
On their 12th album, The Unraveling, the Drive-By Truckers use rootsy rock and incisive lyrics to describe life in modern America as they see and feel it. With songs like "Babies in Cages," "Heroin Again," and "Grievance Merchants," it's not for the faint of heart. Left to right: Jay Gonzalez, Mike Cooley, Patterson Hood, Matt Patton, and Brad Morgan.
Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley on their new The Unraveling, and running into Mick Jagger while recording it at the late Sam Phillips' legendary Memphis studio.
On the rough-and-tumble streets of Memphis, it's said good omens are hard to come by. But a funny thing happened to the Drive-By Truckers just as they were gearing up to record their latest album, The Unraveling, at the hallowed Sam Phillips Recording studio. With no warning and little fanfare, they found themselves eyeball-to-eyeball in the parking lot with the street-fighting man himself, Mick Jagger.
Okay, so the Rolling Stones frontman wasn't exactly there to see the Truckers. He'd been scouting locations, with author Peter Guralnick, for a film based on Guralnick's monumental biography Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll, which chronicles the wild life and times of the irascible Sun Records founder and producer. But to DBT's Patterson Hood, whose radar for potentially cool situations always seems to be on high alert, it might have felt for just a fleeting moment like ol' Mick had dropped in to pay his respects and sit in with the band.
Listen to “Thoughts and Prayers" from The Unraveling, DBT's 12th album.
“Mick was there with Peter, the film's production designer, the screenwriter—and three bodyguards," says Hood, barely suppressing a laugh. “And yeah, it was awesome. They had spent the day at Sun with Jerry Lee Lewis, and then they parted ways with him and came over to Sam Phillips, where we were. It was incredible."
The wonderful irony of the encounter isn't lost on Hood. He and the ever-stalwart Mike Cooley, who together founded the Truckers back in 1996 in a quest to reshape Southern rock and alt-country on their own terms, both hail originally from the Muscle Shoals region of Alabama, just a few hours southeast of Memphis. (Hood's father is bassist David Hood, from the monumentally groove-gifted Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, which defined the sound of producer Rick Hall's historic FAME Studios.)
The Stones, of course, have a special affinity for the Memphis blues and soul canon defined by the likes of Furry Lewis, Sleepy John Estes, Sun, Stax, and Hi Records. In the late '60s and early '70s, they channeled it into a few collaborations, including the Sticky Fingers staple “Wild Horses" with the late Jim Dickinson—whose sons Luther and Cody, co-founders of the North Mississippi Allstars, are dear friends with Hood and Cooley. And let's not forget the opening verse of “Honky Tonk Women," where Jagger so coyly name-checks the city now long known as the Birthplace of Rock 'n' Roll. Could the stars have been more perfectly aligned?
Whether or not Hood lends anything other than a passing credence to such notions, he certainly had Memphis on his mind when he and Cooley began writing songs for their 12th studio album. “Looking back, we'd even planned on recording American Band there," he says, referring to DBT's compact, politically charged 2016 release, “but at the last minute, we ended up moving it to Nashville because that's where our tour was ending." Tracked at Cowboy Jack Clement's Sound Emporium, American Band found the Truckers—Hood, Cooley, keyboardist/guitarist Jay Gonzalez, bassist Matt Patton, and drummer Brad Morgan—in rare form, delivering punk-influenced slabs of wisdom and soul-flavored workouts with pointed urgency.
When the band's Memphis-based engineer Matt Ross-Spang suggested Sam Phillips Recording for The Unraveling sessions, the implication was that the next album would be a radical departure from the sharp immediacy of American Band. Hood heard an expansive, flowing, cinematic sound in his head, and he knew the studio's custom echo chambers could help the band achieve it.
“It's almost like Sam Phillips should have a personnel credit on the record," Hood says, “because his presence so inhabits everything in that room. And whether you're superstitious enough to believe in ghosts or not—and I tend to not be that way—there is an undeniable presence there. I mean, he designed the echo chambers, so it's more than just his name on the building. It was absolutely his lair and his dream studio. Plus, back in '62 or so, it's state-of-the-art, which worked perfect for our thing because recording analog is important to us, and there'd been just enough '70s upgrades along the way to make it the best of both worlds."
TIDBIT: The Truckers trekked to Memphis to track their 12th studio album at Sam Phillips Recording. “It's almost like Sam Phillips should have a personnel credit on the record," says Patterson Hood. “His presence so inhabits everything in that room."
Working again with longtime producer David Barbe, the band played most of the basic tracks together from the studio floor, with very few overdubs afterwards. Two songs by Hood—the eerie opener “Rosemary with a Bible and a Gun" and the lilting alt-country anthem “21st Century USA"—were augmented with strings, which add another rich layer to an already wide-angle mix. On Cooley's riff-heavy “Slow Ride Argument," which takes its snarky title from the classic-rock radio hit by Foghat, the interlocking guitar parts are panned hard left and right, with Cooley's lead vocal awash in slapback echo. “Thoughts and Prayers," the album's riled-up first single, finds Hood leaning into his 1948 Melody Ranch Gene Autry acoustic, restored by luthier Scott Baxendale.
For Hood and Cooley, Baxendale is practically a member of the band. He makes an art out of restoring old acoustic guitars from his shop in Athens, Georgia, where he also custom designs and builds beautiful electric guitars. He's just a stone's throw from the Truckers' warehouse headquarters and a block from Barbe's Chase Park Transduction Studios, where the band has mixed or recorded numerous albums, starting with their double-disc magnum opus Southern Rock Opera, released in 2001.
Hood and Cooley both have several Baxendales, acoustic and electric, and they all figured prominently in the making of The Unraveling. For Cooley in particular, his two Tele-style Baxendales have helped him develop a wider sonic palette, which comes through in the single-coil sizzle he brings to “21st Century USA," and the humbucker growl he dials in on the Tom Petty-style rave-up “Armageddon's Back in Town."
