Sami's gear

Guitars

Main guitar: Hartung Junico

Sami’s main electric guitar nowadays is a Hartung Junico, a completely hand made instrument by a german master luthier Frank Hartung. Sami says of Hurting guitars: "Frank makes his guitars all by himself and all by hand. They are undoubtedly among the best instruments I've ever played let alone owned. He pays so much attention to every detail, from the aluminium bridge (that he also makes himself) to the perfect fret work and everything in between".

"For me building guitars is pure passion. Passion and emotions are deep-rooted in all details of my guitars. I recombine logical lines to create exciting shapes, I use premium materials, I make high demands on quality and thus re-define the guitar to some extent.

I have been building guitars for more than 15 years. Almost every single task is performed by myself, from the raw slab of wood to the first note being played. "

- Frank Hartung, about building guitars -

Sami's Hartung Junico has an all mahogany body from one piece and a one piece mahogany neck w/ an enclosed rosewood fingerboard. The pick up's are P90's made by another german maker, Hans Haüssel. "The Junico is the simplest, most uncomplicated of Frank's guitars", Samy says. "They're like the best Gibson Les Paul Junior or Special that was never made. The sound and the playability are unparalleled, plus the guitar is very light and resonant. I just love it to death. W/ the Junico I really don't need another guitar".

Eastwood Airline H44

Sami's only other electric guitar is a re-issue of a classic mail order guitar from the 50's, Airline Stratotone, played by some notable guitarists: "Ritchie Valens used to use one back in the day, blues harpist Charlie Musselwhite has one for when he plays slide guitar and of course Marc Ribot has famously said it to be ´The only guitar worth owning´(laughs). I use it mainly to play blues and jump blues, swing and jazz. The neck is HUGE and it basically has only one sound. Fortunately it's a really good one (chuckles). Interestingly enough, when I plug it in my Swart, it sounds a lot like a big hollow body jazz guitar. I think it has something to do w/ the placement of the pick up as well as the overall construction of the guitar".

Amps

Sami uses mainly all-tube amp(s) to get the sound he wants. Right now his number one amp is a Made in USA boutique amp made by Michael Swart, a tube tone guru from Philadelphia.

Swart AST Pro

Sami's amp of choice lately has been a single channel, all-tube amp by a small Northern American company called Swart. All Swart amps are made in Philadelphia by the company's founder and owner, Michael Swart. The moniker AST in Sami's amps name stand for "Atomic Space Tone" and the Pro is shortened from the word "Professional", since there is also a Swart AST amp.

"The Swart AST Pro is a really well made, great sounding amp - one of the best I've ever played", Sami says. "W/ only a handful on knobs It's as simple to operate as anything out there and light to carry (laughs). I can get to the gig from my car in a single run - guitar in one hand and the amp in the other. I love it!"

The AST Pro is designed by Michael in conjunction w/ an american guitarist and photographer called Greg V. It uses the same amazing circuit as the original AST but drop has a slightly larger cabinet with a bit more depth for some extra bottom, a recessed chassis for knob/switch protection from mishaps, and a bit more room for more speaker options. Sami's amp is fitted w/ the famous Celestion Blue AlNiCo -speaker, the same one that makes those old Vox AC30 -amps sound so incredible.

"It also has a tube driven reverb and tremolo, both of which sound fantastic. Plus it's really loud for such a small amp - it's actually so loud that I use a Swart Night Light -attenuator w/ it most of the time just to make sure I can push the amp hard enough to get those power amp tubes saturating (laughs)".

Vox Pathfinder 15 EXR

For home practice Sami uses a little Vox Pathfinder 15 EXR transistor amp. It has two channels, clean and distortion but Sami mainly plays on the clean channel. It also has a nice sounding built-in reverb and tremolo. Samy says: ”Although the Pathfinder isn’t a tube amp, it still has a distinctive and very pleasing vox-y kind of sound to it. I hear Kid Ramos also uses a Pathfinder on his small radio gigs etc. A very light and reliable amp, not to mention affordable. Plus it’s really cool looking too.”

Strings and things

Sami doesn't use very much pedals in his set-up. "Pedals? I love them! Just as long I don't have to use them (laughs). Seriously speaking, I try not to rely on too much pedals to get "my" sound and instead try to get as much of the sound as I possibly can just from my hands and fingers, like Roy Buchanan did or Jim Campilongo does. Of course I'm nowhere in their league (laughs). That being said I do like to play w/ different sounds from time to time and lately I've been experimenting more w/ pedals again. Quite honestly though, all I really need is a good clean and a good overdriven sounds plus sometimes I use the tremolo or vibrato. That's basically it."

"I really really like the way my amp sounds so I try to use that as the basis of everything I do as much as possible. That's why I always turn the amp up as loud as I possibly can and then control the amount of distortion from the guitar w/ the volume pot". Sometimes Sami has to turn the amp down tho and he has to rely on pedals to get distortion: "I basically use the amps natural saturation as much as possible, even when I'm using pedals - that's why as a distortion pedal I have a Lovepedal Tchula. It has actually two pedals in one; the left side of the pedal is a Lovepedal Church of Tone w/out any knobs whatsoever and on the right there is another COT w/ a volume knob. I usually keep the left side on all the time and stack the other side on top of that when I need some extra distortion and/ or sustain". The second distortion type pedal on Sami's pedalboard is also made by Lovepedal: BBB18/S: "I don't use fuzz too often but I like it for solos from time to time and the BBB18/S is as good a silicone fuzz as any I've tried". There's even a third Lovepedal in the board, namely The Pickle Vibe: "I use the vibe in stead of the tremolo sometimes, just to give it a different taste I guess". The last pedal in the line is a delay: "I like the Catalinbread Belle Epoch 'cause it sounds like a proper tape delay. I don't use it very much but it's nice to have that option, specially for slower songs and to make a three piece band sound a little bigger".

On the electric guitars Sami uses .010 round wound Elixir nanoweb strings: "I've tried elevens but those seem to work only w/ Gibson's and PRS -guitars (laughs). I think it has a lot to do w/ the scale length - the shorter the scale length, the thicker gauge strings you can use. I also tried some flat wounds on a Fender -type guitars once but the wound third was just too much for bending (laughs) ".

For electric and acoustic slide guitar Sami uses Rev. Willy's Mexican Lottery Brand ceramic -slide or the Dunlop Blues Bottle -glass slide. "The Rev. Willy's is one of the best slides I've ever tried for both electric and acoustic slide playing", Sami says. "I've tried all kinds of slides; metallic, glass, even plastic. The ceramic slide seems to fit my finger the best and produce the best sound too. And it's endorsed by Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top (laughs). What's not to like about it? The Blues Bottle I got because it's supposed to be fashioned after the Cordicine medicine bottle Duane Allman used to use for a slide. I still use from time to time, just because it's a little different than the ceramic I guess".

divine noise curly lead is Sami's cable of choise: "For years and years I used to use the cheapest possible leads and they would always break real quickly so I would constantly be buying new ones. Plus for some reason I never liked the look of a curly cable. They reminded me of the seventies and that was like the un-coolest thing I could think of at the time.

Then one day two things kinda dawned to me - first, if I invested on quality cables they would last longer and I would actually save money. And secondly a curly lead doesn't get tangled up as easily as a straight one. So I got a hand made divine noise curly lead. It's great. I know it sounds big headed to use hand made cables but it really do make a difference. The divine noise cables are made w/ no compromises and to very high standards. They use oxygen free copper for instance for the purest sound quality as well as flexibility and noise reduction. So nowadays I use that, divine noise curly cables and Spectraflex cables so I've got one less thing to worry about, gear -wise (laughs)."