Raised on blues rock and Strats, this spunky shredder is now aiming to attract headbangers and mosh pits with headless Strandbergs and brand-new signature Lace Sensor pickups.
Erin Coburn grew up on blues and classic rock. That background has afforded her a spotlight onstage for over half her life, including opening slots ahead of Marcus King and Blackberry Smoke. She released her first album Chaos Before Conformity in 2015 at just 14 years old. She was starting to cut a groove in the blues-rock genre, but the needle stopped when her ear latched onto the darker moods of Alice in Chains, more dynamic music of Sleep Token, and the technical proficiency from modern guitar whisperers Tim Henson and Scott LePage of Polyphia. Since then, her playing has sped up, her tunings have dropped—including the addition of a 7-string Strandberg—and she’s joined the heavier side of riffing with one goal in mind.
“I’m going more towards hard-rock and metal because I love it and that’s where my soul is—I just want to open up mosh pits someday!”
It’ll be interesting to see how she fuses her backbone of blues-rock with the new injection of musical blood. Regardless of the destination, we’re just glad to be sitting shotgun for the ride.
Before her band’s headlining show at Nashville’s Eastside Bowl, Erin Coburn welcomed PG’s Chris Kies onstage for a conversation about gear, music, and surprises in her lunchbox. She dished on how she gravitated (and possibly levitated) towards Strandberg guitars during a NAMM Show visit and then divulged a brand-new offering from Lace that includes some of her own signature of sweet ’n’ heat.
[Brought to you by D’Addario Strings & XPND Pedalboard.]
Bodacious
Erin started her guitar journey playing Strats and semi-hollows, but a fateful trip to the 2019 NAMM Show was all it took for her to be drawn in by headless horsemen of Strandberg. “I had seen guitarists play them on Instagram, but I never seen one in person, until I was walking by Strandberg at NAMM and I levitated towards their booth because I thought ‘those look so cool!’” She used her blues angle—a weak spot in their artist roster at the time—as an in with the company and they’ve been thick as thieves ever since.
This is one of two Strandberg Boden Classic NX 6 she had on tour. It has an alder body, quartersawn maple neck with a maple fretboard that has a 20" radius and Luminlay dots, Jescar 51100 stainless steel frets, the company’s trademarked EndurNeck profile, and Strandberg’s EGS Rev7 tremolo system & string locks. The typical Boden Classics come with Suhr pickups, but Coburn rocks Lace models in her Strandbergs—this HSS configuration takes the Sensor Dually Red-Blue humbucker in the bridge and a pair of Sensor Silver single-coils in the middle and neck slots. All the Strandberg models you’ll see weigh in at just five pounds!
Teal Steel
Here’s Coburn’s Strandberg Original NX 6 Tremolo Neck-Thru that features a chambered swamp ash body featuring a solid maple top capped a flame maple veneer. It also has a roasted maple neck with bird’s-eye maple fretboard that’s carbon-fiber reinforced. The major difference to a player like Coburn is the neck-thru construction that removes any need for a heel so she can grab every note packed on this 24-fret, 25.5"-scale shred stick.
Fresh Mags
Here is seemingly just another beautiful Strandberg Boden Classic NX 6, but if you look closely it’s stacked with a mint set of signature Erin Coburn Lace pickups. There are two highlights to point out in this H-S-S setup. First, is the bridge humbucker that’s a brand-new design blending Lace’s Purple and Gold Sensors that strive to be equally powerful as they are articulate. Second, the single-coils feature ceramic magnets, which is a first for Lace products. The middle single-coil features reverse-wound, reverse-polarity (RWRP) winding enhancing the second and fourth positions. The neck single-coil to Erin’s needs that require “robust power delivering a strong foundation for deeply rich and fuzzy warm tones.”
Tin Can Alley
Coburn gets rough and rowdy with this duo of lunchbox bruisers built by New Egypt Folk String Instrument Company. They only have four strings but offer enough attitude you won’t be missing the other two.
Shredulele
And if lunchbox rippers weren’t enough, Coburn busts out a Kala KA-20CE Concert Uke for a medley of covers. The mini monster is made of burled meranti and runs through her rig just like the rest of her instruments.
Strings & Things
For this run, all her guitars used DR Strings Veritas .010–.046, but as she’s started exploring lower tunings and test driving her new Strandberg Boden Prog NX 7 she’s began experimenting with DR’s DDT lineup of strings. She uses custom DR Strings straps to secure all her instruments, too.
Erin Coburn’s Pedalboard
We caught Coburn during a rig rebuild. During the Rundown, she alluded to a future layout that will be in stereo and feature two Bad Cat amps that will certainly rage and roar. However, during her stop in Nashville, she filled the room with rock thanks to the Neural DSP Quad Cortex. Her core tone centered around Rabea Massaad’s preset Clinic Vibes, but she changed a few things that she needed including the addition of the unit’s freeze feature and enabling her to run Clinic Vibes preset in mono. She’ll introduce a drive or a combination of two for dirty and lead tones, and she has a wah on tap, too. On the left side of the Quad Cortex rests a Mission Engineering SP1-ND Quad Cortex Expression pedal and on the right is a Boss FV-500 Volume pedal.
Little Feat’s Fred Tackett and Scott Sharrard take PG through their 2023 touring rigs.
Formed in 1969 by slide guitar juggernaut Lowell George, disbanded after his death in ’79, then revitalized in 1987, Little Feet combines George’s bandmate and co-writer Fred Tackett along with virtuoso Scott Sharrard in their new recording and touring lineup. Tackett and Sharrard invited PG’s John Bohlinger to their soundcheck at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium to talk gear and tell classic stories from Little Feet’s early days.
Brought to you by D'Addario XSRR Strings.
Fred Tacket's Gear:
Tackett’s maple neck 1984 Red Strat Ultra is set up higher for slide.
Tackett’s 1964 Fender Deluxe was modified years ago by Paul Rivera.
Tackett’s pedal board features a Boss TU-2 Tuner, Dunlop Cry Baby, JHS Pulp ’N Peel V3, Boss Tremolo TR-2, MXR Phase 90, Boss DD-5 Delay with Boss FS-5U tap, Ibanez TS9, and a tiny mystery M boost.
Scott Sharrard's Gear:
This Gibson CS-336 is Sharrard’s #1. It features Wizz pickups, as well as custom wiring and work by Paul Schwartz.
Sharrard tours with three amps, and runs either one or two depending on the size of the venue. On this show, he ran a Two Rock Classic Reverb 100/50-watt head with a 2x12 vertical closed back cabinet, loaded with Celestion Heritage G12-65 speakers
Sharrard’s second touring amp is his vintage 1966 Fender Vibrolux Reverb 2x10 combo amp, with Celestion G10 vintage speakers
Sharrard’s pedalboard contains a TC Electronic PolyTune, Analog Man Bi-CompROSSor, custom Klon made by Charlie Martinez, Strymon Lex Rotary Speaker Simulator, Strymon Flint, Radial Switchbone for when both amps are in use, a backup PCE-FX Aluminum Falcon, and Radial DI for acoustic guitar.
Efficient, economical, and exacting are the key features that allow these pop-rockers’ finely-tuned setups to pump out buoyant ballads and bangers.
“‘Stumbled into guitar’ is a good way of putting our start with the instrument. [Spencer Stewart] and I formed the band in 2015 and that’s when I got my first electric guitar,” admits The Band CAMINO’s vocalist and guitarist Jeffery Jordan.
That sort of sideways T-bone collision into guitardom allows this pop-minded duo to avoid typical tonal tropes like worrying about tubes versus modeling, or imports versus custom. Their focus was and continues to be translating their danceable melodies into guitar-driven rompers and producing the best live show possible.
“We definitely enjoyed a pedalboard-and-amp-era of the band, but the tech has come so far and we’re able to eliminate so much room for error and potential inconsistencies, allowing for a freer performance,” adds Jordan.
As we quickly found out in our Rundown with Jordan and Stewart, the band’s approach favors execution over exhibitionism.
In mid-September, just before the band commenced their headlining Screaming in the Dark tour, in support of the just-released The Dark album, co-frontmen and dueling guitarists Jeffery Jordan and Spencer Stewart invited PG’s Chris Kies to rehearsal for a gear talk. The main chauffeurs of CAMINO explained how grabbing guitar later in life allowed them to avoid a lot of gear gossip and find tonal solutions that enrich their performances. Plus, they both discuss the stable of studs from Fender, Gibson, and Epiphone that give bounce and beauty to their merging of indie-rock and electropop.Brought to you by D'Addario XPND.
