When you're on top of the rock pile, it's okay to indulge a bit, especially on gear; Nickelback bassist Mike Kroeger will be the first to admit that his new Peavey rig is "pretty excessive." But shouldn't the bassist for one of rock's most successful bands take an original approach to creating his sound? Even if it means installing a full guitar amp into his rig?

Sure, some rock bass players may use a distorted tone here or a fuzzy tone there, usually with a simple stomp box and just as often with no personality. But for Kroeger, who uses distortion on most of Nickelback's catalog, finding the perfect clean and distorted bass tones has been a long quest, one that eventually led him to two Peavey amplifiers: the Pro Series bass amp and Triple XXX® guitar amp. As he recently attested, "We tried everything, and Peavey simply sounds best."

Kroeger's amplification system includes a Pro 500 bass amp head, Pro 810 and Pro 115 bass cabinets, GPS power amplifiers and a Triple XXX guitar amplifier with matching 412 cabinet. "The low end on my Peavey rig is really smooth, and the mids and highs are nice and clean," said Kroeger. "They seem 'right there,' but still palatable." Okay, Mike, but what about this guitar amp?

"I just find that all the distortion tones that come for bass are kind of deficient, really," he acquiesced. "I find that real distortion comes out of a guitar amp. The best way we found to incorporate the distortion was running the Triple XXX, blending it in with the rest of the rig."

Shuu, Kroeger's bass tech, explained it further. "When we need a clean tone, I'll just shut off the distortion," he said. "Most of the time when it's a heavier song I have them both on. That's about 80% to 90% of the time."

This clean-to-distorted tone ratio continues on the rocking new Nickelback album, The Long Road, which will be available September 23. "We're maturing and getting better at what we do, and I think that's evident in the songs," he said. "But it's not like it's a completely different animal. It's just a newer version." Kroeger added that brother and frontman Chad's recent solo success, the hit "Hero" from the movie Spider-Man, hasn't affected the recording sessions. "That song turned into a solo effort because we thought it was out of character for us. We still do our thing."

True to rock 'n' roll tradition, Nickelback's "thing" will also include a mammoth arena show in support of The Long Road, with all manner of indulgences included. "We have more options of things we can do for our show - big stage, big pyro - we can blow it up, and we like that. I'm really thankful we decided to go with the big arena rock vibe to our shows, because it's turning out to be a lot of fun!"

Peavey Electronics Corporation is one of the largest manufacturers of musical instruments and professional sound equipment in the world. Peavey holds more than 130 patents and produces more than 2,000 products, which are distributed throughout the United States and to 136 other countries. To find out more about Peavey Electronics and its artists, visit www.peavey.com.