Keith Urban
Signal Chain: Drawer 1: Demeter COMP-1 Compulator, Wampler Ego
Compressor, Analog Man Juicer, Wampler Paisley Drive, and two Boss GE-7
Graphic EQ. Drawer 2: MXR Distortion III, T-Rex Alberta Overdrive, B.K.
Butler Tube Driver, and two Klon Centaurs. Drawer 3: Early ’80s Pro Co Rat,
MXR GT-OD, XTS Custom Pedals Precision Overdrive, and Boss CE-2 Chorus.
Floor: Custom Audio Electronics RS-10 MIDI Foot Controller and RS-10
Expander Module, Boss FV-500H, Ernie Ball volume pedal, and Boss FS-5U
Momentary Switch. Photo by Andy EllisFor his ripping brand of
arena-filling country, Keith
Urban sets up with three rack
drawers full of pedals that range
from pedestrian to the stuff of
legend. The heart of his effects
setup—not surprisingly—is
compression. Urban uses a few
different compressors, which
guitar tech Chris Miller likens to
different flavors. “Is there a bad
flavor of ice cream? No.” he says,
pointing out that they often mix
the compressors as well. “There’s
no wrong way to do it—if it
sounds cool, it’s right.”
The compression mainstay
in Urban’s rack is the Wampler
Ego Compressor, which Miller
says is set to be a bit brighter
and is occasionally run in
conjunction with a Demeter
COMP-1 Compulator, set
warmer. When we caught up
with Urban in Nashville, he
rounded out his setup with
an Analog Man Juicer—a replica
of the old Dan Armstrong
Orange Squeezer.
Other permanent fixtures
in Urban’s ever-changing setup
include the MXR Distortion III
and MXR GT-OD, which Miller
says sound great at all settings,
though they are some of the more
affordable pedals in the setup. But
Urban makes up for any savings
with his duo of Klon Centaurs.
“I’ve yet to hear an amp they
sound bad with,” reports Miller
of the venerable overdrives.
Other members of Urban’s
collection of overdrives include
a Wampler Paisley Drive, T-Rex
Alberta Overdrive (which Miller
describes as a more refined Tube
Screamer tone), B.K. Butler
Tube Driver, XTS Custom
Pedals Precision Overdrive, and
an early ‘80s Pro Co Rat—
“Noisy, but boy does it sound
good,” notes Miller.
The racks are rounded out
by a Boss CE-2 that wasn’t in
use at the time, and a duo of
Boss EQ pedals that Miller
says are an underrated part of
the signal chain. “Nobody ever
thinks about them, but they’ll
do so much for you.”
The pedals are powered by
a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power
2 Plus in each drawer and
routed through loops in an
RJM Effects Gizmo, which sits
in the effects loop of Urban’s
Radial JX44 signal manager
so they can be sent to any of
his amps. The pedals are
controlled on the ground by
a Custom Audio Electronics
RS-10 MIDI Foot Controller
with RS-10 Expander Module,
Boss FV-500H, and Ernie Ball
Volume Pedal. Urban has this
setup at his feet, but Miller has
an additional RS-10 to handle
effects switching since Urban
spends a lot of time at mics on
opposite sides of the stage.
Watch the Rig Rundown: