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	An angry, angry young man to be certain; Sam Stein stares intently at the twisted heap of pedals on the ground before him, anticipating a sick analog riverdance that even the most competent performer would back away from like a frightened kitten. Sam Stein has always taken a "more is better" approach to his sound, unfortunately this requires finances unavailable to such a lazy bastard.  Stein recalls, "From the day I bought a Kima guitar and RMS amp from the Inland Pawn & Loan  with my lawn mowing money, I'd always wanted an ear shattering vintage crunch," but this was not to be...Vintage Fender amps and guitars were not within the young man's limited price range.  Being poor, but always remembering his youthful desire to destroy people with sound, Sam sought the loudest and cheapest amps possible, and so began his love/hate affair with Crate, afterall, nothing says loud poverty like Crate. Sam uses a 1977 Fender Musicmaster Bass as his primary instrument (due in part to the fact that it is the only bass he owns). "I really love that twangy trashy sound you get from a 70's beginner Fender, and it was cheap as hell to boot...I even had a few bucks left over for Pall Malls..cha-ching!"  As far as amps go, Sam can't be concerned with anything that won't survive multiple keyboard and vocal signals, and so he uses a Crate BX-100 bass amp, "well I sure ain't gonna fuck up my Roland Blues Cube with bass signals," Stein said in reference to an awesome amp nearly destroyed by sandwich and Public Radio overindulgence.
				Pedals are where Sam's spendthrift attitude and technical mastery come into play.  Refusing to spend any money on new pedals, no matter how vital they are to his sound, Sam has accumulated an interesting hodge-podge of bargain-bin crap trailing from his bass.  Sam uses a Tech 21 Sansamp GT-2 as his primary distortion, "It's like 50 cheap distortions rolled into one, just think of all the Pall Malls I saved on that one."  To wring every last glistening drop of noise from his setup, Sam uses a Boss CS-3 compression/sustainer with all settings at maximum, "I didn't really like the compression or sustain that pedal gave me, however I loved the uncontollable AM radio style feedback it produced...oh yeah...and blah,blah,blah Pall Malls."  The list of wierd circuitry goes on, but the more important items include a DOD Ice Box chorus given to Sam as a birthday present by the Admiral (who consequently didn't pay for it either), a Hi-Max phase-shift, "I still can't figure out who makes it, but it's awesome and the price was right, and by right, I mean free.", and finally an Electro Harmonix frequency analyzer, "A bit pricey but, heavily marked down, and no, I didn't have to blow anyone, if that's what you're thinking".   Essentailly, Sam's "sound" can only be explained by a strange preoccupation with evaluating real-world items in prison cash..and by prison cash, we mean Pall Malls.                              "Rock hard, rock often, and don't forget to take your vitamins."                                                                          --Sam Stein