As the leaves change and the holiday season approaches, PG contributor Tom Butwin highlights standout pedals from the bevy of tone machines that graced shelves this year. In his first installment of Pedalmania, hear demos of the flexible Keeley Manis Overdrive, Mr. Black's DoubleTracker Stereo, the spacey new Hotone Verbera convolution reverb, and the featured-packed NUX Amp Academy Stomp.
In December of last year, Tony Rice passed away. He was/is my all-time favorite guitarist. Like many of his fans, my love of his playing has likely transcended obsession. In fact, at the time of writing this, I have transcribed over 100 Tony Rice solos. That puts me in a unique position to share with you not only my favorite Tony Rice licks but what I think might be Rice's favorite licks, if the frequency with which he played them is any indication.
These examples can be found in almost every Tony Rice break. They are integral to his sound and they can become part of your sound too. This comes with one small warning though: These licks are not meant to be parroted off this page. A big hallmark of this sound is to use these phrases but to vary them, and create your own versions of them. Let's remember Rice by innovating on his past achievements the same way he innovated on the achievements of the players that came before him.
How to End a Bluegrass Song
One of the most famous and enduring Tony Rice licks is this signature tag. A tag is a common way to end a bluegrass fiddle tune or vocal song, the most generic tag being the ubiquitous "shave and a haircut." In Ex.1, you can see what's called a "double" tag. The first tag ends on beat 3 of measure two, before the open 3rd string on beat 3. The remainder of the lick forms the second tag, which eventually morphs into a variation of the Lester Flatt "G run."
Rice's note choice is predominantly major pentatonic but includes an occasional b3 that always resolve down to the 2 or up to the 3. As I say to my students, "Blue notes need buddies." Playing these pairs of notes with articulations like slides and pull-offs that cross bar lines is an important part of Rice's style.
Tony Rice Ex. 1
Use Your Chords
If you're familiar with triads on the D, G, and B strings, you can turn those into bluegrass licks as well. Rice has used the triads in Ex. 2 in a handful of different and interesting ways. He's used the last two chord shapes to form the main riff for "Me and My Guitar," and employed those same shapes to punctuate the end of his "Cold on the Shoulder" kick-off. Sometimes you can see him expand this idea by using even more chord shapes to descend the neck. He would use something like Ex. 2 in a G major context but would be heavily implying G Mixolydian mode by using the F major and D minor triads.
Tony Rice Ex. 2
That One Lick
I've seen this passage referred to multiple times as "that one Tony Rice lick." He uses variations of this passage to finish breaks in "Your Love Is Like a Flower," "Ain't Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone," and "Gold Rush." It serves the function of a statement piece to assert his personal voice on the instrument before handing off the spotlight to the next instrumental break or verse of a song with vocals.
As you play Ex. 3 be mindful of how you use your pinky. Every note on the 10th fret is played with the pinky, including a brief pinky barre on the 10th fret of the 3rd and 4th strings.
Tony Rice Ex. 3
Pull-Off Central
This lick has been featured in recordings, but I associate it much more with Rice's live sound. Whenever Rice needs a second to think about what to play next, Ex. 4 seems to come to his fingers first. The note choice here lands firmly in the minor pentatonic camp but he manages to create a little bit of an outside sound with the third iteration of the pattern that brings in the b5 at the 6th fret of the G string.
Tony Rice Ex. 4
Escape Notes
Have you ever been stuck up the neck improvising with no idea how to get back down to something more familiar? Me too! So, let me introduce you to escape notes. Sometimes you can find an open string that will continue your line in a linear fashion while freeing up your hand to shift down the neck. Take a look at the F, E, and D eighth-notes in the first measure of Ex. 5. Rather than playing those three notes in position, Rice is using the open 1st string so he has time to shift his hand while continuing his eighth-note line.
There are examples of Rice using variations of licks like this in "Blue Railroad Train," "A Hundred Years from Now," and "Likes of Me." You can use this in a D major context or in a G major context over a D chord.
Tony Rice Ex. 5
Acoustic Bends
It can be done, and in a situation like this we're not necessarily shooting for something perfectly in tune. In Ex. 6 you can see that pulling down on the 4th string at the 3rd fret will bring the note closer to F#, the 3 of the chord, but in practice Rice usually doesn't get all the way there.
Tony Rice Ex. 6
Phrasing
If you asked a random flatpicker at a bluegrass festival to play a Tony Rice lick, they would probably play something like Ex. 7. These types of phrases have endless variations and demonstrate Rice's long-standing influence on bluegrass music. These licks are built from a G minor pentatonic (G–Bb–C–D–F) bone structure but always feature a pull-off from the 2nd fret to the 1st fret on the B string and a slide from 3rd to 4th fret on the G string. This pull-off and slide are great reminders that blue notes need buddies.
