Bill Pitts

Bill Pitts in Concert

Bill Pitts began his musical career back in the early 80's. He played in a band that at various phases was called Legacy, Cerberus, and lastly Death Weapon. The genre of choice was hard rock and heavy metal and they could be heard playing songs by AC/DC, Judas Priest, and Ozzy Osbourne. After a few years, this band broke up and he became more influenced by the progressive art rock of bands such as Pink Floyd, Yes and Rush. During his later high school years, he played in a band called October which performed songs by these artists. After that band went its separate ways he later started a band with the former bassist of October, Bob Sarsfield. This band was called Minus Tirith from the works of J.R. Tolkien. This band played a great variety of music from Top 40 to Prog Rock but it didn't last long. Soon after that Bill went to Elmhurst College to major in Music Business. There he studied classical guitar with Paul Herman, sang in the Elmhurst College Choir and studied music theory, orchestration, and audio engineering. During this time Bill and the vocalist of Minus Tirith, Paul Shamoun (current vocalist with the contemporary christian rock band Church of Rhythm), would form Safety In Numbers. This band performed original music in Chicago clubs that blended a number of eclectic styles into an original pop format. While the band appeared headed for greater success, internal strife broke the band apart. After several years of several small projects and stalled efforts, Bill teamed up with Don Mills after Don responded to an ad that Bill placed in a local music store. Drawing upon the years of past experiences they formed Wave Estate. For Bill, Wave Estate mixes elements from all those experiences to create an interesting blend of original music that draws power from hard rock, while adding the intricacies of progressive rock and the song crafting of pop.

GUITARS

• Main Electric: 1989 Midnight Blue Fender Strat® Plus
• Second Electric: 1984 Red Kramer Pacer® Deluxe
• Acoustic: 1994 Black Takamine EG-334BC

AMPLIFICATION

• Marshall 6100LM Anniversary Series Head
• Marshall Valvestate® 8040 1x12 Combo
• Yamaha G100-III Head
• Yamaha S412-III 4x12 Cabinet
• Alesis RA-100 Power Amp

KEYBOARDS & MIDI

• Roland U-20 Synthesiser
• Kawai Q-80 Sequencer

EFFECTS

• DOD FX-17 Wah-Volume
• DOD FX25 Envelope Filter
• DOD FX80-B Compressor/Sustainer
• DOD FX55 Distortion
• DOD DFX9 Digital Delay
• DOD FX75-B Stereo Flanger
• DOD FX68 Super Stereo Chorus

MISCELLANEOUS

• Boss TU-12H Chromatic Tuner
• Ernie Ball Regular Slinky Custom Guage 2221 Nickel Wound Strings
• Jim Dunlap .88MM Nylon Picks

Last Modified: 6:12PM 4/6/97.
Copyright © 1997 by Bill Pitts