Hereās how 21 killer players from the past year of Rig Rundownsāincluding Justin Chancellor, Zakk Wylde, MonoNeon, Carmen Vandenberg, Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell, and Grace Bowersāuse stomps to take their sounds outside the box.
TOOL'S JUSTIN CHANCELLOR
Justin Chancellorās Pedalboard
If you ever catch yourself playing air guitar to Tool, youāre probably mimicking Justin Chancellorās parts. āSchism,ā āThe Pot,ā āForty Six & 2,ā āH.,ā āFear Inoculum,ā āDescending,ā āThe Grudge,ā 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 playerās dream or nightmare, but for someone as adventurous as Chancellor, this is where the party starts.
Youāll 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 heās playing up the neck. Covering delays are three pedalsāhe has the pink Providence DLY-4 Chrono Delay programmed to match drummer Danny Careyās BPMs in āPneuma,ā 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 āFasterā handling āThe Grudgeā and the other one doing more steady repeats. Thereās a pair of vintage Guyatone pedalsāthe 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 āSchism.ā 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 Simpsonās 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. āI wouldnāt use a tuner if I didnāt have to,ā he chuckles. The LILY P4D beside the splitter lets him control his mic signal to cut interference from onstage noise.
Laur Joametsā 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 āthe Charmer.ā
PANTERAāS ZAKK WYLDE AND REX BROWN
Zakk Wyldeās Pedalboard
When Panteraās 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. Hereās what Wylde had on the floor and in the racks for the bandās February date at Nashvilleās 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 isnāt branded Wylde is a standard fare MXR Carbon Copy. Offstage, his rack is home to a MXR Smart Gate and MXR Wylde Audio Chorus thatās 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 Brownās 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 āmove mountains,ā Rex has a Moog Taurus III.
MSSVāS MIKE BAGGETTA AND MIKE WATT
Mike Baggettaās 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 spaceāthe final frontier.
Mike Wattās 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. Thereās also a TC Electronic PolyTune.
MONONEON
MonoNeonās 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. Heād 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. āWhen I started playing with Prince, he put the Whammy on my pedalboard,ā Thomas explains. āAfter he passed, I realized how special that moment was.ā MonoNeon also uses a Fairfield Circuitry Randyās Revenge, a Fart Pedal (in case the Fairfield ring mod isnāt 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 Bowersā Pedalboard
Grace Bowers is one of the freshest new guitar stars to emerge in the past year. She has the essential fixinās 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 DAYāS JASON WHITE
Photo by Raph Pour-Hashemi
Jason Whiteās Pedalboard
Long-time touring member Jason Whiteās 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 Whiteās 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 Whiteās 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 UKāS CARMEN VANDENBERG
Carmen Vandenbergās Pedalboard
Carmen Vandenberg covers a lot of ground with her Bones UK guitar sounds, and sheās 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 PUMASā ADRIAN QUESADA, BRENDAN BOND, AND ERIC BURTON
Adrian Quesadaās 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. Thereās also a JAM Pedals Ripple two-stage phaser, and a TC Electronic PolyTune2 Noir keeps his guitars in check. Thatās 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 hereāStrymon Ojai, JHS Mini A/B, and TC Electronic PolyTuneāhandle switching, tuning, and power.Brendan Bondās 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 Burtonās Pedalboard
Frontman and guitarist Eric Burton is the bandās 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 pedalsāa DigiTech Mosaic to mimic a 12-string for āOCT 33ā and a JHS Colour Box for any required heat. A Strymon Ojai turns everything on.
JASON ISBELL AND SADLER VADEN
Jason Isbellās 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. Thereās 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, youāll 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 Vadenās Pedalboard
Isbellās 6-string sparring partner Sadler Vadenās 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 Sadlerās 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 Lemmoās Pedalboard
Rising star player Michael Lemmo relies on his stomps for tone sculpting, but he doesnāt 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. Theyāre all juiced by a Truetone 1 Spot Pro CS7.
HELMETāS PAGE HAMILTON
Page Hamiltonās Pedalboard
Page Hamilton used to travel with a full Bradshaw rig with rack gear, but heās reduced things to a pair of Eventide H9 units and a handful of Boss boxesāa 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.
BARONESSā JOHN BAIZLEY, GINA GLEASON, AND NICK JOST
John Baizleyās Pedalboard
The Baroness frontmanās 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 Gleasonās Pedalboard
Gleasonās 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 machinesāthe Strymon TimeLine, EQD Space Spiral, and Boss DD-3āhandle 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 Jostās Pedalboard
The bassistās 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.
WOLFMOTHERāS ANDREW STOCKDALE
Andrew Stockdaleās Pedalboard
When we walked into Nashvilleās Eastside Bowl for this Rig Rundown with Wolfmotherās 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 boardās 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 Wongās 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 thereās 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 Wongās Mission Engineering Gemini 2 stereo cabinet.
Mark Lettieriās Pedalboard
Mark Lettieriās signal first hits a Keeley Monterey Custom Shop Edition, followed by an MXR Deep Phase, J. Rockett HRM, J. Rockett Melody OD (Lettieriās 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.
SLASHāS BLUES BALL BAND
Slashās Pedalboard
āI havenāt had a pedalboard in front of my feet since the ā80s,ā 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 Nealās Pedalboard
Tash Neal keeps a modest pedalboard at his feet: a DāAddario 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.
RANCIDāS MATT FREEMAN
Matt Freemanās Pedalboard
Bassist Matt Freemanās 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 āKINGFISHā INGRAM
Kingfishās Pedalboard
Kingfishās 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 OāNeal at XAct Tone Solutions.
DIXIE DREGSā STEVE MORSE
Steve Morseās Pedalboard
Steve plays through a pair of 3-channel Engl Steve Morse signature 100-watt ampsāone wet, one dryābut 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.
Andy Powers has been working with electric guitars his whole life, and heās been slowly collecting all the ideas that could go into his own āsolo project,ā waiting for the right time to strike.
