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PG's Shawn Hammond catches up with slide master Sonny Landreth. In this Rig Rundown segment, Landreth shares his Strat mods and road amps, and demonstrates his favorite pedal combinations.

Guitars
When we caught up with Sonny, he was doing fly-in dates, so he was working with his "survival" rig. For this rig, he uses two very similar '57 reissue Strats from the late '80s. They have soft V necks, Lindy Fralin Hot Vintage Pickups, and a Suhr Silent Single Coil system installed in the back to reduce the hum.

Amps
Though he's known for his Dumble amps, Landreth doesn't generally travel with them on tours that involve a lot of flying. His go-to setup is a Demeter TGA3 with 6L6 tubes run into the speakers of a Fender Twin '65 reissue backline. He uses the TGA3 exclusively on the yellow (clean) channel live, and has used the amp extensively on recordings as well.

Pedals
Landreth calls his pedalboard "the runway." It's set up so it can be folded and put into a suitcase for easy traveling. He has a larger pedalboard for other tour with a Voodoo Lab switching system. This pedalboard has a Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner, Demeter Fuzzulator, Hermida Audio Zendrive modded for higher gain (his go-to pedal), Hermida Audio Mosferatu, Keeley Compressor, TC Electronic Chorus+, and T-Rex Replica Delay. It's powered by the Sanyo Pedal Juice rechargeable power supply.

Comments

(26 comments)

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now on 02/25/2013	Shut the #$%^^ up about the DUMBOs. Who cares? Landreth actually knows what he is doing. He doesnt need your help.
JM on 02/10/2013	The attenuator on top is a Faustine Phantom DX2. http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazi ne/Issue/2011/Jan/Faustine_Phantom_Dx2_A ttenuator_Review.aspx
gibstrat on 09/03/2012	i agree bob, what an asshole
bob on 08/12/2012	whats the deal with the idiot and the a-a-a-a-a-a mic check ?
Bossmodder on 08/09/2012	Ive seen Sonny with John Hiatt once, and 2 times solo as a three piece...each time was equally amazing. It's a one man guitar magic show . He gets some unique tones no one I mean no one sounds like him.I can't wait to see him this time around when he comes thru!
frogbastard on 08/03/2012	I say him twice and spoke to him after each gig.He gladly took a group picture with some friends and is always a pleasure to talk to.How can someone be that good and still be so nice and unassuming.Looking forward to seeing him again in the near future.Great interview on his gear and for taking all that time before a gig to share some of his insights on what makes him sound as amazing as he does.
Bill on 07/30/2012	My wife and I have seen Sonny live twice now. Super showman. Both times he came out after the show to meet his fans and sign autographs and have people's photos taken with him. He chatted with each and every person for several minutes. Can't wait for the next time he is in my area (Northern Virginia).
Rik on 07/30/2012	Saw his trio a few years ago at a little club here in South Florida. Those three guys sounded like 6. He is da man.
Breeze on 07/30/2012	Years ago I was doing a wedding gig w/ the band Hub City Rhythm in Lafayette, LA. Sonny was a guest @ the wedding and he played a couple of tunes w/ us. He played on my '75 Gibson Marauder. Real Nice guy!
Darryl on 07/29/2012	To EG: I think it's a power attenuator of some kind. When the cameraman shows the back of the amp you can see the Demeter speaker out goes into the top box and then a speaker cable comes out of the box and attaches to the speakers in the Fender Twin.

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