GEAR CLOSET:

Well, the guitars, anyway!!!

(Currently Under Construction.)

Dean and LAST ONE STANDING are officially addicted to ESP guitars and basses. Dean owns an ESP Vintage Plus strat and an LTD M-350 super strat. Kevin owns an LTD V-250 super V as well and Basil is currently pursuing an LTD series bass. Pics coming soon, including the now- semi legendary Mesa Single Rec Solo 50!

Here he is... a 1996 Gibson Les Paul Studio in luscious Wine Red. This beast has tone baybee. It's the real deal: maple top on a mahogany back, '59 Rounded mahogany neck with an ebony fretboard, 490R and 498T humbuckers and even those annoying Kluson tuners (they'll soon be Sperzels though). Tiffany bought this for Dean after hearing him rave about the changes Gibson is making to the Les Paul line and lamenting not having a real one. Dean added Schaller strap lock buttons and set it up for his D'Addario EXL110's. This is the first guitar Dean has had that, if having a name at all, had a manly one... PAUL.

Here's Dean's 2001 Washburn XB125 five-string (obviously) bass. Dean needed one for his studio work and when Reality Show came along it made sense for him to play bass and leave the guitar work to Will Cochran (did I mention he shreds?). It's a simple stock unit: probably a poplar body with a laminate maple top, active pickups with passive eq and a three-way toggle (none of which makes very much sense in principle but the sound is alright). It's translucent black color lends a faux beauty to an otherwise stock instrument. Not too bad for under $200.00.

Dean sold hisLine 6 POD 2.5 and his Floor Board to Kevin Anderson before the birth of Last One Standing. Talk about keeping it in the family. When Kevin walked in with his bass amp it consisted of a single 15 inch speaker cab and none other than Dean's old Fender Bassman head!

Dean also owns several mics including Shure SM-57s and SM-58's, some ElectroVoice dynamics and a Behringer B-series condensers for critical studio applications. He has a number of pieces of rack gear as well.

THIS however, is Dean's favorite guitar: an Ibanez PF512NT. He helped pull it out of the shipping box at Hatcher's Music in Summersville WV and had to have it. The neck is based on their Wizard II profile and the high- gloss top adds sparkle to the already shimmering tone. He pops a Don Lace Acoustic Sensor pickup in the sound hole when playing out.

This Ibanez UAE-10 actually belongs to Dean's wife Tiffany. It has a smooth matte finish and is equipped with Ibanez's fine preamplifier. She loans it to Dean on occasion and he's always greatful for her generosity!

Dean has used D'Addario Strings for 15 years: EXL110 electric and EJ17 and EJ38 Phosphor Bronze acoustic strings (six and twelve strings respectively.) He also uses Jim Dunlop Jazz II black nylon picks for electric work and USA Nylon 1mm's for acoustic work. He used his PlusEBow on Under Authority's Too Late CD, check out the title track. He bought it due to the influence of Phil Keaggy and of Ty Tabor of Kings X. And no guitarist should go without a Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal. Dean owns two Chinese ones and one way cool Japanese one given to him as a birthday gift by none other than Terry Gunther!

A LOOK BEHIND THE CUTAIN: Dean Gear Through The Years

Dean has used a lot of different guitars, amps and effects. The first 'rig' he put together was an Ibanez CS-1 compressor pedal into a Carvin SX-15 solid- state preamp with a Roland DEP-5 processor and Alesis 3630 compressor/gate into a Fender Bassman head. This ran a Sonic 4x12 cab (the infamous Zebra striped cab!). This was the rig used in 1996 for the BLACK AND WHITE album.He later added a Digitech IPS-33b harmonizer, then replaced the Bassman with a Peavey mixer head. He tore down the rack and switched between a Crate G-series head (the model CC DeVille used on the first Poison album!) and a Randall RG175 head. He ran a Zoom 4040 processor in the amps' effects loops and often ran a Chandler Real Tube "Black Box" pedal for distortion with the Randall. He also ran the Sonic with a Horizon 4x12slant cab on top, which almost fell over onto keyboardist Tim McCoy and himself in Clarksburg WV. Dean then liquidated his amps and got a Crate Blue Voodoo BV-120 all tube head and 4x12 cab. He ran the Zoom 4040 in the effects loop with a Charlie Stringer Fire Bawl wah and the Ibanez compressor with this and used a Scholtz Power Soak so he could crank up the power tubes without killing Tim or the audience. As the band traveled more often Dean downsized once again for the sake of reliability and portability and purchased the

Line 6POD v.2.2 and their Floor Board.

Dean has used Ibanez Saber S-470s and different RG's, either soundman Brian Harris's RG470 or lighting engineer Logan Garrett's USRG10. He used Brian's Ibanez AE-18 acoustic live. He also has used an ultra-rare 1983 Fender Strat Elite (Mr. Bulbous!), a Charvel (He drew thd Cross Of Constantine and wrote 'By This Conquer' on it) and an ESP Eclipse (a loner axe). His main guitar over the years was a heavily- modified BC Rich ST3NJ (the clear finished strat- shaped guitar pictured in the insert for BLACK AND WHITE) until he acquired his now-nearly world famous Parker NiteFly SA in 1998. Dean was one of the first to equip his Parker with a coil tap for even more versatility. His conversations with Parker staffers and invitation to the 2002 Summer NAMM in Nashville to show his work to Ken Parker himself are a testiment to this fact. This highly sought modification now comes standard on all new Parker Fly models. Dean has experimented with high pass capacitors and active preamps in the guitars he played but he has now settled on the gear listed above and pictured throughout these pages.

Dean's advise on gear is simple: discover your personal style and use gear that supports it. He requires versatility because Under Authority's music is diverse and makes great use of dynamics and tension in song. It's not coincidence that all of Dean's guitars have had a middle position single coil pickup (except the aforementioned Charvel and the Les Paul pictured above) and vibrato arms of various makes. His use of the Parker Fly, with it's piezo acoustic bridge, only expands on this theme of diversity, and made the switch from a two guitar band to a one guitar band that much easier after Charlie Webb left the group in 1999. But versatility isn't just a matter of gear. You have to listen and pick up techniques and rhythms and tonalities and learn how they fit together to make this mysterious gift from God we call music. May this brief overview of Dean Bibb's gear only serve to inspire you to follow your own muse.

"Sing unto HIM a New Song; PLAY SKILLFULLY with a LOUD NOISE"- Psalm 33:3