His work as designer, guitar conceptualist, and CEO of Taylor Guitars is well-established. But when he set out to create the electric guitar heād been dreaming about his whole life, this master luthier needed to set himself apart.
Great design starts with an idea, a concept, some groundbreaking thought to do something. Maybe that comes from a revelation or an epiphany, appearing to its creator in one fell swoop, intact and ready to be brought into the real world. Or maybe itās a germ that sets off a slow-drip process that takes years to coalesce into a clear vision. And once itās formed, the journey from idea to the real world is just as open-ended, with any number of obstacles getting in the way of making things happen.
As CEO, president, and chief guitar designer of Taylor Guitars, Andy Powers has an unimaginable amount of experience sifting through his ideas and, with a large production mechanism at hand, efficiently and effectively realizing them. He knows that there are great ideas that need more time, and rethinking electric guitar designāfrom the neck to the pickups to how its hollow body is constructedādoesnāt come quickly. His A-Typeāwhich has appeared in Premier Guitarin the hands of guitarists Andy Summers and Duane Denison of the Jesus Lizardāis the innovative flagship model of his new brand, Powers Electric. And itās the culmination of a lifetime of thought, experience, and influences.
āSouthern California is a birthplace of a lot of different things. I think of it as the epicenter of electric guitar.ā
āIāve got a lot of musician friends who write songs and have notebooks of ideas,ā explains Powers. āThey go, āIāve got these three great verses and a bridge, but no chorus. Iāll just put it on the shelf; Iāll come back to it.ā Or āIāve got this cool hook,ā or āIāve got this cool set of chord changes,ā or whatever it might beātheyāre half-finished ideas. And once in a while, you take them off the shelf, blow the dust off, and go, āThatās a really nice chorus. Maybe I should write a couple of verses for it someday. But not today.ā And they put it back.ā
Thatās how his electric guitar design spent decades collecting in Powersā head. There were influences that he wanted to play with that fell far afield from his acoustic work at Taylor, and he saw room to look at some technical aspects of the instrument a little differently, with his own flair.
The Powers Electric A-Type draws from Powersā lifelong influences of cars, surfing, and skateboarding.
Over the course of Powersā ālong personal historyā with the instrument, heās built, played, restored, and repaired electric guitars. And, having grown up in Southern California, surrounded by custom-car culture, skateboarding, and surfingāall things he lovesāhe sees the instrument as part of his design DNA.
āSouthern California is a birthplace of a lot of different things,ā Powers explains. āI think of it as the epicenter of electric guitar. Post-World War II, you had Leo Fender and Paul Bigsby and Les Paulāall these guys living within just a couple of miles of each other. And I grew up in those same sorts of surroundings.ā
Those influences and the ideas about what to do with them kept collecting without a plan to take action. āAt some point,ā he says, āyou need the catalyst to go, āHey, you know what? I actually have the entire guitarās worth of ideas sitting right in front of me, and they all go together. I would want to play that guitar if it existed. Now is a good time to build that guitar.āā
āI started thinking, āIf I had been alive then, what would I have made?ā Itās kind of an open-ended question, because at that point, well, thereās no parts catalogs to buy stuff from. A lot of these things hadnāt been invented yet. How would you interpret this?ā
The pandemic ultimately served as the catalyst Powersā electric guitars needed, and that local history proved to be a jumping-off point necessary for focusing his long-marinating ideas. āI started thinking, āIf I had been alive then, what would I have made?ā Itās kind of an open-ended question, because at that point, well, thereās no parts catalogs to buy stuff from. A lot of these things hadnāt been invented yet. How would you interpret this? As a designer, I think thatās really interesting. Overlay that with understanding what happens to electric guitars and how people want to use them, as well as some acoustic engineering. Well, thatās pretty fascinating. Thatās an interesting mix.ā
Tucked away in his home workshop, Powers set about designing a guitar, building āliterally every little bit other than a couple screwsā including handmade and hand-polished knobs. Soon, the prototype for the Powers Electric A-Type was born. āI played this guitar and went, āIāve been waiting a long time to play this guitar.ā A friend played it and went, āI want one, too.ā Okay, Iāll make another one. Made two more. Made three moreā¦.ā
The A-Typeāseen here with both vibrato and hardtailāis a fully hollow guitar that is built in what Powers calls a āhot-rod shopā on the Taylor Guitars campus.
From there, Powers recalls that he started bringing his ideas back to his shop on Taylorās campus, where he set up āessentially a small hot-rod shopā to build these new guitars. āItās a real small-scale operation,ā he explains. āIt exists here at Taylor Guitars, but in its own lane.ā
The A-Typeācurrently the only planned Powers Electric modelāhas the retro appeal of classic SoCal electrics. Its single-cut body style is unique but points to the curvature of midcentury car designs, and the wide range of vibrant color options help drive that home. Conceptually, the idea of reinventing each piece of the guitarās hardware points toward the instrumentās creators. That might get a vintage guitar enthusiastās motor running, but itās in the slick precision of those partsāfrom the bridge and saddle to the pickup componentsāwhere the A-Typeās modernism shines.
āItās a real small-scale operation. It exists here at Taylor Guitars, but in its own lane.ā
Grabbing hold of the guitar, itās clearly an instrument living on the contemporary cutting edge. The A-Typeās neck gives the clearest indication that itās a high-performance machine; itās remarkably easy to fret, with low action but just enough bite across the board. Powers put a lot of thought into the fretboard dynamics that make that so, and he decided to create a hybrid radius. āYou have about a 9 1/2" radius, which is really what your hand feels, but then under the plain strings, itās a bit flatter at 14, 15-ishāitās so subtle, itās really tough to measure.ā Without reading the specs and talking to Powers, I donāt know that I would detect the differenceāand I certainly didnāt upon first try. It just felt easy to play precisely without losing character or veering into āshredder guitarā territory.
The A-Type looks like a solidbody, but youāll know itās hollow by its light, balanced weight. That makes it comfortable to hold, whether standing or sitting. But its hollow-ness is no inhibitor to style: Iāve yet to provoke any unintended feedback from any of my amps. Powers explains thatās part of the design, which uses V-class bracing, similar to what youāll find on a modern Taylor acoustic.Powers says the A-Type that is now being produced is no different than the prototype he built in his home workshop: āI have the blueprint, still, that I hand drew. I can hold the guitar that weāre making up against that drawing, and it would be like I traced over it.ā
āCoupling the back and the top of the guitar matter a lot,ā he asserts. āWhen you do that, you can make them move in parallel so that they are not prone to feeding back on stage. You donāt actually have that same Helmholtz resonance going on that makes a hollowbody guitar feedback. Itās still moving.ā
On a traditional hollowbody, he points out, the top and back move independently, compressing the air inside the body. āItāll make one start to run away by re-amplifying its own sound,ā he explains. āBut if I can make them touch each other, then they move together as a unit. When they do that, youāre not compressing the air inside the body. But itās still moving. So, you get this dynamic resonance that you want out of a hollowbody guitar; itās just not prone to feedback.ā
What I hear from the A-Type is a rich, dynamic tone, full of resonance, sustain, and volume. I found it to be surprisingly loud and vibrant when unplugged. Powers tells me thatās in part due to the āstressed spherical topā and explains, āI take this piece of wood and I stress it into a sphere, which unnaturally raises its resonant frequency well above what the piece of wood normally could. Itās kind of sprung, ready to set in motion as soon as you strike the string. So, it becomes a mechanical amplifier.ā The bridge then sits in two soundposts, which Powers says makes it āalmost like a cello.ā
āLiterally every little bit other than a couple screwsā on the A-Type is custom made.
The single-coil pickups take it from there. Theyāre available in two variations, Full Faraday and Partial Faraday, the latter of which were in my demo model, and Powers tells me they are the brighter option. Their design, he says, has been in progress for about seven or eight years. The concept behind the pickups is to use the āparamagnetic quality of aluminumāāfound in the pickup housingāāto shape the magnetic field ā¦ which functions almost like a Faraday cage.ā And he complements them with a simple circuit on the way out.
I found them to run quietly, as promised, and offer a transparent tone with plenty of headroom. They paired excellently with the ultra-responsive playability and feel of the guitar, so I could play as dynamically as I desired. If a standard solidbody with single-coils offers the performance of a practical sedan, this combo gave the A-Type the feel of a well-tuned racecar. At low volumes and with no pedals, it felt like I was simply amplifying the guitarās acoustic sound, and I had full control with nothing but my pick. (Powers explains that the pickups have a wide resonance peak, which plays out to my ear.) Add pedals to the mix, including distortion and fuzz, and that translates to an articulated, hi-fi sound.
Now up to serial number XXX, the Powers Electric team has refined their production process. I wonder about that first guitar, the dream guitar Powers built in his house. How similar is the guitar Iām holding to his original vision? āItās very, very, very close,ā Powers tells me. āLiterally, this guitar outline is a tracing. Itās an exact duplicate of what I first drew on paper with a pencil. I have the blueprint, still, that I hand drew. I can hold the guitar that weāre making up against that drawing, and it would be like I traced over it.ā
āItās one of those things you do because you just really want to do it. It puts some spark in your life.ā
Playing the guitar and, later, talking through its features, Iām left with few questions. But one that remains has to do with branding and marketing, not the instrument: Why go to all the effort to create a new brand for the A-Type, which is to say, why isnāt this a Taylor? For Powers, itās about design. āAs guitar players,ā he explains, āwe know what Taylor guitars are, we know what it stands for, and we know what we do. The design language of a Taylor guitar is a very specific thing. When I look at a Taylor acoustic guitar, I go, āI need curves like this, I need colors like this, I need shapes like this.āā
Those arenāt the same curves, colors, and shapes as the Powers Electric design, nor do they mine the same influences. āThereās a look and a feel to what a Taylor is. And that is different from this. I look at this and go, āItās not the same.āā
Of course, adding the A-Type to the well-established Taylor catalog would probably be easier in lots of ways, but Powersā positioning of the brand is a sign of his dedication to the project. It feels like a labor of love. āTheyāre guitars that I really wanted to make,ā he tells me enthusiastically. āAnd Iām excited that they get to exist. Itās one of those things you do because you just really want to do it. It puts some spark in your life.ā
āItās like a solo project,ā he continues. āAs musicians, you front this band, you do this thing, and you also like these other kinds of music and youāve got other musician friends, and you want to do something thatās a different flavor. You try to make some space to do that, too.ā
Lloyd Baggs has reemerged from the shadows of guitar design, for the first time since the late ā80s, with his innovative AEG-1 instrument.
Following the release of the AEG-1, the multi-dimensional creative and intuitive engine behind acoustic-guitar pickup manufacturer L.R. Baggs shares the fascinating story of how heās always been a builder, too.
In Werner Herzog: A Guide for the Perplexed, the German filmmaker, opera director, actor, and author tells his colleague Paul Cronin, āWalk on foot, learn languages and a craft or trade that has nothing to do with cinema. Filmmakingālike great literatureāmust have experience of life as its foundation.ā When applied to the story of Lloyd Baggs, founder and owner of the L.R. Baggs Corporation, whoās been a cellist, car mechanic, aspiring racecar driver, fine-art printmaker, photographer, and self-taught guitar builder and acoustic pickup engineer, Herzogās sentiment grows legs.
āI had intended at some point to retire and head off into the sunset as a photographer,ā Baggs tells me over a Zoom call, concluding that heās become content with the other paths down which life has taken him. āBeing out doing landscape photography helps me think and organize my thoughts for the business, and I get lots of inspiration while Iām out letting my imagination soar, thinking about anything but guitars. If you cut me, Iāll probably be bleeding āphotographerā before anything else.ā
That approach has yielded not only a successful business, but one of the best in its league. And, on November 1, L.R. Baggs debuted the AEG-1āthe acoustic pickup manufacturerās first ever guitarāa high-quality acoustic-electric whose body is made of plywood. Ask anyone you know in the industry, and theyāll tell you it sounds amazingāand not just for a guitar thatās made of plywood.
