On the road, Zelada and his guitarist Luke Higgins both use Trace Acoustic TA200s. "The TA200 is so easy to set up - it's like a PA in a box and the sound quality is absolutely phenomenal," Zelada states. "It's particularly versatile, as it has two channels; I just plug in my mic and guitar, and I am able to get a crystal clear tone as well as great separation, which makes it a perfect choice for me."
Zelada also uses the TA200 to record material at drummer, Rick Chamber's studio. Chambers says the amp is equally versatile in the studio environment, where evidently it's been tested to the full.
"Juan likes to record new songs and ideas soon after writing them, and the amp is a great tool for this; he jams through it then DIs it straight to Pro Tools," he explains. "At one stage, I'd run out of mic inputs, so we actually recorded his guitar and vocal through the amp simultaneously; and we were also a bit cheeky and ran his keys through it as we didn't have a long enough lead to go into the control room.
"Juan likes some bathroom moods on his guitar and vocals, so always adds a splash of reverb from the amp, especially on the ballads; it gets him right in the mood."
(Jim Evans)
