Robert Reynolds

Posted by on September 1st 2018

Robert Reynolds

Name: Robert Reynolds
Band: Fun DMC

What guitarists inspire you?

Favorites include:
Chet Atkins
The Edge
Dan Huff
Jonny Greenwood
Jerry Reed
Dave Matthews
John Mayer

What song has challenged you the most?

“Neon” by John Mayer. On a good day I can still only kind of play it.

What’s your favorite song to play in your current band’s set?

From a guitar perspective, our mashup of “I Believe In A In A Thing Called Love” and “Baby Got Back.”

From a pure energy perspective, our mashup of “Fortunate Son” and “Born This Way.”

What’s the most overplayed song?

“Creep”

What’s the most memorable thing that happened to you at a gig?

Too many to tell. I guess I’ll dig back to my very first gig with my very first band, Closing Time. We had worked for months coming up with songs and refining a set that we thought people would love (they didn’t). Spent weeks promoting our first show at Capital City Bar And Grill which ended up being a packed room full of friends and curiosity seekers. To say that the first set did not go well would be a massive understatement. To say that people were bored with our “MTV Unplugged” middle set would be severely accurate (seriously, no one wants to hear “Tears In Heaven” at a bar gig). I really didn’t want to get back on stage for a third set but according to show business, “the show must go on.” By the time the last few songs arrived I was more than ready for this maiden voyage to finally dock. In those early days of Closing Time we were ending our shows with Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel.” All night it seemed that every song we touched had been marred by glaring errors and technical glitches, the birth pangs of a band’s non-medicated arrival. I walked over to the piano and played that opening chord and for a moment the room stood still. For the next four minutes our vocalist Jen, who was probably more nervous than I was, perfectly performed every note of that song while everyone stared in our direction. We ended an apparently cursed show on its first perfect note of the night and the room exploded in applause. If it wasn’t for that song and that final performance I don’t know that I would have gotten back on stage ever again.

What was your first guitar pedal?

DigiTech RP300 multi-effects unit. Borrowed from a friend for a summer until I started accumulating my own arsenal. Most of the patches were pretty bad but there was actually one lead tone that had this amazing searing sustain that I’ve never been able to recreate.

What’s your current rig?

Maybe the most abrupt rig evolution in history. Made the jump from live amp and pedalboard to modeling unit.

Robert’s Rig 2017:
Vox AC30 CC2
BBE Sonic Stomp
AMT Japanese Girl Wah
Walrus Audio Voyager Overdrive
This1sMyne Pearl Overdrive
Strymon Flint Reverb and Tremolo
Strymon El Capitain Tape Echo
Strymon Blue Sky Reverb
Korg SDD 3000 Digital Delay
Joyo PXL-Pro Programmable Effects Loop

Robert’s Rig 2018:
Line 6 POD HD500X
1 Red 25′ XLR Cable

Fender Standard Stratocaster HSS
Fender Telecaster ’72 Thinline

Shure GLXD14 rack mount wireless guitar unit.

How long would it take for you to learn Van Halen’s Eruption?

I learned it once. Took a few days. Don’t think I could play it right now without some serious review. There’s a lot more to Eruption than the final blistering assault of tapping. There’s a lot of nuance. It would likely take me a lifetime to perfect it. Respect to Van Halen.