Not only is its sound impressive, but, appearing alone on the roster in the year of its companyās 50th anniversary, it seems to have come out of nowhere. We know L.R. Baggsā status within the acoustic pickup industry, yet suddenly, theyāre spelling out a new name for themselves for acoustic-electric guitars. Why now?
Baggs in the workshop, sanding the side of one of his AEG-1 models.
Baggs admits that heās not a very good guitar player. He tried learning in college before he got into building, but what really started his career in music was cello, which he began playing in fourth grade. āI wouldnāt consider myself a prodigy, but I was close to one. By the time I was in high school, I was fourth chair in the UCLA Symphony,ā he says. āMy teacher was Joseph DiTullio, who was then the chief cellist with 20th Century Fox, but was the concert master of the L.A. [Philharmonic] before that. He said he was going to start subbing me on dates that he couldnāt take with 20th Century.ā
Outside of his early accomplishments as a cellist, Baggs was a distracted student, more interested in surfing and working on cars than school. Despite his average grades, he ended up being accepted into Occidental College in Los Angeles on the invitation to join their budding cello department. Unfortunately, that plan had an untimely expiration date.
āWithin about three months of being in college, I got in a fist fight with the halfback on the football team,ā says Baggs, āand I broke my left hand very badlyāto the point where I couldnāt even make a fist for almost a year.ā
He shifted his studies to fine art and photography, and, after graduating in 1970, began working as a fine-art printmaker in the area. āI worked in a place that did Warhol, Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Sam Francis, [Frank] Stella, [Ellsworth]Kellyāall the big New York artists. At the time, one print would sell for $1,000.āBaggs crafted this customābuilt guitar in 1977, for the great Ry Cooder. When Baggs showed Cooder his first polished instrument, the roots-music master said, āI think itās fantastic. Will you build me one?ā
A couple years later, he accepted a master printer position at Editions Press in San Francisco, and would commute there from his place in Berkeley. It was in 1974 that he started building guitars as a hobby, beginning, rather unconventionally, with a copy of a ā30s Washburn archtop with an oval soundhole, thanks to his love for cello and jazz. Around that timeāthrough his connections in the art worldāhe befriended Ry Cooder.
āBeing out doing landscape photography helps me think and organize my thoughts for the business ā¦ letting my imagination soar, thinking about anything but guitars.ā
āI brought [my first guitar] down to Ry,ā Baggs shares, āand just said, āHey, what do you think, man?ā āCause he was playing carved-tops and all kinds of crazy stuff. And Ry said, āI think itās fantastic. Will you build me one?ā That launched my career.ā
Not long after, Baggs was offered another, more-attractive printmaking job with a prestigious shop in L.A., and moved back, while also building a loft workshop in an old fire station downtown to continue developing his guitar business. After making about seven or eight models, he transitioned to flattops, and his clientele expanded to include Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Janis Ian, and āa bunch of the jazz-heads and flamenco players around L.A. I was getting $3,000 dollars for my guitar, just unadorned, and I had a waiting list of a year or two,ā he says.
Meanwhile, Baggs and Cooder had been collaborating on finding the best way to amplify the acoustic Baggs had built for the guitarist. āWeād put all kinds of crazy stuff in thereāwe mostly landed on a magnetic pickup and a microphone. And hehad this refrigerator-rack-sized gear that he used to swear at and try to make it all work together. I mean, it was brutal! Then, in 1978, he calls me and says, āHey Lloyd, Iām working on an album down at Warner Brothers; you want to come down? Thereās something I want you to hear.āāHereās a close-up of the simple but highly effective control set on the Baggs AEG-1.
When Baggs made it to the studio, Cooder, who was recording his 1979 album, Bop Till You Drop, surprised Baggs with an acoustic-electric guitar equipped with the best-sounding pickup either of them had heard at the time. The only issue was, the instrument was a Takamine that the Japanese company had designed to mimic Baggsā exact model, from headstock to strap button.
āI thanked him for showing it to me, left, and I sat out in my car on the street for about a half an hour alternately fuming and excited,ā Baggs says, āand that was the moment at which I said to myself, āThis is where I need to be. This is the future of acoustic guitars.āā
ā¦
āI still shudder to think about this: Iām driving down the freeway from Santa Monica, in this beat-to-crap old ā59 Chevy pickup truck that I had, with Ryāa national treasure!āsittinā in the passenger seat; no seatbelts,ā Baggs reflects. The two were on the way to NAMM to meet with Mass Hirade, Takamineās president at the time, to discuss the copy of Baggsā model.
āI broke my left hand very badlyāto the point where I couldnāt even make a fist for almost a year.ā
āI complimented him on the guitar,ā Baggs says, describing the meeting, āand said, āYou know, youāve done a really nice job. But Iām kinda hurt that you didnāt involve me in this in some way, and it does feel like youāve taken something from me. Donāt you feel like you owe me something?ā And he lowers his head and says, āYeah, we do. What do you want?ā
āI said, āWell, I build 10 guitars a year. I need to amplify my guitars; will you sell me 10 systems a year? And he said, āāSellā you? Ten systems a yearāthatās all you want?ā I said, āYep, thatās what I want. I know you donāt sell that system to anybody, but Iād like to be the guy.āāA photo of the guitarās inside reveals its key structural component: a piece of poplar plywood made up of a circular frame of the soundhole, suspended slightly under it by one top section that attaches to the neck joint and two diagonal sidebars that extend to the sides at the guitarās waist.
Hirade accepted the agreement and, shortly after, sent Baggs two of the Takamine pickup systems to start. With earnest curiosity, Baggs immediately set about reverse-engineering it, approaching the task with his knowledge of car mechanics but with no background in electronics. What he found inspired him to develop something a bit savvier, and soon the LB6 unitary saddle pickup was born.
