All Them Witches’ Ben McLeod

Whether it’s in the studio or on the road, guitarist Ben McLeod travels light and lean when the band tours. He only brings two guitars and neither one of them are backups for the other. His main squeeze is a Les Paul Traditional that he’s modded by replacing the plastic nut with one made of bone—he says it not only helps with intonation but gives the guitar a silkier sound—and swapped out the LP’s stock Classic ’57 humbucker for a DiMarzio Super Distortion. He landed on that particular pickup after he dressed up as The Sword’s guitarist Kyle Shutt for a Halloween show and used Kyle’s guitar. He was so impressed with it that after the show Kyle’s tech gave Ben a spare Super Distortion for his Traditional. A final aesthetic tweak to his guitar was the removal of its pickguard because he is such a big fan of Duane Allman and he didn’t feel like covering up the full burst anymore. This particular 6-string uses a set of DR Strings Pure Blues (.010–.046) and is typically tuned to drop C. Learn more about this guitar and his whole setup in our Rig Rundown.