, into a Piedmont Custom Electronics Aluminum Falcon (Klon clone) into a Catalinbread Belle Epoch delay.

Instrument, speaker and patch cables...all Rattlesnake. I love them and use them for everything because they're more durable than anything else I've tried and they look awesome. Especially the snake weave speaker cables!

Bands / Projects

Service (bass)
Live Knives (guitar)

Listen on Spotify

Social Links

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Reviews on Google

Kariem Ortiz-Vincenty
8/29/2020
Rattlesnake are the only cables I trust to make sure that I am ready and sounding right in practice, live, and in the studio. From the 4 cable method loom that Hank made for me to ultra sturdy speaker cables and "cannot believe more people don't use these" snakehead leads, every cable I get from... Read

Jeff Engelbert
2/5/2021
I've been a professional musician since the age of 19 (66 now). I've used every cable you can name. Mogami, D'Addario, Asterope, Armour Gold, ProCo, George L's, Lava and probably some I forgot. Ironically after seeing and hearing a great deal of buzz about Rattlesnake Cables I was in a music store in Boise, Idaho about 2 years ago and on a rack were some Rattlesnake Cables. I thought what the heck I would give it a try. When I got home I compared it to my Armour Gold, D'Addario American Stage and my Lava cable. No contest. The Rattlesnake cable was more balanced and had better cleaner more articulate mids, highs, and low frequency than all of the cables I was using. I also like the fact that the outside material is durable but not stiff. I now have at least 6 guitar cables in a variety of colors (I dig the Black Widow and Purple the most) and probably 18 patch cables of different lengths. The patch cables are now on my full size pedalboard, my alternate pedalboard, and my acoustic pedalboard. I'm done chasing the best sound for my guitar rigs I know I found it. THOUGHTS ABOUT THE SERVICE FROM Rattlesnake Cables: Hank and his team are terrific. They know it's a competitive world out there and there are so many choices in purchasing guitar cables and patch cables. Their Customer Service is 2nd to none. Always on time and most of the time exceed my expectations. I'm waiting for a curly cable throwback to the 60's, those were some of the first cables I ever used as a kid.

Doomed Guitar
5/4/2021
So GOOOD!! I purchased a 20 foot seafoam gold end beginning of lockdown, and the tonal improvement was literally WIDE EYED WOW! Love the heavy duty, and wayyy quieter (like microphonically much quieter than a fatsoflex even and those were my live "quiet" cord standard). So,during live stage (lour volume) use, I was using a big name $$$ cable. The Rattlesnake Seafoam Snake Head gold ends direct to Mesa Mark 4 (a noisy higher gain amp) dethroned that. Really big difference. Quieter and just overall clearer and better sounding, straight to amp, secret weapon! So I decided to do my whole pedalboard in Mean Green gold ends. The improvement again, in clarity and just bigger overall sound, hard to describe. So much worth the $$$ that I'm measuring out all my fx cables, dozen or so amp sends from my board and any other signal cables flowing through my rig. Mean Green of course. *I'd like to mentions, the turnaround time, was ONE DAY from order to ship!!! NO himmmhawwing or excuses. I emailed an order for 10 custom cables Thursday. An hour or so later Hank had already helped me further refine my order for my board exactly, and it was completed and shipped Friday. Hank also made me a personalized thank you video. Model business. Perfect service. The cables are SO much better than my hodgepodge, spaghetti bowl of mixed "quality brands I won't name. No need. They're all getting sold and like I said, a dozen amp or more cables from board (10-20 footers there), some fx cables, rack cables and some others are on the list to order now. I'd absolutely recommend these wires to anyone looking to upgrade their guitar signal chain. Without hesitation and without buying into internet snakeoil, BUY a Rattlesnake guitar cable and see for starters HOW much better they sound. SO good!! THOUGHTS ABOUT OUR SERVICE: Amazing. Top notch!! I'll also give a shout in facebook and ig! WHAT WAS PURCHASED: 20' Standard in Retro Sea Foam with Neutrik Right Angle Gold to Neutrik Straight Gold Snake heads Pedalboard order: 10 cables, 5 different sizes

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