Baggsā pickup, which, rather than an undersaddle design, also functions as the saddle, caught on quickly. Several country artists, along with Leo Kottke, were early adopters; Baggs jokes that they could tell where Kottke was on tour by which stores they would hear from when he was visiting. Then, one day, Baggs received a call from guitar manufacturer Robert Godin, who asked if he could use the LB6 in his models. Baggs had to develop a preamp firstāat the time, he didnāt know what that wasāand his next step was to design a new guitar.
Baggs elaborates, āI was trying to figure out how to sell more pickups, and I thought, āIāll just make an acoustic-electric guitar and put a pickup in it.ā So I bought a Telecaster body from a kit, hollowed the body out on my barbecue with a router, and put an acoustic top on it.ā
He also installed some kalimba-like metal rods inside, which, tuned to the main resonating frequencies of a Martin dreadnought, worked with the LB6 to simulate a heightened acoustic quality. The buildāBaggsā second ever acoustic-electricābecame Godinās Acousticaster.
L.R. Baggs AEG-1 Demo
Zach Wish demos the LR Baggs AEG-1. He explores its sonic options and talks about his experience with the guitar on the road with Seal.
But, back to the topic of the AEG-1, and the question posed at the beginning of this article: Why now?
āThe word āshouldā is a very interesting word,ā says Baggs, threatening to wax philosophical. āOn one hand, āshouldā should be a four-letter word. Because, it sort of denies reality, and people say, āOh, you should be this,ā or āYou should be that.ā Thatās bullshit. But on the other hand, āshouldā has this beautiful potential.
āOver the years since the Acousticaster, Iāve kept building,ā he continues. āNot building guitars for commercial absorption, but about every couple of years, I would build another acoustic-electric, trying to figure out how to make it sound like a nice guitar.ā
It would take a very thorough, deep dive down the rabbit hole to explain everything behind Baggsā approach to building guitars, but, in short, heās a devoted fanatic of acoustic physics. āWhen I built my first guitar, there was one book on building guitars, and the chapter on tone was three paragraphs long,ā he prefaces, laughing. In time, he took inspiration from his life as a cellist to pursue what has become a lifelong source of intrigue: studying violin Chladni patterns. His goal has been to harness the information from the symmetrical patterns, which show how a rigid surface vibrates, fluidly, when it's resonating, to improve acoustic guitar resonance. āI would say itās a fair statement that I was the first builder to start looking into Chladni patterns on a steel-string acoustic guitar,ā says Baggs. Now, builders like Andy Powers, Bryan Galloup, Giuliano Nicoletti, and others from around the world attend conferences on the subject, and acoustic physics in general.
The three variations on the AEG-1 in Baggsā catalog.
Since, Baggs says, āIāve continued to investigate guitar physics, Iāve continued to investigate Chladni patterns. Iāve gotten more scientific equipment on this thing now [holds up iPhone] than I had when I started looking at building.So, Iāve been trying to figure out how to make an acoustic-electric guitar that sounds really nice acoustically to begin with [before adding a pickup].ā
When Covid hit, Baggs found himself with ample free time, and was encouraged by his staff to try building another guitarāfor the first time since the late ā80s. His first attempt was to make somewhat of a redo of the Acousticaster, but the results were subparāat least by his own standards. Thinking the problem might be the air volume inside the shallower body, he took an old acoustic-electric, cut a big hole in the back of the body, and epoxied a ābig olā kitchen potā to add air volume. āDidnāt change the sound at all,ā he says.
To figure out where to go from there, Baggs drew inspiration from his earlier years as a builder. āI had this conversation with JosĆ© RamĆrez III in Germany in around 1990,ā he explains. āHe told me that on his top models, he made his sides a quarter-inch thick, like the rim of a drum. He said the more rigid your sides are, the better the guitarās gonna sound.ā Baggs states thatās because of one key fact: An acoustic guitarās back is an anchor for the neck, holding it straight in place. When the sides are more rigid, the back is freer to resonate.
He decided to experiment with that idea on āa little old China-made 000 guitar,ā reducing its depth by cutting it in half, adding wood around the inside of the rim āto make the edges totally rigid,ā and gluing it back together. āAnd son of a gun, if it didnāt sound really good! Thatās what led to this guitar.ā
A rear view of this natural finish AEG-1 reveals its bolt-on neck base and access panel.
On the AEG-1 product page on the L.R. Baggs website, a photo of the guitarās inside reveals its key structural component: a piece of poplar plywood made up of a circular frame of the soundhole, suspended slightly under it by one top section that attaches to the neck joint and two diagonal sidebars that extend to the sides at the guitarās waist. āItās all cut on a CNC machine; itās machined out like a bicycle part,ā Baggs explains. āSo, the neck is actually anchored to the sides of the guitar.ā (If you were wondering, thatās why it doesnāt matter that itās made of plywood. Poplar plywood for the structural component was also chosen for sustainability reasons.)
āYou know the second skin on the kick drum, the one that has the hole?ā Baggs continues. āItās very important how you tune that. And we discovered that most people like to tune the kick slightly below that of the main head, so it enhances the low frequencies.
āThen, āaha!ā Because the back wasnāt holding the neck anymore, we could do whatever we wanted with it. It was no longer a structural part of the guitar. It was the second skin on a kick drum. So, we just went nuts. That was it.ā
I tell Baggs, towards the end of our conversation, that his career trajectory reminds me a lot of the concept of divergent thinking: essentially, about drawing connections between ideas that seem disparate to other people. He says he relates to that idea.
āAnd that was the moment at which I said to myself, āThis is where I need to be. This is the future of acoustic guitars.āā
āIf it hasnāt been by inspiration, we just simply wonāt do it,ā he says, ābecause it has no power; it has no meaning; it has no heart. If itās just something to fill out a line item in the business ā¦ it does not have any authenticity because it doesnāt have any need. And I think that one of the reasons our companyās done so well is that weāve surrounded ourselves with really talented people. Honestly, I feel a lot like the village idiot most of the time,ā he says, laughing.
