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All-Star Pedalboards 2017

From classic-rock simplicity to indie-tweaker’s delight: Premier Guitar chronicles the most noteworthy stomp stations from last year’s Rig Rundowns.

Bloc Party
Guitar tech Leif Bodnarchuk says the simplest way to explain guitarist Russell Lissack’s pedal rig is that it contains two loops. Some of the pedals are dedicated to loop A, some are dedicated to loop B, and some float between both. The whole array is heavy on Boss products (13+), but also features Electro-Harmonix stomps (a Deluxe Memory Man, a POG, and a Superego), an Eventide PitchFactor, a clone of a vintage Roland BeeBaa fuzz, and a Line 6 M5. The “brain” (the black box in the middle of the array) was made by Steve Crow from Audio Kitchen in London, and is basically an amped-up A/B switcher with dual outputs, a panic switch, a mute function, and a big red footswitch that moves the signal between loop A and loop B. The pedals rest on several Pedaltrain boards and are powered by Truetone 1 Spot CS7 power supplies.

Here’s how 21 killer players from the past year of Rig Rundowns—including Justin Chancellor, Zakk Wylde, MonoNeon, Carmen Vandenberg, Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell, and Grace Bowers—use stomps to take their sounds outside the box.


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This Japan-made Guyatone brings back memories of hitchin’ rides around the U.S.

This oddball vintage Guyatone has a streak of Jack Kerouac’s adventurous, thumbing spirit.

The other day, I saw something I hadn’t noticed in quite some time. Driving home from work, I saw an interesting-looking fellow hitchhiking. When I was a kid, “hitchers” seemed much more common, but, then again, the world didn’t seem as dangerous as today. Heck, I can remember hitching to my uncle’s cabin in Bradford, Pennsylvania—home of Zippo lighters—and riding almost 200 miles while I sat in a spare tire in the open bed of a pickup truck! Yes, safety wasn’t a big concern for kids back in the day.

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There's a lot of musical gold inside the scales.

Intermediate

Intermediate

• Develop a deeper improvisational vocabulary.

• Combine pentatonic scales to create new colors.

• Understand the beauty of diatonic harmony.
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Improvising over one chord for long stretches of time can be a musician's best friend or worst nightmare. With no harmonic variation, we are left to generate interest through our lines, phrasing, and creativity. When I started learning to improvise, a minor 7 chord and a Dorian mode were the only sounds that I wanted to hear at the time. I found it tremendously helpful to have the harmony stay in one spot while I mined for new ideas to play. Playing over a static chord was crucial in developing my sense of time and phrasing.

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Building upon the foundation of the beloved Core Collection H-535, this versatile instrument is designed to serve as a masterpiece in tone.

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