The outlaw-country arena-rocker and his copilot Laur Joamets show off their Johnny Blue Skies setups.
You might think alt-country veteran Sturgill Simpson would need no introduction by this point in his career, but this year, he set out to reintroduce himself to the worldāas Johnny Blue Skies. Thatās the moniker he created for his new record, Passage du Desir, which was released in July on High Top Mountain. Simpson promised that the album was the first step in a new phase of his creative life; the next was the subsequent tour.
Simpson, looking his Waylon Jennings best, met up with Premier Guitarās John Bohlinger before his headlining gig at Nashvilleās Bridgestone Arena. Sporting a new-to-him Gibson ES-335 and an army-camo jacket, he told Bohlinger heās not trying to be a star guitarist: āIām trying to be a much less educated version of Bob Weir,ā he grins. The star turn is for the Estonian guitarist Laur Joamets, who handles plenty of leads along with pedal steel.
The guitar duo took us through their Blue Skies-era gear, featuring an array of Magnatone amplifiers, guitars old and new, and the simplest pedalboard youāll ever see on an arena stage.
Brought to you by DāAddario.Makin' Music with Macon Music
Simpson bought this 1962 Gibson ES-335 back in the fall of 2024 from Emerald City Guitars in Seattle. It was an exclusive build for Macon Music, a former store in Memphis, so Gibson added its beautiful headstock design, typically only found on L-5s. The only mod Simpson did was to flip the pickup magnets such that the two PAFs would be out of phase in the middle position, giving him a woody, acoustic-adjacent sound. (Simpson left his acoustics at home for this run.)
'56 Fender
Simpsonās refinished 1956 Fender Esquire is his longtime number one. This one features stainless steel frets, and the original bridge pickup has been rewound to clock in at just under 8k. An Analog Man Jim Weider Big-T holds down the neck position. Itās also got a homemade 4-way switching system. Simpson runs it with DR Strings (.010ā.046).
Double Trouble
Simpson bought one of these Magnatone Panoramic Stereos in California and kept it as his bedroom amp. He got so used to playing through them that he had these made for the tour. The twin setup gives Simpson a mindblowing stereo-tremolo image.
One and Done
Simpson packed light for this yearās run. His board bears just a Peterson Stomp Classic tuner running into a Fulltone True-Path ABY-ST, which splits his signal to his two Magnatones. āI wouldnāt use a tuner if I didnāt have to,ā he chuckles.
The LILY P4D beside the splitter lets him control his mic signal to cut interference from onstage noise.
Family Heirloom
Laur Joamets received this 1974 Fender Telecaster when he was 16 years old as a gift from his fatherāalso a guitarist. Itās a sentimental gem, but unfortunately it requires a lot of TLC: Joametsā guitar tech is locked in constant battle with it, on account of the truss rod hardly working. The electronics and hardware have been swapped and upgraded many times (Joamets wired in his preferred tone caps), and Simpson gifted Joamets a bridge pickup he says is from a ā52 reissue, while a Lollar Royal T lives in the neck position.
Fano Firebird
This time out, Joamets is favoring this Fano Guitars PX6, which has a swamp ash body with a maple neck and rosewood fretboard. He pulled out the stock P-90s and dropped in a humbucker gifted to him by his dad in the bridge, and a Lollar P-90 Staple pickup by the neck.
Joamets also brought along his black Fender Stratocaster, and for his pedal-steel duties, he leans on a Stage One pedal steel gifted to him āfrom the bossāāSimpson, not Springsteen. Sturgill bought it for Joamets in 2016 because he wanted his co-guitarist to learn and play pedal steel on the road. Joamets says heās still learning today. Itās tuned to E9, and runs into one of his Magnatone amplifiers.
This Charming Amp
Joamets also runs a two-amp setup. His Magnatone Varsity Reverb handles the signal from his delay and reverb pedals, while the rest runs to the āCharmer,ā a replica of Fenderās brown-panel Deluxes of the early ā60s, built by a friend of Joametsā dad. Heās had the Charmer for a long timeāwhen he moved to Nashville with it, he took out the tubes for the journey and stuffed the cabinet with clothes for maximum packing efficiency.
A Tale of Two Boards
For his main board, Joamets packs a little heavier than his boss. The platform, made by West Coast Pedal Board, carries a Peterson StroboStomp, Greer Amps Arbuckle Trem, sRossFX fuzz/overdrive, MXR Booster, T-Rex Replica, sRossFX germanium octave pedal, TC Electronic Viscous Vibe, Dunlop EP103 Echoplex, and Source Audio True Spring Reverb. An MXR Tap lets him tap in delay tempos.