āI had one of the guys from my L.A. posse visit me yesterday,ā he shares. āWe were talking about creativity, and I remember saying to him that just about anything that anybody does thatās great doesnāt make any sense. Itās not contrived for a purpose like making money. Itās just something you have to do ā¦ like absorbing oxygen in your body. People that paint, people who do musicāweāre kind of freaks! People say, āOh, youāre so courageous to have started the business.ā Nah-ah,ā he says, emphatically. āI was not cut out for anything else! I would suffocate in a suit!āHereās what Bruce Springsteenās righthand man brings to the bandās stadium gigs.
In preparation for his cover story on Stevie Van Zandt, PGcontributor Mark Finkelpearl got a backstage tour of the E Street Bandās guitars at Baltimoreās Camden Yards before their September 13 show. Hereās a look at the gear that Van Zandt brings on tour.
Van Zandtās āNumber Oneā Strat is a vintage-style ā80s-built reissue with a purple paisley pickguard custom-made by Asbury Park luthier Dave Petillo. Van Zandt likes to keep a boost at his fingertips, so itās loaded with an Alembic Stratoblaster circuit.
Van Zandt takes six Rickenbackers on the road. Seen here are his two one-of-a-kind-finish Rickenbacker 1993Plus models in candy apple purple and SVZ blue, a fireglo, and his candy apple green Fab Gear 2024 Limited Edition ā60s Style 360. Also on hand is a fireglo 360/12C63, a gift from guitar dealer and collector Andy Babiuk to Van Zandt that stays in open E.
Next to āNumber Oneā is Stevieās Gretsch Tenessean with a custom Dave Petillo pickguard and a Vox Teardrop thatās on long-term loan from Andy Babiuk. In the background is a Petillo-customized Fender Jaguar.
Dave Petillo creates custom pickguards for many of Van Zandt's guitars. āThe pickguards that I build for Stevie are all clear acrylic plastic, just like Gretsch did in the old days,ā he says. āTheir pickguards were clear, and they would paint the underside. Itās the same process that I use for Stevieās Rickenbackers.ā The luthier hand draws the artwork using a computer, and then laser prints each design at a facility in North Carolina. He explains that no two Rickenbacker pickguards are ever drilled precisely the same way, so each finished guard must be custom-fitted.
However, Van Zandt's Rickenbacker Fab Gear 2023 Limited Edition ā60s Style 360 has a pickguard created by a dedicated fan who totally understands the vibe.
Tech Ben Newberry shows off Van Zandtās Soulfire guitar, custom built by Petillo, which the guitarist mostly uses in his Disciples of Soul band but will occasionally appear on E Street stages.
Van Zandt plays through two Vox AC30 amps housed off-stage at tech Ben Newberryās station, and a pair of Vox cabinets join him on stage.
Van Zandtās pedals are offstage, too, not at his feet. Stevie only gently colors his tone. He uses three Durham Electronics pedals: the Sex Drive, the Mucho Busto, and a Zia Drive. The guitarist learned about Durham pedals years back when he produced guitarists Charlie Sexton and Doyle Bramhall IIās Arc Angels record in 1992. Newberry explains that the Sex Drive is ābasically always on.ā
The pedalboard rounds out with an Ibanez Tube Screamer, a Boss Space Echo, a Boss TR-3 Tremolo, and a Boss Rotary Ensemble to simulate Leslie speaker sounds, and an Electro-Harmonix Satisfaction fuzz.
Just offstage, Newberry follows his pedal-switching script using a Voodoo Labs Ground Control Pro switcher to trigger Van Zandtās effects.
At home in the shop at Gibson USA, where DeCola is R&D manager and master luthier.
The respected builder and R&D manager has worked for the starsāEddie Van Halen, Paul McCartney, and othersāwhile keeping his feet on the ground, blending invention, innovation, and common-sense design.
As a teenager, DeCola fell in love with surfing, but growing up in Indiana ā¦ no ocean. So, skateboarding became his passion. When a surf park called Big Surfāreplete with rideable wavesāopened up near his sister, who he was visiting during spring break at Arizona State University, she treated him to a day at the man-made sea.
Jim DeCola paid for his first guitar with his nose.
āWhen the first wave came, it scooped us all up, and I was tumbling under and something hit me bad,ā he recounts. āSo, Iām in a daze, and my sister runs up to me and says, āOh my god, you have a bloody nose!āā When DeCola looked in the bathroom mirror, his nose was broken and the skin was split. The surf parkās medic sent him to a hospital. āWhatever the bill is, give it to us and weāll double it,ā DeCola recalls being told. āJust please donāt sue.ā When a check for $880 arrived, his mother suggested he use it to buy the electric guitar he was pining for. āI ended up with a Gibson SG, because George Harrison had one, but they didnāt have a cherry red one, so mine was ebony.ā He also got a Roland Cube practice amp because it had a master volume. āI still have both, and itās still a great little amp and a great guitar. And that,ā he says, āset me on my course.ā
Itās been an epic journey in guitar creation: from his apprenticeship at a Lansing, Illinois, shopāwhich led to a dramatic and well-chronicled bridge fix for Randy Rhoadsāto his years with Peavey, Fender, and now Gibson, where he is R&D manager and master luthier. DeCola blanches a bit at the master luthier title, observing that heād prefer, simply, āguitar guy,ā but thatās like calling a tiger a cat. DeCola is an apex builder. Instruments he designed are world-renowned and heās collaborated with an enviable list of greats that includes Eddie Van Halen, Paul McCartney, Slash, Adrian Vandenberg, Rudy Sarzo, Neil Schon, and Randy Jackson.
Jim DeCola at the Gibson USA offices in Nashville. He spearheaded the companyās current two-pronged product orientation, with original and modern instrument lines.
Photo by Ted Drozdowski
In the Beginningā¦
DeColaās family was musical. His dad played many instruments but trumpet was his main squeeze, and his older brother and sister exposed Jim to the Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, Cream, and other deities of the ā60s guitar-rock canon. Thus fueled, at 15, in his second year of wood shop, he decided to build a guitar. Inspired by a photo of Scorpionsā Matthias Jabs, he settled on an Explorer body shape. A friend who already played guitar detailed where the bridge needed to go and what parts were required, and DeCola reverse engineered from there. He even cut the pickguard from a sheet of gray smoke Mirrorplex. But despite two years of electronics classes, he opted to bring his creation to the Music Lab, that guitar shop in Lansing, where he was taking lessons, for the wiring.
