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Rig Rundown: Henry Kaiser's Five Times Surprise

A studio visit with the new gear-heavy improv/art-rock supergroup that includes Henry Kaiser, Andy West, and Anthony Pirog.

Moving away from distortion, there’s an EBS OctaBass. Next, comes the one pedal Henry says is his constant and essential: the Red Panda Tensor. “It does my crazy Henry Kaiser momentary pitch-transposition thing,” he notes. Henry had a lot of input on the pedal’s design. A Hexe revolver DX16 looper/glitch/distortion box adds more divine weirdness. (Honestly, if you love pedals and unpredictable sonic bliss, you need to see this video!) There’s an Eventide H9, mostly used for momentary octaves, which leads to an EHX Killswitch, followed by a TC Electronic Flashback (used mostly for backwards mode), and an Ernie Ball volume pedal, to bring the quiet. His Montreal Assembly Count to Five will speed up his notes, like a tape machine set to a higher-than-actual speed on playback. (Instant Yngwie?) Following another Ernie Ball Volume Pedal, there’s a Flux Liquid Tremolo and a GFI Specular Tempus reverb. In Henry’s thrall, it all sounds like peanut butter and chocolate!

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