This year PG landed some elsuive white whales (TOOL, Pantera & Jack White), revisited some revamped setups (Jason Isbell, Foo Fighters & Kingfish), and got introduced to some unusual gear (King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Plus, the hosts share their favorite moments from the last 52 episodes before dropping a few coins into the wishing well for 2025 Rundown guests.
12. Green Day Rig Rundown
The legendary punk band are in the middle of an enormous multi-anniversary tour, celebrating both Dookie and American Idiot. Check out how bassist Mike Dirnt and guitarist Jason White tuned their road rigs to cover decades of sounds.
11. Knocked Loose Rig Rundown
Ungodly, sinister, and maliciously menacing guitar tones erupt from the Kentucky hardcore bandās 7-string Ibanez models, providing the soundtrack to the summerās biggest mosh pits and nastiest breakdowns.
10. Jason Isbell & Sadler Vaden Rig Rundown
With four Grammys, loads of gear, and millions of tour bus miles, Isbell is back for an updated Rig Rundown with his 400 Unit co-guitarist, Sadler Vaden.
9. Extreme's Nuno Bettencourt & Pat Badger Rig Rundown
Guitar legend Nuno Bettencourt crashes his own Rundown to showcase the āBumblebeeā guitar he cooked up to honor Eddie Van Halen, while bassist Pat Badger shares two killer stories about basses that once belonged to members of Van Halen and Aerosmith.
8. Slash's Blues Ball Band Rig Rundown
The rock ānā roll icon brings his blues-rockinā Orgy of The Damned to the people headlining the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Blues Festival tour.
7. Kingfish Rig Rundown
Kingfish doesnāt play a lot of gear, but with a signature Fender Tele Deluxe, a Chertoff Custom guitar, a pair of road-worthy amps, and a handful of effects, the Clarksdale, Mississippi, native is well on his way to becoming the bluesā newest 6-string ruler. He returns for his second Rundown with a Grammy under his belt, supporting his new Live in London album.
6. Jack White Rig Rundown
Get an up-close look at the tone wizardās rig for his action-packed 2024 tour.
5. Jerry Cantrell Rig Rundown
The legendary Alice in Chains axeman gives us a look at his updated solo touring setup.
4. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard Rig Rundown
Just like their records, the Australian rockersā road gear is eclectic and adventurous, ready to cover ground from metal to microtonal Turkish psychedelia.
3. Foo Fightersā Chris Shiflett Rig Rundown
The Foosā guitarist and intrepid Shred With Shifty host opens the guitar garage for his current tour and details his brand-new pedal setup.
2. Pantera's Rex Brown & Zakk Wylde Rig Rundown
The original Cowboys from Hell bassist reclaims his spine-rattling position as the band's charging piston, while his guitar brother brings his fleet of Wylde Audio gear and a few tone sweeteners from Dimebag Darrell's private stash.
1. Tool's Justin Chancellor Rig Rundown
The bass lord morphs and mutates between rhythm and lead parts with a hearty Wal 4-string, Gallien-Krueger crushers, and a pedalboard that could make Adam Jones jealous.
The bass lord morphs and mutates between rhythm and lead parts with a hearty Wal 4-string, Gallien-Krueger crushers, and a pedalboard that could make Adam Jones jealous.
āWill the next Tool album take more than 10,000 days?ā
That was an ongoing (and agonizing) joke for Tool fans that awaited the bandās fifth album following the release of 2006ās 10,000 Days. (A cruel clairvoyance of a title.) For those counting, when Fear Inoculum was finally delivered on August 30, 2019, it was just 4,868 days from their previous album. All crummy jokes aside, the anticipation of the album was real for a reason: the music. And the rhythmic cog of their constant contorting of depth and darkness is bassist Justin Chancellor.
Sure, drummer Danny Carey is a living legend bashing everything his large frame can smash and crash. Adam Jones transforms his guitar into a Hans Zimmer production with varied textures, temperaments, and traits his tone expresses. During shows, singer and lyricist Maynard James Keenan prowls in the shadows adding to the bandās musical mysticism. This triumvirate core dished out the punishing EP Opiate in 1992, and their 1993 debut full-length Undertow was more complex and calculated in its rage. But in 1995, when Justin Chancellor replaced Paul DāAmour on bass, Tool immediately expanded their dimensionality. The original three continued to dazzle and dumbfound listeners, but the addition of Chancellor and his pocket-minded role unlocked a collective vocabulary previously unspoken. Simply put, if Tool was an octopus, Chancellor was the head. The others could be momentarily independent tentacles exploring the melodic murkiness of their respective reaches, but when they needed to propel forward, Chancellor was steering. His lines are the base for the bandās groove and attitude that became a focal point on subsequent releases with 1996ās Ćnima, 2001ās Lateralus, 2006ās 10,000 Days, and eventually 2019ās Fear Inoculum. The former three went triple-platinum, while the latter three were No. 1 on the Billboard 200. (Ćnima landed in the No. 2 spot.)
If you ever catch yourself playing air guitar to Tool, youāre probably mimicking Chancellorās parts. āSchism,ā āThe Pot,ā āForty Six & 2,ā āH.,ā āFear Inoculum,ā āDescending,ā āThe Grudge,ā and plenty of others feature his buoyant bass riffs.
Chancellorās tone has had a longstanding relationship with Wal basses, Gallien-Krueger amps, and Mesa/Boogie cabs. The evolving part of his rig has been his pedalboard. At this juncture of the bandās run supporting Fear Inoculum, Chancellorās board is larger than his guitar-playing counterparts. Yet everything has a place and purpose. Some of it is duplicity, some of it is to avoid any required knob-turning during the show, and as we find out in the Rundown, some of it is just for fun. Grab a seat and get comfortable as Chancellor and his tech Pete Lewis walk PGās elated Chris Kies through his live setup.
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and DāAddario XPND Pedalboard: https://www.daddario.com/XPNDRR
Like a Glove
While recording Ćnima, Chancelor borrowed a friendās Wal bass that was originally fretless, but his pal did the dirty work of embedding frets into it. āThat original bassā tone immediately fit in with the band and covered the right area of sound,ā remembers Chancellor. He promptly ordered his own replica of that build, and this is the second edition of it. The above 4-string has been his main bass for the last 15 years. It has a mahogany core, birdās-eye maple caps, a neck incorporating mahogany, maple and rosewood, and a rosewood fretboard. Some minor changes to improve comfort and playability include lighter hardware and Luminlay fret markers. Chancellorās basses take a custom set of Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinky Bass strings that have the standard .045-.065-.85, but because they tune down to drop-D for most songs, he swaps in a .110 from the Power Slinky pack. And when they go to drop-C for their oldest material, heāll put on a .135 string. He hammers on the strings with a custom Dunlop (1 mm) Tortex Tri pick. All his instrument cables come from Mogami.
Full-Circle StingRay
Chancellor recalls auditioning for Tool with an Ernie Ball StingRay, but it just didnāt work with the bandās sound at the time. Fast forward two decades and the StingRay has found a cozy place in the Tool setlist. The 2018 Music Man StingRay Special is used on āDescendingā from Fear Inoculum. Anyone keen on details will notice the high-tech solution of duct tape and marker that allows Justin to incrementally notch up the volume during the songās blossoming midsection.
Pretty Practice P
Justin scooped this beautiful 1963 Fender P bass from Normās Rare Guitars. He does have a small collection of old instruments, but they have to meet two requirements before he makes the buy: They have to sound amazing and they have to be players so he can ābang away on themā without remorse. He doesnāt play it onstage (the vintage Pās output doesnāt have enough horsepower for Tool), but he does bring it on tour because he finds it inspirational to play, so itās often with him backstage, on the bus, or in the hotel room.
Welcome to the Thunderdome!
This configuration of Demeter preamps and Gallien-Krueger power amps has been the nucleus of power for Justinās studio and stage sound for years. The Gallien-Krueger 2001RB heads each hit their own cabinet. The ācleanā RB runs into a Mesa/Boogie RoadReady 8x10. The middle RB head in the rack is the ādirtyā amp that goes into a prototype Mesa/Boogie 4x12 that is EQād gnarlier and takes all of Chancellorās pedals. He feels the 10" speakers retain the integral low-end bass tone better than the 12s, while the larger speakers are better suited for offering his distorted or effected tones an overall warmth that can disappear in the 10s. (The bottom 2001RB is on deck in case either head fails.)
Above the G-Ks are the Demeter Bass Tube Preamplifiers that give FOH a pure sound to mix in as needed. (The second Demeter unit is a backup.)
And up to the Radial JD7 Injectors are amp switchers that also help remove noise, signal loss, or hum and buzz.
Mesa Mountains
Here are the two Mesa/Boogie cabsāthe 8x10 on the left and the custom prototype 4x12 on the right.
Justin Chancellor's Pedalboard
This setup is either a bass playerās dream or nightmare, but for someone as adventurous as Chancellor, this is where the party starts. At a glance, youāll notice many of his pedals are available at your favorite guitar store, including six Boss boxes, an Ernie Ball Volume Pedal, and MXR Micro Amp. Crucial foot-operated pedals are in blue with the Dunlop JCT95 Justin Chancellor Cry Baby Wah with a Tone Bender-style fuzz circuit (far left) and DigiTech Bass Whammy (middle). He really likes using the Tech 21 SansAmp GT2 for distortion and feedback when the Whammy is engaged or heās playing up the neck. Covering delays are three pedalsāhe has the pink Providence DLY-4 Chrono Delay for āPneumaā that is programmed to match Dannyās BPMs, which slightly increase during the song from 113 ms to 115 ms. The Boss DD-3s are set for different speeds with the one labeled āFasterā handling āThe Grudgeā and the other one doing more steady repeats. Thereās a pair of vintage Guyatone pedalsāthe Guyatone VT-X Vintage Tremolo Pedal (Flip Series) and Guyatone BR2 Bottom Wah Rocker (a gift from Adam Jones). The Gamechanger Audio Plus pedal is used to freeze moments and allow Justin to grab onto feedback or play over something. The Boss GEB-7 Bass Equalizer and Pro Co Turbo Rat help reinforce his resounding, beefy backbone of bass tone. The MXR Micro Amp helps goose his grimy rumbles. The Boss LS-2 Line Selector is a one-kick escape hatch out of the complicated signal chain for parts of āSchism.ā The Wal and Music Man stay in check with the TU-3S tuner, a pair of Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Pluses help bring things to life, and everything is wired up with EBS patch cables.
Shop Justin Chancellor's Rig
Music Man StingRay Special HH
Dunlop JCT95 Justin Chancellor Cry Baby Wah
Gamechanger Audio Plus Pedal
Boss DD-3 Digital Delay
Boss BF-2 Flanger
Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble
Boss GEB-7 Bass Equalizer
ProCo Turbo Rat
Tech 21 SansAmp GT2
DigiTech Bass Whammy
MXR Micro Amp
Boss LS-2 Line Selector
Ernie Ball VP Junior 250K
Boss TU-3S Tuner
JHS Switchback A/B Effects Loop Switcher
Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus
Radial JD7 Injector
Guthrie Govan reveals a new signature Charvel and experiences the digital modeling bath. Plus, bass behemoth Bryan Beller reconnects with old friends and displays his ālow - rentā Geddy Lee setup.
āSupergroupā is a tired, overused term in music. However, when musical aces like guitarist Guthrie Govan, bassist Bryan Beller, and drummer Marco Minnemann jamā¦ they are an unrivaled force of nature.
Each player has a remarkable resume: Govan has worked with Steven Wilson, Hans Zimmer, and Asia; Beller with Satriani, Vai, Dethklok, and Dweezil Zappa; and Minnemann with the Mute Gods, Trey Gunn, H-Blockx, and Mike Keneallyāamong many others.
What makes a supergroup novel is generally the collectiveās previous endeavors and collaborations. The magic with these three cats is that their superpowers combine to become a flashy and fluent highflying act.
Formed unceremoniously for a performance at the 2011 Anaheim NAMM Show, this tremendously talented trio has released nine albums (five studio and four live) in 11 years. The attraction for both the audience and the band is the same: variety. In any given performance, you can hear them shift from Return to Forever to Yes to King Crimson to Vai to Rage to Funkadelic to moments of deranged Zappa.
āWeāve been a pretty strange, eclectic band to begin with, as the music we do tips our hats to a lot of different styles,ā notes Govan. āAll Iāve ever done over the years Iāve been playing guitar is to just listen to everything around me and absorb the aspects of it that I liked. Iāve never felt an urge to specialize. Iām happy to keep combining whatever flavorings I like and rolling them all together.ā The result: These three executive chefs put on a spicy clinic that would even please Gordon Ramsay.
The Aristocratsā headlining 2022 run landed at Nashvilleās City Winery on July 27. Before the musical throwdown commenced, PGās Chris Kies hosted conversations that covered Bellerās booming setup, including some old favorites and recovered friends (via social-media sleuthing), while Govan focused on detailing the slight-but-crucial changes to his signature Charvel and explaining his live tonal evolutionāmodernized with an all-encompassing Fractal Audio unit.
Brought to you by DāAddario XPND Pedalboard.
The Red Baron
Itās been 23 years since Bryan Beller first picked up a 1998 Mike Lull Modern 5 Jazz Bass and itās been his No. 1 ever since. As the legend goes, Beller found a Modern 5 at the old SWR Bass Amplification factory soundroom. He loved it so much he took it to a Mike Keneally gig at the famous Baked Potato jazz club in Los Angeles, and he never brought it back. Itās worth noting that his original Modern 5 bass was stolen (among others) from Bellerās gear storage in the winter of 2016, so the above model is another M5 built in 1998 that he acquired after the raid.