āThe guy who did repairs wired it up for me, and when it was ready he called and said, āHey, I want to talk with you when you come in,ā ā DeCola recounts. āHe asked me to apprentice with him. It was learn while you earn, and while I did learn some stuff from him, really, I was wet sanding guitars and doing that kind of grunt work.ā DeCola was at Music Lab part-time for 18 months, and graduated from high school just as the tech left. The owners of the store asked Jim to take over, and, as Suetonius told Caesar, the die was cast.
In January ā82, a caller made DeCola think he was being prankedāuntil he became convinced it really was Randy Rhoads and Rudy Sarzoās tech Pete Morton. They explained that Bruce Bolen, then at Chicago Musical Instruments, had suggested him to fix Rhoads guitar in time for the nightās Ozzy Osbourne performance. DeCola grabbed his tools and drove through the snow for 50 miles to the Rosemont Horizon arena, where Rhoads was having trouble keeping the vibrato bridge on his polka-dot Sandoval custom V in tune. After a quick round of introductions, DeCola took apart the vibrato bridge and used a technique inspired by G&L guitars, deleting two of its bridgeās four screws and cutting a pivot with a V-file to countersink the bridge plate. Next, he was treated to a soundcheck of āMr. Crowleyā by Rhoads, Sarzo, and drummer Tommy Aldridge. As the opening act played, Rhoads asked DeCola to make the vibrato āa little slinkier,ā and he completed the mod just before Ozzyās downbeat. DeColaāstill in his teensāwas standing just off to the side when the iconic photo of Ozzy carrying Rhoads that appeared on the cover of the 1987-released Tributealbum was taken.
Six years later, DeCola received offers from Kahler and Peavey, and he opted to relocate to Meridian, Mississippi, to work with Hartley Peavey as his R&D tech. āI learned a lot,ā he reflects. āHartley was a great mentor. At any time, Iād have a stack of books and magazines, or just single pages ripped from magazines, a foot high on my desk, and heād expect me to read and give him a report on everything,ā says DeCola. āSometimes it was related to guitars, amps, and effects; sometimes it might be antique radios.ā After a few years, DeCola was promoted to supervisor of guitar engineering and began designing instruments. DeCola minted some of Peaveyās most lauded guitars, including the Tele-like Generation, with dual humbuckers, a mahogany body and neck, and a 5-way switch. That guitar gave the company a toehold in the country music market, but was also embraced by Steve Cropper and Dave Edmunds.
āWe looked at each other and said, āThe decade of the āsuperstratā is over.āā
Every Best Les Paul Sound
Another pivotal experience during his years at Peavey happened at a summer NAMM show in Chicagoās McCormick Place, when a celestial Les Paul tone suddenly emerged from the exhibition hallās PA system. āIt was āSweet Child Oā Mineā by Guns Nā Roses,ā says DeCola, āand weāre looking up thinking, āWho the hell is this?ā It was every best Les Paul sound wrapped up into one. We looked at each other and said, āThe decade of the āsuperstratā is over.ā And it really was.ā
That inspired DeCola to create the Les Paul-Tele-style hybrid Peavey Odyssey. He also worked with Adrian Vandenberg on set-neck and neck-through versions of the Dutch guitaristās signature models, and a host of other artistsāincluding Eddie Van Halen. Peaveyās artist relations head heard that Van Halen had a falling out with Ernie Ball Music Man and sensed opportunity. DeCola quickly made a prototype inspired by Eddieās EBMM signature model and took it to a gig in Florida, where the band was kicking off the Balance tour. āEddie rehearsed with it and said, āOkay, now I know you can do it; letās come up with a design.āā
During the development process, DeCola learned that Eddieās son Wolfgang had a birthday coming. So, as a gift for Wolfie, he decided to make a 3/4-size example of his signature concept for Eddie. Mid-build, Eddie made a surprise visit to Meridian. DeCola invited EVH into his office and showed him Wolfieās guitar.
āI thought this would be the direction weād use for your new model,ā DeCola explained. āHe said, āYeah, I love it! Just make it full size, then.ā And for the headstock, Eddie had done some napkin drawings in the hotel that were like Flying Vās, but smaller.ā That wouldnāt work, thanks to the U.S. Patent Office. More ideas were exchanged. DeCola was coincidentally working on a new build for himself at the time, with a three-to-a-side headstock. He painted that headstock black, and then sanded a scoop in its tip. And that was it. Eddie was happy. DeCola wanted to get a prototype into Van Halenās hands as quickly as possible, so when he found out the virtuoso was leaving Meridian the next day after lunch, he worked through the night.
āWhen he showed up the next morning at 11 a.m., I was just tuning it up,ā DeCola recalls. āIt was raw wood, but he played it and said, āThatās it.āā Thus, the Peavey EVH Wolfgang was born. āAfter that, the engineering took longer than making the guitar, because I had to do the blueprints and totally spec out everything,ā DeCola adds.
Another important encounter he had in Meridian was with the blues historian and record collector Gayle Dean Wardlow, noted for, among other things, finding the death certificate of Robert Johnson. After they met, DeCola started going to Wardlowās home weekly to talk about the roots of the genre heād begun studying as a young player, listen to rare old 78s, and absorb the techniques preserved in their shellac. That study paid off. Hearing DeCola play metal-bodied resonator guitar is a high-order experience, although he also sounds terrific rocking the hell out on a Les Paul. DeCola is humble about his playing, but, really, he doesnāt need to be. āItās a great release, and great therapy,ā he says.
