28 - Victor Tubandt
Victor Tubandt is a 29-year-old Blues/rock guitarist from São Paulo, Brazil. With a guitar playing dad, he always had an acoustic hanging around the house as a kid, but only started playing at the age of 14. After a trip to the US in 2007, Victor got his first electric guitar, a red Fender Deluxe Player’s Stratocaster, it will never leave his collection. He’s had guitar lessons and a few bands over the years, but after going to college to study engineering guitar was not the priority for a few years (although he never stopped playing). There was a bar that Victor always loved to go, he was there every Friday to watch a blues guitarist play live, time passed, and the guy agreed to give Victor lessons. 5 years of lessons passed, and Victor is playing live at the bar he likes to go frequently, is happy with his playing and tone, but is always still trying to improve in both ends.
Victor’s guitars:
Fender Deluxe Player’s Stratocaster (2007 – MIM – Crimson Red Transparent) – My first electric guitar, after long years of saving and researching, when I played this guitar for the first time I was instantly in love, and had to get it. Walked out of the guitar center with it, a crappy Marshall MG10, a DS-1 and some cables. This guitar plays great and sounds very good, but is not a “traditional” strat as it has a 12’ scale and noiseless pickups. I still use it, and don’t plan to sell it.
Gibson SG Standard (2009 – Heritage Cherry) – I was getting better at guitar and had another trip to the US coming up, and decided to get an SG. This one is fantastic, plays great, sounds amazing. It’s light, and there is absolutely no neck dive. This one is a keeper.
Fender FSR Standard Telecaster (2013 – MIM – Satin Arizona Sun) – I got this in 2017, and after a few days of playing decided to upgrade the pickups to gen 4 noiseless pickups (as I loved my strat’s pickups as well) and locking tuners. After a nice setup and upgrades installed the guitar was amazing. I think if you can find nice MIM Fenders are great instruments.
Dunamiz 59’ Stratocaster (2022 – Sherwood Green Metallic) – This changed everything I knew about guitars. I was getting good, my job was paying well and I decided to give myself a gift. Dunamiz is probably the best Brazilian builder when it comes to replicating old Fender and Gibson models and doing relic jobs. I chose the neck shape, the frets, and also talked a lot to the guy that makes the pickups. It took 2 years to arrive but it was worth every second. It has a beautiful Brazilian rosewood fretboard and gotoh hardware.
Epiphone Les Paul Standard (2000 – MIK – Cherry Sunburst) – This one is my latest acquisition, got it for a great price as the guy who owned it was moving to Japan. It needs new frets, but it has a great resonance, and plays great. I’m thinking about upgrading the pickups, and getting some made from the same guy that made my Dunamiz Strat ones, also upgrading the pots, but I don’t know, it sounds great as it is and it’s been original and well played for 23 years now.
Epiphone Viola Bass (2000 – MIK – Vintage Sunburst) – You see, I don’t have any acoustic guitars, that’s because I traded my Takamine EG523SCB for this bass with the bass player I play with live. He is an incredibly talented musician and he’s also doing some acoustic live gigs and needed a good acoustic guitar. I in the other hand had my Takamine gathering dust and really wanted a bass. It’s nice having a bass around the house.
Victor’s amps:
Marshall Studio Silver Jubilee 2525H – My latest amp purchase, I love it. You cannot get a bad tone out of this amp. I just keep staring at it and want to hug it sometimes. It’s got those sweet Marshall tones at manageable volumes.
VHT Special 12/20RT – This one was a surprise, a great one. I was trying to sell a 12 string Martin Acoustic guitar I had, it was very nice, but I didn’t use it a lot. I used to have a Blackstar HT Studio 20 and I was happy with it, until a guy offered me this amp for the Martin. When I tried it, it was game over. This amp sounds fantastic, it’s clean, a little bit dark but it’s amazing as a pedal platform. This is the amp I take when I’m playing live as the Marshall and the 2x12 are just too big, and it sounds huge.
Victor’s pedalboard:
Dunlop Cry Baby – It was one of the first pedals I’ve ever had, and It wasn’t working for a few years. I recently got it cleaned up and it’s working again. It’s probably not the best wah wah around but it’s nice to have.
Behringer TU300 – It’s a tuner, but not a great one. It’s a little bit laggy and it’s easy to get it confused, but it does the job for now. Maybe I’ll be switching from this one to a Polytune 3 when (or if) this one fails.
Fire Trip n’ Fuzz – Fire is a Brazilian pedal company that makes some killer pedals. This one is a fuzz that can be shaped very differently depending on the sounds you want. It has this “PSYCHO” switch that makes the fuzz even crazier, I like it and it’s not leaving soon.
Fire Carpe Diem – This is one of the most internationally famous pedals that Fire makes, as you can find more English content about it online. It’s a Marshall in a box style pedal, it sounds great.
Fire Sweet Chilli – This is a low gain, transparent overdrive. It sounds great!
Dunlop Uni-vibe – This one is a bit charismatic, but once you tweak it you can get some amazing Hendrix-style tones combining it with the Jubilee or the VHT + Carpe-diem. That’s why it’s in the board.
Boss CE-3 – I’ve had a Boss CH-1 in my board for ages and never used it. One day I tried my friend’s CE-3 that he uses with keyboards in my rig and it sounded insane, especially in stereo. One day I found one for sale and had to get it. I love it.
MXR Carbon Copy – I got this one recently and it not just stayed but also is on almost all the time. I used to have a BOSS DD-7 that I almost never used. Until one day it stopped working and got switched for the Carbon Copy. It is sweet and pleasing sounding.
EH Holy Grail – Another one that’s not going anywhere and it’s always on. This is a very simple, great sounding reverb pedal.
Boss RC-1 – The one thing I used my DD-7 for was looping, and since it stopped working, I had to get one. The RC-1 is not very advanced but it’s very useful to me. I like it a lot.
What was your first guitar and do you still have it?
My first guitar was a nylon string acoustic, it was very bad but technically it’s still mine. I lent it to a friend who kept it for years and then lent it to another friend of mine, it’s now in Belgium as this friend currently lives there. I’m glad it helped them to learn as it also helped me.
What’s your favorite guitar right now and why?
It’s the green Dunamiz strat. In fact, it’s the best guitar I’ve ever played by a mile. It plays like a dream, it sounds magical. I wish everyone could try it. It’s probably the only thing I have that I could not replace.
What’s your newest purchase?
It’s my early 2000’s Dunlop Univibe pedal, at first I didn’t like it a lot, as it is very sensitive, it almost feels like an oldschool type of device as it is not very friendly. After a lot of tweaking and signal chain experimentation I got the sound I wanted and even got a new pedalboard that could fit it.
How often do you play?
It was not always like that, but I’ve been playing everyday for at least 4 years now.
What’s the music you are creating, what’s the mission behind it?
Well, I’m not much of a songwriter, but I’m good at coming up with some guitar lines for my composer friends. I improvise a lot in my playing, and spend very few time learning songs bit by bit as they’re originally played. My mission is to have fun and give a good time for everybody listening, including my neighbours, haha.
If you want to showcase your collection, or have a friend who might want to: