The big-hit producer (Taylor Swift, Green Day, Weezer) and guitarist opens his RubyRed Productions to catalog his custom creations from the West and Far East. Plus, he reveals how Keith Urban forever changed his guitar-playing world.
Facing a mandatory shelter-in ordinance to limit the spread of COVID-19, PG enacted a hybrid approach to filming and producing Rig Rundowns. This is the 13th video in that format, and we stand behind the final product.
Butch Walker canāt be pinned down by sweeping generalizations. He grew up in rural, small-town Georgia, but his love for ā80s glam metal took him out west. He produces some of the biggest radio-friendly hitmakers (Taylor Swift, Green Day, Fall Out Boy, P!nk, Rob Thomas, Adam Lambert, and Keith Urban), but his own indie-songwriter music focuses on colorful storytelling and significant substance. He appreciates and owns vintage gear, but heās not a museum-piece collector and one of his favorite tools is a digital Line 6 HX Stomp. His brand-new album American Love Story is a sonic homage to his youth centered around the hooks and melodies showering the airwaves in 1979 (think lively Toto crossed with the Police shimmer), but the lyrics are a cutting dissection of society and life in the 21st century.
Following the release of his ninth studio album in May 2020, the straight-shooting artist welcomed PGās Chris Kies into his studio, RubyRed Productions. The ācluelessā gear dork chats about embracing happy accidents from incorrect custom-instrument commissions, designing a one-off triple-humbucker, ES-335 killer with the Yamaha Custom Shop, gravitating towards a purring EL34 Bad Cat, and giving praise to Keith Urban for pick advice.
While RubyRed Productions in Santa Monica has a superb stash of gear, for the Rig Rundown, songwriter-guitarist-producer Butch Walker gathered these 6-string sweethearts that he uses to create on a daily basis.
(Far left) Butchās newest tool in the chest is this Taylor 517e Grand Pacific Builderās Edition V-Class finished in a wild honey burst. The round-shoulder dreadnought features Taylorās new V-Class bracing designed by PG contributor Andy Powers, torrefied Sitka spruce top, and tropical mahogany back and sides decked out with sapele binding. Butch bonded with it because of its unique, pronounced midrange voice. He says in the Rundown its natural mid-heavy voice lets it potently sit in the mix even among full instrumentation from drums, bass, and electrics.
To its right, Butch has a Japanese-made Yamaha LL56 Custom ARE (an updated, evolved continuation of the companyās LL53 favored by John Denver). Butch loves its beefier voice that works well accentuating electric parts for a wider sound.
The last of three acoustics is one of his oldest flattops, but itās had a complete makeover to give a second life. From a glance, it appears to be a vintage 1960s Harmony Sovereign completely overhauled, upgraded, and rebuilt by luthier Scott Baxendale. He disassembles the instrument piece by piece and starts from scratch (including reconstructing the bracing into his own formula of scalloped X-bracing heavily influenced in his 30 years of specializing in pre-war Martins). The ānewā instrument has its original tonewoods is original, but thatās it. The rest is reformed by way of Baxendaleās expertise and attention to detail. Butchās opinion on its resurrection: āit plays and sounds like butter.ā
The far-left electric is a 1972 GibsonĀ Les Paul Custom he bought from Normanās Rare Guitars. Itās his only Les Paul in California and the guitar only had one previous owner before Butchā illustrious studio-and-stage guitarist Jimmy Stewart (not the guy from Itās a Wonderful Life). Stewart put that Custom to good and featured it on over 1,200 recordings, worked prominently alongside GĆ”bor Szabó, added guitar to Broadway productions (West Side Story, Bye Bye Birdie, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) and TV (The Mike Douglas Show and The Tonight Show) and authored Guitar Playerās āThe Complete Musicianā column from 1971-1981. Youāll see Stewart added some mini toggles to open up the pickups for even more tonal options by splitting/isolating coils.
