Guitar Player Magazine | July 2001 By Adam Levy "A lot of my guy friends were incredibly accomplished players, but they couldn’t write a pop song to save their lives," says Glitter Mini 9’s Mauri Skinfill. "Finally I said, ‘Give me that guitar,’ and I taught myself how to play." Four years later, Glitter Mini 9 has released its second record, Break Up at the Rock Show [Watch Your Back]. After commandeering her friends’ guitars, Skinfill embarked on an independent study program that included listening to alt-rock mainstays Guided by Voices and Afghan Whigs. "I learned everything from the school of indie rock," she says. "The title cut is particularly Guided by Voices-inspired. It’s short, it has just three chords and the guitar tracks are really dirty Les Pauls through Big Muffs." Les Pauls make cameo appearances throughout Break Up, but Skinfill’s main guitar is her ’67 Fender Jaguar strung with D’Addario XL110 strings (.010-.046). "The Jaguar has less of that over-the-top, low-midrange crunch typical of the Gibson/Marshall combination," says Skinfill. "It’s a more dynamic sound, and melodies come through more distinctly." Skinfill’s amp setup is a Marshall JCM 800 head and a Carvin 4x12 cabinet loaded with Celestions. Completing the signal chain is a pedalboard that includes an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff, an Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer ("my default sound"), a DOD FX55 Supra Distortion, a Pro Co Rat, a Boss PH02 Super Phaser, and an Ibanez GE10 graphic EQ. "On the Ibanez EQ, I dump out the midrange, jack up the low and high end, and crank the level," she says. "I typically use that sound on the choruses of songs--or anytime the guitar is supposed to really come up in volume. It makes the tone deeper and brighter at the same time." This effect can be heard on the choruses of "Cuckoo" and "Are You Bad," and the bridge of "Break Up at the Rock Show." "For that bridge," she adds, "I used an Epiphone Explorer through a Big Muff at full distortion for that total buzz-saw sound." Hard-edged sounds are decidedly Skinfill’s preference. The guitar tones on "Records in My Head," for example, are plenty dirty, but she would have preferred to take them even farther into fuzzland. "The guitar hook has crunch and phaser on it, "she says, "and it caused a bit of a debate in the studio. The band wanted more phase and less crunch, and I wanted the opposite. I worried that the phasing dissipated the impact of the guitars, and, when push comes to shove, I prefer headbanging."