Although this singular stylist is based in country blues, his music reaches for the cosmos! Check out his dazzling array of pedals and rhythm boxes, and the classic instruments he uses to make trailblazing sounds live and on his new album, The Fatalist.
Buffalo Nichols believes in the power of acoustic country blues. He also believes it’s not a fossil, trapped in amber, but a living, breathing musical genre. Which is why he blends elements of the tradition—slide guitar, resonator, open tunings, themes of loss, redemption, and struggle—with loops, samples, drum machines, myriad effects, and modern-day narratives. His new album, The Fatalist, is the culmination of his art to date. Listening to its echoes of Skip James, John Hurt, Pink Floyd, and Dr. Dre is an even stranger experience when you know Nichols started his career in the thundering, downstroke-chiseled trenches of the Midwest metal scene.
When you watch this Rig Rundown, Nichols will explain, and play, it all—it's a fascinating story. And the gear! Get ready for a feast, full of the trad and the rad.
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Adirondack Rose
Those two woods dominate this Recording King RO-328, with its solid Adirondack spruce top, solid rosewood back and sides, rosewood fretboard, and herringbone purfling in classic rosette. In fact, this guitar would not look out of place in a photo from the early ’50s, and the brand itself has been available since the ’30s. Nichols keeps this 6-string tuned to open C# minor, a Skip James tuning, with a Seymour Duncan Mac Mic pickup. His preferred sting gauge is .016 to .056.
Sweet 'n' Elite
Nichols’ parlor guitar is a Recording King Tonewood Reserve Elite Single 0, with a spruce top, rosewood back and sides, a mahogany neck, and an ebony fretboard. Note the inlays and distinctive binding. It also has the Duncan pickup system. Nichols keeps this guitar tuned in standard with a medium string set (.013s).
Steel and Gold
This Gold Tone GRS Paul Beard metal-body Resonator puts a brushed aluminum cone and biscuits inside an all-steel body with a 19-fret maple neck. With a stock lipstick pickup, Nichols uses it as one of his essential electrics. He prefers it to the more traditional thick resonator body, for ease of performance and weight relief.
Get Behind the Mule
Nichols’ tunings include C#m, open F, and standard, tuned down a half-step. This guitar is a Mavis model, by Mule Resophonic Guitars—an open tuning classic. Dig that pickguard and the warm patina on the body. “It’s taken on a life of its own,” says Nichols. “Some people will show up at my gigs just to look at it.” The mini humbucker sounds sweet, with its basic volume control. The neck isn't too thick or too thin. "Kind of in the middle,” Nichols says. And it mostly gets played clean, or with a nice flavoring of delay.
Banjo
The banjo is one of the oldest African-American instruments, and this one is a Recording King, with a scooped fretboard and two pickups (a K&K and a Fishman) that he sometimes uses to split the signal. Without a resonating back, Nichols notes that it caters more to old-school music, with its bright, ringing tone.
Travelin' Amp
These days Nichols’ road amp of choice is a Fender Tone Master Super Reverb. He likes the compression he gets from its four 10" speakers, as well as its back-saving weight. He also points out that he uses so many effects that his guitars sound the same regardless of his amp choices.
The Board's Big Brain
Nichols jokingly describes his pedalboard as "very confusing,” but, running through his chain, he starts at a TC Electronic PolyTune to an Origin Effects Cali76 compressor—"and after that’s where it gets pretty weird.” But also onboard, for drive, are a Wampler Tumnus and Belle, and a Fuzzlord Octave Master (“for my Jimi Hendrix kind of tones”). To control various effects and chains, there’s a Boss GT-1000 Core. Those are involved in the guitar-to-amp signal, versus the acoustic.
But the “weird stuff,” as he puts it, starts with an Old Blood Noise Endeavors Signal Blender for switching between the acoustic, banjo, or amp. While the Fuzzlord can color everything, a cluster of his boxes are used to conjure pads and other ethereal sounds. These include the EHX Superego, a Fishman Aura, a Hologram Electronics Microcosm Granular Looper and Glitch Pedal (he calls it his red herring), an EHX Mel9 Tape Replay Machine, a TC Electronic Death Rax3, and a lot more. Listen while Nichols displays his entire array of delays in the Rundown. There’s an SPD-ONE Kick for stomping, and drum machines—an Akai Professional MPC Live II and an Elektron Analog Rytm MKII—too!
Shop Buffalo Nichols' Rig
Recording King RO-328
Recording King Tonewood Reserve Elite Single 0
Recording King RK-R20 Banjo
Fender Tone Master Super Reverb
TC Electronic PolyTune
Origin Effects Cali76 Compressor
Wampler Tumnus
Wampler Belle
Boss GT-1000 Core
EHX Superego
Fishman Aura
EHX Mel9 Tape Replay Machine
SPD-ONE Kick
Akai Professional MPC Live II
Elektron Analog Rytm MKII
Small size and a wide performance envelope turn a not-so-glamorous EQ tool into a fun and practical tone-shaping scalpel.
Equally adept at shaping weird sounds, solving stage problems, and fine tuning super detailed sounds. Small size. Nice price.
Slider pots could be more nuanced.
$119
Fishman Pro EQ Mini
fishman.com
If I had a dollar for every time a simple EQ pedal could have salvaged a troublesome stage sound or effects chain ... well, I might not be rich, but I could probably buy a pretty nice dinner for me and my gal. Or for that matter, I could pick up the $119 Fishman AFX Pro EQ Mini, one of four small-enclosure pedals that make up the AFX line. And it’s the humble Pro EQ Mini that might offer the most utility.
