PG’s Tessa Jeffers chats with members of the backing band for country act Jason Aldean, including guitarists Kurt Allison and Jack Sizemore, as well as bassist Tully Kennedy. While Sizemore is a Les Paul die-hard and Kennedy swears by Sadowsky, Allison’s gear is a little less predictable for a country player—the guitarist rocks out with EVH gear and a special hollowbody he says is unmatched in tone.
Jack Sizemore's Gear
Guitars
Jack Sizemore says he and his co-guitar comrade, Kurt Allison, are “masters of Craigslist,” trying to out-deal each other by scouting deals in each location they travel to. Sizemore had seven guitars on the road with Aldean, but prefers mostly Les Paul-style axes. His favorite is a Deluxe LP, one of 200 made. “As far as Les Pauls go, it’s pretty light, which is a good feature for me,” he says. His new Gibson goldtop gets most of the onstage action, but he switches it up with a very heavy ’83 Ibanez LP-style axe that he scored for $300 on Craigslist.
Jason Aldean’s music requires the players to keep multiple models around for tunings, so Sizemore’s longer scale PRS is tuned a whole step down and sometimes dropped-D tuning. Rounding out the bunch is his “string breaker” ’61 Gibson SG reissue and an ESP with a Floyd Rose. Sizemore’s guitars are strung up with D’Addario .010-.052s, and he uses Fender heavy picks.
Effects and Amps
Sizemore depends on his “old school” Seymour Duncan Twin Tube distortion so much that he keeps three or four on hand in case one breaks. Other effects in his drawer include an Xotic Effects RC Booster, Budda OM Overdrive, TC Electronic G-System, and a Radial Tonebone Head Switcher that allows him to route his two amp heads (a Peavey 6505 and Budda Bully) through one cabinet: a Budda 4x12 cab with Celestion vintage 30 speakers.
Kurt Allison's Gear
Guitars
Guitarist Kurt Allison has some interesting genre-bending gear that might be considered atypical for a country band. He likes to switch it up, but his current favorite find is a hollowbody PRS JA-15. “You don’t think of it as being a good lead or crunch guitar but the tonal qualities are great in this thing—I love it,” he shares. Allison’s pals at EVH recently turned him onto a Wolfgang Custom, and he swapped Seymour Duncans into it for more country bite.
Allison has a stock Tele for when he needs a definitively Tele sound, like on the track “Hicktown.” Rounding out his artillery are three more PRS models: a top-carved satin PRS single-cut with Lollar P-90s, a P-90-equipped PRS SE (dropped a whole step to D), and a PRS 305 with Duncans. He strings them up with D’Addario .011-.052 strings.
Amps
A longtime Mesa/Boogie guy, Allison recently switched to EVH 5150 III amps. He loves the first channel because it has punch and is “blackface-like.” When playing live, he drives his 50-watt head through 25-watt speakers because he prefers the way it breaks up, but he keeps a 100-watt head for backup.
Effects
Allison prefers a raw tone, but his favorite pedal is a Roger Linn AdrenaLinn II, which he uses to arpeggiate sounds in time through a MIDI sync back to the drummer. Allison’s pedalboard is further equipped with a TC Electronic Flashback, MXR 90 Phaser, Klon Centaur, Line 6 MM4, Ibanez Tube Screamer, Vox Wah, DigiTech Whammy, and an Electro-Harmonix Micro POG and Q-Tron.
Tully Kennedy's Gear
Basses
“The Sadowsky P/J 5-string is my calling card,” says bassist Tully Kennedy. He brings the same basses he records with on the road. His number one is a white model, which has endured “20 years of getting its ass kicked.” His blue P/J 5 bass is tuned down a half step for Aldean’s tune called “This Nothin’ Town.” Kennedy uses Dean Markley Blue Steel nickel-plated medium gauge strings.
Amps and Effects
In Kennedy’s rig, an Aguilar DB 750 drives two single Aguilar 1x12s. He has an Avalon preamp, which is sent to the front of house and then the signal is split with his secret weapon: an Aguilar tube pre. For effects, Kennedy uses a Crybaby Bass Wah on three songs, a Boss CEB-3 Bass Chorus, and a Fulltone Mosfet Bass Drive on the song “Johnny Cash.”
Announced at the 2025 NAMM show, Cory Wong’s new collaboration with Ernie Ball Music Man scratched an itch—namely, the itch for a humbucker-loaded guitar that could appease Wong’s rock-and-R&B alter ego and serve as complement to his signature Fender Strat. Inspiration came from no further than a bandmate’s namesake instrument. Vulfpeck bassist Joe Dart has a line of signature model EBMM basses, one of which uses the classic StingRay bass body profile. So, when Wong went looking for something distinctive, he wondered if EBMM could create a 6-string guitar using the classic StingRay bass body and headstock profile.
Ernie Ball Music Man StingRay II ReviewErnie Ball Music Man StingRay II ReviewDouble the Fun
Wong is, by his own admission, a single-coil devotee. That’s where the core of his sound lives and it feels like home to him. However, Wong is as inspired by classic Earth, Wind & Fire tones and the pop-punk of the early ’90s as he is by Prince and the Minneapolis funk that he grew up with. The StingRay II is a guitar that can cover all those bases.
Ernie Ball has a history of designing fast-feeling, comfortable necks. And I can’t remember ever struggling to move around an EBMM fretboard. The roasted maple C-shaped neck here is slightly thicker in profile than I expected, but still very comfortable. (I must also mention that the back of the neck has a dazzling, almost holographic look to the grain that morphs in the light). By any measure, the StingRay II’s curves seemed designed for comfort and speed. Now, let’s talk about those pickups.Hot or Not?
A few years ago EBMM introduced a line of HT (heat-treated) pickups. The pickups are built with technology the company used to develop their Cobalt and M-Series strings. A fair amount of the process is shrouded in secrecy and must be taken on faith, but EBMM says treating elements of the pickup with heat increases clarity and dynamic response.
To find out for myself, I plugged the StingRay II into a Fender Vibroverb, Mesa/Boogie Mark VII, and a Neural DSP Quad Cortex (Wong’s preferred live rig). Right away, it was easy to hear the tight low end and warm highs. Often, I feel like the low end from neck humbuckers can feel too loose or lack definition. Neither was the case here. The HT pickup is beautifully balanced with a bounce that’s rich with ES-335 vibes. Clean tones are punchy and bright—especially with the Vibroverb—and dirty tones have more room for air. Individual notes were clear and articulate, too.
Any guitar associated with Wong needs a strong middle-position or combined pickup tone, and the StingRay II delivers. I never felt any significant signal loss in the blended signal from the two humbuckers, even if I could use a bit more midrange presence in the voicing. The midrange gap is nothing an EQ or Tube Screamer couldn’t fix, though. And not surprisingly, very Strat-like sounds were easy to achieve for having less midrange bump.
Knowing Wong’s love for ’90s alt-rock, I expected the bridge pickup to have real bite, and it does, demonstrating exceptional dynamic range and exceptional high-end response that never approached shrill. Nearly every type of distortion and overdrive I threw at it sounded great, but especially anything with a scooped-mid flavor and plenty of low end.
The Verdict
By any measure, the StingRay II is a top-notch, professional instrument. The fit and finish are immaculate and the feel of the neck makes me wonder if EBMM stashes some kind of secret sandpaper, because I don’t think I’ve ever felt a smoother, more playable neck. Kudos are also due to EBMM and Wong for finding an instrument that can move between ’70s George Benson tones and the hammering power chords of ’90s Blink-182. Admittedly, the nearly $3K price could give some players pause, but considering the overall quality of the instrument, it’s not out of line. Wong’s involvement and search for distinct sounds makes the StingRay II more than a tired redux of a classic model—an admirable accomplishment considering EBMM’s long and storied history.
Ernie Ball Music Man StingRay II Cory Wong Signature Electric Guitar - Charcoal Blue with Rosewood Fingerboard
