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Hozier, along with his tech Martin “Murt” Murphy, took nearly 30 minutes before the sold-out show at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry to detail the hollowbodies, baritones, Takamines, stash of pedals, and tube amps that were used on the American tour in support of his 2019 release, Wasteland Baby!
Hozier gravitates towards hollowbody instruments for their bite and living-on-the-edge resonance that gives his emotive songs just a little extra sauce. This particular hollowbody is a Gibson Memphis ES-330 1959 Reissue that rides in standard tuning and uses D’Addario NYXL .010–.046 strings.
The hollowbody that helped catapult Hozier into the limelight in 2013 was this vintage 1960s Harmony H78 used on the award-winning “Take Me to Church.” The Irishman is particularly fond of this 6-string because it not only helped send his star into orbit, but the DeArmond gold-foils have an exceptional “woof” and “bite” to them.
Sometimes a song just needs a certain guitar, and that was the case with Hozier and his hit “Jackie and Wilson.” He originally wrote the demo in the key of E, but it was too high for his voice. This Gretsch G5265 Jet Baritone came into his life and quickly helped morph the song into what you hear on the radio. He keeps it tuned to B–F#–D–A–E–B and uses a mixture of D’Addario strings. The B & F# strings are EXL 145 (.016 & .020) while D, A, E, and B strings are EXL156 (.034, .044, .056, .072).
Hozier’s uncle Liam is a musician and always had all sorts of instruments around for the family to bang around on. Uncle Liam had such a collection that Hozier’s first electric guitar—a blue Fender Strat seen in his NPR Tiny Desk Concert—and this Danelectro U2 Resonator were given to him to make room for more gear. You’ll see this unique reso make an appearance on his folkier tunes like “Real People Do” (standard), “It Will Come Back” (D–A–F–D–A–D) and “In a Week” (D–G–D–G–B–D). Similar to the earlier hollowbodies, the U2 goes with D’Addario NYXL .010–.046 strings.
When you talk about a distinct tonal (and visual) flare, you need look no further than this character—a Bohemian Guitars Mercury Oil Can. This rusty bugger has EMG active pickups and takes D’Addario NYXL .010–.046 strings with a Shubb capo on the first fret for “To Be Alone.” And to make these bad boys even cooler, Bohemian works with Trees for the Future to have 10 trees planted with every order.
The other Bohemian model (this one is a Jacobson fuel can) goes after a raunchier vibe with its trio of P-90s and middle single-coil pickup configuration. He keeps it strung up with D’Addario EXL157 (.014 –.068) strings that are tuned to D–A–F–C–G–D.
The fingerstylist travels with a handful of Takamine P3NY parlor acoustics that feature a solid cedar top with solid sapele back, African mahogany neck, bound-rosewood fretboard, and the company’s CT4B preamp system. The various small-bodied flattops have various D’Addario strings and tunings (D–A–F–C–G–D—EFT15 .010–.047; D–A–F#–D–A–D—EFT15 .010–.047; E–C–G–C–G–C—EXP16 .012–.053).
Bringing his 21st-century rhythm and blues to life are the transatlantic-twin power of a Vox AC30 Custom and Fender ’59 Bassman LTD. Hozier runs both amps at the same time and each combo has a backup.
Here are Hozier’s Fender ’59 Bassman LTD settings.
And here are Hozier’s Vox AC30 Custom settings.
Hozier has a strapping board of tone-tweaking goodies including an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff, a pair of T-Rex Mudhoney IIs (subtle and aggravated dirt), Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer Overdrive Pro, EHX POG2, T-Rex Alberta Overdrive, TC Electronic Hall of Fame 2, Fulltone OCD, EHX Cathedral and Deluxe Memory Man, and a pair of Xotic EP Boosters (used to bump up the volume coming out of oil-can guitars). For the Takamines, he has two L.R. Baggs preamps—a Venue D.I. and Para Acoustic D.I.
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 maintains the website and social media, occasionally writes an artist feature, regularly hosts Rig Rundowns, and shoots/edits video for NAMM show coverage. Other than that, he spends time with his pitbull and enjoys non-guitar-related hobbies.
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