Build a killer distortion pedal customized for your style. It’s easier than you think!
Building stompboxes from scratch is easier than you might expect. So is customizing the circuits to suit your style and taste. This project walks you through the process step by step. When you're done, you'll have a killer distortion pedal—and enough knowledge about using and choosing stompbox components to build countless other pedals.
Anyone of average intelligence with functional hands and eyes can complete this project. But there are many steps—more than we can cover in a conventional magazine article. So we've created an illustrated build guide in PDF form, which you must download to complete the project.
Photo 1: The Electra MPC, a late-'70s/early-'80s guitar with built-in effects, has been largely forgotten. But many boutique builders have borrowed its simple yet great-sounding distortion circuit.
What you'll build. This project is a modernized and tweaked version of a distortion circuit that originally appeared in Electra's MPC (Modular Powered Circuits) guitar, a Japanese axe with built-in effects that was imported into the U.S. by Saint Louis Music in the late '70s and early '80s (Photo 1). The guitar was never very popular, but at some point savvy boutique stompbox builders realized that despite (or maybe because of) the circuit's simplicity, it offers terrific overdrive tones. It's a fine alternative to the Tube Screamer-influenced designs found in perhaps 90 percent of today's overdrive pedals.
We're calling our Electra variation the PG Distortion (Photo 2). Compared to a Screamer, the PG Distortion is less compressed, less midrange-heavy, and more responsive to variations in your playing dynamics. It preserves note attack and has an edgy grind that cuts through onstage and in a mix. It's been used in several highly regarded boutique pedals (just Google the phrase "based on Electra distortion").
What you'll learn. The circuit's simplicity makes this a perfect starter project. But the goal isn't just to build a cool pedal from a few modestly priced parts. From the very first steps, you'll make design choices to suit your style and taste. You'll learn how common stompbox components work, and how to choose the right ones for your needs. Making stuff you like is a prime motive for DIY.
Now, if your goal is simply to build a cool pedal as quickly and cheaply as possible, you might consider a prefab DIY kit rather than this project. (I'm especially fond of kits from Build Your Own Clone because of their clever designs and excellent documentation.) But usually, kits like that only tell you the next step—not why you're doing the step, or how you can apply the procedure to future builds. Also, kits usually come with a printed circuit board (PCB) for mounting components, while we will make connections manually using a blank piece of perforated circuit board—a more laborious process, but a more informative one. So think of this as a stompbox-building class, with the PG Distortion as our case study.
Watch the Video Demo of the PG Distortion:
Project overview. The project is organized into five parts:
1. Preparations. Here you assemble all the needed tools and round up your parts.
2. Breadboarding the circuit. You'll assemble the circuit on electronics "breadboard"—an inexpensive prototyping tool that lets you create circuits without soldering. This method makes it easy to understand which components accomplish what (Photo 5).
Photo 5 — An electronics breadboard lets you test and customize circuits without soldering.
3. Customizing the circuit. Breadboarding is also a great way to explore design options, which you'll do right from the beginning.
Photo 6 — After refining your circuit on the breadboard, you'll mount the components on a piece of perforated circuit board, soldering everything together on the board's reverse side.
4. Assembling the circuit on perf board. Once you finalize your design, you'll solder it onto "perf board," a type of circuit board (Photo 6). It's a more complex process than just plugging parts into holes on a prefab PCB, but it permits customization.
Photo 7 — You'll test your completed board on the breadboard before boxing it up.
Once you learn the technique, you'll be able to transpose most stompbox circuits directly from schematic to perf board—and almost every stompbox schematic is available online. (Yes, reading schematics is one of our topics.) After assembling the circuit board, you'll test it using the breadboard (Photo 7).
Photo 8 (left): Your stompbox will have pro hardware, including true-bypass switching, a DC adapter, and a power-indicator LED. Photo 9 (right): In the final assembly, your circuit board rests atop the gain and volume pots.
5. Boxing the circuit. Finally, you'll box everything up. You'll install the jacks, footswitch, LED, and DC adapter into the enclosure (Photo 8) and then add the circuitry (Photo 9).
Tools.
The tools you need—plus a few that are nice to have.
You'll need these tools to complete the project. Ones marked "optional" are nice to have too.
1. Soldering iron. (Preferably 30 watts or more, but not a large gun-type iron. A "soldering station" with a temperature control is a big plus. Use a fine, narrow soldering iron tip—the best choice for small-format electronic work.)
2. Lead-free solder. (Less toxic than the leaded kind, but still nasty.)
3. A damp sponge to clean the soldering iron's tip.
4. A small electronics breadboard. (They make large-format ones, but most stompbox circuits are simple enough for a small board.)
5. An assortment of jumper cables. (You can make your own, but the prefab ones have metal tips that don't fray from repeated use.)
