“Our relationship is everything about this band,” conceded Rebecca Lovell to PG in 2022. “The way that we communicate, the way that we play together, the way that we facilitate one another’s musicianship. It is the air that we breathe as a band, and everything revolves around our siblinghood.”
Their symbiotic sorcery has taken them from budding bluegrass pickers in the Lovell Sisters (then alongside older sister Jessica Lovell) to real-deal rockstars as Larkin Poe with several No. 1 albums on the Billboard blues chart. Since 2010, when the sisters regrouped as an electric duo, they’ve released six studio albums, five EPs, and one live set. Each musical installment from the twosome continues to bring fresh songwriting and sonic influences, further intensifying and enlivening their core chicken-fried, boot-stompin’, roots-rockin’ sound.
On the penultimate day of their first touring leg in support of 2022’s Blood Harmony, the sensational Larkin Poe sisters, Megan and Rebecca Lovell, welcomed PG’s Chris Kies onstage at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl to talk tone. Megan shows off her brand-new Beard signature Electro-Liege lap steel and a 1950s Rickenbacker B6, featuring some ingenious engineering that inspired the Liege’s unique silhouette. Rebecca explains how she fell for the HSS Stratocaster and why she’s finally ready to be in a committed relationship with fuzz. Plus, we find out who’s taking who’s gear when it comes to the Lovell sisters and their significant others.
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The Slide Queen’s Loyal Subjects
After making the switch to electrified instruments, Megan Lovell has been an avid ambassador of the lap steel guitar. Her first and longest partnership with the instrument is an early 1950s Rickenbacker Electro Model B6 (top). The unusual upper-bout aluminum wing was something Megan created to help keep the instrument’s heft off her shoulder and put it in a more comfortable playing position.
As you can see below, the B6 was a big inspiration on Megan’s new Beard Guitars Electro-Liege lap steel. The Electro-Liege is built for comfort and speed, with a lightweight poplar body, Jason Lollar Horseshoe pickup, and a shape that was hand-drawn by Megan to emulate the same curves in the homemade body extension she uses for her Rickenbacker.
“Against Megan’s will, I have been calling her ‘the slide queen’ for a long time,” Rebecca said to PG in 2022. “I’ve sorta forced the issue and now she’s kinda stuck with it. So, she wanted to make a play on that, so liege is referring to the royalty angle. Megan went into granular detail about this. It was really cool to see these little paper cutouts on cardboard of what it was gonna look like, and hats off to Paul Beard for really taking all of her information and going for it.”
The result looks like a futuristic cross between her Rickenbacker and a Dobro. And the Liege carries half the weight of its forefather. “It was really cool that he had the trust to just take all of the measurements from my drawings and just make it,” Megan told PG. “It’s exactly what I wanted.” Both lap steels ride in open-G tuning, she puts Ernie Ball strings on them, and attacks both with Dunlop Zookies thumbpicks.
Stolen Inspiration
“The first electric guitar I ever bought, is my seafoam green Jazzmaster. I got that because we were playing with Elvis Costello, and that was his main guitar and I just thought it was so badass,” Rebecca detailed in PG in 2018. However, you won’t see any of those instruments in this Rundown. So, how did Rebecca come to love and appreciate the Strat?
Well, she’s married to Rig Rundown alumnus Tyler Bryant, who’s had a long association with that particular Fender. She snagged one of his Fender Custom Shop 1960s Stratocaster HSS’s and took it on tour. She loved its smaller, lighter profile and thicker tone. So, she enlisted the good people at the Fender Custom Shop to build her a clone of Bryant’s 1960s copy.
“I love humbuckers,” says Rebecca. “It’s so beefy, and having toured as a four-piece for so many years, that extra chunk has been helpful.”
Rebecca keeps all her electrics in standard tuning, they take Ernie Ball Slinkys (.010–.046), and she hammers against them with Dunlop Tortex .60 mm picks.
(It’s worth checking out Bryant’s Rundown to hear the story behind his two main “Pinky” Strats that are now immortalized in a Fender signature model.)
A Silvery Stunner
Rebecca’s other main Fender is this Custom Shop 1950s “blackguard” Tele that she requested be bedazzled in a silver-sparkle finish.
“This is the most bling thing I own. I’m not a big girly-girl, but come on! I love it because it’s spanky as hell,” admits Rebecca.
The Stolen Special
Here’s the gateway drug that introduced Rebecca into the specialness of Strats. She still tours with it and keeps it stocked and ready for any backup duties.
Sparkalicious
For some added twang and note bending, Rebecca travels with this Gretsch G6129TPE Players Jet FT Electric Guitar with Bigsby.
Double Deluxes
The ladies are vintage small-combo aficionados, but the rigors of the road make traveling with them a nerve-wracking endeavor. Their collective solution is to tour with a couple of Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverbs. And both plug into the amp’s vibrato circuit.
Double Trouble—Megan Lovell & Rebecca Lovell’s Pedalboards
As with their onstage amp choices, the sisters have nearly identical pedalboards. Both rely on a Line 6 HX Effects, a Strymon Iridium, and a Rodenberg Custom Amplification TB Drive. The drive is Tyler Bryant’s signature pedal that stacks a pair of TS-style circuits into one box. He had a custom enclosure made for both Megan (“Slide Queen”) and Rebecca (“Habibi”) that has their respective nicknames on it (top). Megan has an Ernie Ball 40th Anniversary Volume Pedal and Peterson StroboStomp HD Tuner, while Rebecca (bottom) has some added firepower with a Beetronics Royal Jelly and a limited edition MXR Sugar Drive in a “brown sugar” coating. Additionally, Rebecca has a Boss TU-3 Chromatic tuner to keep her guitars in check. Both Lovells have a Strymon Zuma power supply and a Xact Tone Solutions routing box under the hood.
Behind the moody makeup, angsty energy, arena-level production, rebellious revelry, and 20 empty Marshall cabs blasting flood lights is a legit modern rock band. And behind the band’s charismatic leader Yungblud (aka Dominic Richard Harrison) is its producer, songwriter, and bona fide riff assassin Adam Warrington. Armed with a handful of Gibsons, a Gretsch, and an MIM Jazzmaster, he is a mortar of might.
Before Yungblud’s redlining, headlining show at Nashville’s legendary Ryman Auditorium on January 29, Warrington gave PG’s Chris Kies some quality time to detail his artillery. During the interview, he explains why he lives by this advice: “If you love a guitar, don’t change it.” Plus, he reveals how his Box of Doom iso cab has become an integral ingredient, and walks us through a recent pedalboard rebuild that occurred after his previous stomp station was stolen from his London flat.
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Solid Guitar
For the Life on Mars tour now crisscrossing the United States, Yungblud guitarist Adam Warrington’s No. 1 was this 2018 Gibson SG Standard that’s completely stock. (He did have a single fret replaced after it was ripped out when colliding with a drum riser in Las Vegas.) Originally owned by bandleader Yungblud (aka Dominic Harrison), the guitar was commandeered and kept by Warrington. He’s been favoring the black bombshell on this run for its beefy tone and the slender frame that allows him to “jump about” onstage without compacting any vertebrae. His main ride stays in standard tuning and takes Ernie Ball 2015 Skinny Top Heavy Bottom Slinkys (.010–.052).
Mr. Brown
“This was my favorite guitar [before acquiring the SG] and it probably still is, but I don’t play it as much because it’s quite noisy in the States,” admits Warrington. The problem child is a Gibson Custom Shop ES-335 that is loaded with P-90s that are coil-tapped. The semi-hollowbody is finished in a glossy, caramelly translucent brown. He almost put a Bigsby on it, but a friend reminded him that “if you love a guitar, don’t change it,” so it’s remained the same. This one sees stage time for the quieter numbers that require him to dial back the volume for a more acoustic, jangly sound.
Les Paul, More Glue
“I’m a massive Jimmy Page fan and this is the closest I could get to his guitar.” The more affordable approximation is this 2001 Gibson Les Paul Standard that has earned all its scar tissue riding hard with Warrington. About a month after purchasing it, he was performing with Yungblud and blasting overhead fluorescent lights revealed the guitar was sold to him with a neck repair. This wasn’t disclosed to Warrington at the time of purchase, but to test matters, he broke the headstock a second time when it fell off his bed. He claims the guitar sounds better than ever after two neck repairs.
Ready for Your Close-Up?
Here’s an intimate view of the burst smiling wide off Warrington’s Les Paul.
Ready for Your Close-Up?
Here’s an intimate view of the burst smiling wide off Warrington’s Les Paul.
Casey Jones
Warrington has named this LP “Casey Jones.” No, the Scot isn’t a devoted Deadhead or a railroad buff, but it’s the name of the weed strain he bought in Amsterdam shortly after scooping this guitar at Denmark Street Guitars in London.
Surf the Jetstream
This stylish, tuxedo of a guitar is a Gretsch G6128T-89VS Vintage Select ’89 Duo Jet with Bigsby that makes a name for itself during shows for any songs in D-standard or drop-C tunings. To help keep tension equal to the standard-tuned guitars, the Duo Jet gets wrapped with Ernie Ball 2026 Not Even Slinky Paradigms (.012–.056).
Jammin’ on the Jazzmaster
This 2010s Fender Classic Player Jazzmaster Special is probably Warrington’s longest 6-string friend. To give his MIM offset a unique look, he swapped out the tortoiseshell pickguard for a mint green and took off the cream knobs and replaced them with black witch-hat controls. Aside from removing the jazz circuit (he kept accidentally knocking it into rhythm mode), everything else about the guitar is stock and he typically plays it with Ernie Ball 2027 Beefy Slinky Paradigms (.011–.054).
A Bass for Ben
Adam Warrington’s guitar tech Ben Jackson tends to instrument maintenance in the shadows, but each night he puts on this Iron Lung BJ5000 to perform one song alongside Warrington. (Yungblud typically performs as a three-piece, with guitars, drums, and no bass.) This beauty was handbuilt by 21-year-old budding luthier Josh Warner, who shadowed Jackson as a tech assistant on a previous U.K. tour. This '70s J bass replica was a token of his appreciation. He constructed everything (including the pickguard) and only outsourced the hardware, tuners, and knobs, and obviously didn’t wind the Seymour Duncan SJB-3 Quarter Pound J-Bass pickups.
British Brawlers
Adam’s setup features a Hiwatt Custom 20 and a Marshall Bluesbreaker Model 1962 reissue. The Hiwatt works in conjunction with a Dr. Z Brake Lite attenuator and PDI 03 JB Joe Bonamassa Signature Model guitar speaker sim DI box. The JTM runs into a Box of Doom Basic iso box, outfitted with a single Celestion G12H-150 Redback. Both amps are running red hot, which causes Ben to replace the Hiwatt’s EL84s several times during a long tour. And these amps are panned in Adam’s in-ears (left has Hiwatt and right has Marshall).
Red Menace
Seen from the moon are Yungblud’s wall of red Marshall cabs. The stage props are just spray-painted Marshall 4x12 shells that house flood lights for dramatic blasts of millions of lumens!
This is Adam Warrington’s second pedalboard build since backing Yungblud. The first iteration was stolen from his London flat. This version is close to the original and retains a Boss ES-8 Effects Switching System as the brains of the operation. His guitar hits the Dunlop Echoplex Preamp EP101, DigiTech Whammy, and then an Ibanez WH10V3 Classic Reissue Wah. After that, everything routes through the ES-8. That’s an Electro-Harmonix POG, two JHS Pedals (Crayon and Muffuletta), ZVEX Super Hard On, Fulltone ’70 BC-108C Fuzz, and a trio of Boss big boys (RV-500 Reverb, DD-500 Digital Delay, and MD-500 Modulation). And all of Warrington’s guitars are kept in check with a Boss TU-3s Chromatic Tuner.
