December 2011 \ Features \ Rig Rundown \ Rig Rundown: Steely Dan’s Walter Becker

Rig Rundown: Steely Dan’s Walter Becker

See Walter Becker’s live rig used on Steely Dan’s summer 2011 tour.
Premier Guitar December 2011

PG's Jason Shadrick caught up with Steely Dan techs to check out the gear Walter Becker used for the band's summer 2011 tour. Watch the video below (and click here to see our Jon Herington Rig Rundown):

Guitars
Always the experimenter, Becker brings a number of guitars with him on the road including models from Sadowsky, Hahn, Frye, Fender, Fano, and Kauer.

Becker’s main guitar is his signature Walter Becker model Sadowsky. It features custom Lollar P-90 pickups, spalted maple top and swamp ash body. In the neck/middle and middle/bridge settings, the pickups are wired for hum cancelling output. The tiny three-way switch control a special preamp that offers separate buffer and gain boosts. The third knob has a push/pull feature that activates the neck/bridge combination with the 5-way switch in either the neck or bridge positions. All the Sadowsky guitars are strung with Ernie Ball .011s.

Amps
Quite the tonal alchemist, Becker relies on a bevy of different amps, cabs, and speakers. At the moment, he is using amps from Suhr, Bogner, Marshall, Ampeg, 3 Monkeys, Retro Channel, and Satellite. According to Becker’s tech, Dave Rule, nearly any combination of amp and cabinet is possible on any given night, however there are a few mainstays: primarily a ‘70s 50-watt Marshall 2204 MKII through a Marshall 4x12 cab loaded with NOLA Celestion speakers and a rubber grill cloth used in conjunction with a Suhr Badger 18. He also employs a 3 Monkeys Virgil, Bogner Ecstasy, Retro Channel RR1, and Satellite Mudshark.

Effects
Walter Becker’s pedalboard is in constant flux, but when we caught up with him it included a Sonic Research tuner, Barber Tone Press compressor, Eventide Pitch Factor, Eventide Space (which he uses only for reverb), Moog Moogerfooger MuRF, Pigtronix Envelope Phaser, Boss Noise Suppressor NS-2, and an MXR Carbon Copy. Next to his pedalboard is his Bogner channel switcher. He uses a Lehle 1at3 SGoS switcher to go between different amps and cabs.


     

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Comments

 (16 comments) display by
UsernameComment
IFP
on 07/27/2012 		Ross- because it's HIS rig and he likes options. As soon as you declare someone else's rig as "overkill", you immediately reduce yourself to "peanut gallery" status.
enyby
on 06/02/2012 		He just bought a Grammer acoustic '72 rumor has it
MamaJones
on 12/12/2011 		Nice review and great input from the techs. Great amp selection and I'm sure it changes constantly. Not a big SD fan but appreciate their music and if they've been around this long, got to be doing something right.
Ken
on 12/02/2011 		Who is Steely Dan? Never heard of them...
Rudedude
on 12/01/2011 		Nice rig with endless possibilities..Walter is a great guitarist/
Twang
on 12/01/2011 		Ex-Sqeeze me... where is the bathroom?
nitebob
on 12/01/2011 		This was filmed on August 27th. The backline has changed several times since then...no pedal board, no Bogners, no Marshall etc....and the running joke is NOLA....the speakers are pre ROLA baskets with Scumback cones... nitebob
Ross
on 12/01/2011 		Overkill, he is a decent guitarist (not a Larry Carlton), why does he need all of that stuff?
george
on 12/01/2011 		Jerkychild- In your long experience as a caterer. Shut up.
Troy
on 12/01/2011 		I have to agree with the marshall 2204. It is a killer amp.



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