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Rig Rundown: Liz Cooper & the Stampede

The dreamy, psychedelic-folk rocker explains how a salvaged-spruce offset colored with gobs of vibe, chorus, and trem give her freewheeling, Dead-inspired journeys constant movement and flow.

Liz Cooper started her 6-string life on flattops, but partaking in jams with fellow local Nashville bands Desert Noises and Okey Dokey helped cultivate a love for broad sonic expression and power held in electric guitar. While doing some research and rubbing elbows with guitar lovers in the Northeast, Cooper heard of Creston Lea’s custom, one-off creations. After a few conversations, Lea quickly got to work on the guitar you see above. It features a salvaged spruce body (from a barn), a 40-year-old piece of Indian rosewood for its neck, a Lollar P-90 Jazzmaster bridge pickup paired with a Lollar Jazzmaster neck pickup, and everything is held down with Mastery hardware. Cooper allowed Lea to craft the guitar free of much direction, but he was aware of her heavily-acoustic background so the neck is chunky and thick. She was bouncing between .011- .012-gauged strings, but at this show she was sticking with D’Addario NYXL .011–.049 strings.

D'Addario DIY Cable Kit:https://ddar.io/Cable.Kit

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A rig meant to inspire! That’s Jerry Garcia with his Doug Irwin-built Tiger guitar, in front of his Twin Reverb + McIntosh + JBL amp rig.

Photo by Frank White

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