Welcome to the all new Erik Turner guitar secrets page. On this page we'll get into some of the guitars that Erik used on record, as well as tunings, and tricks that he used to record certain tones. to learn some of the riffs to some warrant songs please check out the TABS that I have up on this site. To check them out Click Here. Now onto the technical part of Erik's playing, I mean it's not like the guy just picks any guitar and just plugs into an amp, that would be too easy, you have to get the right amp and right guitar, among other things to get the right sound that you are looking for. There's not too many sites out there that get in depth about the guitarists I like and their Guitar Secrets,Tones, etc so I thought I'd give it a shot and try it myself. So let's get into a bit of the #1 Downboy's secrets. On the entire D.R.F.S.R. record he used to tune his guitars to E flat, and on Cherry Pie it was mostly E flat but with a few songs tuned standard. on Dog Eat Dog the entire record was tuned Standard. and on later records like Belly To Belly and Ultraphobic he tuned standard also, but with a few songs Drop D tuned (Low E string only)
On D.R.F.S.R. the Tuning is a bit tricky. The whole record is sharp, so  you tune down to E flat, which would be 440 tuning, then tune it sharp. (To about 446-448) and it should sound just like the cd. The 2 songs that are on the Gladiator soundtrack are also tuned to E Flat.

Ok First thing we'll Explore is..

GUITARS-In the early days Erik and Joey used B.C. Rich guitars Exclusively. But before they were signed they used Jackson guitars. The B.C. Rich guitars were made of either Alder or Maple and were equipped with EMG 81 Humbuckers, and   a Kahler bridge. These pickups often interfered with the tuning of the guitar, most likely because of The Kahler bridge. The tuning would usually go a bit sharp from the pickup bridge combo. On Cherry Pie they used Carvin guitars exclusively. Then they switched to Ibanez. The Ibanez models they used were mostly Ibanez RG 570's equipped with Stock Pickups.
On Train Train and Love In Stereo the Guitar Erik used is shown on the left. The specs for this guitar are.
B.C. Rich Custom with Custom Body Glove Paintjob Done By GMW Guitars
Body-Sold Body
Neck-Maple/Bolt On
Bridge-Floyd Rose W/Locking Nut
Pickup-EMG 81'
Fretboard-Rosewood
I Think Erik Has This Guitar still for sale on his site for $2500,so go check out Erik's Site. The Case you see also comes with the guitar, and you can have the guitar autographed if desired.

Cherry Pie Tuning Trick-You probably never noticed but there is actually a tuning trick on the cherry pie album which is Nashville tuning. For anyone that has a 12 string guitar, then you already know what Nashville tuning is. what you do is you tune one guitar regularly (whichever tuning is required, flat , standard or whatever)
and you record the part, then instead of just doing the exact same track re-recorded, what you do is restring the guitar with High E (009 Guage) strings. What this does is, it leaves the High E String and The B string exactly the same, but all the string above that (Low E, A, D, And G) are tuned one octave higher. and it will give the track an Octave sound. they're all the same notes, just one octave higher and they are played in the same position on the neck.

AMPS AND OTHER EFFECTS

RAINMAKER-On Rainmaker Erik used a Modified 1979 Marshall JMP 100 Which was modified by a guy named Mike Morin. The result of the modification is a higher Gain Level. The distortion in the song comes from the Marshall itself. To set up the amp the right way, ya have to have the Gain (Distortion) Level at between half and full. Turn up the Bass and Mids but cut back on the Treble a bit because Erik plays Rhythm on the track Not lead and if the treble is too high then it will cut Joey's Signal down quite a bit. The Presence on the Amp should be cranked. The only other effects on the track are Chorus (Only a little) and Digital Reverb/Delay.
The Reverb should be set for a long Reverb time but mixed really low so that it's about 25% Reverb.
There should only be a little bit of Chorus for colouring. The Chorus and Delay might have come from the Lexicon PCM outboard Gear and from a TC Electronics
2290. The Delay might have come from the Yamaha SPX-900 also.The Delay for the intro and most of the Rhythms should be set for 100 Ms with anywhere from 1 to 3 repeats to give it that slapback effect. That setting mixed with the reverb effect should get you through the rhythm part of the song. Now the solo has 3 different delay settings. 100 Ms, 200 Ms, and 225 Ms. You should use about 1 to 3 repeats for all of the settings. And The End Riff uses either the 200 or the 225 Ms setting.

On the Dog Eat Dog Record, the amps that were used were the JMP 100, Soldano SLO-100 and the Yamaha T-Series.

Finally, Erik's Live Sound consists of a Peavey 5150 head, and the 79' Marshall JMP 100 mixed together with a splitter and 2 Marshall 4 X 12 Cabinets. A custom Fernandes Telecaster loaded with a Seymour Duncan Jeff Beck Model Humbucker in the bridge and a stock Single coil pickup in the neck position. Lately I've heard that he's been road testing numerous Marshall Amps including Marshall JCM 800 and 900's.
Erik Uses Thick and Medium guitar Picks also.

and finally a few cd's Erik has appeared on are...
Southgang-Tainted Angel (Writing credit on Big City Woman)
Hollywood Underground (Side project including unreleased warrant demo's)
Erik Turner-Demos For Diehards (Almost the same as Underground)
A Similar Ibanez RG 570