Russ Parrish

Russell Parrish
Russ Parrish performing with Steel Panther at the Claremont Showgrounds (2012)
Background information
Birth name	Russell John Parrish
Also known as	Satchel Rikki Ratchet
Born	24 November 1970 Redwood City, California, United States
Origin	Los Angeles, California, United States
Genres	Glam metal, hard rock, heavy metal
Occupation(s)	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Guitar, vocals, bass guitar, keyboard, percussion
Years active	1992–present
Labels	Universal Republic
Associated acts	Steel Panther Fight Paul Gilbert The Thornbirds The Atomic Punks Outta The Blue War & Peace The Electric Fence Bad Dog Kevin Gilbert
Notable instruments
Kramer Pacer Yamaha Pacifica series

Russell John Parrish (born November 24, 1970), better known by the stage name Satchel, is an American musician. He is best known as a guitarist in the comedic glam metal band Steel Panther.

Career

In the early 1990s, Parrish was an instructor at The Guitar Institute of Technology (G.I.T.) at Hollywood's Musician's Institute while playing with Racer X offshoot Bad Dog with vocalist Jeff Martin and The Electric Fence with Martin and Paul Gilbert. He has worked extensively with Gilbert and has writing credits on several Paul Gilbert tracks.^[1] He is also the leader of his own band, The Thornbirds, with Darren Leader, Jeff Duncan, and Dean Cameron. He played guitar for Jeff Pilson's band, War & Peace, appearing on the Time Capsule album before leaving to join Rob Halford's band Fight and recording the War of Words album.^[2] Upon exiting Fight he joined Cleveland's Outta The Blue who later became The Szuters. In 1995, Parrish played guitar in Kevin Gilbert's touring band in support of Gilbert's Thud album. He can be seen performing with Gilbert on Welcome to Joytown - Thud Live at the Troubadour, a DVD and CD released in 2009, documenting the band's 1995 concert at The Troubador in Los Angeles. In 1996, Parrish played guitar with Sebastian Bach on the song "Rock Bottom" for an Ace Frehley tribute album, Spacewalk (A Salute to Ace Frehley).^[3] He also played guitar in a Van Halen tribute band with Ralph Saenz called The Atomic Punks. Russ Parrish also appeared with Corey Taylor in the Ronnie James Dio tribute album entitled "This Is Your Life" on the track "Rainbow In The Dark".

Equipment

Since his work in Steel Panther, Parrish endorses Kramer Guitars. He plays Kramer Pacer guitars into EVH 5150 III 100 watt amplifiers which go through EVH Cabs. He runs his Kramer Pacer to his amp through a Line 6 G90 Wireless Relay system. For pedals, he is currently using a Boss TU-3 Tuner, a Boss Turbo Distortion, and an MXR Carbon Copy Analog Delay Pedal – all powered by a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power. In the past, he used Marshall JCM 2000 (both TSL and DSL) amps, and both Peavey 5150 and Triple X amplifiers. He also occasionally uses Yamaha THR amplifiers offstage. He uses custom printed Tortex TIII 1.14mm picks.

The Kramer Pacers Satchel uses are made out of US-manufactured parts rather than off-the-shelf Kramer Pacer guitars manufactured in Korea and Indonesia. The most noticeable difference is the bubinga skunk stripe on the back of the necks on all of his guitars. He currently uses a Seymour Duncan JB TB-4 pickup in the bridge, and a Seymour Duncan 59' in the neck, and an original Floyd Rose tremolo with an EVH D-Tuna is fitted to all his guitars. As of 2016, he has stopped using the D-Tuna and instead has a single dedicated guitar for Drop D tuning. He uses D-Addario EXL Super Light (.09 -.42) gauge strings tuned a half-step down to E flat(Eb).

In 2014 Kramer released a signature model featuring both a yellow leopard paint and purple leopard paint. It has the same body as a pacer vintage but has one volume knob, a Seymour Duncan SH-4 and SH-2.

While endorsing and primarily playing Kramer guitars, Satchel has also occasionally used other guitar brands as well on some occasions, including Pacifica series guitars by Yamaha as well as various acoustic guitars.

Influences

Parrish cited Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Buck Dharma, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Lifeson and Yngwie Malmsteen as his main guitar influences.^[4]

Discography

Year	Album	Band	Credited as
1993	Time Capsule	War & Peace	Russ Parrish
	War of Words	Fight
1994	Smoke On The Water: A Tribute To Deep Purple	Various
1996	Spacewalk: A Salute to Ace Frehley
2003	Hey That's What I Call Sludge Vol. 1
	Hole Patrol	Metal Skool	Rikki Ratchet
2004	All the Same	The Thornbirds	Russ Parrish
2009	Feel the Steel	Steel Panther	Satchel
2011	Balls Out
2014	All You Can Eat

References

1. "Paul Gilbert - Paul The Young Dude: The Best Of Paul Gilbert (CD) at Discogs". Discogs.com. 2003-06-03. Retrieved 2014-05-19.
2. "Russ "Satchel" Parrish - Metal Storm". Metalstorm.ee. Retrieved 2014-05-19.
3. "Kiss Related Recordings; Spacewalk ; A Tribute to Ace Frehley". Kiss-related-recordings.nl. 1997-07-01. Retrieved 2014-05-19.
4. "Interview: Steel Panther''s Satchel". Premierguitar.com. 2009-05-06. Retrieved 2014-05-19.

External links

• Interview with Satchel on Maximum Threshold Radio