“I've kind of brought that second sound into the mix," Cooley explains, “so now I use both about equally. The Baxendale guitar I've had for years has a really loud humbucker in the bridge, and it drives the amp really hard. And then I've always loved standard Teles, and some of the songs we're doing now seem to call for that sound a little more, so that's where the newer Baxendale comes in. It's about 50-50, with a classic single-coil Tele and a big fat loud humbucker going back and forth. 'Armageddon's Back in Town' is probably a favorite of mine for the fat sound. That song was mostly brand new when we went in to record it. In fact, I think Patterson was still trying to learn it—that's how new it was."
Armed with his 2002 Gibson SG Special, Patterson Hood duels with Mike Cooley (stage left) as Jay Gonzalez digs into his Bigsby-equipped SG on stage right. Photo by Tim Bugbee
Hood opens up with remarkable candor about the trials he went through to write the lion's share of The Unraveling—and the light he found at the end of the journey. These songs don't go down easy. From the gut-wrenching “Babies in Cages," which lurches and lists in watery layers of reverb that amplify the song's disturbing story line, to the opioid horrors portrayed in the hard-driving “Heroin Again," to the drawn-out fever dream of the album's closer “Awaiting Resurrection," Hood taps into a visceral, uneasy feeling of foreboding.
“All our records are dark, but to me this one was darker," he says. “I almost had to convince myself that it was worthy of how fucking dark it was, so I went through a lot of soul-searching and exorcism in that part of the process. But you know, when we got together in Memphis, and recorded it in basically an 85-hour week, we just had the best fucking time. I mean, as dark as the material is, it was joyful making this record. We had a good time making American Band, but I think this was even twice as much fun. Everybody was so in tune with each other musically and personally and spiritually and artistically, and we were all good and warmed up. We'd been out on tour with the Tedeschi Trucks Band, so it's not like anybody was the least bit rusty. We were all in top shape, and we just had a magical time in the studio making this dark fucking record. And I think that plays against the darkness of it. At least to me, it benefits the record greatly."
After more than 20 years in the game as a band, and with another decade on top of that as friends, Hood and Cooley have been the yin and yang of the Drive-By Truckers—but lately, with all the positive energy and passion they're bringing to the forefront, both in the studio and out on the road, they seem to be on an extended yang.
“We've been doing this a long time, you know?" says Cooley. “From the time we first started playing together, it was obvious we had a chemistry. We knew we could read each other without trying too hard. So it's mostly been about maintaining that, and trying not to screw that up. We always try to come back to it. If we're working on a new song, we just try to remember what made it good in the first place, and go back to that. Find that. There's a balance to bringing in new things, but always remember what it is you're good at."
You guys have worked with David Barbe for a long time now. Did you talk with him about what you wanted to accomplish with this album?
Patterson Hood: It's funny, because we probably talk more to him than with each other, as far as some of that goes. Cooley's not really the talk-about-it type, but at the same time, you know where he stands and where his head's at, because he's gonna drive us in that direction.
What's interesting is that on the last two records, we had someone else engineer, because to me, Barbe has two different personalities. There's the engineer personality, who's very get-things-done, exactly like you want your engineer to be. Then there's his producer personality, who's a little looser, maybe a little more likely to have a cocktail as we're getting things going [laughs], which engineer Barbe would never do, because he's so precise. But producer Barbe can get really weird and inventive, and I love that side of him.
Mike Cooley: And it's not just like he's a producer-engineer. He's a member of the band who's in the control room most of the time. And you know, over the years, we've discovered that we have a very similar shared history. In the '80s, David was out playing a lot of the same places with his band that me and Patterson were with Adam's House Cat [before Drive-By Truckers]. We were never on a bill together, we never met, but over the years it's like, “Oh yeah, I remember playing that club back then." We've gotten to where we're on a very similar path, so a lot of it doesn't have to be said.
There's so much going on with the wide-angle sound of this album. “Babies in Cages" really stands out.
Hood: That's a funny story on its own. We asked Cody [Dickinson] to sit in with us one night when we were playing outside of Memphis, and we got him on that song. He was playing his electric washboard, and we fell into pretty much the version that's on the record, that day onstage. I mean, no rehearsal for it—nothing. It just happened.
Guitars
Custom Baxendale “Snakes" semi-hollow with Bigsby and Seymour Duncan Antiquity humbuckers
2002 Gibson SG Special (plus late-model SG backup)
1969 goldtop Gibson Les Paul
1948 Melody Ranch Gene Autry acoustic (rebuilt by Scott Baxendale)
Late-'50s Harmony H1260 acoustic (rebuilt by Scott Baxendale)
Vintage Silvertone 1448
Amps
1972 Fender Deluxe Reverb
'63 Fender Tube Reverb Unit Reissue
Fender Vibro-King
Effects
Boss DD-3 Digital Delay
Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive
Boss TR-2 Tremolo
Caroline Guitar Company Kilobyte Delay
Caroline Guitar Company Haymaker Dynamic Drive
Boss GE-7 Graphic Equalizer
Electro-Harmonix Small Stone
Morley ABY Switcher
Roland RE-20 Space Echo
Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster
Strymon El Capistan dTape Echo Pedal
TC Electronic PolyTune
Strings and Picks
D'Addario EXL115 nickel wound medium gauge (.011–.049)
Guitars
Custom Baxendale “Cooleycaster" T-style with Seymour Duncan Hot Rails (bridge) and Seth Lover SH-55 (neck)
Custom Baxendale “Cooleycaster" T-style with Lollar Charlie Christian neck pickup
Epiphone Flying V
Fender American Professional Jazzmaster
Baxendale “Cooleybird" slope-shoulder acoustic (reclaimed from vintage Harmony and Kay parts)
Amps
Sommatone Roaring 40 head with Sommatone 2x12 cabinet
'65 Fender Princeton Reverb Reissue
Effects
Dunlop JH-1 Jimi Hendrix Cry Baby Wah
EarthQuaker Speaker Cranker Overdrive
Ernie Ball VP Jr Volume/Tuner Pedal
Fulltone Fat Boost
JHS Panther Cub Analog Delay
MXR M68 Uni-Vibe Chorus/Vibrato
One Control A/B Switcher
Sommatone Boost Switcher
TC Electronic PolyTune
Strings and Picks
D'Addario EXL115 nickel wound medium gauge (.011–.049)
So, we invited him again to the studio to record it. He showed up at 5 o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon, which I think was about an hour after Mick Jagger left! Then 20 minutes later we were done—it's one take. He played his washboard through a Marshall amp or something, with a wah pedal and an Echoplex, plus we miked it. And I'm singing the scratch vocal on the mic, out on the floor, and Brad's playing his drum set on the floor, so we're all in the room together playing completely live, and that's the take. It's as close to a field recording as you can get, in the middle of the album.