A Flashy Fender
Jeffery Jordan’s first electric was a Strat. He’s long enjoyed the Fender side of things, and one of his main rides for the upcoming tour would be this MIM Fender Telecaster. Two things to note on this T would be its glow-in-the-dark paint job and the addition of the EverTune bridge, making this not only an onstage stunner but a locked-damn hammer always ready to smash. Both Jordan and Stewart exclusively use D’Addario NYXL1052 Light Top/Heavy Bottom strings (.010–.052) on their electrics. They’re normally in standard tuning, but they do explore open-D for a few songs.
Backup Blaster
This Fender Jim Root Jazzmaster joins the party if the Tele can’t dance. It comes stock with a set of EMG 60/81 pickups, but Jordan swapped in a couple of Lace Sensors. The bridge is the gold version that offers a classic ’50s Style single-coil sound while the neck Lace is a silver model giving Jordan a fat, ’70s single-coil sound with increased output and more midrange. Again, an EverTune bridge has been added for tuning stability.
Bold Bird
For the first time, Jordan will be hitting the road with a Gibson. Three songs are allocated to this regal raptor—a Custom Shop Firebird Custom, decked out with a mahogany body laced with multi-ply binding, elegant gold hardware, and a set of 498T/490R humbuckers.
Booming Bell
The subtler side of The Band CAMINO is handled by this Gibson J-45 Standard finished in a smoldering tobacco burst. It runs through their Neural DSP Quad Cortex thanks to the included L.R. Baggs VTC electronics.
Dancing in the Dark
Spencer Stewart joined the electric guitar cult in 2015 when forming the Band CAMINO with Jeffery Jordan. He started the band’s existence with a Strat before being seduced by a Gibson Lzzy Hale Explorer. Ever since he’s been cruising and bruising with ’buckers, but one of his current main rides revs and roars with Fishman Fluence pickups. He prefers to record with these guitars because the Fluences are so dynamic and versatile. Originally finished in a stealth black, Stewart jazzed them up with glow-in-the-dark paint and blacklight speckles that make them both dazzle onstage. The red one takes lead, while the blue one hangs in the second position.
High Flyer
Any songs in open-D are reserved for Stewart’s Firebird Studio ’70s Tribute, still rocking its stock mini-humbuckers. He loves its tone and the added bonus of it being a light-feathered bird.
Stolen Upgrades
During a quick stop at a morning radio show in L.A., the band left their acoustics in the rental vehicle. When they returned from the brief session, the unattended acoustics were gone. Stewart lost an Epiphone Masterbilt and Jordan was out a Fender flattop. Before an in-store performance and album signing at Nashville’s beloved Grimey’s, Gibson offered Stewart a chance to check out this Gibson Hummingbird Studio Rosewood. Needless to say, he’s not giving it back nor letting it out of his sight.
The Same But Not
A recent venture into a Nashville Guitar Center yielded a déjà vu moment when Stewart saw this Epiphone Masterbuilt DR-500RNS—very similar to the aforementioned looted acoustic. He took it as a sign, and plunked down the plastic to be reconnected with an old friend.
Clean Business
With less than 10 years under their belt as electric guitarists and growing up with tech, Jeffery and Spencer don’t have a lot of the mental pitfalls more veteran players fall into when thinking about live guitar tones. For these two, it’s all about the precision, practicality, and polished sounds they can achieve for a maximum performance that connects directly with the audience. The one-stop solution for those needs is this rolling buffet that starts with Neural DSP Quad Cortex units. Every moment of their show is programmed in these tablet-sized titans. The other hardware in their rack includes Shure PSM 1000s (in-ear monitors), Shure P10T-G10 Dual Wireless Transmitters, Shure ULXD4D Dual Channel Digital Wireless Receivers, Radial Gold Digger 4 Channel Mic Selectors, Sennheiser AC3200-II Active High Power Broadband antennas, Focusrite RedNet A16R MkII 16x16 Analog Dante Interfaces, Ferrofish A32 Pro Dante Multi-Format Converters, Midas XL48 Preamps, and Universal Audio Apollo X6 Thunderbolt Interfaces. This setup can either pilot a moon mission or make for a smooth, flawless rock show.