Michael Jackson ONE by Cirque du Soleil
Guitarist / the Muse · Las Vegas, Nevada
http://facebook.com/Shani.Kimelman
1.Tell us your name and the band you play for
Shani Kimelman, guitarist for the show MJ ONE by Cirque Du Soleil
2.Who made you want to pick up the guitar
Pantera, Children Of Bodom, Megadeth and Tool. These are the bands I listened to the most at that time.
3.Are you self taught or did you take lessons?
A lot of music theory I knew before I picked up the guitar so that was a bit weird, I took guitar lessons in the first 3 years of my playing and after that only a few lessons here and there with different guitarists to help me with my technique.
4. Can you read music, Can you read tab?
I can read music but with tabs I just see all these numbers and I lose my focus.
5.Do you feel like you have your own sound / tone ?
Not really (yet?)
6.Tell us about your guitar ( brand ,model . year , color )
I have a white 2006 Ibanez Jem7VWH Prestige which has been my only guitar in the past 14 years, and 5 years ago I got a 2008 Ibanez RG320PG P1 with a warning signs pattern finish. I just moved to Boston and some dude sold it to me for $40 in a pretty bad shape. I got it and realized it’s actually a super nice piece of wood. I replaced the pickups and had it set up and it sounds and feels awesome.
7.What about pickups? Passive or active ? Tell us about them
The Jem comes with the DiMarzio Evolution pickups which are passive, two Humbuckers, one Single-coil and a 5-way switch. I always play on the Bridge and occasionally switch to the Single-coil.
On my RG, which usually comes with Ibanez INF3 and INF4, I put custome made pickups by 4Seasons Pickups. Two passive Humbuckers with a 3-way switch that allows to split, and by pulling out the Tone knob I can also flip the phase. These pickups sounds awesome, very unique and it really gives you a bunch of options to play with your sound having both the split and the phase flip.
8.Lets get into amplification, Same drill brand , model , speakers etc
I didn’t own an amp since I moved to the U.S 5 years ago. I came with one guitar and a few t-shirts, pretty much the max I can carry with me on a plane. Moving between states and in the first few years also back and forth Israel-U.S didn’t allow me to gear up. Everytime I’d get an amp or more than 2 guitars I’d have to get rid of it a few months later because I couldn’t take it with me. Plus all this move really emptied my pockets so I had to compromise and couldn’t afford the stuff I really wanted. Everytime I had a gig I’d borrow an amp from friends which was uncomfortable, and at home I would plug into my laptop and use emulators. My fav to work with is the Peavey Revalver. I have a couple presets ready to just plug n play and if I record something I tweak it later to whatever I need. For my EP Escape Velocity I recorded guitars with a 4x12 Peavey Valveking, which I really love and I use this model on the software too. It has a sweet tone and color and it’s probably the amp I’ll get next.
9.Do you have a pedal board? Tell us about that badboy
So since I travel light, I have a Nano Pedaltrain with a TC Electronics Polytune, going into Horizon Devices’ Precision Drive (Overdrive & Gate), going into the Blackstar HT-Dual (2 channel valve distortion) and into MXR MC401 Boost. Basically some gain, some more gain and some boost for all that gain.
10.Now tell us your Dream Rig in detail…..
I’m dying to put my hands on a costume swirl Ibanez UV, especially a specific one with a pyramid/Illuminati kinda inlay, but any Ibanez Universe. There used to be a website with a huge collection of early Universe and RGs. Beautiful and unique guitars. These are really hard to find nowdays so if you have any leads for one I’ve got two kidneys in a great condition.
11.What guitarist can you not stand?
12. Is tone more important or is technique?
For me “technique” is not only how fast you can play it’s also an integral part in constructing your tone so I think they are equally important.
13. Name your top 5 guitarist
Paul Gilbert,
Eddie Van Halen,
Nuno Bettencourt,
Dimebag,
Greg Howe
14.Who is the most overrated guitarist
n/a
15.Who would you like a one hour private sit down lessons with anyone dead or alive?
B.B King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and my top 5 guitarists.
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