Dave Knudson (born October 13, 1976) is an American guitarist and founding member of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

based indie band

Minus the Bear Minus the Bear was an American indie rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 2001, and comprising members of Botch, Kill Sadie, and Sharks Keep Moving. Their sound was described as " Pele-esque guitar-taps and electronics with sophistic ...

, as well as

mathcore Mathcore is a subgenre of hardcore punk and metalcore influenced by post-hardcore, extreme metal and math rock that developed during the 1990s. Bands in the genre emphasize complex and fluctuant rhythms through the use of irregular time signatur ...

band Botch. Other credits include additional guitars on

These Arms Are Snakes These Arms Are Snakes was an American post-hardcore band that formed in 2002 and featured former members of Botch and Kill Sadie. Before disbanding in 2009, they released three studio albums: ''Oxeneers or the Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go H ...

' album ''

Oxeneers or The Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home ''Oxeneers or the Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home'' is the debut album by Seattle-based post-hardcore band These Arms Are Snakes, released on September 21, 2004, on Jade Tree Records. Track listing * "Idaho" ends at 5:35. An untitled hi ...

''. Since the breakup of Minus The Bear, Knudson has been working on solo material; his debut solo album, ''The Only Thing You Have to Change is Everything'', was released on May 13, 2022.

Equipment

*Guitars ** PRS McCarty guitar with two

humbuckers A humbucking pickup, humbucker, or double coil, is a type of guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out the noisy interference picked up by coil pickups. In addition to electric guitar pickups, humbucking coils are sometimes used in ...

(as seen in the above photo.) ** PRS Custom 24 with trem/two humbuckers. Seen on the Omni tour. ** Fender Jaguar Special HH

Baritone Guitar The baritone guitar is a guitar with a longer scale length, typically a larger body, and heavier internal bracing, so it can be tuned to a lower pitch. Gretsch, Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, ESP Guitars, PRS Guitars, Music Man, Danelectro, Sch ...

. Used on Secret Country live ** First Act Delia 22 fret

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

with two humbuckers. **

Gibson Les Paul The Gibson Les Paul is a solid body electric guitar that was first sold by the Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1952. The guitar was designed by factory manager John Huis and his team with input from and endorsement by guitarist Les Paul. Its typica ...

Classic Custom silverburst edition electric guitar. ** PRS DGT, black with maple trim. Used on Fall '08 tour. *

Amplifiers An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It may increase the power significantly, or its main effect may be to boost the ...

: **

Mesa Boogie Mesa/Boogie (also known as Mesa Engineering) is an American company in Petaluma, California, that manufactures amplifiers and other accessories for guitars and basses. It has been in operation since 1969. Mesa was started by Randall Smith as a s ...

Lonestar with custom white Tolex through a Mesa Boogie 2X12" extension cabinet ** Fender Twin Reverb (used as rental abroad) **both amps are now used in conjunction in Knudson's Rig. *

Effects pedal An effects unit or effects pedal is an electronic device that alters the sound of a musical instrument or other audio source through audio signal processing. Common effects include distortion/overdrive, often used with electric guitar in e ...

s: **4 × Line 6 DL-4s (Knudson also keeps three additional DL-4s as backups, and there are 8 on stage in total between Dave, Jake, and Cory. He will use the sampling abilities of multiple DL-4s at once. Examples are a plenty on Planet of Ice) **Strymon Timeline Delay **Enema FX Mingebox (custom made fuzz and octave effect) **

Ibanez is a Japanese guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki. Based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, Hoshino Gakki were one of the first Japanese musical instrument companies to gain a significant foothold in import guitar sales in the United States and Europe, ...

TS9 Tube Screamer ** Fulltone OCD overdrive (used for the recording of Planet of Ice in place of the Tubescreamer, though not on tour) ** Digitech Whammy ** BOSS RC-3 Loop Station (added in 2007) **BOSS DD-20 Giga Delay **BOSS GE-7 EQ **BOSS CS-3

compressor A compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by reducing its volume. An air compressor is a specific type of gas compressor. Compressors are similar to pumps: both increase the pressure on a fluid and both can trans ...

**Barber Tone Press compressor **FMR Really Nice compressor (no longer used live.) **Electro-Harmonix HOG Guitar Synthesizer with foot controller (added in 2007, can be heard on "Burying Luck".) **

Dunlop Cry Baby The Dunlop Cry Baby is a popular wah-wah pedal, manufactured by Dunlop Manufacturing, Inc. The name Cry Baby was from the original pedal from which it was copied, the Thomas Organ/ Vox Cry Baby wah-wah, first manufactured in 1966. Thomas Organ ...

*Misc **Suzuki Omnichord (The Minus the Bear album "Omni" is named after this instrument.)

Technique

Dave Knudson is well known for his use of two-handed

tapping Tapping is a playing technique that can be used on any stringed instrument, but which is most commonly used on guitar. The technique involves a string being fretted and set into vibration as part of a single motion. This is in contrast to stand ...

. He uses this technique to create

polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture (music), texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompan ...

( countermelodies), whereby his right hand will tap a treble melody, whilst his left hand plays a bass accompaniment. This technique is most apparent on the album Highly Refined Pirates, where it is used on every single song (except the electronic interludes.) Dave is also known for his use of the Line 6 DL-4 delay modeller's sampler capability. The DL-4 can be used to record a phrase which can then be played back instantly by stepping on one of the DL-4's buttons. The sample can also be reversed, slowed down or sped up, effects which Dave makes use of both in the studio (notably on

Menos El Oso ''Menos el Oso'' is the second studio album from Minus the Bear and was released on August 23, 2005 by Suicide Squeeze Records. The album title is a Spanish translation of "Minus the Bear." Track listing Personnel *Jake Snider - Vocals & Guit ...

), but can also be replicated live. Dave can often be heard recording and preparing the samples before the start of songs when playing live.

Graphic design

On top of playing and touring with Minus the Bear, Dave has also designed the artwork for the band's releases and the majority of

apparel Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natura ...

, as well as artwork for other bands such as

Pretty Girls Make Graves Pretty Girls Make Graves was a post-punk band formed in Seattle in 2001, named after The Smiths' song of the same name (which itself was named after a quote from Jack Kerouac's ''The Dharma Bums''). Andrea Zollo and Derek Fudesco had played to ...

References

External links

Minus the BearBotch on Myspace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knudson, Dave 1976 births Living people American rock guitarists American male guitarists Musicians from Seattle American indie rock musicians Minus the Bear members Guitarists from Washington (state)