Premier Guitar caught up with Wayne Krantz in Nashville at City Winery on the first date of his two-month tour to discuss his pragmatic approach to gear.
Guitars
Wayne Krantz goes live without a net, touring with a single guitar, an S-style loaner from John Suhr. The Suhr has a very useable whammy bar, maple neck, and Suhr ML (Michael Landau) vintage-style single-coil pickups. Krantz opts for big-top/ skinny-bottom D’Addario strings (.011, .013, .017, .026, .032, .038).
Amps
During his Nashville show Krantz plugged into a stock Fender Blues Deville 2x12 on loan from his driver. He ran out of the Fender into his personal amp, a Marshall 2553 Silver Jubilee with a matching 2x12 mini cabinet. Krantz picked up the Marshall on eBay years ago, and the two have had a warm working relationship ever since.
Effects
While not an obsessive gear nerd, Krantz does enjoy pedals. At one point he toured with a professionally built board, but the TSA ruined all that by repeatedly pulling it apart on flights. Now Krantz rocks it like a teenager in a garage band with all of his pedals living in a bag—he just pulls them out and arranges them on the floor. It makes changing pedals a snap and travel easier.
Although Krantz often experiments with different pedals, he currently plugs into a Vertex Wah, Vertex Boost, Maxon SD-9 Sonic Distortion, Wren and Cuff Tall Font Russian, Boss OC-2, Electro-Harmonix Frequency Analyzer, Boss DD-3, Electro-Harmonix Freeze, and a Neunaber Technology Wet Reverb. A G-Lab PB-1 Power Box provides the juice.
