Paul Tourville
Lead and Rhythm Guitars, Backing Vocals
Paul started playing guitar semi-seriously in 1989 on a cheap plywood-bodied Harmony guitar with a neck like a baseball bat, which he has since cannibalized. By 1990, he had started working at WNLC/WTYD in New London, CT, where he met Julio and keyboard guru Lance Davis. Paul and Lance formed Bathroom Humour, with local bassist Jameson “Precision” Bass, writing and recording together for a year, until Paul ended up joining the Navy.
Paul shelved his musical endeavors for most of his stint in the Navy. Of course, by the time he got out of the Navy, he was a married home-owner… so… again, musical stuff was mostly shelved. He did noodle on guitar, bass and keys from 1994 until 1997, writing and recording a bit, here and there. By 1998, Paul had made the choice to move away from MIDI-based recording, and start actually playing bass, drums and keys, rather than playing along with sequenced parts. This was the beginning of the “Dummyhead concept”, and the “Dummyhead sound”.
It wasn’t until 2002 that Paul really started to get back in the musical groove, refreshing his connections with Julio Reid and Jim Bass. This was the real nexus we can point to as the real formation of Dummyhead as a band.
Paul is also the band's historian. He maintains a website at http://www.ursuspacificus.net/blog/ in addition to this site.
Paul’s Rig:
- Guitars:
- Epiphone Les Paul Custom
- Fender Katana
- Washburn KC44-v
- Amp: Fender F.A.T. Hot Rod DeLuxe
- Effects:
- D.O.D. FX51B OverDrive
- Boss DS-1 Distortion
- Boss CE-5 Chorus
- D.O.D. FX-17 Wah/Volume
- Morley “Bad Horsey II” Wah
- MXR Carbon Copy Analog Delay
- Heil TalkBox