You guys have always championed an alternative narrative of the South—you've called it the “Southern duality," where there's room for an enlightened view that's overtly political.
Cooley: That goes back to Southern Rock Opera, and you almost have to be inside it to see it or recognize it. It comes out in a song like “Grievance Merchants." I think it was in the weeks or months following the shooting in Florida, I started noticing all these young, sometimes not-so-young, but mostly young white guys, tuned into the same stuff, feeding on the same garbage. And it's pretty much a self-radicalization. That's always been there for young guys, I guess, but now it's just so readily available. These guys just go nuts, and that's why I called the song that. That's their commodity. That's what they deal in, grievance and victimhood, and giving you a target for it. And of course, you don't have to go too far to find the gun and the power it gives the person holding it as a solution to everything.
Hood: You know, with the Southern roots thing, I try to use all the tools it provides, but I'm not content. I feel like I'm always pushing myself to try to do things in a new way and a better way. I mean, I listen to music voraciously. I still buy a lot of records, and in the grand scheme of things, I guess I could have a more expensive hobby, you know? I love hip-hop, I love Lana Del Rey's record—I listen to all kinds of stuff. I don't just listen to guitar bands. But I'm also still trying to learn how to be a better writer. I really pushed myself on this record, and I liked that. I want to find a new way to write a song, and write a different song than I've ever written.
You've talked about the dark mood of this album, and there's something about the D standard tuning you favor that adds to that feeling. It's lower and heavier.
Hood: We drop down to D on most songs, although at any given time, one of us may be playing standard, too. Maybe more often than not, I play dropped down, but it can all change around. There are at least three songs where I'm capoed up at G, on the 5th fret—“Babies in Cages," “Thoughts and Prayers," and “Slow Ride Argument." Cooley is tuned down to D, and of course, Jay is in standard tuning on the keyboards, plus he's also playing a weird guitar thing on there that's really cool, during the first part of the chorus of “Slow Ride Argument." Live, he's doing the guitar and keyboard parts simultaneously. It's pretty fun to watch him.
How would you characterize Jay's contribution, in the context of this album and what you guys do onstage?
Cooley: You know, Jay had been in the band just playing keyboards for a good while, and all of a sudden, when [guitarist] John Neff left, it was like we knew he played guitar, but it had just never been called for. And he was like, “Screw it, you don't need keys on everything, and you don't need a third guitar on everything, I'll just do it." And it worked. The chemistry was there. He's very good at knowing where to step in and where to step out.
Mike, you play some great licks in the middle of “21st Century USA" that almost sound like slide guitar. How are you doing that?
Cooley: Well, there are a number of players that are really good at emulating a pedal steel, just by doing bends and volume swells and things like that, so I wanted to get into some standard bends that most everybody uses. I would kind of hear the part in my head, find it, and just figure out how to play it. It wasn't a matter of anything else. Particularly that part in the middle, that's where I wanted it to really stand out. So one section at a time, I figured out in my head what I thought it should sound like, and I just taught it to myself, basically. That was on the newer Baxendale with the single-coil pickup, and I'm pretty sure I'm playing through my Princeton reissue.
For all the darkness you guys portray on The Unraveling, it's pretty clear that you're also focused on the importance of family, and the future we're leaving for our children.
Hood: I think that was probably the breakthrough I had. I tell a story onstage about “21st Century USA" being the thing that broke my writer's block. It was definitely the turning point. Before that, I was just writing and nothing was making me happy on any level—even some perfectly good songs that I feel very strongly about, for some future moment-in-time project, but they weren't right for the record that I heard in my head.
People talked about how political American Band was, and I always maintain, “Well, every record we've ever done has been political." And then I also can say, “And it's not just political. It's also personal." They're always tied together. Even the political aspect of it comes from the personal fallout of living through this time, and asking questions like, “How do I explain this shit to my 6-year-old?" I'm not sure yet that I have an answer, but I'm glad all that comes through to you.
Catch the Drive-By Truckers first time playing their new song “Armageddon's Back in Town" onstage.
In this full concert video, shot in New Orleans at the historic and storied Tipitina's music venue, DTB deliver their spirited take on rootsy Southern rock and alt-country.
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Here’s how 21 killer players from the past year of Rig Rundowns—including Justin Chancellor, Zakk Wylde, MonoNeon, Carmen Vandenberg, Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell, and Grace Bowers—use stomps to take their sounds outside the box.
TOOL'S JUSTIN CHANCELLOR
Justin Chancellor’s Pedalboard
If you ever catch yourself playing air guitar to Tool, you’re probably mimicking Justin Chancellor’s parts. “Schism,” “The Pot,” “Forty Six & 2,” “H.,” “Fear Inoculum,” “Descending,” “The Grudge,” and plenty of others feature his buoyant bass riffs.
What stomps does he run his Wal, StingRay, and Fender basses through? Glad you asked. His setup is either a bass player’s dream or nightmare, but for someone as adventurous as Chancellor, this is where the party starts.
