J Yuenger (White Zombie)
Jay Noel Yuenger, also known as “J.” was the guitarist in White Zombie from 1989. It may be a surprise to some, but J was actually the fifth guitarist to join White Zombie. In my opinion J was really instrumental in propelling the band forward and stands as one of the most underrated guitarists of the 90s.
Guitars
When I think of White Zombie the first image that pops in to my head is that of an Ibanez Iceman. I’ll always associate that guitar with White Zombie and J – I can’t help it. While J made the Iceman his own, and even got his own signature model, he also used other makes and models, particularly early on in his time with White Zombie.
J’s first guitar in White Zombie was a 1970’s Gibson Firebird purchased for $200 in 1986. He stripped it and painted it dark blue with layers of spray paint. It largely served as a back up once he joined White Zombie in 1989 though to 1990 when the headstock snapped on the way back from the first White Zombie European Tour.
The Firebird was utlimately lost when the building in which it was stored in burnt down. On his website, J wrote that as far as he knew there were no surviving photograph of the Firebird.
J’s main guitar for the early years in White Zombie was a Charvel 6, which was basically a made in Japan copy of a Jackson Soloist. This guitar is often referred to as either the ‘666’ or ‘STP’ guitar.
The Charvel 6 was used throughout the bands first and second tours (1989-1990) as well as the recording of La Sexorcisto and the first part of the tour for that album.
The Charvel 6 was routed for two single coils and a humbucker in the bridge. J swapped out the stock pickups for an EMG81 in the bridge and an EMG single in the neck, leaving the middle position empty.
J’s backup guitar for La Sexorcisto was a ‘Partscaster’ of sorts, made up of a Kramer Focus body and an ESP neck and an offset EMG8 in the bridge. This guitar was often referred to as the WZ guitar because of the WZ stickers. It was rarely seen on stage and didn’t really feature much in the studio either.
The guitar tracks on La Sexorcisto are 99% the same set-up : Charvel 6 → Pro-Co Rat → Marshall, but I did use the WZ guitar, which had a twangier sound, for some leads and overdubs : for example, check out the little tri-tone symphony that happens in Starface from 3:24 to 3:40.
Source: www.jyuenger.com
In a June 1994 interview with Guitar Player magazine spoke about his live rig. At this time the Robin Machete was his main guitar. The Machete was also used on the Astro Creep album for the songs in standard.
“Black Sunshine” White Zombie – Live from MTV’s Haunted House Party (1993)
Heading in to the recording of Astro Creep J began his association with Ibanez.
Here’s a mid/ late-90s photo of my 1994 Ibanez IC500 Iceman ( referred to by fans as the Right On! guitar ), the Japanese factory-made set-neck guitar that I recorded all the ” Drop C# ” ( low to high, C#, G#, C#, F#, A#, D# ) tunes on Astro Creep : 2000 with ( Creature Of The Wheel, Real Solution #9, the rhythm parts for More Human Than Human, etc. ). I also played it in the More Human video.
‘Right on!‘, jyuenger.com, Dec 17 2010.
‘Right on!’ 1994 Ibanez IC500 Iceman As seen in the ‘More Human Than Human’ video.
The ‘Right on!’ Iceman was fitted with a Seymour Duncan Custom in the bridge and a Seymour Duncan ’59 in the neck. Both pickups were directly mounted to the body.
From the December 2015 Letterman performance. From the July 2015 Letterman performance.
In 1996 Ibanez released J’s signature model, the ICJ100WZ. These things are extremely rare. Production was discontinued in 1999 and it’s thought that there were around 70 made each year.
For the Astro Creep tour Schecter built a custom one off guitar based on the 60’s Teisco Spectrum 5.
Astro-Surf guitar, custom made for me by Schecter — as per my instructions, a modern twin-humbucker copy of the iconic 1960s Teisco Spectrum 5 with a fantastic ” holo-flake ” finish.
Source: J. Yuenger, www.jyuenger.com
Amplifiers
For the recording of La Sexorcisto J used a Marshall JCM800.