6. Wire stripper.
7. Wire cutter. (Most strippers have cutters, but you'll probably want a separate flush-edged tool for tight, close cuts)
It's never too early to modify projects to better meet your musical needs and personal style. Even in this simple circuit, small modifications can dramatically alter the effect's sound and response
8. Needle-nosed pliers.
9. Phillips-head screwdriver.
10. An adjustable wrench or a wrench set. (Long-handled luthiers wrenches are nice if you can afford them—plus you can use them for guitar repairs.)
11. A digital multimeter. "Auto-ranging" meters are the easiest to work with. These have many functions, and the high-end ones can be quite complicated. But even budget models should have the functions needed for this project: a voltmeter, an ohmmeter, and a continuity function (a beeper that sounds when you touch the test terminals to any two points that are linked electronically).
12. A small saw and vise for cutting perf board to size.
13. Double-sided foam tape
14. Optional: a "helping hand" vise to hold components steady while soldering.
15. Optional: a syringe-style de-soldering pump.
… plus an electric guitar, an amp, and two audio cables.
Parts.
You can get some parts from any electronics supplier. Others you must order from a stompbox parts specialist.
Here's your "bill of materials" (BOM)—the engineer's term for a parts list. Part of the project involves auditioning multiple components to choose your favorites, so not everything in the list will appear in the final pedal. The extra parts are quite inexpensive, so I recommend getting them all—you'll learn a lot. (In the U.S., a complete set of parts should cost around $50.)
1. Five ¼-watt metal film resistors. Values: 470R, 4.7K, 10K, 68K, 2.2M.
2. Four non-polarized capacitors (caps):
· 473 (also called .047µF or 47n)
· 683 (also called .068µF or 68n)
· two units of 104 (.1µF or 100n)
These can be polyester film, "box style," or ceramic—they all sound the same in this circuit. Get small-format caps rated between 50 and 100 volts, not the large-format caps used in amps and other AC-powered devices. (You'll only use two of these in the final pedal.)
3. One 16V 22µF electrolytic capacitor. (This cap type is polarized.)
4. Three transistors: 2N5088, 2N5089, and 2N3904. (You'll only use one in the final pedal.)
5. Eight diodes, two each of the following. (Not all will appear in the final pedal.)
- 1N4001
- 1N914
- 1N34A
- red 3 mm LED
6. Two 16 mm potentiometers ("pots"): A100K and C10K. (Substitute a B10K if you can't find a C10K.)
Schematics can look intimidating, but it doesn't take long to learn the basic symbols.7. A piece of perf board (perforated circuit board) at least 15 holes in width and seven in height. Chances are you'll saw a standard-sized 45 mm x 45 mm piece (shown) in half.
8. A 3PDT footswitch.
9. Three 1/4" mono jacks. (One is for the pedal, and two are for your breadboard testing rig.)
10. One 1/4" stereo jack.
11. One DC jack. (I used the standard type with an internal nut for the photos in this guide, though you may find it easier to work with an external-nut model.)
12. One 5 mm LED (any color).
13. One 5 mm LED bezel.
14. Two battery snaps. (One for the pedal, and one for the breadboard rig.)
15. One 9-volt battery.
16. Two knobs of your choice.
17. One 2" length of 1/8" heat-shrink tubing. (You can substitute standard electrical tape.)
18. Hookup wire, preferably 24-gauge, stranded and pre-bonded. (For visual clarity, it may help to use several contrasting colors, such as black, red, and white.)
19. One 1590B-size enclosure drilled for two knobs, footswitch, input, output, LED, and DC jack. You can order a pre-drilled box, or use a drill press to make your own holes. Use a larger enclosure if you like, though everything should fit into a compact 1590B. (If you have a drill press, you can save a couple of bucks by drilling your own holes. For an appropriate drill template, Google "1590B drilling template.")
Sourcing parts.
Stompbox parts tend to fall into two categories: those you can get from large electronics supply houses, and those sold chiefly by stompbox specialists. Large suppliers such as Mouser, Digi-Key, and Allied often have the lowest prices, but they don't stock some of the essentials. Meanwhile, the specialized stompbox vendors often carry both specialized and non-specialized parts, and the convenience of one-stop shopping may compensate for slightly higher prices on generic parts.
This isn't a complete list of stompbox parts specialists—just three reliable U.S.-based vendors with fine reputations, listed in alphabetical order. I've had great service from all three businesses.
Meanwhile, I hear good things about Germany's Banzai Music from my friends in the E.U.
Mammoth Electronics has created a preassembled kit with all the parts needed for this project. (Premier Guitar has no financial stake in the product—it's merely offered as a convenience.) The parts are good and the prices are competitive, but it's just one way to go. The kit includes all needed parts, but you must provide the tools. More details here.
Despite (or maybe because of) the circuit's simplicity, it offers terrific overdrive tones. It's a fine alternative to the Tube Screamer-influenced designs found in perhaps 90 percent of today's overdrive pedals.
Your workspace. Work somewhere with decent lighting and ventilation. Expect everything to take longer than planned, so don't start working at your kitchen table if you plan to eat there this week. Remember, a clean, well-organized workspace is a sign of a clean, well-organized mind. My bench is a filthy junk pile.
