Geared Up: Culture Killer Guitarist Collin Townsend on His ENGL Savage 120 Watt Guitar Head

Daytona Beach, FL-based 5-piece metal band, Culture Killer, signed to Metal Blade Records in mid-2015 and, on November 27, 2015, released their debut full-length album, Throes of Mankind. Via email, we recently connected with guitarist Collin Townsend who told us about that 1 piece of key gear he uses. Undeniably heavy, we’re going to be hearing and seeing a lot of things from this young group act in the near future!

What one piece of gear do you use to obtain your signature sound?
Townsend: The single most important piece of gear for obtaining my sound is my ENGL Savage 120 Watt guitar head.

What about it makes it so important to you?
Townsend: It’s like nothing else i’ve ever played through. This particular German amp is so special because it has a “depth boost” option, which adds some serious balls to the low-end. And also it sports something called “cascading gain” which means multiple gain channels can be blended together to create a single tone. This is invaluable to me, and for the aggressive sound we need in Culture Killer.

How do you recreate your album (guitar/vocal/bass) tones in your live set?
Townsend: By using the ENGL for my side of the stage, we can get that really thick, warm, sound heard on the album, on the other side, we use a 6505+ which fills it in with some shrill, punchy tone. And for bass, we use a Sansamp pedal combined with a BBE sonic maximizer to achieve our albums grindy, yet smooth, bass tone.

How long have you had it, how do you use it, would you ever change it?
Townsend: I’ve been using the same gear setup for about a year now. I’ve experimented with quite a few amps and guitars in the past, but this setup just made a lasting impression on me. I might change it up a bit in the future, but so far I haven’t found anything else that quite does it for me.

Give us your best “gear goes wrong” story.
Townsend: Haha, I can’t believe this even happened, but I was playing a small venue in Tarpon Springs and there were limited power outlets available to connect my rig, and I didn’t have a power strip or power conditioner to consolidate my power source. I did the best i could to plug everything into the wall. About halfway through the set, my pedalboard comes loose and my sound just dies. I didn’t know what happened at the time so I just stopped and tried to figure it out until the song was over. Very embarrassing.

Check out song “Justice Through Retaliation” here.