Jerry Douglas is a busy guy, having recorded more than 1,600 albums with artists as diverse as Phish, Garth Brooks, Elvis Costello, Paul Simon, Mumford & Sons, Eric Clapton, James Taylor and a ton of others. When not recording, Douglas is touring with Alison Krauss or any of his own bands, including The Earls of Leicester. Premier Guitar was lucky enough to catch up with Douglas to talk gear at his studio in Nashville, where he took the PG team through his recording and touring rig.
Although Jerry Douglas has acquired a boatload of instruments over his career, he has streamlined his touring and recording setups to just one lap steel and one resonator. His main ride is a Lap King steel guitar built by Jason DuMont. The guitar features a Lollar Supro-style pickup in the bridge and Lollar Gold Foil in the neck. Douglas strings it up with D’Addario XL (.016–.056) strings.
For resonator, Jerry Douglas goes with his Beard JD Signature model, nicknamed “Blackbeard.” Douglas added another Lollar gold-foil pickup in the neck to go along with his signature Fishman transducer under-saddle pickup. He keeps Blackbeard strung up with D’Addario EJ42 Phosphor Bronze .016–.056 strings.
This 1954 Fender Vibrolux was acquired from a good friend years ago. Jerry Douglas has tried to sell it back to him for what he paid for it (which is likely way under today’s market value), but the generous friend wouldn’t hear of it. At some point the tweed was replaced with black Naugahyde.
As you can see, Jerry Douglas is a delay junkie. His pedalboard features a trio of Boss delays–DD-3, DD-7, and a RV-3 Digital Delay/Reverb–along with a vintage Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man, Paul Cochrane Timmy overdrive, a Fishman Jerry Douglas Signature Aura, a Radial ToneBone PZ-Pre, and a TC Electronic PolyTune 3. Off the board he keeps an EHX POG and an EHX Q-Tron in reach for weirder tones.
John Bohlinger is a Nashville-based multi-instrumentalist best known for leading the band on NBC's Nashville Star, serving as music director for the CMT Awards and specials on PBS and GAC, and of course for his appearances in PG Rig Rundown, Review Demo, Axes & Artifacts, and What Bohlinger Plays videos.
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