You’ll notice many of his pedals are available at your favorite guitar store, including six Boss boxes, an Ernie Ball Volume Pedal, and MXR Micro Amp. Crucial foot-operated pedals are in blue: the Dunlop JCT95 Justin Chancellor Cry Baby Wah with a Tone Bender-style fuzz circuit (far left) and DigiTech Bass Whammy (middle). He really likes using the Tech 21 SansAmp GT2 for distortion and feedback when the Whammy is engaged or he’s playing up the neck. Covering delays are three pedals—he has the pink Providence DLY-4 Chrono Delay programmed to match drummer Danny Carey’s BPMs in “Pneuma,” which slightly increase during the song from 113 ms to 115 ms. The Boss DD-3s are set for different speeds with the one labeled “Faster” handling “The Grudge” and the other one doing more steady repeats. There’s a pair of vintage Guyatone pedals—the Guyatone VT-X Vintage Tremolo Pedal (Flip Series) and Guyatone BR2 Bottom Wah Rocker (a gift from guitarist Adam Jones). The Gamechanger Audio Plus pedal is used to freeze moments and allow Justin to grab onto feedback or play over something. The Boss GEB-7 Bass Equalizer and Pro Co Turbo RAT help reinforce his resounding, beefy backbone of bass tone, while the MXR Micro Amp helps goose his grimy rumbles. The Boss LS-2 Line Selector is a one-kick escape hatch out of the complicated signal chain for parts of “Schism.” The Wal and Music Man stay in check with the TU-3S tuner, a pair of Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Pluses help bring things to life, and everything is wired up with EBS patch cables.
STURGILL SIMPSON AND LAUR JOAMETS
Sturgill Simpson’s Pedalboard
Alt-country veteran Sturgill Simpson packed light for his latest run. His board bears just a Peterson Stomp Classic tuner running into a Fulltone True-Path ABY-ST, which splits his signal to his two Magnatone Panoramic Stereo amps. “I wouldn’t use a tuner if I didn’t have to,” he chuckles. The LILY P4D beside the splitter lets him control his mic signal to cut interference from onstage noise.
Laur Joamets’ Pedalboard
For his main board, Laur Joamets packs a little heavier than his boss. The platform, made by West Coast Pedal Board, carries a Peterson StroboStomp, Greer Amps Arbuckle Trem, sRossFX fuzz/overdrive, MXR Booster, T-Rex Replica, sRossFX germanium octave pedal, TC Electronic Viscous Vibe, Dunlop EP103 Echoplex, and Source Audio True Spring Reverb. An MXR Tap lets him tap in delay tempos. He has a second pedalboard, as well, for his Stage One steel guitar. It goes into a Peterson StroboStomp HD, then on to a Greer Black Tiger and Goodrich Sound Company volume pedal, before hitting his Magnatone Varsity Reverb and a custom-built Fender brown-panel Deluxe clone he calls “the Charmer.”
PANTERA’S ZAKK WYLDE AND REX BROWN
Zakk Wylde’s Pedalboard
When Pantera’s bassist Rex Brown and singer Phil Anselmo decided to fire the band up again, the choice of fellow road dog Zakk Wylde on guitar seemed perfect. Here’s what Wylde had on the floor and in the racks for the band’s February date at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.
His signature arsenal of effects seen here includes a MXR Wylde Audio Overdrive, MXR Wylde Audio Phase, Wylde Audio Cry Baby wah, and a Dunlop ZW357 Zakk Wylde Signature Rotovibe. The lone box that isn’t branded Wylde is a standard fare MXR Carbon Copy. Offstage, his rack is home to a MXR Smart Gate and MXR Wylde Audio Chorus that’s always on. Both are powered by a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 3 Plus. Another drawer holds a Radial BigShot I/O True-bypass Instrument Selector, Lehle Little Dual II Amp Switcher, and a Radial BigShot EFX Effects Loop Switcher.
Rex Brown’s Pedalboard
This tour was the first time Rex Brown used a switching system. His stage board sported a Dunlop JCT95 Justin Chancellor Cry Baby Wah, a 2000s Morley Pro Series II Bass Wah, Origin Effects DCX Bass Tone Shaper & Drive, a MXR M287 Sub Octave Bass Fuzz, and a Peterson StroboStomp HD. The brain of everything in the rack and onstage is the RJM Mastermind GT. And to help “move mountains,” Rex has a Moog Taurus III.
MSSV’S MIKE BAGGETTA AND MIKE WATT
Mike Baggetta’s Pedalboard
Mike Baggetta has some core pedals in MSSV, his indie supergroup with legendary bassist Mike Watt and drummer Stephen Hodges. His arsenal includes a Creepy Fingers Hold Tight fuzz, an Electro-Harmonix Ring Thing, a Wilson Effects Freaker Wah V2, an EHX Deluxe Memory Man, and a Red Panda Tensor. The signal flows from his Benson amp into the Tensor, which he uses for glitch sounds, harmonizing, and overdub mode, among other feats. His Memory Man adds space—the final frontier.
Mike Watt’s Pedalboard
Mike Watt puts his signature Reverend Wattplower bass into a Broughton Audio high-pass filter, an EarthQuaker Devices The Warden optical compressor, and a Sushi Box Effects Finally tube DI that functions as a preamp. There’s also a TC Electronic PolyTune.
MONONEON
MonoNeon’s Pedalboard
The Memphis-born avant-funk bassist keeps it simple on the road with a signature 5-string, a tried-and-true Ampeg stack, and just four stomps. Almost all of his stomps have been zhuzhed up in his eye-popping palette. He’d used a pitch shifting DigiTech Whammy for a while, but after working with Paisley Park royalty, the pedal became a bigger part of his playing. “When I started playing with Prince, he put the Whammy on my pedalboard,” Thomas explains. “After he passed, I realized how special that moment was.” MonoNeon also uses a Fairfield Circuitry Randy’s Revenge, a Fart Pedal (in case the Fairfield ring mod isn’t weird enough, we guess), and a JAM Pedals Red Muck covers fuzz and dirt needs. A CIOKS SOL powers the whole affair.
GRACE BOWERS
Grace Bowers’ Pedalboard
Grace Bowers is one of the freshest new guitar stars to emerge in the past year. She has the essential fixin’s for her classic rock tones: a Dunlop Crybaby Wah, Grindstone Audio Solutions Night Shade Drive, EarthQuaker Devices Tone Job, MXR Phase 90, MXR Phase 95, and Boss DD-2. Bowers powers them with a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power ISO-5.
GREEN DAY’S JASON WHITE
Photo by Raph Pour-Hashemi
Jason White’s Pedalboard
Long-time touring member Jason White’s stable is dominated by his Gibson Les Pauls and ES-335s. A Shure wireless system sends his signal to a rack set-up with an ISP noise gate, just in case White’s P-90s are picking up a lot of noise. From there, it hits a Dunlop Cry Baby and DVP1XL, then a MIDI-controllable RJM Effect Gizmo, which handles White’s effects: an MXR Reverb and Poly Blue Octave, Strymon TimeLine and Mobius, API Select TranZformer GTR, and a Custom Audio Electronics 3+SE Guitar Preamp, which gets engaged for clean tones and small combo sounds. A Lehle Dual SGoS Switcher and Fishman Aura DI Preamp handle changes with the piezo-equipped guitars. A Strymon Zuma provides the juice.
BONES UK’S CARMEN VANDENBERG
Carmen Vandenberg’s Pedalboard
Carmen Vandenberg covers a lot of ground with her Bones UK guitar sounds, and she’s got a carefully curated collection of stomps to span the territory. Her guitar first hits an Ernie Ball Cry Baby before running through the rest of the pedals: a Boss TU-3, Fulltone OCD, Supro Drive, Pigtronix Octava, EHX Micro POG, Supro Chorus, Blackstar Dept. 10 Boost, EarthQuaker Devices Dispatch Master, MXR Carbon Copy Deluxe, Catalinbread Belle Epoch, and Boss NS-2. A Live Wire Solutions ABY manages the signals on their way to her signature Blackstar CV30s.
BLACK PUMAS’ ADRIAN QUESADA, BRENDAN BOND, AND ERIC BURTON
Adrian Quesada’s Pedalboards
Adrian Quesada loves tremolo and reverb, and uses a Strymon Flint for both. His other main stomp is the Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail that provides a healthy dose of spring reverb. Also along for the tour: a Line 6 Echo Park, a Catalinbread Echorec, a Boss GE-7 Equalizer, a Catalinbread Belle Epoch, and an EarthQuaker Devices. The Fulltone Clyde Wah Deluxe has stepped in for a different filter sweeper. There’s also a JAM Pedals Ripple two-stage phaser, and a TC Electronic PolyTune2 Noir keeps his guitars in check. That’s all on board one.
His second board includes a JHS 3 Series Delay, a JHS Crayon, and an Electro-Harmonix Nano POG. Utility boxes on here—Strymon Ojai, JHS Mini A/B, and TC Electronic PolyTune—handle switching, tuning, and power.Brendan Bond’s Pedalboard
Three pedals get the job done for Mr. Bond: an Acme Audio Motown D.I. WB-3 passive D.I., a JHS Colour Box, and a Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner.
Eric Burton’s Pedalboard
Frontman and guitarist Eric Burton is the band’s lone wireless member. To accommodate his onstage prowling, tech Bryan Wilkinson uses a Radial JDI passive direct box that takes in the XLR from the audio subsnake wireless rackmount and routes it into the first pedal: a Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner. From there, Burton only has a couple pedals—a DigiTech Mosaic to mimic a 12-string for “OCT 33” and a JHS Colour Box for any required heat. A Strymon Ojai turns everything on.
JASON ISBELL AND SADLER VADEN
Jason Isbell’s Pedalboards
Jason Isbell could open a huge gear shop just by clearing off his boards and racks. First off, he has a complex wet/dry/wet setup that is parsed out via a RJM Mastermind, with two Magnatone Twilight Stereo combos carrying the all-wet effects. There’s also a Radial JX44v2, which serves as the core signal manager. Above it, on the rack, is an Echo Fix Chorus Echo EF-X3R. Moving up the rack, one drawer includes an Ibanez DML10 Modulation Delay II, EarthQuaker Devices Tentacle, and a trio of stereo-field-only effects: a Boss MD-500, Strymon Volante, and Hologram Electronics Microcosm. Another level up, you’ll find a Chase Bliss Preamp Mk II, Chase Bliss Tonal Recall Delay, Chase Bliss Dark World Reverb, Chase Bliss Condor EQ/Filter, Chase Bliss Gravitas Tremolo, Chase Bliss CXM-1978 Reverb (stereo-field only), Keeley 30ms Automatic Double Tracker, gold Klon Centaur, Analog Man Sun Lion Fuzz/Treble Booster, Analog Man King of Tone with 4-jack mod, Keeley 4-knob CompROSSor, Pete Cornish OC-1 Optical Compressor, EHX Micro POG, Analog Man ARDX20 Delay, and a trio of Fishman Aura Spectrum DIs.
Sadler Vaden’s Pedalboard
Isbell’s 6-string sparring partner Sadler Vaden’s pedalboard chain starts with a Dunlop Clyde McCoy Wah, then a Lehle volume pedal, which feeds the Gig Rig. He uses a Line 6 M5 with a Dunlop expression pedal for a lot of modulation effects. Other pedals include a Crowther Prunes & Custard, Nordvang No.1, an Analog Man Dual Analog Delay, Comp, and King of Tone, a Strymon BlueSky, and a Greer Lightspeed. Every effect is isolated into the Gig Rig. The board has four outputs, two for each side of his 3rd Power British Dream, one for a Marshall plexi, and one that goes to an aux line and splits to a Vox Pacemaker. The auxiliary line is as a backup in case Sadler’s amps go down. It consists of a Strymon Iridium into a Seymour Duncan Power Stage that goes to FOH. And finally, his acoustic pedalboard sports a Shure wireless running into an ART Tube MP/C preamp into a L.R. Baggs Venue DI, with a Radial Engineering Bigshot selector.
MICHAEL LEMMO
Michael Lemmo’s Pedalboard
Rising star player Michael Lemmo relies on his stomps for tone sculpting, but he doesn’t need much to get the job done. His signal hits a Korg tuner, followed by an Xotic EP Booster, Bearfoot FX Honey Bee OD, Red Panda Context, Boss DD-7, and TC Electronic Ditto. They’re all juiced by a Truetone 1 Spot Pro CS7.
HELMET’S PAGE HAMILTON
Page Hamilton’s Pedalboard
Page Hamilton used to travel with a full Bradshaw rig with rack gear, but he’s reduced things to a pair of Eventide H9 units and a handful of Boss boxes—a PS-5 Super Shifter, a MT-2W Metal Zone Waza Craft, a TS-2 Turbo Distortion, a NS-2 Noise Suppressor, and a FB-2 Feedbacker/Booster. A couple of Peterson Stomp Classic tuners keep his ESP Horizons ready, and a Boss ES-5 Effects Switching System organizes all his sounds and settings.
BARONESS’ JOHN BAIZLEY, GINA GLEASON, AND NICK JOST
John Baizley’s Pedalboard
The Baroness frontman’s board is packed with staged dirt boxes and tasteful mod stomps, all held in check with a GigRig G2, Peterson StroboStomp, and Ernie Ball Volume Pedal. The crown drive jewels are a heavily modded EHX Big Muff and Crowther Double Hot Cake, but a Beetronics FX Overhive and Pro Co RAT add sizzle, too. A Boss DD-3, DM-2W, and TR-2, EarthQuaker Devices Dispatch Master and Tentacle, MXR Phase 90 and Dyna Comp, and EHX Deluxe Memory Man handle the rest, while a DigiTech Whammy lurks for its moment to blast off.
Gina Gleason’s Pedalboard
Gleason’s favorite drive these days is the EQD Zoar. Piling on top of that are a MXR Super Badass Distortion, MXR Timmy, modded EHX Big Muff, and a touchy Philly Fuzz Infidel prototype; an Xotic SP Compressor and UAFX 1176 Studio Compressor tighten things up when needed. Three time machines—the Strymon TimeLine, EQD Space Spiral, and Boss DD-3—handle delay, and a Walrus Slo dishes out reverb. The MXR EVH Phase 90 adds some color along with another DigiTech Whammy. The Ernie Ball Volume Pedal, Peterson StroboStomp, and GigRig G2 finish the line-up.
Nick Jost’s Pedalboard
The bassist’s board is powered by an MXR Iso-Brick, with an Ernie Ball Volume Pedal and Boss TU-3 pulling utility duties before an Xotic Bass BB Preamp, Boss ODB-3, DOD FX69B Grunge, MXR Stereo Chorus, and Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Driver DI.
WOLFMOTHER’S ANDREW STOCKDALE
Andrew Stockdale’s Pedalboard
When we walked into Nashville’s Eastside Bowl for this Rig Rundown with Wolfmother’s alpha canine, Andrew Stockdale, it sounded like he was playing his SG through a Marshall stack at head-ripping volume. Nope! Stockdale was blasting skulls apart with a Line 6 HX Stomp doing the heavy tonal lifting. The rest of his board’s layout is a Snark floor tuner, an EHX Micro Synth (a Wolfmother staple), an Xotic AC Booster, an EHX Micro POG, a Dunlop Cry Baby 535Q Multi-Wah, a Boss TR-2 tremolo, a CIOKS DC5 power supply, and Shure GLXDC+ wireless.
FEARLESS FLYERS' CORY WONG AND MARK LETTIERI
Cory Wong’s Pedalboard
Through a Shure GLXD16 wireless system, Cory Wong flows his guitar into his Neural DSP Quad Cortex, which runs a beta version of his Archetype: Cory Wong plugin, based off of a melding of a Dumble and a Fender Twin. The signal hits an onboard envelope filter and rarely used pitch shifter, then exits out the effects loop into a Wampler Cory Wong Compressor, Jackson Audio The Optimist, and a Hotone Wong Press. The signal goes back into the Quad Cortex, where there’s a preset phaser, stereo tape delay, and modulated reverb, plus a freeze effect. Two XLR outs run to front of house, while two run to Wong’s Mission Engineering Gemini 2 stereo cabinet.
Mark Lettieri’s Pedalboard
Mark Lettieri’s signal first hits a Keeley Monterey Custom Shop Edition, followed by an MXR Deep Phase, J. Rockett HRM, J. Rockett Melody OD (Lettieri’s signature), Pigtronix Octava, and a Dunlop DVP4, all powered by a Strymon Ojai. A TC Electronic TonePrint Plethora X5 pedalboard handles coordination and switching between the devices.
SLASH’S BLUES BALL BAND
Slash’s Pedalboard
“I haven’t had a pedalboard in front of my feet since the ’80s,” Slash told us. But with the Blues Ball tour, he kept it simple, stomping his own boxes. His chain includes a Peterson StroboStomp, Dunlop Cry Baby, MXR CAE Boost/Line Driver, Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer, MXR EVH90, BBE Soul Vibe Rotary Simulator, Boss DD-3 Digital Delay, and MXR Uni-Vibe, with everything powered by a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus. All pedals are taped down with their settings dialed in. When his signal leaves the board, it hits a Whirlwind Selector A/B box, where it splits off between his amps and his Talk Box rig.
Tash Neal’s Pedalboard
Tash Neal keeps a modest pedalboard at his feet: a D’Addario Chromatic Pedal Tuner, Dunlop Cry Baby, XTS Custom Pedals Precision Multi-Drive, EHX Green Russian Big Muff, and a Fender Waylon Jennings Phaser, powered by a T-Rex Fuel Tank.
RANCID’S MATT FREEMAN
Matt Freeman’s Pedalboard
Bassist Matt Freeman’s signal goes wireless into one of his Avalon U5 Class A Active Instrument DI and Preamps, and then through a Way Huge Pork Loin Overdrive, set to give his Bassman a good push.
CHRISTONE “KINGFISH” INGRAM
Kingfish’s Pedalboard
Kingfish’s signal starts with a Shure Wireless BLX4, which hits a Boss TU-3w Chromatic Tuner. From there, the route is a Dunlop Cry Baby Mini Wah, a Marshall ShredMaster, and a Boss DD-3 Delay. The pedals live on a Pedaltrain Nano board and were assembled by Barry O’Neal at XAct Tone Solutions.
DIXIE DREGS’ STEVE MORSE
Steve Morse’s Pedalboard
Steve plays through a pair of 3-channel Engl Steve Morse signature 100-watt amps—one wet, one dry—but his pedal chain is relatively simple: a Keeley Compressor, two Ernie Ball volume pedals, two TC Flashbacks, a TC Electronic Polytune, and a foot controller for his Engls.
This Japan-made Guyatone brings back memories of hitchin’ rides around the U.S.
This oddball vintage Guyatone has a streak of Jack Kerouac’s adventurous, thumbing spirit.
The other day, I saw something I hadn’t noticed in quite some time. Driving home from work, I saw an interesting-looking fellow hitchhiking. When I was a kid, “hitchers” seemed much more common, but, then again, the world didn’t seem as dangerous as today. Heck, I can remember hitching to my uncle’s cabin in Bradford, Pennsylvania—home of Zippo lighters—and riding almost 200 miles while I sat in a spare tire in the open bed of a pickup truck! Yes, safety wasn’t a big concern for kids back in the day.
So, as I’m prone to do, I started digging around hitchhiking culture and stories. Surprisingly, there are organized groups that embrace the hitching life, but the practice remains on the fringe in the U.S. Back in the 1950s, writer Jack Kerouac wrote the novel On the Road, which celebrated hitchhiking and exposed readers to the thrill of maverick travel. Heck, even Mike Dugan (the guitarist in all my videos) hitched his way to California in the 1960s. But seeing that fellow on the side of the road also sparked another image in my brain: Yep, it always comes back to guitars.
Let me present to you a guitar that’s ready to go hitching: the Guyatone LG-180T, hailing from 1966. The “thumbs-up” headstock and the big “thumb” on the upper bout always made me think of thumbing a ride, and I bought and sold this guitar so long ago that I had forgotten about it, until I saw that hitchhiking dude. Guyatone was an interesting Japanese company because they were primarily an electronics company, and most of their guitars had their wooden parts produced by other factories. In the case of the LG-180T, the bodies were made by Yamaha in Hamamatsu, Japan. At that time, Yamaha was arguably making the finest Japanese guitars, and the wood on this Guyatone model is outstanding. We don’t often see Guyatone-branded guitars here in the U.S., but a lot of players recognize the early ’60s label Kent—a brand name used by an American importer for Guyatone guitars.
With a bit of imagination, the LG-180T’s “thumbs up” headstock seems to be looking for a roadside ride.
Kent guitars were extremely popular from the early ’60s until around 1966. The U.S. importer B&J fed the American need for electric guitars with several nice Kent models, but when the Guyatone contract ended, so did most of the Kent guitars. After that, Guyatone primarily sold guitars in Japan, so this example is a rare model in the U.S.
“Unless you are a master at guitar setups, this would be a difficult player.”
This headstock is either the ugliest or the coolest of the Guyatone designs. I can’t decide which. I will say, no other Japanese guitar company ever put out anything like this. You have to give the Guyatone designers a thumbs up for trying to stand out in the crowd! Guyatone decided to forgo an adjustable truss rod in this model, opting instead for a light alloy non-adjustable core to reinforce the neck. Speaking of the neck, this instrument features the most odd-feeling neck. It’s very thin but has a deep shoulder (if that makes any sense). Totally strange!
Another strange feature is the bridge, which offers very little adjustment because of the three large saddles, which sort of rock back and forth with the tremolo. It’s a shame because these pickups sound great! They’re very crisp and have plenty of zing, but unless you are a master at guitar set-ups, this would be a difficult player.
This could be why the LG-180T only appeared in the 1966 and 1967 catalogs. After that, it disappeared along with all the other Yamaha-made Guyatone electrics. By 1969, Guyatone had gone bankrupt for the first time, and thus ended guitar production for a few decades. At least we were blessed with some wacky guitar designs we can marvel at while remembering the days when you could play in the back end of an explosive 1973 AMC Gremlin while your mom raced around town. Two thumbs up for surviving our childhoods! PG
Fifteen watts that sits in a unique tone space and offers modern signal routing options.
A distinct alternative to the most popular 1x10 combos. Muscular and thick for a 1x10 at many settings. Pairs easily with single-coils and humbuckers. Cool looks.
Tone stack could be more rangeful.
$999
Supro Montauk
supro.com
When you imagine an ideal creative space, what do you see? A loft? A barn? A cabin far from distraction? Reveling in such visions is inspiration and a beautiful escape. Reality for most of us, though, is different. We’re lucky to have a corner in the kitchen or a converted closet to make music in. Still, there’s a romance and sense of possibility in these modest spaces, and the 15-watt, 1x10, all-tubeSupro Montauk is an amplifier well suited to this kind of place. It enlivens cramped corners with its classy, colorful appearance. It’s compact. It’s also potent enough to sound and respond like a bigger amp in a small room.
The Montauk works in tight quarters for reasons other than size, though—with three pre-power-section outputs that can route dry signal, all-wet signal from the amp’s spring reverb, or a mixture of both to a DAW or power amplifier.
Different Stripes and Spacious Places
Vintage Supro amps are modestly lovely things. The China-made Montauk doesn’t adhere toold Supro style motifs in the strictest sense. Its white skunk stripe is more commonly seen on black Supro combos from the late 1950s, while the blue “rhino hide” vinyl evokes Supros from the following decade. But the Montauk’s handsome looks make a cramped corner look a lot less dour. It looks pretty cool on a stage, too, but the Montauk attribute most likely to please performing guitarists is the small size (17.75" x 16.5" x 7.5") and light weight (29 pounds), which, if you tote your guitar in a gig bag and keep your other stuff to a minimum, facilitates magical one-trip load ins.
Keen-eyed Supro-spotters noting the Montauk’s weight and dimensions might spy the similarities to another 1x10 Supro combo,the Amulet. A casual comparison of the two amps might suggest that the Montauk is, more-or-less, an Amulet without tremolo and power scaling. They share the same tube complement, including a relatively uncommon 1x6L6 power section. But while the Montauk lacks the Amulet’s tremolo, the Montauk’s spring reverb features level and dwell controls rather than the Amulet’s single reverb-level knob.
“High reverb levels and low dwell settings evoke a small, reflective room with metallic overtones from the spring sprinkled on top—leaving ghostly ambience in the wake of strong, defined transient tones.”
If you use reverb a lot and in varying levels of intensity, you’ll appreciate the extra flexibility. High reverb levels and low dwell settings evoke a small, reflective room with metallic overtones from the spring sprinkled on top—leaving ghostly ambience in the wake of strong, defined transient tones. There are many shades of this subtle texture to explore, and it’s a great sound and solution for those who find the spring reverbs in Fender amps (which feature no dwell control) an all-or-nothing proposition. For those who like to get deep in the pipeline, though, the dwell offers room to roam. Mixing high level and dwell settings blunts the amp’s touch sensitivity a bit, and at 15 watts you trade headroom for natural compression, compounding the fogginess of these aggressive settings. A Twin Reverb it ain’t. But there is texture aplenty to play with.
A Long, Wide Strand
Admirably, the Montauk speaks in many voices when paired with a guitar alone. The EQ sits most naturally and alive with treble and bass in the noon-to-2-o’clock region, and a slight midrange lean adds welcome punch. Even the amp’s trebliest realms afford you a lot of expressive headroom if you have enough range and sensitivity in your guitar volume and tone pots. Interactions between the gain and master output controls yield scads of different tone color, too. Generally, I preferred high gain settings, which add a firecracker edge to maximum guitar volume settings and preserve touch and pick response at attenuated guitar volume and tone levels.
If working with the Montauk in this fashion feels natural, you’ll need very few pedals. But it’s a good fit for many effects. A Fuzz Face sounded nasty without collapsing into spitty junk, and the Klon-ish Electro-Harmonix Soul Food added muscle and character in its clean-boost guise and at grittier gain levels. There’s plenty of headroom for exploring nuance and complexity in delays and modulations. It also pairs happily with a wide range of guitars and pickups: Every time I thought a Telecaster was a perfect fit, I’d plug in an SG with PAFs and drift away in Mick Taylor/Stones bliss.
The Verdict
Because the gain, master, tone, and reverb controls are fairly interactive, it took me a minute to suss out the Montauk’s best and sweetest tones. But by the time I was through with this review, I found many sweet spots that fill the spaces between Vox and Fender templates. There’s also raunch in abundance when you turn it up. It’s tempting to view the Montauk as a competitor to the Fender Princeton and Vox AC15. At a thousand bucks, it’s $400 dollars less than the Mexico-made Princeton ’68 Custom and $170 more than the AC15, also made in China. In purely tone terms, though, it represents a real alternative to those stalwarts. I’d be more than happy to see one in a backline, provided I wasn’t trying to rise above a Geezer Butler/Bill Ward rhythm section. And with its capacity for routing to other amps and recording consoles in many intriguing configurations, it succeeds in being a genuinely interesting combination of vintage style and sound and home-studio utility—all without adding a single digital or solid-state component to the mix.
Watch the official video documenting the sold-out event at House of Blues in Anaheim. Join Paul Reed Smith and special guests as they toast to quality and excellence in guitar craftsmanship.
PRS Guitars today released the official video documenting the full night of performances at their 40th Anniversary celebration, held January 24th in conjunction with the 2025 NAMM (The National Association of Music Merchants) Show. The sold-out, private event took place at House of Blues in Anaheim, California and featured performances by PRS artists Randy Bowland, Curt Chambers, David Grissom, Jon Jourdan, Howard Leese, Mark Lettieri Group, Herman Li, John Mayer, Orianthi, Tim Pierce, Noah Robertson, Shantaia, Philip Sayce, and Dany Villarreal, along with Paul Reed Smith and his Eightlock band.
“What a night! Big thanks to everyone who came out to support us: retailers, distributors, vendors, content creators, industry friends, and especially the artists. I loved every second. We are so pleased to share the whole night now on this video,” said Paul Reed Smith, Founder & Managing General Partner of PRS Guitars. “I couldn’t be more proud to still be here 40 years later.”
With nearly 1,400 of the who’s who in the musical instrument industry in attendance, the night ended with a thoughtful toast from PRS Signature Artist John Mayer, who reflected on 40 years of PRS Guitars and the quality that sets the brand apart. “The guitars are great. You can’t last 40 years if the guitars aren’t great,” said Mayer. “Many of you started hearing about PRS the same way I did, which is you would talk about PRS and someone would say ‘They’re too nice.’ What’s too nice for a guitar? What, you want that special vibe that only tuning every song can give you on stage? You want that grit just like your heroes … bad intonation? The product is incredible.”