Tony Rice Ex. 7
True Minor
Bluegrass isn't all major tunes though. There are standards in minor keys. We're talking about tunes that are actually minor—not just playing minor pentatonic licks over major chords. With that in mind, it would be wrong of me to not mention Ex. 8, one of Rice's favorite improvisational ideas to employ over minor tunes. This kind of lick is all over Rice's original compositions in minor keys and the recordings he made with David Grisman. The idea is framed in a slightly ambiguous way, so you can find Rice using it in A minor and D minor.
Tony Rice Ex. 8
It's an impossible task to completely distill Tony Rice's playing into a single lesson. I would point you to nearly any album in his discography to get the essence of modern bluegrass guitar right from the source. His touch, feel, tone, and vibe forever changed acoustic music and we all will be eternally grateful.
Essential Tony Rice Videos
Tony Rice liked to perform "Me and My Guitar" with an extended jam in the middle. Many licks from this lesson appear in his guitar break at 6:00.
Tony Rice's "Church Street Blues"
There's very little footage of Tony Rice performing his iconic interpretation of Norman Blake's "Church Street Blues." This arrangement may be one of the most difficult to replicate from Rice's catalogue.
Tony Rice's "Old Home Place"
Tony Rice performs on the definitive recordings of multiple bluegrass standards but "Old Home Place" may be the most important. JD Crowe & The New South's self-titled release is considered by many to be a near perfect bluegrass record.
Tony Rice "Shenandoah"
Most folks talk about Tony Rice's hot-style playing but his melodic chord melody approach to guitar is equally impressive. I doubt we'll ever see an accurate transcription or performance of this era of Tony Rice.
Barrows pays homage to the iconic MKII circuit while adding modern refinements that would make even the most discerning vintage purist weep tears of harmonic joy. At its heart, Barrows features a trio of carefully matched germanium transistors nestled within finely tuned circuitry that has been lovingly coaxed to produce everything from light, singing distortion to crushing fuzz tones with nearly infinite harmonic-rich sustain.
The original MKII circuit was the secret weapon behind some of the most crushing riffs ever committed to tape. From dawn-of-metal caveman dirges to the wall-of-sound symphonies conjured by the highest tiers of shoegaze sorcerers, this legendary topology has been the foundation of countless sonic monuments. Now, with Barrows, you can channel that same lightning-in-a-bottle magic while enjoying the reliability and versatility that modern craftsmanship provides.
At its heart, Barrows features a trio of carefully matched germanium transistors nestled within finely tuned circuitry that has been lovingly coaxed to produce everything from light, singing distortion to crushing fuzz tones with nearly infinite harmonic-rich sustain. This isn’t just another fuzz box – it’s a portal to the fabled tones that have haunted the dreams of fuzz fanatics for decades.
Barrows delivers the signature cutting mid-focused tones with plenty of low-end authority and brilliant top-end grind that made the original MKII a studio legend. But unlike its temperamental ancestors, Barrows includes several modern upgrades that transform it from a vintage curiosity into a contemporary powerhouse.
The phase-corrected and buffered output ensures it plays nice with other pedals down the line, while the increased output volume and wide range of fuzz tones make it a versatile sonic weapon. All this power is packed into a compact footprint that saves precious real estate on your pedalboard, because every square inch matters when you’re building your sonic arsenal.
Gone are the days of finicky positive ground power requirements and battery-only operation. Barrows runs on standard 9V power supplies, making it compatible with any common pedalboard power source. The true bypass switching ensures your signal remains pristine when the pedal is disengaged, while the MKII circuit works its germanium magic when called upon.
Each Barrows is lovingly assembled by shrimply the best helmspeople (and one obedient robot) on the high seas of Akron, Ohio, USA.
Tech Specs:
Vintage three-transistor germanium fuzz circuit that is based on the Tone Bender MkII.
Cutting, mid-range focused tones with loads of sustain and volume.
Very responsive to playing dynamics and guitar volume control.
Small form factor will fit on even the most cramped pedal boards.
Two purpose-voiced delay lines that can run in parallel or interact in a true cascade. Built to transform delay from a passing effect to a core element, shaping time, sculpting space, and unlocking textures never heard before.
RhPf Electronics has introduced the Twin Peaks Eiger-Mönch, a dual-delay pedal that reimagines how guitarists use time-based effects. No tap-tempo divisions or glitch tricks; instead, two distinct voices interact in musical and inspiring ways. One line is bright and articulate, the other warm and lush. Each has its own Rate and Repeats controls so players can shape complementary echoes that blend or collide.
Twin Peaks Eiger-Mönch highlights include:
Two distinct voices: warm and lush, plus bright and articulate. Each with independent Rate and Repeats.
Parallel mode: wide, layered echoes that stay open and defined; stereo-like depth from a mono rig.
Cascade mode: true cross-feedback so each line feeds the other; repeats intertwine and evolve into living textures.
Designed to stay on: from subtle ambience and slapback to dub-style syncopation, always mix friendly.
Musical feedback range: carefully tuned to avoid runaway oscillation and gimmicks.
Like every RhPf pedal, Twin Peaks Eiger-Mönch is not a clone, a mod, or a tweak. It is an original circuit designed from the ground up to be a constant companion that can become part of a player’s signature sound.
The Twin Peaks Eiger-Mönch carries a street price of $190 and is available now at select retailers and directly from RhPf Electronics.
A trio of verbs: (l-r) EMT 250, Lexicon 224, and EMT 140
Reverb is one of the most powerful colors in our palette. We all know that moment when you feel the need to add some to your tracks—whether you’re recording and looking for an inspiring new dimension, or you’re mixing and require that extra touch of spatial magic. But why are there so many options? With literally hundreds of convolution, algorithmic, plate, and spring reverbs out there, it’s easy to feel an overwhelming sense of anxiety. Knowing the differences between types of reverbs and why certain units have become legendary can significantly elevate your recordings and mixes. Tighten your belts, the Dojo is now open.
The Starting Point
I’m going to sidestep the deeply fascinating and well-researched physics and psychoacoustics behind the phenomena of reverb. Instead, we’ll focus on practical strategies for how to choose the right one (plate, spring, algorithmic or convolution), and why some types are more prized than others.
Unless you’re situated in an anechoic chamber or an open field, every environment, from a hall closet to a canyon, has reverberant properties. But before the advent of reverb chambers and plate reverbs, it was a fixed byproduct of the space where the recording took place—think of the 1961 concert document, Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall, for example. Not all concert halls lent themselves to studio quality recordings, though, especially for genres of music other than classical or opera.
After 1947, the only way to add artificial reverb was to employ a chamber—literally, a specially built room with a speaker and microphone(s). Recording studios started to develop their own echo chambers that gave a unique sonic fingerprint to the recordings, and we still prize certain studios—Abbey Road, Ocean Way, Blackbird, Motown, Sound City— for their chambers, many of which are now available in the forms of plugins.
All that began to change in 1957, in Berlin, with the advent of the EMT 140 plate reverb. EMT’s solution was brilliant: suspend a large sheet of steel under tension, feed sound into it through a transducer, and capture the shimmering decay with contact mics. The EMT 140 gave engineers long, smooth tails that felt lush without overwhelming the source. Vocals in particular took on a glow that instantly elevated a mix. That unmistakable “plate vocal sound” defined the recordings of countless artists, from Frank Sinatra to the Beatles to Jimi Hendrix to Pink Floyd. Even today, plug-in makers such as Universal Audio, Waves, and Arturia are still chasing that magic, and multiple original units are still widely used by world-class studios.
“Unless you’re situated in an anechoic chamber or an open field, every environment, from a hall closet to a canyon, has reverberant properties.”
Fast forward to 1976, and EMT again pushed things forward with the EMT 250, the first commercially available digital reverb—for the princely price of $20,000 (over $114,000 today). Only 250 units—a mini refrigerator-sized machine with controls that looked like they came off the dashboard of a spaceship—were produced. What made the EMT 250 special wasn’t just its novelty, but the way its algorithms shaped reflections. It had a character all its own: warm, slightly grainy, and wonderfully musical. Almost a proto mutli-effects processor, it didn’t try to mimic reality so much as create a believable illusion of space, and it did so with a tremendous personality. (The EMT 250 is currently available from Universal Audio as a plug-in for $249 street.)
Meanwhile, across the ocean in Massachusetts, Lexicon was hard at work refining digital reverberation. The Lexicon 224 (1978) was half the price of the EMT 250 and boasted a reverb range of 0.6 to 70 seconds. It also offered the first flexible and convincing Concert Hall, Chamber, Room, Plate, Rich Plate, and Inverse algorithms. It was the studio reverb of choice until the 480L(1986) which, with its updated signal processing power, became thestudio staple—and for good reason. Chances are it’s the main big reverb on classic U2, Talking Heads, Rush, Prince, and Peter Gabriel records. The 480L’s algorithms remain benchmarks: dense, lush, and capable of everything from subtle ambience to stadium-like grandeur. Even today, if you walk into a top-tier studio, odds are a 480L is still patched in.
I encourage you to set aside some time and get to know the differences between these four classic verbs, before we move on to another set in the next installment. They are all available in plugin format with fully functional trial periods. I’ll share my favorite reverbs in order of preference and application next month. Until then, namaste.
