“Nothing on this guitar is original except the wood,” admits Strike Anywhere guitarist Matt Smith. “But this factory second is just the one—I’ve got all these guitars, but I just keep going back to this one.” The 1982 Gibson SG has been worked on—it’s had two refrets, three neck repairs, and multiple pickup swaps. He moved on from the stock pickups to Seymour Duncan JBs, and now he currently has a custom set of Duncans. The neck is a Jazz (with a treble bleed mod on the volume control) and the bridge is a Custom Custom (SH-11)—the same bridge pickup that’s in his EPS E-II. He’s also using a 1M volume pot for the bridge and upgraded to an aluminum stop tailpiece.
He typically plays in standard or drop-D tuning, outfits No. 1 with Ernie Ball Slinky Top Heavy Bottoms .010–.052s, and hammers away with either Dunlop Tortex .60 mm or .73 mm picks.
A close up of the ’82 SG’s body that has taken a licking and keeps on ticking.
Matt’s other SG is a 1981 Firebrand Deluxe model that was a result of a trade he made with former bandmate and Strike Anywhere guitarist Matt Sherwood. Smith gave up his ’80s Orville by Gibson Les Paul for the above SG Firebrand. (Orville by Gibson was a brand of guitars that were managed by Gibson, but made and sold in Japan to counteract the “lawsuit-era” copies that were made by Greco, Ibanez, Tōkai, and Burny. The brand went defunct in 1998.)
Used extensively on tour to support Exit English, this is Smith’s 1977 Gibson Les Paul Standard Pro. Aficionadas will call b/s because you can see this one has humbuckers and those ’70s Pro models came with P-90s, but Matt had the guitar re-routed and overhauled it with some mean ’buckers. A combination of being a tad heavy and his nicest/rarest guitar, makes this a home/studio dog.
To its right, sits a newer ESP E-II Eclipse that has seen stage time with Strike Anywhere when the SGs couldn’t make the gig.
At the top, you have a Gibson Guitar of the Week (2007) Nashville Les Paul Junior Double Cutaway that Matt had modded by requesting Seymour Duncan to make a mini-humbucker in a dog-eared, P-90-sized mount so it was hum cancelling and fit under the cover. Now that the guitar is no longer hitting the road, he put the stock P-90 back in it.
Below that is an Epiphone Sheraton that was used in the studio and onstage around the Dead FM era of Strike Anywhere. It’s factory original except for the bridge humbucker being a subbed in from one of his SGs.
This has been Smith’s touring amp for almost 15 years—a single-channel 1988 Marshall JCM 800 that runs on the big-glass 6550 tubes. While on the Warped Tour in 2005 or 2006, his JCM started acting up in the heat, so a tech friend suggested he remove the two outer 6550s and run it as a 50-watt head. It worked great and ever since he’s been rocking stages worldwide at half power.
The backside of his late ’80s JCM 800 that clearly has two of its 6550s missing.
For other softer, more Americana projects, Smith has been depending on this Dr. Z MAZ 38 NR Mk I. Aside from swapping out a first-position 12AX7 preamp tube to something with more gain, it’s all stock and to his ears, it sounds like a “hot-rodded AC30 with loads of midrange.” And for situations like filming a Rig Rundown out of your house, Smith’s THD Hot Plate comes in handy ratcheting down things by -16 dB.
Matt Smith toured the world several times with nothing more than a boost pedal and tuner. He’s slowly incorporated more pedals and expanded to an actual pedalboard with the goal of fully representing Strike Anywhere’s recorded work in a live environment. Here you see the current evolution of his pedal playground with an Ernie Ball VP Jr Volume Pedal, Bogner Ecstasy Blue OD/Boost, JHS Muffuletta, Boss SH-1 Super Chorus, Walrus Audio ARP-87 Multi-Function Delay, and a MXR Phase 90. And a TC Electronic PolyTune keeps Smith’s guitars in check.
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D'Addario LokNob:https://www.daddario.com/LokNobRR
Hotone Wong Press
Cory Wong Signature Volume/Wah/Expression Pedal
Renowned international funk guitar maestro and 63rd Grammy nominee Cory Wong is celebrated for his unique playing style and unmistakable crisp tone. Known for his expressive technique, he’s been acclaimed across the globe by all audiences for his unique blend of energy and soul. In 2022, Cory discovered the multi-functional Soul Press II pedal from Hotone and instantly fell in love. Since then, it has become his go-to pedal for live performances.
Now, two years later, the Hotone team has meticulously crafted the Wong Press, a pedal tailored specifically for Cory Wong. Building on the multi-functional design philosophy of the Soul Press series, this new pedal includes Cory’s custom requests: a signature blue and white color scheme, a customized volume pedal curve, an adjustable wah Q value range, and travel lights that indicate both pedal position and working mode.