DeColaās tenure at Peavey ran its course. āI was making P-90 and 12-string versions of existing guitars, a 12-string baritone ā¦ and they were turning my operation into a custom shop, which I didnāt want to do, because thatās just low-volume manufacturing. I wanted to stick with designing new stuff,ā he says. āI wanted a change. It was five years with a lot of pressure. I wasnāt getting credit for designing and building Eddie Van Halenās guitars. So, I went to Fender in Nashville, who had what they called the Custom Shop East at the time.ā
āMusicians and skaters have the same kind of soul, the same mindset,ā DeCola says. āIt is something you can do by yourself, as a form of expression, but when youāve got your crew and youāre skating, itās like being with your band.ā
Photo courtesy of Jim DeCola
āI came up with the idea of teaching people how to use things that every guitar player is going to have around the house for toolsācoins or picksāand MacGyver their instruments.ā
On to Gibson
There, he worked with Bruce Bolen and pickup guru Tim Shaw. But after Bolen retired in 2011 and Fender decided to close that Nashville location, DeCola found out about openings at Gibson and applied. In June, he was hired as master luthier.
āGibsonās been a great ride,ā DeCola attests. Although it hasnāt always been easy. When DeCola came onboard, the notoriously controlling, sometimes-volatile Henry Juszkiewicz was CEO. āIt was fine for me, because Henry respected me, but it was an environment where I felt I had to be measured in my responses,ā he says. There were also notorious design gaffes, like ārobot tunersā and the dreadful Firebird Xāboth pet projects of Juszkiewicz that almost literally no one else, especially customers, desired.
āI got blamed for some of that stuff, but I was just the messenger,ā DeCola says. But as James Curleigh and, now, Cesar Gueikian took over Gibsonās leadership, DeCola had an opportunity to proactively get his thoughts on the direction for the companyās products before more receptive CEOs.
āI made a bullet list and at one point had maybe 40 things on there, like going back to a thin binding on certain models and changing features,ā he relates. āBut my main message was, āGive the people what they want; weāre not here to dictate what people want.āā Many of DeColaās ideas were manifested in the roster of guitars at the Gibson display at NAMM 2019āinstruments that honored and built upon the companyās legacy. DeCola also had the idea of splitting Gibsonās model line into original and modern categories. āMy concept was, we have the original models, which weāre determined to improve, and the modern line where we could have locking tuners, push-pull pots, and blueberry burst finishesāfeatures that arenāt rooted in the golden years of the ā50s.ā
Gueikian embraced that practice for Gibson USA and the Custom Shop, and expanded it to the acoustic Custom Shop in Bozeman, Montana, and to the Mesa/Boogie amp line. But DeCola was already on the case with amplification. Before Curleigh stepped down, heād asked DeCola to look at Gibsonās amp line, and, again, DeCola looked back andforward at once. Inspired by his personal collection of vintage Gibson amps, he mapped out a new product line for 10-, 20-, and 40-watters. āI based my thinking off the greatest hits of those classic amps, and focused on the Falcon, because I have a ā62 Falcon, and when I looked into its history, the revelation was that it was the first amp with both reverb and tremolo,ā he says. āSo, I thought that would be a cool amp to make.ā Then Gibson bought Mesa/Boogie under Gueikianās stewardship, and the project went to that companyās Randall Smith, who created a stellar original design. Gibson unveiled the power-switching Falcon 5 (which won PGās coveted Premier Gear Award) and Falcon 20 in January 2024.
DeCola is skilled in every aspect of guitar building, including working in the spray shop, where he is seen here training the gun on a model year 2024 blueberry burst Les Paul Studio.
Photo courtesy of Gibson
Mr. Fix-It
While the profile of most people in the guitar industry went down during the pandemic, DeColaās went up thanks to a series of how-to videos he made for Gibsonās YouTube channel. They cover such topics as how to adjust action and pickup height, and how to do a proper setup. āI wanted to do something for the guitar community when things were shut down, so I came up with the idea of teaching people how to use things that every guitar player is going to have around the house for toolsācoins or picksāand MacGyver their instruments,ā he says. These videos have hundreds of thousands of views, and have given him a kind of celebrity status thatās rare among luthiers.
When asked what makes a great guitar, including the signature models heās worked on at Gibson for Paul McCartney, Slash, and others, DeCola talks about achieving a commonsense, holistic balance of design, materials, and craftsmanship. He adds that there is no shortage of fine instruments now available, and that, moving ahead, he sees the kind of balance between tradition and invention that he has promoted at Gibson remaining its norm. āThere are a lot of boutique builders and trends like 7- and 8-string guitars, fanned frets, and different scale lengths today,ā he notes. āSome of it can be cyclical. There was a period in the ā80s and ā90s, for example, when a lot of people were adopting 7-strings, and now I see a lot of them again.
āGibson was built on innovation,ā he continues. āOrville Gibson, our founder, got his first patent creating a mandolin built completely different than other mandolins. Prior to that, they were typically gourd instruments, but he applied the carved back and top method from the violin and cello. And with the jazz-box electric guitars, there were so many Gibson innovations, like the adjustable neck and bridge, the humbucking pickupā¦. But because weāre a legacy company, we have to tread a bit lighter on some of the innovation, which our previous leadership was too forward on, with features the market wasnāt ready for. But in defense of that, Iāll go back to our heritage instruments. The Flying V and Explorer were all designed out of the space race, but initially commercial flopsātoo ahead of their time. So thatās why I wanted to split the model lineāso we have the latitude to come up with some new things, but can still honor whatās expected of Gibson. Right now, weāre looking at some innovation in electronics and other features we will be bringing to the market.ā
Now in his early 60s, DeCola is also still working on his skateboard moves. He tries to get to Nashvilleās municipal Two Rivers Skatepark and Rocketown once a week. There, heās found a coterie of fellow veteran skatersāmany of whom are also in the music business, as players, producers, and engineers. āIād say musicians and skaters have the same kind of soul, the same mindset,ā he says. āIt is something you can do by yourself, as a form of expression, but when youāve got your crew and youāre skating, itās like being with your band. Itās even more fun, and it inspires you. It can make you better.āDeCola performs a neck adjustment on an ES-335.
Photo courtesy of Gibson