His steel board is more spartan. The Stage One goes into a Peterson StroboStomp HD, then on to a Greer Black Tiger and Goodrich Sound Company volume pedal, before hitting the Magnatone.
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Jesse Dayton uses an EP-3, from the first generation of solid-state Echoplex models, on the road and in the studio.
From Page to Eddie to Gilmour, the comparatively impractical Maestro Echoplex has nonetheless served its masters well. And for some, like our 6-stringing contributor, it still does.
Feast your eyes on the missing link. I give you the coolest contraption to ever run between a guitar and an amplifier: the Maestro Echoplex.
The cool factor for this historic piece of gear is so off the chart that Iām always a bit shocked when players, young or old, are not familiar with this marvelous old-school tape-echo device. But no, Iām not writing this to copy and paste Wikipedia stats on this crown jewel of the guitar-pedal world. (However, if your inner nerdom is anything like mine, itās worthy of a snoop. All of the Echoplexes from 1959 to the late ā70s sound amazing!) Iām writing to profess to all my fellow guitar gear freaks my undying love for something that was used on so many historical recordings that itās mind-blowing. And while a big box with an analog tape loop might not be your idea of a great ride-along pal on tour, or even in the studio, truth is, there is nothing else exactly like an authentic Echoplex.
Do you remember the first time you heard that huge swelling repeat sound at the end of āEruptionā by Van Halen? Echoplex. How about the heaviness of Jimmy Pageās guitar on āMoby Dickā by Led Zeppelin? Thatās a cranked Echoplex preamp, mis amigos!
The Echoplex design is pretty simple, which is one reason why itās so iconic. It has actual tape that runs on the top of the unit, records your sound, then plays it back. Remember 8-track tape players? Yeah, kind of like thatāexcept for the recording part. You just crank the slide in the middleāat least on the solid-state EP-3 model that I ownāto make the delay effect go fast or slow. Itās not rocket science. But it does also work as a preamp and will enhance the tone of the guitar coming out of your amp like no other unit. Eric Johnson, for example, travels with one in a rack, sans tape, just so he can use the preamp for his classic tone. The Echoplex preamp basically boosts and compresses your signal, fattening it up and providing some EQ trickery that will have guitar players unfamiliar with the deviceās charms scratching their heads.
The original Echoplexes come in four flavors: the EP-1, EP-2, EP-3, and EP-4. The EP-1 is the O.G.āthe first tape delay ever, with a moving tape head that allows the delay time to be changed. It was made from ā59 to ā62, when the next generation of āPlex, called the EP-2, not only gave the tape head more mobility but protected the tape itself in a cartridge. The solid-state version was the EP-3, which was used by Van Halen, Page, Tommy Bolin, and Brian May, among others. The EP-4 offered an output buffer to improve impedance-matching with other gear. Today, you can find early generation Echoplexes for anywhere from $1,400 to nearly $2,000, and the EP-3 and EP-4 are in the $600 to $1,500 range, depending on condition.
āI have all kinds of analog delay pedals but none of them compare to the Echoplex.ā
There are related devices out there that some vintage-tone-inclined players, like Brian Setzer, prefer. The Roland Space Echo is one, and thereās the Binson Echorec. Theyāre easier for traveling because the Space Echo has a more efficient tape transport system and the Binson records on a drum rather than a length of tape. David Gilmour from Pink Floyd was a fan of the Echorec. But just remember, it is the original Echoplex sound those models were built to emulate. And both of those artists also used original Echoplex units on a few of their classic recordings.
Sure, you can buy some newfangled digital pedal that tries to recreate the Echoplex, but what fun is there in that? Whereās the potential for tape snarls or the manual cleaning required? After owning several EP-3 Echoplexes and using them in recording studios on countless tracks, touring all over the world with one in cars, vans, RVs, buses, and planes, I can tell you nothing replicates or enhances your tone like an EP-3. And if you do roll out with one, donāt forget Q-tips and a bottle of rubbing alcohol to clean the tape heads when they get dirty. If that doesnāt sound like a good time, then I guess you don't wanna get the sound that fattened up the guitars in power trios like Joe Walshās James Gang or on Billy Gibbonsā first five ZZ Top albums.
I have all kinds of analog delay pedals but none of them compare to the Echoplex. Remember, a cool thing about owning vintage gear is not that itās a piece of handcrafted history, but knowing that Leo Fender or Les Paul himself, or, in this case, Echoplex designer Mike Battle, is never making another one like the one that you own. Don't get overwhelmed or anxious by projecting what could go wrong with it. Get excited about having a piece of gear that can make your guitar sound like almost every classic-rock, blues, and country record ever made.