Next one on the right is a custom, one-off triple-humbucker Yamaha SA2200 semi-hollow loaded with Lollar pickups. Walker went mad scientist on the normal SA2200 layout and requested that it have a master volume (moved that to where the original pickup selector was) and master tone (normally each pickup has its own independent controls). He used the allocated cavity space to add mini toggles to split the humbuckersā coils, and moved the pickup selector to the pickguard.
Another new friend to the collection is a 2020 Ernie Ball Sabre with a honey suckle burst. Butch has really enjoyed playing and recording with this double-hum guitar because itās āspanky, spongy, has a pleasing top-end clarity, and can still bite for solos or rocking.ā
Last up is a Fender Custom Shop Telecaster Custom that screams Andy Summers and Joe Walsh. Butch had put in an order to the heralded custom shop for a Telecaster. The wrong guitar (the sunburst Tele Custom) showed up, but before letting Fender know their error, he plugged it in. Game overāhe wasnāt parting ways with this stud so he cancelled the other order with Fender and has rocked with this one ever since.
All of Butchās electrics take Ernie Ball Power Slinkys (.011ā.048) and he bashes away with Herco HE211P Flex 75 1.01 mm.
Three of these were in the previous frame except for the shedding Strat in the middle-right position. Itās a Fender Custom Shop 1960 Stratocaster Relic Shoreline Gold over 3-Color Sunburst Frankensteinād with a ā69 reverse headstock, left-handed neck, and beefed up with a pair of Fender ShawBuckers.
For the Rundown and most of his recent L.A.-based sessions, Butch has turned to this Bad Cat Cub IV 40R. He likes its single-channel platform, tonal flexibility (toggle or footswitch between 12AX7 or EF86 preamp sections) paired with sparkly, robust EL34-voiced flavorings.
Enhancing the versatility of the Bad Cat IV 40R is the above Universal Audio Ox Box. (For the Rundown, we heard a direct sound with an emulation of a custom 2x12 cabinet loaded with alnico 50-watt speakers. The mics he chose were approximations of a Beyerdynamic M 160 ribbon, Neumann U67 diaphragm, a blended-in room mic with a 1176 compressor tightening up everything.)
His real-deal pedalboard is host to a TC Electronic PolyTune, JHS Pedals Pulp 'n' Peel, his signature JHS Ruby Red Signature 2-in-1 Overdrive/Fuzz/Boost, Way Huge Conspiracy Theory, MXR Echoplex Delay, MXR Stereo Chorus, MXR Reverb, MXR Carbon Copy, and an Audio Sprockets ToneDexter (for acoustic DI/preamp). Beneath the board, the MXR Iso-Brick brings everything to life.
For quick gigs, sit-in sessions, or fly gigs, Butch will rely on this simple stomp station compromised of a Line 6 HX Stomp, his signature JHS Ruby Red Signature 2-in-1, and a TC Electronic Polytune Noir Mini 2. In the middle rests a Disaster Area DMC.micro MIDI controller while to the right you see a Line 6 G10S Wireless System and a Dunlop DVP4 Volume (X) Mini.
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Small spring, big splashāa pedal reverb that oozes surfy ambience and authenticity.
A vintage-cool sonic alternative to bigger tube-driven tanks and digital springs that emulate them.
Susceptible to vibration.
$199
Danelectro Spring King Junior
danelectro.com
Few pedal effects were transformed, enhanced, and reimagined by fast digital processors quite like reverb. This humble effectāreadily available in your local parking garage or empty basketball gymnasium for freeāevolved from organic sound phenomena to a very unnatural one. But while digital processing yields excellent reverb sounds of every type and style, Iād argue that the humble spring reverb still rules in its mechanical form.
Danelectroās Spring King Junior, an evolution of the companyās Spring King from the āaughts, is as mechanical as they come. It doesnāt feature a dwell control or the huge, haunted personality of a Fender Reverb unit. But the Spring King Junior has a vintage accent and personality and doesnāt cost as much as a whole amplifier like a Fender Reverb or reverb-equipped combo does. But itās easy to imagine making awesome records and setting deep stage moods with this unit, especially if 1950s and 1960s atmospheres are the aim.
Looking Past Little
Size factors significantly into the way a spring reverb sounds. And while certain small spring tanks sound coolāthe Roland RE-201 Space Echoās small spring reverb for oneāitās plain hard to reproduce the clank and splash from a 17" Fender tank with springs a fraction of that length. Using three springs less than 3 1/2" long, the Accutronics/Belton BMN3AB3E module that powers the Spring King Junior is probably not what you want in a knife fight with Dick Dale. Even so, it imparts real character that splits the difference between lo-fi and garage-y and long-tank expansiveness.
In very practical and objective terms, the Danelectro canāt approach a Fender Reverbās size and cavernousness. Matching the intensity of the Spring King Juniorās maximum reverb and tone settings to my own Fender Reverbās means keeping dwell, mix, and tone controls between 25 to 30 percent of their max. Depending on your tastes, that might be a useful limitation. If youāve used a Fender Reverb unit before, you know they can sound fantastically extreme. Itās overkill for a lot of folks, and the Spring King Junior inhabits spaces that donāt overpower a guitar or amplifierās essence. Many players will find the Spring King Junior simply easier to manage and control.
There are ways to add size to the Spring King Juniorās output. An upstream, edgy clean boost will do much to puff up the Danelectroās profile next to a Fender. The approach comes with risk: Too much drive excites certain frequencies to the point of feedback. But the Juniorās mellower sounds are abundant and interesting. Darker reverb tones sound awesome, and combined with modest reverb mixes they add a spooky aura to melancholy soul and spartan semi-hollow jazz phrasingsāall in shades mostly distinct from Fender units.
Watch Your Step!
Spring reverbs come with operational challenges that you wonāt experience in a digital emulation. And though the Spring King Junior is well built, its relative slightness compounds some of those challenges. The spring module, for instance, is affixed to the Spring King Juniorās back panel with two pieces of foam tape. And while kicking a spring reverb to punctuate a dub mix or surf epic is a gas, the Spring King Junior can be susceptible to less intentional applications of this effect. At extra-loud volumes, the unit picks up vibrations from the amplifierās output when amp and effect are in tight proximity. And sometimes, merely clicking the bypass switch elicits an echo-y āclankā. This doesnāt happen in every performance setting. But itās worth considering settings where youāll use the Spring King Junior and how loud and vibration-resistant those spaces will be.
Though the Spring King Juniorās size makes it susceptible to vibration, many related ghost tonesātaken in the right measureāare a cool and essential part of its voice. Itās an idiosyncratic effect, so evaluating its compatibility with specific instruments, amps, studio environments, and performance settings is a good idea. But for those that do find a place for the Spring King Junior, its combination of tone color, compact size, and hazy 1960s ambience could be a deep well of inspiration.
PGāsJohn Bohlinger caught up with Moak at his Nashville studio known affectionately as the Smoakstack.
Grammy-nominated session guitarist, producer, mixer, and engineer Paul Moak stays busy on multiple fronts. Over the years heās written, played, produced and more for TV sessions (Pretty Little Liars, One Tree Hill) and artists including Third Day, Leeland, and the Blind Boys of Alabama. But most recently heās worked with Heart and Ann Wilson and Tripsitter.
Time Traveler
Moak is most loyal to a 1963 Stratocaster body thatās mated to a 1980s-vintage, 3-bolt, maple, bullet-truss-rod, 1969-style Fender Japan neck. The bridge has been swapped as many as four times and the bridge and neck pickups are Lindy Fralins.
Cool Cat
If thereās one guitar Moak would grab in a fire, itās the Jaguar heās had since age 20 and used in his band DC Talk. When Moak bought the guitar at Music Go Round in Minneapolis, the olympic white finish was almost perfect. He remains impressed with the breadth of tones. He likes the low-output single-coils for use with more expansive reverb effects.
Mystery Message Les Paul
Moakās 1970 L.P. Custom has a number of 1969 parts. It was traded to Moak by the band Feel. Interestingly, the back is carved with the words ācheatā and āliar,ā telling a tale we can only speculate about.
Dad Rocker
Almost equally near and dear to Moakās heart is this 1968 Vox Folk Twelve that belonged to his father. It has the original magnetic pickup at the neck as well as a piezo installed by Moak.
Flexi Plexis
This rare and precious trio of plexis can be routed in mix-and-match fashion to any of Moakās extensive selection of cabsāall of which are miked and ready to roll.
Vintage Voices
Moakās amps skew British, but ā60s Fender tone is here in plentitude courtesy of a blonde-and-oxblood Bassman and 1965 Bandmaster as well as a 2x6L6 Slivertone 1484 Twin Twelve.
Guess What?
The H-Zog, which is the second version of Canadian amp builder Garnetās Herzog tube-driven overdrive, can work as an overdrive or an amp head, but itās probably most famous for Randy Bachmanās fuzzy-as-heck āAmerican Womanā tone.
Stomp Staff
While the Eventide H90 that helps anchor Moakās pedalboard can handle the job of many pedals, he may have more amp heads on hand than stompboxes. But essentials include a JHS Pulp āNā Peel compressor/preamp, a DigiTech Whammy II, DigiTech FreqOut natural feedback generator, a Pete Cornish SS-3 drive, Klon Centaur, and Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man.
PG Contributor Tom Butwin dives into three standout baritone guitars, each with its own approach to low-end power and playability. From PRS, Reverend, and Airline, these guitars offer different scale lengths, pickup configurations, and unique tonal options. Which one fits your style best? Watch and find out!
Reverend Descent W Baritone Electric Guitar - Transparent White
Descent W Trans WhiteFeaturing authentic tape behavior controls and full MIDI implementation, the EC-1 is a premium addition to any guitarist's setup.
Strymon Engineering, the Los Angeles-based company behind premium products for the guitar, plugin, and Eurorack markets, announced a new single-head tape echo pedal in their newer small format today, called the EC-1. Initially based around the award-winning dTape algorithm that helped to make the El Capistan pedal an industry titan, development took a different turn when Strymon acquired an immaculate and heavily modified tube EchoplexĀ® EP-2. The new true stereo pedal features two models of the EP-2ās tube preamp with variable gain, as well as a three-position Record Level switch that allows for additional gain control. Glitchless tap tempo allows tapping in new tempos without tape artifacts, and the Tape Age and Mechanics controls modify a large number of parameters under the hood to deliver authentic tape behavior at any setting. Other features include TRS stereo Ins and Outs, full MIDI implementation, TRS MIDI, arear-panel audio routing switch, USB-C and 300 presets. Being true stereo, the EC-1 processes the left and right inputs independently, allowing it to be placed anywhere in the signal chain.
āWe decided to start the project by investigating the preamps from tube echo units, so I bought an original EchoplexĀ® EP-2 to begin the processā, said Gregg Stock, Strymon CEO and analog circuit guru. āIt showed up in pristine condition and sounded amazing, and we found out later that it had been heavily modified by storied guitar tech Cesar Diaz. His mods created a single unit with the best attributes of both tube and solid-state Echoplexes, so we spent a bunch of time figuring out how to recreate its behavior.ā Pete Celi, Strymon co-founder, and DSP maven said āIt was so clean and mechanically stable that other nuances stood out more prominently -chief among them being some capstan-induced variations that help to widen the spectrum of the repeats. With the Mechanics control at around 1 pm, you get a hyper-authentic representation of that golden EP-2 unit, with a high-speed flutter that adds dimension to the echoes.ā
EC-1 is available now directly from Strymon and from dealers worldwide for $279 US.
For more information, please visit strymon.net.