Bellerās thoughts on the red rider, as listed on Mike Lullās website: āI fell in love with it because it's an aggressive rock-flavored 5-string jazz bass. The ash body, maple top, maple fingerboard, vintage late-ā60s-flavored Seymour Duncan pickups, and original-spec Bartolini preamp combined for a bright jazz bass that did everything right. I can play clean, clear pop/rock and R&B on it. I can make it bark if I get on it harder, and it reacts incredibly well to overdrive effects for the Tim Commerford/Rage Against The Machine vibe. And the playability from the 1st to 24th fret is second to none.ā (Detail-oriented viewers may notice the pickups have āBasslinesā listed on their cover, but originally Seymour Duncan manufactured their bass offerings under that name. They have since dissolved Basslines as a brand and welcomed bass pickups under the Seymour Duncan umbrella. Bellerās pickups are technically Basslines 67/70 Jazz Bass 5 String single-coils.)
Additionally, the bass has an original Bartolini NTMB preamp. (This is not the modern, updated versions denoted as the NTMB+F or NTMB+FL, for fretted or fretless setups). All his instruments take DāAddario EXL170-5 Nickel Wound Bass strings (.045ā.130) with a tapered-core B-string. He prefers to use steels and lets them die to give his sound a rounder, thicker tone rather than simply using a standard set of flatwounds.
And finally, bassists can own their very own tone monster as Lull offers a pair of signature models based on this serendipitous partnership.
Dark Chocolate
āThis is a passive Mike Lull PJ5 and it has a completely different purpose,ā states Beller. āIt has an alder body with a rosewood fretboard so it has a dark, chocolate-y thing.ā The PJ5 has a smoother, more even tone allowing Beller to nimbly walk the neck.
Spacing Is Key
Above is a pre-Gibson 1986 Tobias Basic 5-string that he purchased in 1990 from lifelong guitar nut and notable luthier Paul Slagle. (Slagle passed away in 2020.) Beller used it while attending Berklee College of Music in Los Angeles and on his audition (and eventual gig) for Dweezil and Ahmet Zappaās band Zāuntil it was stolen from his North Hollywood apartment on New Yearās Eve 1994. Yet another social-media post proved fruitful as he was able to reconnect with this lavish 5-string built primarily from lacewood. This is the first time heās taken it on tour since 1994.
For the Aristocrats set, he uses it for the song āLast Ordersā off their 2019 album You Know What...? The song requires extreme finger stretches and extended chordal grabs made accessible by the Basicās compact string spacing.
Bryan Beller's Pedalboard
Starting in the top right corner, Beller has a pair of Xotic EP Boosters (currently heās only using one) to help bring up the output of his two passive basses to match the red Lull. This is a workaround on Bellerās end, so FOH is getting unity gain from his signal no matter the instrument. Next you see the Demeter Opto Compulator thatās always on. Then the fun starts with a TC Electronic Hall of Fame reverb, Boss CE-2B Bass Chorus, Boss DD-3 Digital Delay, and a TC Electronic Flashback delay/looper.
In the bottom left corner, we have the classic brown-box Boss OC-2 Octave (āthe greatest octave pedal ever madeā) and an Xotic Bass BB Preamp (his main overdrive). The Darkglass Electronics Vintage Microtubes and MXR M109S Six Band EQ are used in conjunction for a beefier Rat sound. Then thereās an Electro-Harmonix Micro POG (newest addition to the board) set to an octave up. And an old DigiTech Bass Driver that works behind the Bass BB Preamp and often runs into the Dunlop 105Q Cry Baby Bass Wah Pedal (white), giving the vocal-like sweeps more definition and prominence. Off to the left side, Beller has a Dunlop DVP3 Volume (X) Volume and Expression pedal. And a Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner keeps his basses in check.
"Low-Rent Geddy Lee"
Beller has incorporated the Behringer FCB1010 MIDI controller into his rig so he can provide some ālow-rent Geddy Leeā moments in the set via a Roland JV-1010 64-Voice Synth Module.
"Low-Rent Geddy Lee"
Beller has incorporated the Behringer FCB1010 MIDI controller into his rig so he can provide some ālow-rent Geddy Leeā moments in the set via a Roland JV-1010 64-Voice Synth Module.
23andBB
Using the Raven Labs Model MDB-1 mixer/direct box/buffer for his pedals (no effects loop, kids) and running the Roland JV-1010 into his amps allows Beller to employ both his bass and the synth module at the same time. He feels if the JV-1010 was running just through the monitors it would sound unnatural and get lost in the mix.