“In the studio, during the recording of La Sexorcisto, the tubes in my JCM-800 started to glow superhot and then the amp blew”
Source: J. Yuenger, www.jyuenger.com
During the La Sexorcisto touring cycle and heading toward the recording of Astro Creep began playing Randall heads.
In a June 1994 interview with Guitar Player magazine spoke about his live rig, which at that time included four Randall stacks featuring Randall Century 200’s, a Rocktron Guitar Silencer noise gate, a Rocktron Intellifex and Zoom Choir pedal.
In a May 1995 interview with Guitar School magazine, J spoke about how he achieved the thick rhythm tone on the Astro Creep album.
“My basic tone was a combination of two Randall heads [Randall Century 200] and the Marshall Valvestate head [8100] through a Randall cabinet. I have a Mesa Boogie amp splitter which has four outputs so I was able to use all three amps at once. That’s what I do live, too, I just play through a bunch of different amps. So instead of channel switching, when I want to go to clean I just have another amp that’s set up for a clean sound.”
J Yuenger interviewed in ‘Creep Show’, Guitar School, May 1995.
On his website, J also indicated that Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifiers were also used on the Astro Creep album.
A Randall Century 200 head through a Randall Jaguar cabinet, a Randall Century 200 head through a Mesa cabinet, a Mesa Triple Rec through a Mesa cabinet, and a Marshall Valvestate ( I was in love with that crazy transistor-metal sound that Tommy from Prong had ) through .. I don’t remember, either a Randall or a Mesa. These were all going at once, but each cab was miced with only a single Shure SM57, and then the four signals were summed in the console and sent to one track on tape.
Source: J. Yuenger, November 2010, www.jyuenger.com
On tour following the release of Astro Creep J incorporated Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifiers in to his live rig as seen in the image below. The two Mesa Boogie heads are on the top with two Randall Century heads on the bottom.
The effects rack to the left, top to bottom:
- Furman power supply
- wireless units
- Whirlwind Multi Selector
- Mesa signal splitter
- A vintage MXR 31-band graphic EQ
- a drawer containing a couple of pedals, which at that time was likely to be an Ibanez Tube Screamer and an old MXR Phase 90
- MXR Flanger/ Doubler – covered with tape to hide how he achieved his tone at the time
- Rocktron Intellifex
- Rocktron Guitar Silencer noise gates
- Rocktron-Bradshaw switching system
Effects
For the most part when it came to playing live J used the following:
- Ibanez Tubescreamer TS-9
- MXR Phase 90 (block logo version)
- Dunlop 535Q wah (replaced with a remote wah later on)
When it came to recording in the studio J would pull in a range of effects to create some of the crazier ambience and feedback.
Prior to recording La Sexorcisto J picked up a Boss OC-2 octave pedal although I’m not sure it made it on the album.
An example of stacking dirt pedals is the solo and the following break from the Astro Creep track “Creature Of The Wheel” J stacked a bunch of dirt pedals.
“We wanted to get a really sick sound for that solo, so I had my Roland Double Beat Fuzz-Wah pedal with the Fuzz cranked, a cranked [Pro-Co] RAT and a cranked [MXR] Distortion+ all hook up at once. Then after I stopped playing the solo, there was all this out-of-control feedback happening, so I started modulating it with the wah. Terry [Date] looked at me and we both went, ‘Wow, that is cool!’ So, we immediately told the engineer to press record again and that weird sound cuts in right where he happened to hit the button.”
J Yuenger interviewed in ‘Creep Show’, Guitar School, May 1995.
Roland AD-50 Double Beat Fuzz-Wah
The Roland AD-50 was made between 1973 – 1979 and features independent wah and fuzz sections. The fuzz section features a Sustain and Volume knob along with a 3 way selector to choose the waveform of the fuzz. You can occasionally find them on eBay or Reverb, usually running between $250-$500USD depending on their condition.
Other information
During his time in White Zombie J endorsed a few other products and brands besides Ibanez as seen below.
In the mid-90’s J wrote a monthly column in Guitar World magazine called Astro Ink. You can find the complete collection of columns on the “Thousand Yard Stare” website. They are well worth a read.
For more recent stuff from J check out his website at jyuenger.com
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