The Blinding are a Beaumont, Texas alternative rock act. Not what you would necessarily expect to come out of the home town of George Jones. The band is a four piece consisting of Eric Hinton (vocals, guitar), Zach Simpson (guitar), Aaron Eaves (bass), and Aaron Hinton (drums). Hinton and Simpson took some time to chat about guitars, amps and more with Gearwire.

The band first talked about the amps they use. Hinton's choice is a Fender Blues Deville 212.

"It has a clear tone and a clean crisp sound. Also the simple controls are a big deal for me. It’s not like Line-6 you know?" says Hinton. "It has one basic sound and that’s what it has. Not that there’s anything wrong with modeling amps, they are just overkill to me. And I don’t use the overdrive channel, just the clean with a touch of reverb."

Fender has reissued the Blues Deville 212. These amps were replaced by the Fender Hot Rod amps (Hot Rod Deville, Hot Rod Deluxe). The Hot Rods had modified circuitry and they were black -- as opposed to tweed. The Blues Deville has four Alnico-Magnet speakers (by Eminence) and produces 60 watts. The reissues list for $1,285 and you can find them for around $900.

Simpson uses a Fender Champ sometimes or a Vox AC30.

"It’s a clean little amp, but it breaks up well at hi volume. I don’t get to use it much live because it’s just not practical," says Simpson. "I have used it for recording and playing lap steel, but these days I use a boss ls-2 to run my guitar and steel through one amp (Vox AC30). Not the coolest thing to do, but it makes for a faster setup time."

A new Fender Champion 600 Guitar Combo will set you back a couple of hundred dollars while the Vox AC30 will cost you more like $1,200.

The two use a variety of guitars; a Strat, an Epiphone Casino, Rickenbacker 330, an early 90s SG and a Mexican Telecaster.

Hinton contrasts the Casino with his Strat.

"I like how it [the Casino] sounds alone, but it seams to get lost in the mix. We play a lot of U2 “Edge” sounding guitar parts and the Casino just does not cut through like my strat. It does have a warm rich tone, which I like," says Hinton. "It also looks cool. I still go to my strat alot. It’s a strat, no questions asked. I have Texas special pickups in it, and I love the way they sound."

Simpson is a fan of the Rickenbacker 330.

"I use the Ric quite a bit in our set, when and where changes each time we play. It does have a nice tone and a great crunch rhythm sound with or without an overdrive. I mostly try not to use it when Eric is using his hollow body Casino, that way we have a fender and hollow body at all times," says Simpson. "We kind of do the same thing with what we play as well. One of us will play a melodic part up hi on the neck (with some delay or some other nonsense) and the other will play the chords to fill out the bottom. It’s never always the same guy on the same part, we switch out who plays what. On one song you get to here Eric the 'lead' guitar player and on the next song you’ll here Me. Different sounds, different vibe -- it helps us feel fresh in a way. I guess."

Simpson says that he modified the SG a little -- and he admits it is a bit of an odd choice for the type of music they play.

"It’s an early 90’s SG special that I outfitted with some Rio Grand custom pickups. They’re basically P-90s that fit into a humbucker space, so I get that kind of raspy crunch out of it. The SG is a rock guitar, hands down," says Simpson. "It’s not the type of guitar that you normally would think of using for our kind of music, but it does have a crisp, almost flat clean sound which lends well to the slap back delay thing. The guitar player in a band called Dredg uses an SG, and he gets a great sound out of it.

Simpson is unequivocal in his love for his Mexican '72 Telecaster reissue.

"All I can say is that I love it. I love to play it wide open, humbucker in the neck and single coil in the bridge, wide open." he says.

More with The Blinding soon