Made For Working Fast
Because the Pro EQ is so small, Fishman had to pack a lot of functionality without compromising fast, intuitive operation. After all, the role of an acoustic EQ is often about fixing embarrassing, spell-breaking problems like runaway feedback and crappy sound from dodgy PAs. The Pro EQ makes fixing these issues clear, simple, and direct, in spite of its size, all without sacrificing the pedal’s natural creative side.
Though the slider set is a touch cramped, it takes just a little familiarization to develop a second sense for where each control is situated. Fishman wisely installed detents at the midpoint of each slider’s range, enabling no-look adjustments (or dimly lighted ones).
It can be super useful in the studio before your signal hits the desk, too. And experimenting with different profiles can recast the whole mood of a song.
Together, the five EQ controls enable fairly precise adjustments of your output. The bass cut, which works within the 10 Hz and 160 Hz range, is situated on the outboard-left edge of the pedal, and the ability to quickly defeat low-frequency rumble is a source of great comfort. The remaining controls can also make fast work of a problematic frequency causing feedback, ugly resonances, or complicating a relationship with a specific amp or P.A. system. The bass, middle, and treble controls each offer 12 dB of boost or cut, which creates a lot of range to work with. The rightmost brilliance control, which in most cases works like a fine-grit sandpaper for the top end, has a smaller boost envelope of just 9dB in the boost or cut direction. It’s centered at 10 kHz, which enables a lot of additional, and very specific tone-shaping power in a critical frequency range. The two knobs at the top control input trim (so you can regulate the strength and drive of an incoming signal) and a master output that lets you control your level out to the PA or amp once you’ve shaped your tone to taste. There are hidden controls on the Pro EQ, too. Holding down the pedal for three seconds enables a phase flip, which can be undone by repeating the process.
Call Off the Dogs
Though it’s a masterful fixer in a Harvey-Keitel-in-Pulp-Fiction sort of way, the Pro EQ isn’t entirely about emergencies. It’s also a creative device that gives you the ability to paint in broad or fine strokes. Making space and fine-tuning in the fashion of a mix engineer is fun and rewarding, particularly when you consider the small and satisfyingly old-school and mechanical means of operating it. But it’s also fun to shape weird, exaggerated psychedelic-era Beatles or Jesus and Mary Chain EQ profiles. It can be super useful in the studio before your signal hits the desk, too. And experimenting with different profiles can recast the whole mood of a song.
The Verdict
I know. It’s an EQ pedal. It looks boring. But it’s not. I had loads of fun both fine tuning and creatively mangling acoustic tones. And for that breadth of capabilities, the Pro EQ stood out as one the most creative pedals I’ve tinkered in a while. The ease and size multiply that satisfaction and make it fun to imagine how it might work in your rig, whatever that might be.
Fishman AFX Mini Series: AcoustiVerb, Pro EQ & Broken Record Demos | First Look
Fishman's new micro pedals add scads of acoustic performance flexibility and a ton of fun.
Tailored specifically for acoustic guitars, Fishman AFX Mini Acoustic Pedals allow you to explore new textures, rhythms, and spaces without sacrificing your tone. Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned player, experience the acoustic focused design of Fishman AFX Mini pedals and unlock the full potential of your acoustic sound.
AcoustiVerb
Three quality reverbs – Hall, Plate, Spring – are blended in parallel with your direct sound while preserving your acoustic tone. The Reverb Time knob controls how long you hear the effect, and ranges from short to very large spaces. Tone knob affects only the reverb and not your direct sound. Similarly, the Level knob adds the effect into your signal chain without overwhelming the sound of your instrument.
SPRING:
Recreates the classic sound of a spring type reverb found in many electric guitar amplifiers.
HALL:
An all-around reverb with natural, resonate spaces capable of replicating rooms both small and large, with long reverb decay times.
PLATE:
Recreates the dense reflections and metallic characteristics of mechanical plate reverbs used throughout the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s.
Pro EQ
Based on the highly-regarded Fishman Platinum series of instrument preamps, AFX Pro EQ Mini offers quality preamplification and critical equalization voiced specifically for acoustic instruments.
This is no off-the-shelf graphic EQ – plug in and your signal begins with a high-impedance instrument preamp to condition nearly any passive or active pickup.
Then, use the four bands of acoustic tone control to sculpt your bass, mids, treble, and brilliance.
A sweepable Low Cut fine-tunes the very low frequencies to reduce or enhance thumps and subs.
Finally, hold the footswitch to toggle your output polarity. Also known as “phase,” this simple circuit can tame low-frequency howl very effectively.
Broken Record Looper/Sampler
AFX Broken Record packs high-quality audio looping and sampling into a tiny, yet deceptively-simple stompbox package. It features intuitive one-button operation, endless overdub capability and offers easy transfer to a computer.
A single footswitch is all it takes to record, overdub, and play along with your coolest riffs and patterns.
Featuring high-quality 24-bit, 44.1kHz audio recording of up to 6 minutes, AFX Broken Record let’s you capture cool ideas and build on them, or even play along with pre-recorded audio you transfer from your computer.
Built-in memory will retain what you recorded even after the power is disconnected. So, you can unplug at your gig and transfer your loop to your computer later. This also means that the backing track you transfer from your computer will be ready and waiting for you to play back at your next performance.