Maroon 5's James Valentine
Signal Chain: Keeley Looper (sent to Providence Anadime Chorus > Electro-Harmonix Micro POG 2 > Keeley
Katana Clean Boost) > Fulltone Octafuzz > Z.Vex Octane 3 > Dunlop Zakk Wylde signature wah > Fulltone Fulldrive
2 > Fulltone OCD > Menatone Blue Collar Overdrive > Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor > Axess BS-2 Buffer/Splitter
(split out to Korg Pitchblack tuner) > Dunlop Rotovibe > Boss FV-500H volume pedal > Keeley-modded Line 6 DL4.
Photo by Chris Kies
Though his board has perhaps
the most effects of
any that we saw on the road this
year, Maroon 5 lead guitarist
James Valentine uses many of
them for single songs—or even
just parts of a song. When we
caught up with Valentine during
Maroon 5’s summer 2011
Hands All Over tour, his more
heavily used effects include a
Fulltone OCD for leads and
the Line 6 DL4 set with a slight
delay and a more dramatic delay
that he taps into the tempo of
the songs, “for that Police-y sort
of thing we do a lot.”
Valentine has three flavors
of overdrive on his board—a
Menatone Blue Collar, Fulltone
OCD, and Fulltone Full-
Drive—but usually gravitates
back to the OCD. However,
his pedal usage is not set in
stone. “I kind of change it
up because we play so many
shows that sometimes I’ll solo
on the [Fulltone] Octave Fuzz
because you’ll find that that will
inspire different sort of ideas.
My sound guy would probably
prefer if I played the same thing
every night, [laughs] but it’s a
little more fun to experiment.”
The Dunlop Rotovibe,
which he calls his “favorite
swirly-type of effect,” is his
go-to for chorus tones, and
after trying out a number of
wahs, Valentine settled on the
seemingly uncharacteristic
Zakk Wylde wah. “I love
Zakk Wylde’s playing, but I
don’t really play anything like
him,” he told us. “Every wah
has a different sort of range it
sweeps from, and this one had
a particularly good range and
just works for the type of stuff
I use it for.” The wah can be
heard heavily on the band’s hit,
“Sunday Morning.”
Some of his less used pedals
include the Z.Vex Octane
3, which is only used for
about four bars on “Never See
Your Face Again,” which he
says “really breaks up,” and
the Electro-Harmonix Micro
POG which made its way
to Valentine’s board for the
single, “Give a Little More.” He
uses the pedal in conjunction
with the Providence Anadime
Chorus for the intro section of
the song, but has been inspired
to find more ways to use it
since adding it to the board.
The POG and Chorus are run
through the Keeley Looper to
keep the chain clean. “As soon
as you add anything else to
your signal chain, you start to
see your signal degrading,” he
explains. Valentine and his tech,
Mike Buffa, took great care to
make sure the chain has as little
signal degradation as possible.
Valentine controls volume
with his Boss FV-500H,
smoothes things out with a
Keeley Katana, tunes with a
Korg Pitchblack tuner, and
powers the board with a trio
of Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2
Plus units. One of his secret
weapons is the Boss NS-2 Noise
Suppressor. “We have a lot of
dramatic pauses,” he explains,
“so if there’s that extra in
between that, it’s annoying.”
Valentine also uses his
pedalboard to control his two-amp
setup. His Divided by
13 Switchazel and Matchless
footswitch sit side-by-side so
he can switch both amps from
clean to dirty at the same time
or set one clean and one dirty.
Valentine told us, “If you see
me during the show, I’m kind
of tap dancing a lot—I probably
should switch to some sort
of MIDI system [laughs].”
Watch the Rig Rundown: