Rick Holmstrom says he spends “a lot of time not listening to guitar. I like trying to imagine the guitar taking the place of saxophone, Ahmad Jamal’s piano, or Mose Allison’s piano. Like Billie Holiday, who does those weird little micro bends that the great singers do—how can you get a feeling like that on the guitar?”
For Holmstrom, the answer is a style that blurs the lines between traditional blues—the genre where he’s invested most of his nearly 40-year career—and a place on the edge of the envelope, where chromatic lines, finger-crafted imitations of slide, microtonal bends, and a devout belief in the unerring power of the groove telegraph his vision. Those elements plus his clean and spanky and typically Tele-driven tone have made him Mavis Staples’ music director since 2007 and caught the ear of Ry Cooder. His ability to conjure the spirit of Mavis’ late dad, Pops Staples, on her renditions of Staple Singers classics is uncanny, yet still retains Holmstrom’s distinctive flavor.
While his resume most certainly slants toward the old-school—he’s toured with harmonica aces William Clarke, Johnny Dyer, and Rod Piazza, and recorded with Jimmy Rogers, Billy Boy Arnold, and Booker T. Jones—he’s also added spectral playing to the R.L. Burnside space-straddling classic Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down and recorded a solo album in 2002, Hydraulic Groove, that seamlessly wedded funk, trip-hop, ambient electronics, and roots music. In a less conservative place than the blues market, it would’ve been widely heralded as the masterpiece cognoscenti know it to be.
Bubbles - Rick Holmstrom
Now, he’s got a new instrumental album called Get It! that’s a funky and emotive showcase for his style; chasing down his passion for the almighty groove but doing so along his distinctive path where bends get weird (“Weeping Tana”), melodies swing hard (“Robyn’s Romp”), the great spirits of the genre are summoned (“King Freddie”), the strains of Morocco echo (“Taghazout”), and hip-hop-sample-worthy rhythm tracks (“Kronky Tonk”) do some heavy lifting.
Holmstrom’s journey started as a kid in Fairbanks, Alaska. His father, a local DJ, exposed Holmstrom to the blues, soul, and R&B that would define his career. No doubt the Staple Singers’ hits like “I’ll Take You There” and “Freedom Highway,” both part of Mavis’ live sets today, were on heavy rotation.
“Let’s get past all this existential, post-apocalyptic doom and have a funky good time.”
Cooder played a role in his arrival as Mavis’ musical right hand. “My band opened up for Mavis on the Santa Monica Pier,” he relates. “We get off the stage, and the promotor says, ‘Her band is stuck at LAX, but Mavis is here. Can you back her for a few songs?’ We didn’t really know her songs, but we played three or four.
“As I was walking off the stage, a guy with yellow glasses tapped me on the shoulder, and it was Ry Cooder. Ry was producing a record of Mavis’, and he liked the way we played with her. He kept telling Mavis, I guess during the session, ‘I really dug that band that played with you.’ Then our first gig with her, unbelievably, was The Tonight Show. [Laughs.]”
“The album is all my ’53 Tele except for two songs,” Holmstrom says. “It’s the variety of sounds you can get out of them. ‘All About My Girl’—that’s the neck pickup. It sounds like it could be a hollowbody. The middle is pure Stax or Motown, and then the bridge is whatever you want.”
Photo by Brad Elligood
Holmstrom’s individuality is even more surprising considering he cut his teeth during the 1980s blues explosion. While he was digging on Chicago, New Orleans, Stax, and Motown, everyone else was fixated on a particular player out of Austin, Texas. “I didn’t want anything to do with Stevie Ray Vaughan,” he says. “And that’s no diss at all. He’s a really great guitar player. But when he came out, I was like 12 years old. Playing was still an option for me. Then he came along, and it was almost enough to give up guitar.
“All you had to do was look around and see all these guys that were copying him. Everybody had a Strat, a hat, some boots, and a Super Reverb,” he explains. “So, I got a big hollowbody with a single P-90 and no cutaway and tried to learn saxophone and big band horn-section melodies.”
In forging his own way, Holmstrom sidestepped the blues-shred of those years. Preferring to let his parts breathe, he fills that space with … nothing. Check out his solo on “Looky Here” from Get It! The guy sometimes drops out for a full measure. He even ends the solo by basically not playing at all for the last two bars. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t a guitarist who inspired this restraint.
Looky Here
When Rick Holmstrom was writing his new album, Get It!, the songs started with him developing melodies by singing them, then transposing them to guitar.
“Years ago, we were playing in Boston with Mavis,” Holmstrom recalls. “We got there a night early, and Ahmad Jamal was playing. He would break down a melody and only use two of the notes. It draws you in because you’re not hearing all the notes that could be there. Your brain is allowed to imagine the rest. That was a life-changing gig for me.”
Like his playing, Holmstrom’s songwriting is also decidedly non-guitar-centric. Instead of plugging in, turning up, and going for it, he says he listens. “When I’m making up songs or getting a groove going, I’ll hum or sing to myself,” he says. “Then I'll think, ‘Where does this melody go next?’ I’m not playing the guitar at that point. I’m humming it and singing it to myself. ‘Does that flow? Okay, now let’s go back and learn that on guitar.’”
Of course, the contemporary zeitgeist—not just a quest for melody—also played a role on the creation of Get It!Rick Holmstrom’s Gear
Holmstrom primarily picks with his fingers but will revert to a pick for some solos to achieve a sharper attack and a more gain-colored tone.
Photo by Joseph A. Rosen
Guitars
- 1953 Fender Telecaster with Ron Ellis neck pickup and ’50s Fender lap-steel bridge pickup
- 1955 Les Paul Special with phase switching
- 1940s Gibson ES-150
Effects
- SIB Electronics Echodrive
- ’60s Fender Reverb Tank
- Milkman The Amp (used as a preamp for the rented AC15 when touring)
Amps
- 1950s Valco-made 1x10 Bronson combo modded to tweed Tremolux specs (with 6V6 tubes)
- Fender silver-panel Vibrolux (with 6V6 tubes)
- Vox AC15 (rented backline when touring, with EL84 tubes)
Strings
- Dunlop (.011–.050)
“It was January ’21 and my previous record, See That Light, hadn’t even come out. Then the insurrection happened, and it started to drive me nuts,” he says. “I’m watching MSNBC and reading The Times and stuff, and it was really bugging me. The only thing I could figure to do was get creative and get my mind off it. I booked a session and started making drum loops of grooves that I thought might work.”
While the world’s events have led some artists to exercise their struggles via dark, introspective works, Holmstrom went the other way. Get It! is all about having a good time, feeling free, and reminding us of a simpler, joyful way of looking at the world. “I wanted this record to be something you might put on when you get your friends together or when you’re having a barbecue,” he says. “Let’s get past all this existential, post-apocalyptic doom and have a funky good time.”
“I’ve gotten to the point where I hate guitar pedals.”
While the album is crammed with great blues, songs like “Surfer Chuck” and “Taghazout” play with ’60s surf rock, sultry Middle Eastern motifs, and whatever else caught Holmstrom’s fancy. “FunkE3,“ in particular, with its percolating Meters-style groove and stylistic shifts, shows how far Holmstrom and crew can go.
That one had been hanging around a while. “We did a tour years ago with Mavis, where Joan Osborne opened, and we also backed Joan,” Holmstrom relates. “One of our background vocalists said, ‘Man, why don’t you walk her off with an instrumental, and then, boom, go right into the Mavis set?’ So ‘FunkE3’ is the song I started working on and ended it up being that [transitional] song a lot of nights.”
Even with a wide breadth of styles on Get It!, the album’ssound and production are the secret behind its gleefully old-school character. Inspired by classic ’50s and ’60s blues albums, the musicians tracked together, in the moment, without overthinking. “I was always trying to make things sound like Chess Records in the ’50s—like that Little Walter, Muddy Waters kind of thing,” Holmstrom says. “You can tell it’s three instruments really close to each other, with some bleed.” The other two musicians in the room were Steve Mugalian on drums and Gregory Boaz on bass.
Rick Holmstrom’s band on Get It! are also his touring partners: drummer Steve Mugalian and bassist Gregory Boaz.
Photo by Brad Elligood
Holmstrom’s commitment to tradition also permeates his guitar sound. From beginning to end, he smothers the album with vintage-style amp tones from a small combo with a split pedigree. “I used a very tiny guitar amp called a Bronson. It’s a weird Valco-made amp from the ’50s. I had a buddy of mine turn it into, like, a mid-’50s tweed Tremolux. It’s a great-sounding, magical little amp.”
Despite the wide range of gain used throughout the new album, the Bronson’s onboard tremolo, a tube-driven SIB Electronics Echodrive delay, and a 1960s Fender Reverb Tank are all the effects Holmstrom used. Even that may have bordered on too much for him.
“I’ve gotten to the point where I hate guitar pedals,” he says. “I absolutely hate them. Ideally, I would love to plug straight into an amp. No 9-volt power, no wall warts, no skinny little power cables that are going to break right before the gig. I would rather use my hands.”
“I was always trying to make things sound like Chess Records in the ’50s—like that Little Walter, Muddy Waters kind of thing.”
So how does he get all his sounds? Like everything else, the old-school way. “I turn the volume of my guitar down and pick a lot with my fingers. Then, if I turn the volume on the guitar all the way up and pick with a pick, it’s pretty gain-y.”
Not surprisingly, Holmstrom also prefers vintage guitars. Save for a couple of tunes, the entire album was recorded with only one of them. “The album is all my ’53 Tele except for two songs,” he says. “It’s the variety of sounds you can get out of them. ‘All About My Girl’—that’s the neck pickup. It sounds like it could be a hollowbody. The middle is pure Stax or Motown, and then the bridge is whatever you want.”
As versatile as the Fender Tele is, the songs “King Freddie” and “Pour One Out” begged for something different. And though that something else—a 1955 Gibson Les Paul Special—is also a drool-worthy vintage piece, this one was different. “It has an out-of-phase, push-pull tone knob on the bridge pickup,” Holmstrom says. “I can blend the amount of out-of-phase so that it’s not completely nasally thin. It’s what Peter Green did, I’m sure, with his Les Paul. All points lead back to the blues, really.”
Erlee Time - Rick Holmstrom
In this live performance video of “Erlee Time,” from Get It!, Rick Holmstrom demonstrates his playful bends, joyful sense of melody, and the vintage Tele tone that’s part of his signature.
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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.
Each night of a G3 tour ends with an all-out jam and on Reunion Live, the trio hits classics by Cream, Hendrix, and Steppenwolf. “When you hear each guy solo, you can hear how we’ve changed through the years,” says Vai.
Some guitarists would find that notion depressing—of finally extinguishing the naive youthful fire to master every technique on their instrument. (It’s probably easier to find peace when you’re one of the world’s most revered players, with platinum sales and Grammys on your résumé.) But when Johnson looks at Satriani and Vai, his fellow virtuosos on the 2024 G3 reunion tour, the idea of “letting go” puts a smile on his face.
“Although we stay open, we define some of our journey,” says Johnson. “We can’t be everything to everybody. Then you start appreciating what someone else is doing even more.”
That sense of refinement is crucial to the story of G3, the triple-guitar tour conceived by Satriani and launched alongside Johnson and Vai in 1996. Over the years, the event has morphed to incorporate players from just about every style: from blues-rock (Kenny Wayne Shepherd) to prog-metal (Dream Theater’s John Petrucci) to hard rock (Uli Jon Roth) to the eerie soundscapes of King Crimson’s Robert Fripp. Far from a rote shred-fest, it’s a celebration of the electric guitar’s unlimited possibilities. And Satriani’s been thinking a lot about that idea following the G3 reunion tour, which ran for 13 dates last January, spawned a new concert album (Reunion Live), and will eventually birth a documentary helmed by his son ZZ.
Recorded live at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, Reunion Live documents the culmination of a 13-date tour that brought the trio together for the first time since the original tour in 1996.
“He had an interesting idea for a film,” Satriani says. “Our first G3 show happened the week he turned four, and we decided we were always going to take him with us. He wanted to do a film not only about that and about G3 but also his whole point of view growing up with a very strange father and this community of guitar players. He wanted to know their perspective on guitar playing and music and this life he’s been a part of.”
The younger Satriani grew even more ambitious, proposing that the OG G3s [OG3s?] get together for another tour. “ZZ wanted to see what it was really like, after decades of traveling with me and the different bands, to get onstage and play,” Satch says. “It all sort of happened in those last two shows at the Orpheum in Los Angeles. ZZ came on and played a song, and that sort of brought the film full-circle—from the four-year-old to the 32-year-old playing onstage with his dad. The [as-yet-unreleased] film has really developed into this epic story about guitar players. Eric and Steve have been so generous with their time, letting ZZ interview them about music, guitar, and what it means to them. But that’s really how the whole thing got started this time around.”
“30 years later, you can really see more of the dynamic difference in our go-to notes and riffs. Joe is more Joe now; Eric is more Eric now; and I’m more me now.”—Steve Vai
Reunion Live unfolds like the actual G3 shows, with miniature heavy-hitter sets from each artist (you get Vai’s “For the Love of God,” Satriani’s “Surfing With the Alien,” Johnson’s “Desert Rose”), followed by a trio of generous, triple-guitar cover-song jams—in this case, ripping versions of Robert Johnson’s blues staple “Crossroads,” Steppenwolf’s open-road proto-metal anthem “Born to Be Wild,” and Jimi Hendrix’s hard-psych powerhouse “Spanish Castle Magic.” The latter, fronted by Johnson, is the album’s centerpiece: 11-plus minutes of instrumental fireworks that perfectly showcase each player’s distinct flavor. Toward the end, the groove lays back into a quiet, funky simmer—the perfect platform for an onslaught of tasteful flourishes and ungodly shredding.
Back in 1996, the trio barnstormed across the country and laid waste to guitar nerds everywhere with a scorching version of Zappa’s “My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama.”
Photo by Ebet Roberts
“The thing I liked about that [choice] was that it’s very common to play a Hendrix song in a jam, but most people play the usual suspects,” says Vai. “Eric’s Hendrix catalog runs deep, and he’s played ‘Spanish Castle Magic’ on multiple occasions, and I’ve played it in the past. When it came up on this G3, I was very excited because it’s a great song to play. It’s just got a great feel to it, and the groove for soloing is very open. I was very happy to see that.”
“I hate the word ‘competition.’ But if we didn’t want to challenge each other, we wouldn’t have agreed to do the tour.”—Joe Satriani
“I remember doing so many cover songs over the past few decades, and every once in a while you come up with an all-purpose song that anyone, from any walk of life, can come join you on,” says Satriani. “And then you have these other songs that really shine a light on an individual’s foundation as a player and some of their early inspirations. I know that all three of us were so into Jimi Hendrix. I love doing that song. I’d do any Hendrix song. Eric and I have a lot of experience going out with the Experience Hendrix [tribute] tour. He figured into our early musical lives—even before I played guitar, I was a big Hendrix fan.”
“Crossroads” is also fascinating on many levels. Sure, it’s hard for any good rock band to screw this one up, and it could be the most obvious pick for any guitar jam, but the song’s simple blues structure also allows for a delicious whiplash, magnifying the vast differences in tonality and note choice between each guitarist.
“At first, when ‘Crossroads’ came in, I was like, ‘OK, it’s this classic rock song.’ But once you’re onstage and playing it, the riff is so great,” says Vai. “It’s robust. When you hear each guy solo, you can hear how we’ve changed through the years. Not just us—any guitar player who sticks with their craft goes through various evolutions into different directions. Some can stagnate, but you’re usually inching toward something different. Most of the time physicality is involved in that. When I hear ‘Spanish Castle Magic’ or ‘Crossroads,’ the stuff on this jam, my ears are listening to 30 years ago, in a sense, when we would trade. Today, 30 years later, you can really see more of the dynamic difference in our go-to notes and riffs. Joe is more Joe now; Eric is more Eric now; and I’m more me now. I’ve abandoned trying to sound conventional in any way.” The more they sound like the definitive versions of themselves, as on this G3 tour, the more in tune with each other they seem to be.Joe Satrian's Gear
The G3 mastermind would never use the word “competition,” but feels like his fellow G3ers wouldn’t show up if they didn’t want to be challenged.
Photo by Jon Luini
Guitars
- Various Ibanez JS Models (tuned to Eb standard)
Amps
- Marshall JVM410HJS
- Two Marshall 1960B 4x12 cabinets
Effects
- Vox Big Bad Wah
- Boss OC-3
- DigiTech SubNUp
- MXR EVH Flanger
- DigiTech Whammy
- Boss DD-8 (in effects loop)
- Voodoo Lab Pedal Power
Strings & Picks
- D’Addario XL110 (.010–.046)
- D’Addario Satch Grip Picks
“I would listen to Joe and Steve, and I would marvel at the guitar playing and the consistency of how great it was, but for me, it was [also] an opportunity to look beyond [it],” says Johnson. “It was a bit of an epiphany doing this tour because I tuned into the energy they had, the songs they were writing, the sounds they were getting, the shows they were doing. It even made the guitar playing more interesting because there was another dynamic I was tuning in to more. Not that it wasn’t always important, but as you get older, you try to see the whole hemisphere and what that means to the audience. It’s a win-win because it doesn’t take anything away from the guitar—it makes it more interesting to have encased in that bigger thing. I noticed that more this time, which made me feel good.”
“We can’t be everything to everybody.”—Eric Johnson
The G3 tour, and particularly the encore jams, are fascinating at the conceptual level: taking players largely renowned as soloists, and forcing them to share stages and trade licks—working to compliment each other’s playing instead of simply flexing their muscles and drawing on some primal competitive drive.
“The ego is the definition of competition,” says Vai. “Its perspective is, ‘How do I stack up? How do I rise above? How do I sell more, make more, have more, be more than anyone else?’ This is nothing personal to me—this is in the collective of humanity. Ego can wreak havoc in your life and cause a lot of dysfunction and stress. You don’t know it because you’re unconscious of the way the ego can be competitive. More in my earlier days, in the background, there was a perspective of competitiveness. This doesn’t just go for G3, but it was never in a playing way. I felt, ‘My playing is so abstract and bizarre that there’s no one else doing this weird stuff.’ Of course, this is still ego.”
Steve Vai's Gear
“When I hear ‘Spanish Castle Magic’ or ‘Crossroads,’ the stuff on this jam, my ears are listening to 30 years ago, in a sense, when we would trade,” remembers Vai.
Photo by Jon Luini
Guitars
- Ibanez mirror-topped JEM “BO”
- Ibanez John Scofield JSM
- Ibanez JEM 7VWH “EVO”
- Ibanez Universe 7-String
- Ibanez Hydra Triple-Neck Guitar
- Ibanez JEM 7VWH “FLO III”
- Ibanez PIA (tuned to Eb standard)
Amps
- Synergy SYN-2 Preamp
- VAI Synergy Module
- B-MAN Synergy Module
- Fractal Audio AXE-FX III Turbo
- Fryette LX-II Tube Power Amp
- Carvin V412 cabinets with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers
Effects
- Lehle A/B Box
- Dunlop 95Q Wah
- Ibanez Jemini Distortion/Overdrive
- DigiTech Whammy DT
- CIOKS DC-7 Power Supply
Strings, Picks, & Accessories
- Ernie Ball Skinny Top Heavy (.010–.052)
- Ernie Ball Regular Slinky (.010–.046)
- Ernie Ball Super Slinky (.009–.042)
- Ernie Ball 7-String Set (.009–.056)
- DiMarzio Cables
- Electric Fan
- InTuneGP GrippX Picks (1.14 mm and 1.50 mm)
“But when it came to Joe, it was a very different dynamic because he was my [guitar] teacher—he taught me how to play,” remembers Vai. “Joe was my mentor. I admired him. We were joined at the hip throughout our careers. In the earlier days, you listened to the other guy, and there’s the perspective. One is a very egoic perspective, which sees things as competition. The other perspective is, ‘What can I learn here? What can I get from this that’s going to improve my tools?’ Boy, there’s plenty of that in every G3 tour, every situation I’ve ever been in. But it’s a perspective only you can choose. The feeling of competition, I don’t like it. If someone is selling more records or playing faster or tastier or their songs are better, it behooves me to see how I can gain on a personal level from that. If I was the coach of a basketball team, I’d say, ‘It doesn’t matter if you win this game. It’s not as important as doing your very best.’ In reality, the only one you’re ever competing with is yourself—your bar.”
“If someone is selling more records or playing faster or tastier or their songs are better, it behooves me to see how I can gain on a personal level from that.”—Steve Vai
Satriani shares a similar sentiment—that being “complimentary” in a project like G3 is a real talent and a gift. Working on the documentary has put him in a retrospective mode, thinking about past tours and how they’ve worked to be more expansive and, perhaps, even provocative in their presentation.
Eric Johnson's Gear
“We can’t be everything to everybody. Then you start appreciating what someone else is doing even more,” says Johnson.
Photo by Jim Summaria
Guitars
- 1958 Fender Stratocaster
- Fender Eric Johnson Signature Stratocaster
- Fender Stratocaster with internal preamp
Amps
- Fender Bandmaster Reverb
- 50-watt Marshall JTM45 Super Tremolo
- 100-watt Marshall JTM45 Super Tremolo
- Two-Rock Classic Reverb Signature
- ’60s stereo Marshall cabinet with Electro-Voice EVM12L speakers
- ’60s Marshall cabinet with vintage 25-watt Celestion Greenback speakers
Effects
- EP-3 Echoplex
- TC Electronic Chorus
- Ibanez Tube Screamer
- Dunlop Fuzz Face
- MXR M-166 Digital Time Delay
- Dunlop Cry Baby Wah
- BK Butler Tube Driver
- Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man
- Bill Webb Fuzz Pedal
Strings & Picks
- D’Addario Pure Nickel (.010–.046)
- Dunlop Jazz III picks
“Yesterday I was searching for an original print of a photo from [the G3 tour] in ’97,” he says, “where Robert Fripp was opening the shows, unannounced, hidden behind a wall of gear. That was his request—to play as people were filing into the venues. I found this great photo of Robert onstage with his guitar and four-year-old ZZ standing next to him holding a plastic pail—I think it was at Jones Beach. It reminded me of how crazy the notion was at the time of Robert joining up with the tour. But he was so excited about it and wanted to do it. We had fantastic times traveling together and hanging out backstage and getting to know each other on that particular tour, and that set the tone for me—knowing that, not only did I have comrades like Eric and Steve, who felt the same way that I did about collaboration in a live setting, but now there was Robert and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and the concept of G3 started to really catch fire. It was really heartwarming to know that this sort of gunslinger attitude that existed in the ’80s about guitar players could be challenged. We could create something really inclusive about different styles and generations of players and take it on the road. That came back to me when I saw that photo.”
“I hate the word ‘competition,’” Satriani says elsewhere, surveying G3 history. “But if we didn’t want to challenge each other, we wouldn’t have agreed to do the tour. We get to hear each other’s sets, which is great—we don’t often get to do that when we’re off on our own tours. And then we get to stand next to each other and see what just pops out of nowhere, what each artist decides to throw out as an improvisation. Every night is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. If you can somehow work that into your musical life, you’re really lucky—so I count myself really lucky.”
YouTube It
Watch Satriani, Johnson, and Vai tear through Cream’s classic interpretation of “Crossroads.” In this video, directed by ZZ Satriani, you can get a feel for the history the trio shares with vintage G3 clips and more.
Meet Siccardi Number 28: a 5-ply, double-cut solidbody tribute to Paul Bigsby’s “Hezzy Hall” guitar.
Reader: Mark Huss
Hometown: Coatesville, PA
Guitar: Siccardi Number 28
I have too many guitars (like at least some of you I’m sure), but my current No. 1 is a custom guitar made for me by my friend Ed Siccardi. Ed is an interesting and talented fellow, a retired mechanical engineer who has amazing wood and metal shops in his basement. He also has an impressive collection of tonewoods, including rarities like African mahogany and some beautiful book-matched sets. He likes to build acoustic guitars (and has built 26 of them so far), but decided he wanted to make me an electric. The fruit of this collaboration was his Number 27, a Paul Bigsby tribute with a single-cut body—looking very much like what Bigsby made for Merle Travis. Note that Bigsby created this single-cut body and “Fender-style” headstock way before Gibson or Fender had adopted these shapes. This was a really nice guitar, but had some minor playing issues, so he made me another: Number 28.
Number 28 is another Paul Bigsby tribute, but is a double cutaway a la the Bigsby “Hezzy Hall” guitar. This guitar has a 5-ply solid body made of two layers of figured maple, cherry, swamp ash, and another layer of cherry. The wood is too pretty to cover up with a pickguard. The tailpiece is African ebony with abalone inlays and the rock-maple neck has a 2-way truss rod and extends into the body up to the bridge. It has a 14" radius and a zero fret. Therefore, there is no nut per se, just a brass string spacer. I really like zero frets since they seem to help with the lower-position intonation on the 3rd string. The fretboard is African ebony with abalone inlays and StewMac #148 frets. The peghead is overlaid front and back with African ebony and has Graph Tech RATIO tuners. The guitar has a 25" scale length and 1.47" nut spacing. There are two genuine ivory detail inlays: One each on the back of the peghead and at the base of the neck. The ivory was reclaimed from old piano keys.
This is Number 27, 28’s older sibling and a single-cut Bigsby homage. It’s playing issues led to the creation of its predecessor.
I installed the electronics using my old favorite Seymour Duncan pairing of a JB and Jazz humbuckers. The pickup selector is a standard 3-way, and all three 500k rotary controls have push-pull switches. There are two volume controls, and their switches select series or parallel wiring for their respective pickup coils. The switch on the shared tone control connects the bridge pickup directly to the output jack with no controls attached. This configuration allows for a surprisingly wide variety of sounds. As an experiment, I originally put the bridge volume control nearest the bridge for “pinky” adjustment, but in practice I don’t use it much, so I may just switch it back to a more traditional arrangement to match my other guitars.
You might not know Greg Koch, but we’ll bet your favorite guitarist does. In 2012, Fender called the Wisconsin blues-guitar phenom one of the top 10 best unsung guitarists, and in 2020, Guitar World listed Koch among the 15 best guitar teachers. He’s been inducted into the Wisconsin Area Music Industry Hall of Fame. Koch is a bonafide midwest guitar god.
He joins Cory Wong on this round of Wong Notes for this meeting of the Middle-America minds, where the duo open with analysis of music culture in Wisconsin and Minnesota—Koch taught at Saint Paul’s now-shuttered McNally Smith College of Music, which Wong attended. Koch and Wong zero in on the blues roots of most modern music and talk through soloing theories: It can be as easy or as hard as you want it to be, but Koch shares that he likes to “paint himself into a corner,” then get out of it.
Koch and Wong swap notes on the pressures of studio performance versus the live realm, and how to move on from mistakes made onstage in front of audiences. Plus, Koch has created scores of guitar education materials, including for Hal Leonard. Tune in to find out what makes a good guitar course, how to write a guitar book, Koch’s audio tips for crystalline live-stream sessions, and why he still prefers tube amps: “I like to crank that sh*t up!”