Gallien Growlers
His three-amp pairing includes a trio of Gallien-Krueger heads. In the top-left slot sits a first-generation GK MB Fusion (500W) that acts as the universal preamp coloring the entire rig. (The MB Fusion on the right stack is just a spare.) The MB Fusion is split two ways. The bottom-right head is a Gallien-Krueger 2001RB that hits a duo of Gallien-Krueger CX410 cabs (top set on each side). The other side of the MB Fusion runs into GK 1001RB that hits a pair of Gallien Krueger CX410 cabs cabs on the bottom of each side.
A Dream Instrument
Guthrie Govan has been with Charvel for nearly a decade. Heās developed two signature models and here is the brand-new chapter. The Guthrie Govan MJ San Dimas SD24 CM features a basswood body with an ash cap (based on the San Dimas Style 1 silhouette), caramelized maple for the neck, and a fretboard with 24 jumbo stainless-steel frets, a 25.5" scale, and a 12-16" compound radius fretboard. (The previous model had a caramelized flame maple neck and fretboard.)
āThe purpose of an instrument like this is to have a dream instrument where you get called to go somewhere to do a session or to do a gig and you have no idea what will be expected of you,ā Govan says in a Charvel promo video. āCan you hop on the airplane with one guitar confident that it will actually be able to deliver whatever the people at the other end will need? This was the quest of the process.ā
A new feature first found on this sig is the freshly designed Recessed Charvel Locking Tremolo bridge (without a locking nut) that was created from the ground up with Govanās input. The use of the simpler Graph Tech TUSQ XL nut allows GG to make quick changes to and from standard and drop-D tunings, and avoids getting his left-hand bitten by the locking nut when he gets a little carried away. The SD24 CMās pickups were dialed in by designer Michael Frank-Braun (the mastermind behind Eric Johnsonās signature pickups) and are constructed in Korea. The 5-way selector has an unusual layout that avoids engaging the middle single-coil without either the bridge humbuckerās inner coil or the neckās outer coil. The standard middle (or third position) engages the outer coils of each humbucker. Both of his Charvels take DāAddario NYXL strings (.011ā.052) and this one typically rides in drop-D tuning.
While youāll see the original āfancierā model in the next slide, itās worth mentioning the āsimplifiedā Japanese-made guitar just earned a Premier Gear Award in our September 2022 issue.
It's "Christmas Time"
Hereās his first namesake instrumentāthe Guthrie Govan USA Signature HSH Flame Maple. Similarly to the SD24, the body on this one is basswood, but the original comes with a flame maple top. The initial iteration also offered an option for a caramelized ash body. This one has Charvelās custom MF pickups. It tends to be saved for standard tuning. Having a gigbag that can tote two guitars with operational floating trems is, as Guthrie says: āChristmas time.
No Problemo
The USA Guthrie Govan model included an Allparts Tremol-No clamp that has three options of functionality. Position one allows the tremolo to work as intended. The second setting locks the tremolo so it wonāt move at all. And in the third spot, the bridge stays solid and stable for dropped tunings.
Couldnāt Bear To Play with Another
Ever notice Guthrie Govan doesnāt throw picks around like most rockers? Well, thatās because he generally travels with just three of his signature Red Bear picks. (They retail for $35 per pick.) His preferred plectrum is based around the companyās Big Jazzer shape, in an extra-heavy gauge with grips and a speed bevel. Additionally, on the top of the rounded edge youāll find serration much like a dime or sixpence.
Digital Bagpipe
Whether itās been flanking Steven Wilson or tangoing with the Aristocrats, Govan has been an amp-and-pedalboard guy. Heās had long ties with the British valve hounds at Victory. (In a 2019 interview with PG, he noted preferring the V30 MKII.) However, things shifted when he began working with legendary composer Hans Zimmer. For the scope and span of that gig, he needed to welcome the digital bath that is modeling since everyone uses in-ear monitors and a lone-wolf guitarist could never dream of overshadowing an orchestra in that environment. Alas, Guthrieās dance with digital began. Through the shutdown, he collaborated often with Hans on several film scores and found boundless creativity within the Fractal Audio FM9. (He mentions in the Rundown that for one part of Dune he used 32 layers of detuned Axe-Fx patches to create a bagpipe sound.)
āI became more comfortable with this digital world, so I thought letās see what it can offer me in a more traditional rock-n-roll context,ā admits Govan. āAs it turned out, our set has been evolving a little bit and itās proving harder to get one amp and one cab to sound just right for each of those pastiche things that we like to do. With this (looks down at the FM9), I can bring 10 amps and 10 cabs on the plane [laughs].ā