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Guitarists Devin Holt and Brett Campbell and bassist Joe Rowland (above) spent over 30 minutes before their gig at Nashville’s Basement East to detail the equipment that allows them to blend doom, metal, and prog into one symbiotic, crushing sound.
Guitarist Devin Holt has been a longtime ESP player, but has spent most of his time on the brand’s Mustaine DV8 models. However, as the band’s sound has progressed, Holt needed a 7th string and a baritone scale so he now relies on this ESP Alex Wade AW-7B Signature. It’s nearly stock aside from the fact that Holt put in a set of custom Avedissian pickups that are modeled after the Gibson Classic ’57s.
Devin Holt’s current backup is this newly-acquired ESP LTD EC-1007 Evertune that, as the name suggests, comes standard with the Evertune F Model bridge. This baby is completely stock. Both guitars are anchored with a set of Stringjoy Custom Baritone strings (.010–.014–.018–.028–.040–.052–.070) that are tuned to A–E–A–D–G–B–E, and he shreds with Dunlop Tortex Sharp .73 mm picks.
Devin Holt is all orange, all the time. As you can see above, he’s running two versions of the popular Orange Rockerverb series—the Mk II on the left provides additional clarity and about 25 percent of his tone while the Mk III on the right runs all the modulation effects and handles about 75 percent of the power. He prefers the dirt from the Mk III version because Holt thinks it’s bigger and thicker. (All his dirt is coming from pushing those glowing EL34 tubes.) The Mk III goes through a 4x12 and 2x12. The 4x12 has various Celestions while the 2x12 has Jensen Electric Lighting speakers. The Mk II goes through a 2x12 loaded with Eminence Governors.
Harnessing and controlling all these stomps on Devin Holt’s board is a Boss ES-8 Effects Switching System. His noisemakers on the floor include a Strymon BigSky, Boss DD-500 Digital Delay, MXR Phase 95, EarthQuaker Devices Hoof, Fulltone Full-Drive 2 Mosfet, Strymon Ola, Strymon El Capistan, Boss PS-6 Harmonist, Empress ParaEq, and a Xotic SP Compressor. A Boss TU-3 Tuner keeps everything in check and a Strymon Zuma (under the board) and Ojai power all the pedals.
Bassist/vocalist Joe Rowland has been playing Fender Ps for as long as he can remember. This particular one is his latest gear acquisition—a 2017 Fender American Professional Precision bass. The only change he’s made to the instrument thus far was swapping out the stock pickups for a set of custom-wound Avedissian P pickups and requested that they be voiced close to John Wetton’s tone on King Crimson’s Red.
Speaking of King Crimson and John Wetton, this white MIM Fender P bass caught Joe Rowland’s eye one day on eBay while he was supposed to be working. (Wetton used an early ‘70s P bass for King Crimson and Uriah Heep.) Both basses are laced up with chunky Stringjoy .065–.140 strings.
To bring the rumble, Joe Rowland rocks through this Verellen Meatsmoke that is all tube and rages out a total of 300 watts.
Joe Rowland’s palette of pedals includes an Ernie Ball VP Jr, Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner, Old Blood Noise Endeavors Reflector, Moog MF Delay, Tronographic Rusty Box, EarthQuaker Devices Gray Channel, and an Elektron Analog Drive. He has a Radial StageBug SB-2 DI Box for a FOH signal blend and a Strymon Ojai makes sure everything is happy and running.
Vocalist/guitarist Brett Campbell has had this PRS S2 Vela for a few years and it’s been his main ride for most of that time. While it is not a baritone, he lowers it all the way into drop-A tuning (A–E–A–D–F#–B).
When Brett Campbell does want the extended-range baritone he straps on this PRS SE 277 that also rides in drop A. Both guitars use custom sets from Stringjoy that go all the way up .068 and he plays with .60 mm Dunlop Tortex picks.
Brett Campbell’s two-amp recipe starts with the Mesa/Boogie Mark IV that takes all the effects and it goes through an Orange PPC412. He says that he EQs this one to be mid- and bass-focused.
The other half of the equation is this Roland JC-120 that is EQ’d fairly balanced and leans into a brighter territory.
Brett Campbell’s board is admittedly always in flux for one reason or another, but for this run along the south he wired these bad boys together: Korg Pitchblack Tuner, Ernie Ball VP Jr, Friedman BE-OD, EarthQuaker Devices Arrows, Electro-Harmonix Nano Clone, EQD Dispatch Master, EQD Tone Job, Luck Duck Nu-Tron II, EQD Avalanche Run, and Caroline Guitar Company Meteore. While both amps are “ideally” both pushing air, he does use Radial BigShot SW2 Universal Remote Footswitch for any on-the-fly amp switching.
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Chris Kies has degrees in Journalism and History from the University of Iowa and has been with PG dating back to his days as an intern in 2007. He's now the multimedia manager maintaining the website and social media accounts, coordinating Rig Rundown shoots (also hosting and/or filming them) and product demos, and occasionally writing an artist feature, all while still shooting/editing video for NAMM-show coverage. Other than that, he spends time with his pitbull and enjoys non-guitar-related hobbies.
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