Safety first (and second and third). This project requires tools and techniques that can hurt you if you're not careful. Fortunately, it's pretty much impossible to electrocute yourself with 9-volt circuits like this one, but it's all too easy to cut or burn yourself.
When in doubt, step away from the bench and seek help. Don't touch things that are hot or sharp. Wear eye protection. Don't work when you're angry or stressed. Don't leave anything dangerous where kids or pets can find it. You know the drill—including the fact that you proceed at your own risk, and that neither I nor Premier Guitar can assume any responsibility for injury, property damage, or other unfortunate events that may occur while attempting this project. Be smart and careful, okay?
Common-sense soldering. If you've never soldered, it can be intimidating. And yes, it's possible to burn things, including yourself. But it's actually an easy procedure that quickly becomes second nature. If you've never soldered before, watch a few YouTube soldering tutorials. Start with this one, in which a clever 11-year-old covers most of what you need to know in three fast minutes.
Some basics.
- Don't touch the hot part.
- Don't leave a hot iron unattended.
- Work in a ventilated area. Even if you're using lead-free solder, it can't be healthy to inhale those fumes for hours!
- Wear eye protection.
- "Tin" the iron's tip by touching a bit of solder to it before starting.
- Keep a damp sponge or rag handy and swab the iron's tip frequently to keep it clean.
- Instead of touching solder to the iron's tip, try to heat the target component and melt the solder against the component. (But yeah, sometimes we cheat and quickly touch the solder to the iron for a fraction of a second to get it flowing.)
- A good solder joint is shiny, smooth, and shaped like a Hershey's Kiss. If it's dark, or sits on the surface like a water droplet, reapply the iron.
- If you make mistakes, it may help to have a syringe-type de-soldering tool. (You simply re-melt the solder, and then suck it up with the tool.)
- Consider using a "helping hands" vise to hold your components, leaving both your hands free for work.
It's possible to complete this project with a bare-bones pencil-type soldering iron, but it's far easier if you use a "soldering station" with adjustable temperature from a company such as Weller or Hakko. Simple hobbyist models start at around $40, and fancier models go for about double that. But don't use big, high-wattage soldering guns—they're too powerful for work like this. Use a fine, narrow soldering iron tip suitable for delicate electronics work.
Photo 10 — You can make sense of many stompbox schematics if you learn half a dozen symbols.
Working with schematics. A schematic is simply a graphic representation of a circuit. Schematics can look intimidating, but it doesn't take long to learn the basic symbols. Photo 10 shows the schematic for this project. The build guide PDF discusses it in detail, but here's a quick intro:
- Schematics are usually arranged with the power connection at the top, ground connections at the bottom, input to the left, and output to the right.
- The zigzag lines depict resistors.
- The potentiometer symbol is like the resistor symbol, but with an added arrow to indicate the middle lug.
- Parallel lines symbolize non-polarized capacitors.
- The electrolytic cap symbol adds a curved line and a plus sign to indicate polarity.
- The diode symbol includes a triangle and a line. The side with the line is the negative terminal. The LED symbol adds arrows representing emitted light.
- Like most circuits, this one includes many connections to ground. We could connect them all with lines in the schematic, but the schematic is easier on the eye is we indicate ground connections with a simple symbol: the downward-facing triangle.
Don't sweat it if you're still confused—it's covered extensively in the build guide.
Stompbox parts tend to fall into two categories: those you can get from large electronics supply houses, and those sold chiefly by stompbox specialists.
Mods of the gods.
Sure, you might be a beginning builder, but chances are you have strong tastes when it comes to guitar sound. It's never too early to modify projects to better meet your musical needs and personal style. In fact, you'll be doing just that within the first few minutes. Even in this simple circuit, small modifications can dramatically alter the effect's sound and response.
Your modding experiments will focus on three areas:
- You'll try different values for the input capacitor (labeled C1 in Photo 10). This part acts as a high-pass filter, removing lows. But the result isn't quite like, say, turning down the bass knob on your amp, or using EQ to remove lows from a recording. Here at the front of the circuit, slight component variations alter the effect's fundamental character.
- You'll audition three different transistors (the part labeled Q1 in Photo 10). This component defines the circuit's gain. You can make this an understated overdrive or an angry chunk machine.
- You'll experiment with different combinations of clipping diodes (parts D1 and D2 in Photo 10). The result can range from soft, warm distortion to razor-edged sizzle.
DIY not? Remember, this project isn't just about building a cool distortion pedal. The goal is learning the "whys" as well as the "hows" so you can a) apply these techniques to any project, and b) alter circuits to taste. I hope you find the process fun and informative, and that when the smoke clears—hee hee—you have an inspiring musical tool. For best results, maintain your patience and sense of humor, and don't freak out when you hit the inevitable hurdles.
There's much more info in the PDF build guide, including additional resources and troubleshooting tips. Download it if you dare!