Cory’s near-perfect pursuit of tone and pedal feel presented a significant challenge for our development team. After countless adjustments to the Q value range, Hotone engineers achieved the precise WAH tone Cory desired while minimizing the risk of accidental Q value changes affecting the sound. Additionally, based on Cory’s feedback, the volume control was fine-tuned for a smoother, more musical transition, enhancing the overall feel of volume swells. The team also upgraded the iconic travel lights of the Soul Press II to dual-color travel lights—blue for Wah mode and green for Volume mode—making live performances more intuitive and visually striking!
In line with the Hotone Design Inspiration philosophy, the Wong Press represents the perfect blend of design and inspiration. Now, musicians can channel their inner Cory Wong and enjoy the freedom and joy of playing with the Wong Press!
Reverend Vernon Reid Totem Series Electric Guitar - Shaman
Silos features six presets, tap tempo, one full second of delay time, and three voices—two of which are styled after bucket-brigade and tape-delay sounds. In the $150 price category, it’s not unusual for a digital delay to leave some number of those functions out. And spending the same money on a true-analog alternative usually means warm, enveloping sounds but limited functionality and delay time. Silos, improbably perhaps, offers a very elegant solution to this can’t-have-it-all dilemma in a U.S.-made effect.
A More Complete Cobbling Together
Silos’ utility is bolstered by a very unintimidating control set, which is streamlined and approachable. Three of those controls are dedicated to the same mix, time, and repeats controls you see on any delay. But saving a preset to one of the six spots on the rotary preset dial is as easy as holding the green/red illuminated button just below the mix and preset knobs. And you certainly won’t get lost in the weeds if you move to the 3-position toggle, which switches between a clear “digital” voice, darker “analog” voice, and a “tape” voice which is darker still.
“The three voices offer discernibly different response to gain devices.”
One might suspect that a tone control for the repeats offers similar functionality as the voice toggle switch. But while it’s true that the most obvious audible differences between digital, BBD, and tape delays are apparent in the relative fidelity and darkness of their echoes, the Silos’ three voices behave differently in ways that are more complex than lighter or duskier tonality. For instance, the digital voice will never exhibit runaway oscillation, even at maximum mix and repeat settings. Instead, repeats fade out after about six seconds (at the fastest time settings) or create sleepy layers of slow-decaying repeats that enhance detail in complex, sprawling, loop-like melodic phrases. The analog voice and tape voice, on the other hand, will happily feed back to psychotic extremes. Both also offer satisfying sensitivity to real-time, on-the-fly adjustments. For example, I was tickled with how I could generate Apocalypse Now helicopter-chop effects and fade them in and out of prominence as if they were approaching or receding in proximity—an effect made easier still if you assign an expression pedal to the mix control. This kind of interactivity is what makes analog machines like the Echoplex, Space Echo, and Memory Man transcend mere delay status, and the sensitivity and just-right resistance make the process of manipulating repeats endlessly engaging.
Doesn't Flinch at Filth
EarthQuaker makes a point of highlighting the Silos’ affinity for dirty and distorted sounds. I did not notice that it behaved light-years better than other delays in this regard. But the three voices most definitely offer discernibly different responses to gain devices. The super-clear first repeat in the digital mode lends clarity and melodic focus, even to hectic, unpredictable, fractured fuzzes. The analog voice, which EQD says is inspired by the tone makeup of a 1980s-vintage, Japan-made KMD bucket brigade echo, handles fuzz forgivingly inasmuch as its repeats fade warmly and evenly, but the strong midrange also keeps many overtones present as the echoes fade. The tape voice, which uses aMaestro Echoplex as its sonic inspiration, is distinctly dirtier and creates more nebulous undercurrents in the repeats. If you want to retain clarity in more melodic settings, it will create a warm glow around repeats at conservative levels. Push it, and it will summon thick, sometimes droning haze that makes a great backdrop for slower, simpler, and hooky psychedelic riffs.
In clean applications, this decay and tone profile lend the tape setting a spooky, foggy aura that suggests the cold vastness of outer space. The analog voice often displays an authentic BBD clickiness in clean repeats that’s sweet for underscoring rhythmic patterns, while the digital voice’s pronounced regularity adds a clockwork quality that supports more up-tempo, driving, electronic rhythms.
The Verdict
Silos’ combination of features seems like a very obvious and appealing one. But bringing it all together at just less than 150 bucks represents a smart, adept threading of the cost/feature needle.
EarthQuaker Devices Silos Multi-generational Time Reflection Delay Pedal
