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We had a pre-soundcheck hang with singer/songwriter/guitarist Liz Cooper and her stalwart, low-end wrecking ball Grant Prettyman during their recent hometown gig at Nashville’s Basement East. Both Cooper and Prettyman travel with one guitar, one amp, and a few pedals, but explain that within those comfy confines, they illustrate with a full complement of colors.
Liz Cooper started her 6-string life on flattops, but partaking in jams with fellow local Nashville bands Desert Noises and Okey Dokey helped cultivate a love for broad sonic expression and power held in electric guitar. While doing some research and rubbing elbows with guitar lovers in the Northeast, Cooper heard of Creston Lea’s custom, one-off creations. After a few conversations, Lea quickly got to work on the guitar you see above. It features a salvaged spruce body (from a barn), a 40-year-old piece of Indian rosewood for its neck, a Lollar P-90 Jazzmaster bridge pickup paired with a Lollar Jazzmaster neck pickup, and everything is held down with Mastery hardware. Cooper allowed Lea to craft the guitar free of much direction, but he was aware of her heavily-acoustic background so the neck is chunky and thick. She was bouncing between .011- .012-gauged strings, but at this show she was sticking with D’Addario NYXL .011–.049 strings.
Being a self-admitted Beatles fanatic, Liz Cooper had always been drawn to the aesthetic and tone of Vox amps. She scored this particular head-turning red AC15 combo at a Guitar Center because it was the cheapest option of all the similar Voxes.
Liz Cooper is relatively new to the electric-guitar game, but she’s jumped right in and welcomed the weird with a host of mind-bending modulation pedals including an Old Blood Noise Endeavors Reflector, Boss TR-2 Tremolo, BBE Soul Vibe, Boss AW-3 Dynamic Wah, and a Dr. Scientist BitQuest. The other stomps are a TC Electronic Hall of Fame, MXR Echoplex, Big Ear Frank, and a TC Electronic PolyTune.
Grant Prettyman can often be seen loitering at a local Nashville gear shop, Eastside Music Supply, and his strongest love affair was with this ’70s Baldwin 704 hollowbody bass. One day Liz, her dad, and Grant were hanging at the shop checking out pedals when Grant mentioned that this cherry 704 had been the apple of his eye for months. Fast forward a few weeks: Liz’s dad asks Grant if he can go to the shop and pick up a pedal he’d bought for Liz, since Grant lived close by. “No problem,” says Grant. He gets to the shop, and the EMS crew retrieves a big case from downstairs… Liz’s dad surprised her longtime bassist with the 704.
Grant Prettyman trusts his live tone to this Acoustic Model 220. As you can see in the EQ sliders, he pushes down the 820 Hz and 2000 Hz parameters, so the Baldwin doesn’t howl at loud volumes. He’s always loved the studio tone of the amp, but grew frustrated onstage with its sound until he matched it with an 8x10 speaker cab, which blossoms the sound to a full, pleasant representation of the record.
“This is more pedals than I ever imagined I’d have when I started this gig,” says Grant Prettyman. For bass purists, this seems overkill, but pedals like the Electro-Harmonix Micro POG, Mooer Ensemble King, Paul Cochrane Timmy, and Electro-Harmonix Canyon are used for occasional spice and song transitions. The bulk of pedal duties is relegated to the Way Huge Saffron Squeeze Compressor that’s on all the time to give the Baldwin a little tighter, focused punch. Everything is kept in check with a D’Addario Planet Waves Chromatic Tuner.
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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