Click to download the entire build guide in an easy-to-use PDF.
[Updated 8/10/21]
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On Halloween, the pride of New Jersey rock ’n’ roll shook a Montreal arena with a show that lifted the veil between here and the everafter.
It might not seem like it, but Bruce Springsteen is going to die.
I know; it’s a weird thought. The guy is 75 years old, and still puts on three-hour-plus-long shows, without pauses or intermissions. His stamina and spirit put the millennial work-from-home class, whose backs hurt because we “slept weird” or “forgot to use our ergonomic keyboard,” to absolute shame. He leaps and bolts and howls and throws his Telecasters high in the air. No doubt it helps to have access to the best healthcare money can buy, but still, there’s no denying that he’s a specimen of human physical excellence. And yet, Bruce, like the rest of us, will pass from this plane.
Maybe these aren’t the first thoughts you’d expect to have after a rock ’n’ roll show, but rock ’n’ roll is getting old, and one of its most prolific stars has been telling us for the past few years that he’s getting his affairs in order. His current tour, which continues his 2023 world tour celebrated in the recent documentary Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, follows his latest LP of original music, 2020’s Letter To You. That record was explicitly and thematically an exploration of the Boss’ mortality, and this year’s jubilant roadshow continues that chapter with shows across the U.S. and Canada.
“The older you get, the more you realize that, unless you’re über-wealthy, you probably have a lot in common with the characters in Springsteen songs.”
I was at the Montreal show on Halloween night, where Bruce, the E Street Band—Steven Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren, Garry Tallent, Max Weinberg, and Roy Bittan, along with Soozie Tyrell, Charles Giordano, and Jake Clemons—and a brilliant backing ensemble of singers and musicians performed for roughly three hours straight. The show rewired my brain. For days after, I was in a feverish state, hatching delusional schemes to get to his other Canadian shows, unconsciously singing the melody of “Dancing in the Dark” on a loop until my partner asked me to stop, listening to every Springsteen album front to back.
“The stakes implicit in most of these stories are that our time is always running out.”
Photo by Rob DeMartin
I had seen Bruce and the E Street Band in 2012, but something about this time was different, more urgent and powerful. Maybe it’s that the older you get, the more you realize that, unless you’re über-wealthy, you probably have a lot in common with the characters in Springsteen songs. When you’re young, they’re just great songs with abstract stories. Maybe some time around your late 20s, you realize that you aren’t one of the lucky ones anointed to escape the pressures of wage work and monthly rent, and suddenly the plight of the narrator of “Racing in the Street” isn’t so alien. The song’s wistful organ melody takes on a different weight, and the now-signature extended coda that the band played in Montreal, led by that organ, Bittan’s piano, and Weinberg’s tense snare rim snaps, washed across the arena over and again, like years slipping away.
The stakes implicit in most of these stories are that our time is always running out. The decades that we spend just keeping our heads above water foreclose a lot of possibility, the kind promised in the brash harmonica whine and piano strokes that open “Thunder Road” like an outstretched hand, or in the wild, determined sprint of “Born to Run.” If we could live forever, there’d be no urgency to our toils. But we don’t.
Springsteen has long has the ability to turn a sold-out arena into a space as intimate as a small rock club.
Photo by Rob DeMartin
Bruce has never shied away from these realities. Take “Atlantic City,” with its unambiguous chorus: “Everything dies, baby, that’s a fact.” (Then, of course, an inkling of hope: “Maybe everything that dies someday comes back.”) Springsteen used those phrases on Nebraska to tell the story of a working person twisted and cornered into despair and desperation, but on All Hallows Eve, as the band rocked through their electrified arrangement of the track, it was hard not to hear them outside of their context, too, as some of the plainest yet most potent words in rock ’n’ roll.
In Montreal, like on the rest of this tour, Bruce guided us through a lifecycle of music and emotion, framed around signposts that underlined our impermanence. In “Letter to You,” he gestured forcefully, his face tight and rippled with passion, an old man recapping the past 50 years of his creative life and his relationship to listeners in one song. “Nightshift,” the well-placed Commodores tune featured on his 2022 covers record, and “Last Man Standing,” were opportunities to mourn Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici, his E Street comrades who went before him, but also his bandmates in his first group, the Castiles. It all came to a head in the night’s elegiac closer, “I’ll See You in My Dreams,” performed solo by Bruce with his acoustic guitar: “Go, and I’ll see you in my dreams,” he calls
I’m still trying to put my finger on exactly why the show felt so important. I’ve circled around it here, but I’m sure I haven’t quite hit on the heart of the matter. Perhaps it’s that, as we’re battered by worsening crises and cornered by impossible costs of living, songs about people trying desperately to feel alive and get free sound especially loud and helpful. Or it could be that having one of our favorite artists acknowledge his mortality, and ours, is like having a weight lifted: Now that it’s out in the open, we can live properly and honestly.
None of us know for sure what’s up around the bend, just out of sight. It could be something amazing; it could be nothing at all. Whatever it is, we’re in it together, and we’ll all get there in our time. Until then, no matter how bad things get, we’ll always have rock ’n’ roll.
You might not be aware of all the precision that goes into building a fine 6-string’s neck, but you can certainly feel it.
I do not consider my first “real” guitar the one where I only made the body. In my mind, an electric guitar maker makes necks with a body attached—not the other way around. (In the acoustic world, the body is a physics converter from hand motion to sound, but that’s a different article for a different month.) To me, the neck is deeply important because it’s the first thing you feel on a guitar to know if you even want to plug it in. As we say at PRS, the neck should feel like “home,” or like an old shirt that’s broken in and is so comfortable you can barely tell it’s on.
A couple articles ago, I talked about things on a guitar you can’t see, but are of the utmost importance to the quality of the instrument. I’d now like to go deeper into some of those unseen details in guitar neck making that make a difference. This list is a small percentage of what’s really going on, so please take each one as an example of the craft.
Gluing in the frets. In my old repair shop, there were several instruments that kept returning after gigs because the frets had again become unlevel. If I took a very flat file and started to level the frets, the volume of the squeaking of the frets as I filed was really loud. I realized that these guitars had never had their frets glued in. It seemed clear that the fretshad to be glued into the slots, so when someone sweats into the instrument at a gig, the frets do not change height. I learned, after interviewing Ted McCarty, that the Gibson factory in Kalamazoo in the ’50s glued the frets in with fish glue. I tried it once. It stunk, and I never used it again. But gluing frets in has been important to me since day one. The glue makes a mold around the teeth of the fretwire to hold the frets in place. Another reason to glue the frets in is that on some ’60s Martins, for example, the frets would lift up on the treble side and the high-E string would get caught underneath the fret. So, glue the frets in or you’re going to have a long-term problem. By the way, using a water-based glue is like adding all the water back to the fretboard that you spent months drying out. I like super glue because it doesn’t have any water in it.
“Terry Kath, the great guitar player from Chicago, once told me, ‘Most guitars won’t play in tune down near the nut, and I search and search for guitars that will.’”
Fret positions. When I was young, there was an article in Guitar Player that described how to calculate fret positions by using the 12th root of two. The number is 1.0594631. And the reason I remember the number is because calculators didn’t have memory at the time, and I had to keep entering the number over and over again. One day, someone came into my shop and said, “I can’t play in tune with the keyboard player when I am playing lines near the nut.” I said, “That’s hard for me to believe, but I’ll check it.” Sure enough, the first few frets were out of tune with the open nut even though I had calculated the 1st frets’ positions perfectly. Turns out the nut needed to be moved so that it would play in tune down there (in the same way you have to adjust the intonation at the bridge end). Terry Kath, the great guitar player from Chicago, once told me, “Most guitars won’t play in tune down near the nut, and I search and search for guitars that will.” Getting the frets, the nut, and the bridge in the right positions is incredibly important. You’d be surprised that this is not always a given.
Neck shape. I was once at Dave’s Guitar Shop in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in his upstairs guitar museum, and got to compare early ’50s Tele, old Les Paul, and early Strat neck shapes. What was so surprising was how close the neck shapes were, including the thumb round-over (where the side dots are). I was later able to scan a lot of these necks and compare them with a computer, and, damn, they were really close. What was different was the radius of the fretboards. Some of them were more curved than others, and the old Gibsons’ radii were not what the internet says they should be. So, it’s pretty hard to understand from the specs alone how a neck is going to feel in your hands. In my mind, there’s a common shape that your hand feels comfortable with, and then all the extensions that make 7-string guitars, 12-strings, acoustic instruments, and modern Ibanez/flat-radius type instruments are other artforms altogether.
At PRS, we often think of guitars in terms of looks, feel, and sound. If it looks good, you’ll probably pick it up. If it feels good in your hands and rings for a long time when you strum it acoustically, you’ll probably plug it in. If it sounds good plugged in, there’s a good chance you’re hooked.
Warren Haynes has unveiled the Million Voices Whisper 2025 Tour in support of his new solo album.
The 9-date run will launch February 7th in Knoxville, and the Warren Haynes Band will travel throughout the Midwest and Northeast, stopping in such cities as Huntsville, Toledo, Des Moines, and Burlington before wrapping February 22nd in Buffalo. See below for all dates and details.
Fan Club presale tickets will be available starting Wednesday, November 20th at 10am local time with local presales beginning Thursday, November 21st at 10am local time and the general on sale commencing Friday, November 22nd at 10am local time. $1 from every ticket sold for the winter tour will be donated to assist with hurricane relief.
A limited number of specially curated fan packages will also be available for the Million Voices Whisper 2025 Tour. Packages include one Ultimate Guitar Player Package per show, featuring a Les Paul Standard 60s Plain Top guitar in Sparkling Burgundy to be played and signed by Warren, meet & greet with a photo with Warren, soundcheck access, premium reserved seats, and more, and the Guitar Player Package, which includes an autographed Gibson Les Paul Standard Pickguard, a set of custom Warren Haynes guitar picks in collector box, a Dunlop guitar slide, and set of GHS strings (items as used by Warren), plus soundcheck, priority access, and more.
Visit www.warrenhaynes.net for all ticketing and VIP information and to purchase.
Performing alongside Haynes (vocals, guitar) will be the current, all-star lineup of the Warren Haynes Band: longtime drummer Terence Higgins (of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band), Gov’t Mule bassist Kevin Scott, Matt Slocum on keys, and Greg Osby on sax.
Just released November 1stvia Fantasy Records, Million Voices Whisper – Warren’s first solo album in almost a decade and fourth solo collection in his esteemed career catalog – debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Blues Albums Chart and also entered the Americana/Folk Albums chart at #3, Current Rock Albums chart at #5, and Top Current Albums Sales chart at #29. Already hailed as his best album yet, the 11-song collection of soulful blues-rock, produced by Haynes and recorded at Power Station New England, includes the singles “This Life As We Know It” and “Day of Reckoning” featuring Lukas Nelson and Jamey Johnson as well as guest appearances from Warren’s Allman Brothers Band bandmate and longtime friend Derek Trucks on multiple tracks including “Real Real Love,” a song whose lyrics were initially started by Gregg Allman that Haynes finished to honor his friend. Million Voices Whisper is available digitally and on CD, 2-LP vinyl set, and a deluxe CD version with four bonus songs.
This Sunday, November 24th, Haynes, a native of Asheville, and Dave Matthews Band will host “SOULSHINE,” a benefit concert to aid relief and recovery efforts in Western North Carolina and Florida in the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, at Madison Square Garden. The sold-0ut, all-star event – featuring performances from DMB, Warren Haynes Band, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, and Goose along with very special guests Trey Anastasio, Mavis Staples, Robert Randolph, Joe Russo, Trombone Shorty, Susan Tedeschi,and Derek Trucks – will now be available worldwide via a free live stream hosted on YouTube. Produced by Volta Media and sponsored by Cisco Systems, the concert will be streamed live on Sunday from 7:00-11:00 pm ET on the official event website SOULSHINEMSG.COM. Net proceeds will go to the SOULSHINE Concert Fund at the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, which will benefit Habitat for Humanity’s 2024 Hurricane Recovery fund and will also support a variety of non-profits on the ground in North Carolina and Florida. Visit SOULSHINEMSG.COM to learn more or make a donation.
Following “SOULSHINE,” Haynes will wrap the year with Gov’t Mule’s annual New Year’s Run – December 28th at College Street Music Hall in New Haven, Connecticut, and December 30th and 31st at The Beacon Theatre in New York City – and then launch 2025 with his annual concert-cation experience Island Exodus 15 in Jamaica from January 19-23 before heading out on the road for the Million Voices Whisper 2025 Tour.
For more information, please visit warrenhaynes.net.
WARREN HAYNES TOUR DATES
Gov’t Mule – New Year’s Run
December 28 – New Haven, CT @ College Street Music Hall
December 30 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre
December 31 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre
Island Exodus 15
Featuring Gov’t Mule, Warren Haynes, Drive-By Truckers, Karina Rykman & Big Sugar
January 19-23, 2025 – Runaway Bay, Jamaica @ Jewel Paradise Cove Resort
Million Voices Whisper Tour 2025
February 7 – Knoxville, TN @ Bijou Theatre
February 8 – Huntsville, AL @ Mars Music Hall
February 11 – Toledo, OH @ Stranahan Theater
February 13 – Northfield, OH @ MGM Northfield Park – Center Stage
February 14 – Carmel, IN @ The Palladium
February 15 – West Des Moines, IA @ Val Air Ballroom
February 20 – Burlington, VT @ The Flynn
February 21 – Concord, NH @ Chubb Theatre
February 22 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
April 5 – Columbia, SC @ Township Auditorium (rescheduled from 9/28)
Gov’t Mule – Festival Appearances
March 6-8 – Live Oak, FL @ Suwannee Amp Jam #1 (on sale 11/21)
July 23-27 – Floyd County, VA @ FloydFest 25~Aurora
Warren Haynes Band – European Festival Appearance
July 6 – Sperken, Austria @ Castle Clam
The Americana singer-songwriter, known for supporting her vocals with intricate fingerpicking, found herself simplifying her process for her latest full-length, which, in turn, has led to more personal and artistic growth.
Folk singer-songwriter Amythyst Kiah is a formidable fingerstylist. When asked about her creative process, she explains how she’s come up playing a lot of solo shows—something that’s inspired her to bring out the orchestral range of the guitar for her own vocal accompaniment. Over the years, she’s taken her high school classical training and college old-time-string-band experience to evolve her fingerpicking skills, developing three-finger technique and other multi-dimensional patterns influenced by players like Mike Dawes. And for her latest full-length, Still + Bright, she’s only continued to grow in her musicianship, but by stepping back to square one: rhythm.
