Premier Guitar dropped in to Guthrie Trapp’s Nashville studio between sessions and checked out Trapp’s no-nonsense rig, which includes blackface amps, a vintage 335 and an axe carved out of wood from a compost pile.
Although Trapp owns other guitars, he basically gets it all done with two very different axes. His No. 1 is his Floyd Cassista T-style with an ancient redwood body and a maple neck.
When Trapp wants to change it up he goes with his stock 1969 Gibson ES-335 w/ trapeze tailpiece. Both guitars are strung with D’Addario NYXL .010–.046 strings.
Trapp is a total blackface player. Most of his work is done with two '60s combos—shown here is his 1966 Fender Deluxe Reverb loaded with a Reverend All-Tone speaker.
And his other classic Fender combo is a 1965 Fender Vibrolux Reverb that features the original speakers.
His modest day-to-day board starts with a Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner. From there the signal hits his Xotic Effects RC Booster, vintage Nobels ODR-1 Overdrive, XTS Winford Drive, J. Rockett Audio Designs Guthrie Trapp Overdrive, Strymon Flint Tremolo/Reverb, Boss DD-5 Digital Delay (which is on the reverse setting) and a Strymon El Capistan dTape Echo. Everything lives on a Pedaltrain Jr. board and is powered by a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus.