Duane’s World Issue 5: – Up Close and Personal with Steel Panther's Satchel
“I’m so happy to be here and I'm so high on cocaine right now. I'm really excited.”
For some people, it never stopped being 1987. Big hair, glitter on everything, double denim and leopard print undies while randomly screaming out “TONIGHT!!!” Most of those people have gathered at the Hordern Pavillion in Sydney to catch fellow 80’s tragic (and insane guitarist) Satchel as he tears it up with his band Steel Panther alongside the mighty Airbourne (our coverage here).
Wall Of Sound were fortunate enough to send this old bloke to catch up face to face with the legend himself to talk about Panther's forthcoming album, his sexy new Charvel signature guitar, the appropriately named 1987 Pedal and not-so-brand spanking new bass player Spyder. Watch the video below or read on for the best bits!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdkGYC4bHo0
Following bassist Lexxi Foxx's departure in July last year, the band enlisted close friend Sypder to fill the role and he's done just that!
“It was a long search and we didn't have any new members for a long, long time. Then our bass player Lexxi decided to go do gay porn for a living and we were like, what are we gonna do and it was not easy to decide. But we’ve known Spyder for a long long time and it's really great. He doesn't really pose any kind of threat to me as far as getting pussy. So it was like, that's great”
"We’re stoked to have Spyder in the band. He's fucking awesome. He's doing a great job. He's gonna kill it tonight.”
Tonight's show is made extra special because it’s the first time us Aussies will see Satchel's latest Charvel guitar release, the Satchel Signature Pro-Mod DK22 HH FR M in Satin White Bengal finish and having seen it up close, it is a bloody sexy guitar.
“It is awesome. Just like all the other Satchel models. The cool thing is the Charvel’s, right off of the shelf, they play really great, they sound great and these pickups are Fishman® Fluence® pickups. They're to me the best rock pickups. They're just awesome. They have a pull knob where you can actually get even more tones than a normal combination dual Humbucker Pickup set up like this... It's got the Floyd Rose®, which anybody who has played with the Floyd Rose knows those are the best ones. They've always been the best. They’ve never had to change it because they were always great.
It fucking looks badass, especially when you've got matching spandex, like I do, and you know the good thing about these Satchel guitars is they just look cool on the wall. You don't even have to be able to play them good. They just look awesome hanging on the wall, like I’ve got, in my mum's basement where I live.”
[gallery type="square" ids="https://wallofsoundau.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Steel_Panther-20.jpg|,https://wallofsoundau.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Steel_Panther-29.jpg|,https://wallofsoundau.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Steel_Panther-12.jpg|"]
Photo Gallery by Mick Goddard. Insta: @mickg_photography
Because he didn’t have enough going on Satchel managed to bring his new axe down off the wall long enough to bang out a new Steel Panther album.... which is coming out in just a few months.
“The record is called On The Prowl, and I love it. There's so many good songs on it and I'm excited about it. Every time we release a record I'm excited about it because I personally wouldn't put a record out there if I didn't like all songs. For me it's about, do I like these songs, and the songs are great. Can't wait for the record to come out. I played a lot of the solos with this guitar and with some of my other Satchel Charvel models.
For the die hards, there’s a limited edition run of 10 hand-painted Custom 1987 Charvel Guitars just released that come with the new 1987 Pedal.
“1987! I tell you, I was writing songs for the new record and I was playing this 12 string guitar that a friend of mine bought me. It was just inspiring to me. I started singing this song and the chorus was about 1987. It was very nostalgic. It was such a great year because Guns N' Roses' Appetite For Destruction came out that year, Whitesnake came out. It was just a giant year for metal. There was a lot of great metal bands that all sounded very different. Guns N’ Roses took everything in another direction. Van Halen was freshly broken up, and we all thought for sure that they would get David Lee Roth back together with Eddie at some point. It was just an interesting time to be a metalhead and I lived through it. It was a great time and for people who have lived through 1987, they're gonna love the song. And for people that didn't, they're still gonna love it because it'll give them a feeling of what that year must have been like.”
Having been a 10-year-old in 1987 just discovering the might of heavy metal, I can testify to this fact. 1987 ruled, so does Steel Panther and so does Satchel’s new Charvel Signature guitar.
Interview by Duane James @duanejames666
Take a closer look at the Satchel Signature Pro-Mod DK22 HH FR M right here
Features
- 25.5 scale length
- Alder Dinky™ body
- Bolt-on maple neck with graphite reinforcement and hand-rubbed satin urethane finish on the back
- 12”-16” compound radius maple fingerboard with 22 jumbo frets and black dot inlays
- Heel-mount truss rod adjustment wheel
- Fishman® Fluence® Classic PRF-CHB bridge and neck pickups (uncovered with black and white bobbins)
- Active electronics
- Three-way pickup toggle switch and volume (push/pull voice activation) control
- Top-loaded Floyd Rose® 1000 Series double-locking tremolo bridge system
- Charvel-branded sealed die-cast tuners and Charvel neck plate
- Available in Satin White Bengal with black hardware and licensed Fender® Strat® headstock