Amythyst Kiah - "God's Under the Mountain"
“I’ve stayed away from writing songs where I’m just strumming for a really long time,” she prefaces, “because I was worried that it was going to be too boring to not do fingerstyle. But then I realized, there’s so many [strummed] songs that are super powerful, and you can still make it interesting rhythmically.
“I started to listen to more rhythm guitar players, like Cory Wong, and reconfigured how I was viewing rhythm guitar,” she continues. “It was a matter of finding a way to do it that was exciting and interesting to me. Now, it’s really expanded the songs that I can write.”
All of the demos for Still + Brightbegan with strumming, says Kiah. When working on ideas, she would “play rhythmically as much as I could,” then open GarageBand, choose a tempo she felt comfortable playing to, and add programmed drums—often going with a modern R&B pattern. But when she brought her songs to the studio, she discovered that she was struggling to replicate the guitar parts she’d recorded at home.For Kiah, who’s always had a very strong sense of self and vision for her sound, that was a bit discomforting.In the making of Still + Bright, Kiah’s fifth full-length album, the songwriter strengthened her skills as both a rhythm guitarist and a vocalist.
“I had a moment of, ‘I can either spend way too long trying to replay this part that I’ve been playing from muscle memory at this point,’” she shares, or hand it off to her session player, Nashville guitarist (and, coincidentally, Premier Guitarcolumnist) Ellen Angelico, and focus on her lyrics and vocal delivery instead. “I used to be very much like, ‘I have to be playing guitar on everything.’ But there’s a team of people here that can help, and make things go along more smoothly. My ego shouldn’t be getting in the way.”
She did, ultimately, play guitar—acoustic or electric, or both—on five out of 12 tracks, and banjo on two. Angelico performed on each track, alternating between mandolin, dobro, pedal steel, and acoustic, electric, and baritone guitar. (You’ll also hear Billy Strings, with his unmistakable, rapid-fire bluegrass licks, on “I Will Not Go Down.”)
The finished album exudes a spirit of triumph. It rings as one extended anthem, beginning with “Play God and Destroy the World,” a reflection on a childhood rejection of religious hypocrisy, and ending on “People’s Prayer,” an avowal of humanistic compassion. “S P A C E,” one of the more pensive songs in the collection, features Kiah playing clawhammer banjo. “God’s Under the Mountain” builds and undulates with a communion of syncopated vocal melody, fiddle, pedal steel, dobro, and background vocals by producer Butch Walker and Avi Kaplan. Then, the waltzing “Dead Stars” unwinds with simpler, judicious instrumentation supporting a mournful theme, before swelling with Morricone-like eloquence as it closes. “This is the first album where I really had a concept about everything, from the logo to the color palette, and everything else,” says Kiah, “and I had an incredible team who was able to really bring to life what I was envisioning.”
Amythyst Kiah’s Gear
Some of Kiah’s building blocks for her fingerpicking abilities came from classical training in high school and old-time studies at East Tennessee State University.
Photo by Tim Bugbee/tinnitus photography
Effects
- L.R. Baggs Para Acoustic DI
- TC Electronic Polytune
Strings, Picks & Accessories
- Acoustic: D’Addario light
- Electric: Ernie Ball medium
- Dunlop .73 mm picks
- Paige capo
Throughout the record, Kiah’s propulsive singing voice is the glowing flame to the hearth, acting as a centerpiece to the already luminous, Americana-fueled full-band arrangements. Like rhythm guitar, voice was another essential element that she cultivated while creating Still + Bright.
“I kind of diminished that power of having a voice,” she admits, explaining how she’s always been preoccupied with measuring up on guitar, and has long held multi-instrumentalists such as Prince in high esteem. But something shifted when a sentiment expressed by her manager, Dolph Ramseur, years ago, finally sunk in. “He said, ‘Amythyst, you know, you could just stand in a room and sing a cappella, and people would sit there and listen, and they wouldn’t get up and leave, and they would not be bored.’ And then it really dawned on me—it’s a powerful thing, people that can just sing; there’s a power and strength there, too. It’s just understanding where the power lies, and then embracing it, as opposed to feeling inadequate.
“It’s just understanding where the power lies, and then embracing it, as opposed to feeling inadequate.”
“I have this ongoing obsession in the back of my mind that I’m never doing enough,” she continues. “So, anytime I remove something from the equation, I worry. That stems from social anxiety, and being overly concerned with, like, ‘Am I making the right decision?’ But it doesn’t matter how long I agonize or rethink or redo something; at the end of the day, the decision I make is still going to be spontaneous. Because there’s only ever ‘now.’” She adds, laughing, “I’m a big Alan Watts fan.”
Now, she’s started doing vocal warmups before shows, “and through that, I’ve expanded my range and I’ve also been able to gain even more control over my voice. It also means that I can write more challenging songs. Those two things—expanding [rhythm] guitar and expanding voice—have let me open a whole new side to my sound.”
Spiritual themes appear frequently on Still + Bright, in both Kiah’s song titles and lyrics. The opening lines of “Empire of Love” include, “My religion is none at all / I build my own cathedrals and let ’em fall.” On “Let’s See Ourselves Out,” she sings, “So many matrices we create to escape / Sometimes I wonder if we’re just a mistake.” And, on more than one song, there’s mention of how “we’re all made from stars from above,” alluding to the scientific evidence that the elements of the human body were created by stars that went supernova.
Kiah was raised in a predominantly white, Christian suburb in Chattanooga, Tennessee, as part of a Black family who didn’t attend church. She identified as an “alternative” kid, vacillating between agnosticism and atheism, shopping at Hot Topic, and drawing inspiration from The Matrix’s theme of breaking free from societal constraints. (She remarks on her younger self’s “cognitive dissonance” of buying “‘alternative clothes’ at the mall.”) As a self-proclaimed introvert, she dealt with social anxiety, and spent a lot of her time at home alone on the computer. But when she began learning guitar at 13, and later started attending a creative arts high school, she finally felt like she fit in: “’cause everybody there was misfits and weirdos.”
Spirituality is a common theme in Kiah’s music. Her current beliefs draw mainly on principles of Zen Buddhism and Taoism.
Photo by Kevin & King
Though still adamantly individualistic, her spiritual views evolved when she took courses in both Western humanities and Eastern religion in college: “I realized that people have created narratives about how to live our lives for thousands of years. So, this idea that only one group of people got it right and everyone else is wrong; that threw all of that out the window.” Today, she says that Zen Buddhism probably best captures her personal belief system, but, “I hesitate to call myself a Zen Buddhist because I feel like I still have more to learn,” she says. She also rereads the Tao Te Ching by Laozi “pretty regularly,” lauding the principles of Taoism as another strong influence on her philosophies.
At the beginning of our 1 p.m. Zoom call, Kiah shares that she typically spends her mornings alone and in silence, meditating, writing, and reading, and lightheartedly apologizes for enthusiastically “going on”—saying she’s had a lot of time to think before speaking to another person. When I ask her about what modern artists she’s listening to lately, she has more to say about what she’s been reading. One of the books in her current rotation is The Lost Art of Silence by Sarah Anderson.
Growing up, Kiah identified as an “alternative” kid, and was something of an “anime mall goth” who often shopped at Hot Topic.
Photo by Tim Bugbee/tinnitus photography
“It goes along really well with meditation and learning to live in the present,” Kiah says. “It’s been interesting to explore those different perspectives on silence, and make more of an effort to find time in my life to be quiet. I find that I’m getting more and more comfortable with myself and my thoughts, and I feel less like I always have to block out anxious thoughts. Or, if I have anxiety about something, I can come up with an idea of, ‘Okay, well, how can I alleviate this? Can I do anything about it?’, and solve the problem as opposed to starting the spiral.
“Impostor syndrome was the big driver for my social anxiety, and now, I feel like I’m on the other side of being an impostor,” she reflects. “I’m doing what I’ve been wanting to do for the past 12 years, making a living doing this. There’s stressful things that happen, but you have to decide, what are you willing to be stressed out about? To try to seek a perfect, happy life where nothing ever upsets you—that’s called emotional repression and it’s really unhealthy. It’s just about accepting the fact that, hey, some days, some weeks are gonna be shit, and to find ways to take care of yourself that are as least self-destructive as humanly possible.”
“It doesn’t matter how long I agonize or rethink or redo something; at the end of the day, the decision I make is still going to be spontaneous. Because there’s only ever ‘now.’”
And while she’s outgrown a lot of her social anxiety, she says it’s been a challenge adapting to the stress that comes with the unpredictability of touring. “When I would be at home, I would establish this really tight routine, and then I got completely knocked on my feet when I would leave,” she explains. “I had to get to this point where I would just be focusing more on the present and less on trying to micromanage how my day’s going to be, because it’s not gonna always go the way that I want things to go.
“That’s been also helpful in my creative process, because then I’m not as anxious and worried about all these other things that I don’t have control over, and I’m able to just … enjoy the process of living.”
Ellen Angelico's Gear
Guitars
- Dismal Ax Barnstormer
- Cervantes Telecaster
- GFI Expo S-10
- 1980s Kentucky KM-250S mandolin
Amp
- 3rd Power Dream 50 Plexi
Effects
- Peterson StroboStomp HD tuner
- Line 6 HX Stomp
- 1981 DRV
- MXR Timmy Overdrive Mini
- Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Boy
- Strymon Flint
Strings & Picks
- D’Addario NYXL
- Wegen picks
YouTube It
On WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, recorded in Knoxville, Tennessee, Kiah performs an evocative, stripped-down version of “Empire of Love” from Still + Bright.