guitar , because it is an original instrument from the 80 ’ s made in the USA . And it has a very unique sound . You can hear the sound of this guitar in songs like “ Injustice ” ( Christafari , Under God album ) “ Take Me Higher ” ( Avion Blackman , Fly album ) “ Alpha and Omega ” ( Christafari , Day of The Lord ) “ Come Back Jesus ” ( Christafari , Day of The Lord ) and many others .
I usually use a specific setup when I play this Steinberger GM7 guitar connected to a Roland Jazz Chorus JC120 amp . This amp is hated by most rock guitarists but loved by guys who like that ‘ 80s sound . On stage I have a profile on my Kemper that I made of my own JC120 which is also original from the 80 ’ s made in Japan . Currently Steinberger released models in partnership with Gibson called Synapse , they
“ Christafari ”
are wonderful instruments . They have the iconic headless look and stay in key like no other stringed instrument I ’ ve ever played . Avion has been playing her Steinberger five string bass guitar for 20 years now with the band .
[ WM ] Another item I find interesting is the Talk Box . Originally made famous by Peter Frampton ’ s “ Frampton Comes Alive ” record 50 years ago . How do you use it in the context of
Christafari ’ s music ?
[ Renato ] As crazy as it sounds , my influences of using a Talk Box didn ’ t come from guitarists like Peter Frampton or Richie Sambora ( Bon Jovi ). It came from a time when I was listening to Roger Troutman of Zapp , he used the Talk Box on synthesizers and also artists like Mr . Talkbox or Earth , Wind , and Fire . I ’ ve always been crazy about new sounds , so I went looking to find out what that was . That ’ s when I decided to use it with Christafari but in a synthesizer that we have in the studio call the Micro Korg . This is very present in an album that I produced entirely alone in the pandemic ( that has my face as the cover ). The album is called Outernational ( Musicianaries Revisited in Dub ).