Joe Satriani
Signal Chain: Vox Big Bad Wah > Voodoo Lab Proctavia > Roger Mayer Voodoo-Vibe Jr > Boss CH-1 Super Chorus > Vox Satchurator > Vox Ice 9
Overdrive > DigiTech Whammy > Radial JDI > Amp (Effects Loop) > Custom True Bypass Switch > DigiTech 33B (rackmount, not pictured) > Vox Time
Machine > Vox Time Machine. Photo by Jason Shadrick
Joe Satriani pulls double
duty with Chickenfoot
and solo work these days, but
when we caught up with him
he was touring solo in support
of Black Swans and Wormhole
Wizards. “Besides the wah wah
pedal and the delays, pretty
much everything is used maybe
for one song,” Satriani told
us. “They take up a lot of real
estate, but they’re little ear-candy
pedals.”
Though his board is packed
with signature pedals, he leans
most heavily on the Vox Big
Bad Wah and dual Vox Time
Machine delays, which are
always on. He gets his dirt from
his prototype Marshall JVM410
heads—which he was tweaking
nightly at the time, hence the
handwritten, taped notes on
the amp footswitch—but keeps
his signature Vox Satchurator
and Vox Ice 9 Overdrive on the
board, “in case I change my
mind on how I want to work
with my gain levels.”
Photo by David IzquierdoThe specific-use pedals
include a Voodoo Lab Proctavia,
which is used for a solo in
“Crystal Planet,” a Boss CE-5
Chorus used on “Crystal Planet”
and on the outro for “Wind
in the Trees,” a Roger Mayer
Voodoo-Vibe used for the solo
in “Pyrrhic Victoria,” and the
DigiTech Whammy used for the
outro on “Revelation.”
The black unmarked box is
a true-bypass box built by Ben
Fargen, which places Satriani’s
secret weapon in the chain: a
DigiTech 33B Super Harmony
Machine. The rack effect (not
pictured) is only used for the
song “Why.” “It’s one of those
rack effects you don’t really
want to be sending your guitar
through unless it’s absolutely
necessary,” Satriani explained.
“For the song ‘Why’ it gives me
this unusual E minor harmony.”
The board is powered by
three Voodoo Lab Pedal Power
2 Plus units and is wired with
cables built by Satch’s tech,
Mike Manning, using Planet
Waves cable kits. “I keep changing
things and he’s got to react
very quickly to pedals being
moved around,” Satriani said.
Watch the Rig Rundown: