Rig Rundown: Heart

She also carries two Martin HD-35 Nancy Wilson signature dreads, as well as a Martin DCPA1 with a Fishman Aura system that she uses for “Alone.” All her acoustics (and Ann’s) use FU-Tone titanium bridge pins.  

Nancy also brings three or four Gibson Nighthawks—which she co-designed with Gibson—in various tunings. She uses an early-’90s version for Led Zeppelin covers, and an F-tuned one for Robin Trower’s “Day of the Eagle.” She’s also road-testing a new Epiphone version of the Nighthawk with a prototype Trem King cam-based vibrato.  

Nancy often borrows tech Jeff Ousley’s Duesenberg semi-hollowbody (given to him by Elvis Costello).

And her single-pickup, Bigsby-equipped ’68 Gibson SG is her go-to guitar for the smash hit “Barracuda.”  

Like her pedalboard, Nancy’s amp rack resides offstage. A Peavey-era Budda Superdrive 30 II head is her main amp, and a Fender ToneMaster serves as a backup. Each head drives its own Orange 4x12 cab loaded with 30-watt Celestion speakers.  

Ousley is in charge of both cable management and pedal switching for Nancy Wilson. Her offstage board starts with a Whirlwind A/B selector, an Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer, a Way Huge Swollen Pickle, an ancient Ibanez flanger, and a Budda Zenman OD/Boost. A Voodoo Lab Pedal Power supplies the juice, and channel switcher pedals for each of Nancy’s heads round out the board.  

Ann Wilson uses a custom Martin with a heart-shaped soundhole and star-constellation inlays for “These Dreams” and “Dog & Butterfly.” Her backup acoustic is a graphite Rainsong with Fishman Prefix electronics.  

Ann perches her three Trace-Elliot TA 200 amps atop sister Nancy’s two onstage Orange cabs. 

Lead guitarist Craig Bartock uses a variety of Fender and Fender-inspired instruments, including an Albert E. Custom S-style with Seymour Duncan pickups and a blend knob in place of a second tone control. He uses a Line 6 JTV-69S-US James Tyler Variax (via DI) for banjo sounds on “Steamboat Annie.” He plays a Jason Stockwell-built T-style strung with heavier .010 sets (he normally uses .009s) for the band’s frequent cover of Zeppelin’s “The Rain Song,” and uses a circa-’73 Fender Strat (shown here) with Sperzel locking tuners for “Magic Man” and to cover Trower’s “Day of the Eagle.”  

One of his favorite guitars is a circa-2011 G&L ASAT Classic (shown here). “It’s the perfect go-between a Gibson and a Fender,” he says. He also uses a Stockwell-built T-style with Duncan Designed P-90s and an S-style vibrato.  

The oldest guitar that Bartock braves the road with on this tour is a limited-edition 1971 reissue of a Gibson 1955 Les Paul Custom—complete with original “staple” pickup in the neck position—that he uses for three Zep tunes in each night’s encore. 

Bartock is a Vox guy through and through. He prefers a Rose Morris-era V125 head and matching ported 2x12 cab running in tandem with a circa-’95, British-built AC30 with Celestion Greenback speakers. For backup, he’s got a recent-vintage Vox AC50 and another ported 2x12 cab, as well as a VVT head. 

The stomp station at Bartock’s feet is relatively straightforward. A Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 drives a Boss TU-3 tuner, a custom, rooster-emblazoned boost pedal, multiple MXRs—a Micro Flanger, Dyna Comp, Carbon Copy, and Distortion+—and two Line 6 pedals, the DM4 Distortion Modeler and DL4 Delay Modeler. 

Heart’s low-end anchor for their current tour is session ace Dan Rothchild, who relies primarily on an early- to late-’70s Fender P bass that’s outfitted with a beefy, Badass-style Ibanez bridge, and an original pickup rewound by Rick Turner. Its coolest features, however, include a Coca-Cola bottle opener (from Rothchild’s underage days when friendly bartenders snuck him libations), a kill switch, and volume- and tone-control holes filled with a doorbell switch and what appears to be a soda-machine lock. His backup bass—a Bonneville Guitars J-style—is used for songs like “Dog & Butterfly.” 

Rothchild’s main amp is an Aguilar DB750 head powering three Aguilar cabs—a 4x12, a 4x10, and a 1x15. 

Most of Rothchild’s pedalboard is dedicated to switching between his two basses. He’s got a Radial J48 DI, as well as a Radial Big Shot A/B box that’s fed by his P bass, and either his backup bass or a Moog synth (used for Zep’s “No Quarter” and Heart’s “Heaven”). He also has a Custom Audio Electronics Boost/Line Driver to match output between basses, and two tuners—a Boss TU-3 for muting, and a Peterson StroboStomp 2 that remains active while letting signal through. Rothchild also has an Aguilar Octamizer and a Tech 21 VT Bass pedal. Everything’s powered by a Voodoo Lab brick.