![Adrian Belew/BEAT Tour Rig Rundown [2024]](https://www.premierguitar.com/media-library/youtube.jpg?id=53638946&width=1245&height=700&quality=85&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0)
Adrian Belew is one of the most inventive guitarists of the past half-century—an incandescent player and songwriter who has a vast menagerie of tones and sounds at his command. You’ve heard him with King Crimson, Talking Heads, David Bowie, and Frank Zappa, among others, and with his pop band the Bears and on his solo recordings and tours.
This fall, Adrian is following dates with the Talking Heads-fueled Remain in Light tour, which he co-led with Heads keyboardist and guitarist Jerry Harrison, with the BEAT Tour—a run drawing on his recordings with King Crimson in the ’80s: the albums Discipline, Beat, and Three of a Perfect Pair. Of course, this is just a small—but extremely potent and influential—portion of his 30-year collaboration with Crimson founder Robert Fripp, who has given BEAT his blessing. But putting this repertoire in the hands of Belew, fellow Crimson alum and super-bassist Tony Levin, the incendiary Steve Vai (playing the guitar role of Fripp), and the Earth-shaking drummer Danny Carey from Tool promises magical performances. It’s also one of the year’s most-anticipated tours.
As I write this, Belew, Levin, Vai, and Carey are rehearsing on the West Coast, and by the time this video posts, they will have played their first BEAT dates. So, word is likely to have spread that Belew has brought some crucial pieces of gear he played with ’80s Crimson back into play. But here, you’ll get a close up look and listen as Premier Guitar joins Adrian—with tech Blair White of Nashville’s Eastside Music Supply—at his mid-Tennessee home for a pre-tour Rig Rundown. Dig in!Brought to you by D’Addario.
Fly Guy
The guitarist’s own Adrian Belew Signature Parker Fly is back on the music highway. The hard-to-find model sports exceptional—and some unconventional—appointments, like a 13-pin out for MIDI/synth capability. It has a DiMarzio humbucker, a Sustainiac humbucker, some Line 6 Variax components, Parker’s flat-spring vibrato system, Sperzel tuners, and a solid poplar body and basswood neck under its carbon/glass/epoxy exoskeleton.
Harmony, Man!
Adrian’s DigiTech Harmony Man is set at a fifth up during the opening of this Rig Rundown—one of his favorite settings with the pitch-shifting device.
Mind the Mastermind
Belew uses an RJM Mastermind MIDI controller as part of his rig’s cerebellum.
The Board, Part 1
A Boss GKC-AD converter lets Adrian use his Parker Fly with conventional stompboxes. Its neighbors include an Empress Compressor MkII, a Fractal Axe-Fx Ultra (Adrian has several hundred programs that he wrote into this Fractal that are not transferable to newer models), a Big Joe lithium battery power box, and volume and expression pedals. That’s all part of his self-proclaimed “modern rig.”
Sir Roland of Synth
Yes, Adrian has taken the Roland GR-300 Polyphonic Guitar Synthesizer that he acquired for King Crimson in 1981 out of mothballs, so he can recreate every sound fans for this much-anticipated tour want to hear. It was used for “Industry,” “The Sheltering Sky,” “Three of a Perfect Pair,” and other classics. “I could not do it right without this,” he says. The GR’s companions are a volume pedal, TC Electronic PolyTune, another Big Joe power box, and a custom glitching device.
Twang Me Back Home
Also on tour is Adrian’s famed Twang Bar King guitar (which debuted on the heels of his 1983 Twang Bar King album), which requires a 21-pin plug to make its sonic sorcery. In the video, Adrian shows how it functions as both a conventional guitar and the GR-300’s controller. This guitar had to be refreshed, since it was semi-retired, and is now back in full service. It started life as a Mustang, and now it’s a one-of-a-kind show pony, with a Kahler and Lace Sensor pickups. In this video, Adrian uses the Twang Bar King guitar to demonstrate some tunings for specific Crimson songs.
Racked Up
The signal to the rack gear flows from Adrian’s guitar to an always-on JAM Pedals Dinosaur Compressor, to a late-1970s V4 op-amp Big Muff, an MXR Ten Band EQ, a Strymon Deco V2, an Eventide H9, a Source Audio Artifakt lo-fi pedal (fuzz, reverb, modulation, rig mod, etc.), a Source Audio Nemesis Delay, and a Lichtlaerm Audio The Key and Gate noise gate. Adrian and Blair spent days running through various Big Muff pedals from different eras, and the ’70s V-4 is the only model that allowed Adrian to recreate his feedback acrobatics!
Echo, Echo, Echo ...
It’s not on the floor, because Adrian manipulates it with his hands, but also on this journey is his original Electro-Harmonix Echoflanger! He likes to use it set to between-setting spots, for maximum weirdness.
The Original JC-120
Yes, that’s right: Adrian is using the early-’70s Roland JC-120 amp he played with Bowie, King Crimson, and Talking Heads for the BEAT Tour. Despite its many road miles, the amp looks pristine.
![Baroness Rig Rundown with John Baizley, Gina Gleason & Nick Jost [2024]](https://www.premierguitar.com/media-library/youtube.jpg?id=53559996&width=1245&height=700&quality=85&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0)
Hard rockers Baroness were busy writing during the early days of the pandemic, sharing ideas and bits of songs over weekly video calls until they had enough for a new record. Then, after scouting for potential recording locations, they rented an Airbnb in a tiny town in New York and got to work.
The band brought all their gear along with them: They literally loaded up a U-Haul truck and left no pedal behind—a bit unnecessary in retrospect. At the end of their stay, they’d all but finished their sixth studio album, Stone, which was released in September 2023. On their recent summer tour supporting the record, the quartet played Nashville’s Basement East, where PG’s Chris Kies met up with vocalist/guitarist John Baizley, guitarist Gina Gleason, and bassist Nick Jost to get an in-depth look at their current road rigs.
Brought to you by D’Addario.
Franken-backer
Baizley received this custom-built Rickenbacker during the band’s sessions for Stone. It’s got the body and electronics of a Rick 620 but the neck of a 660 model. The Rick and Gleason’s Tele fill in the sonic gaps for each other.
I Think I Smell a Strat
Baizley’s other two primary guitars are these Fender Stratocasters. The first is an American Pro II with a tortoiseshell pickguard and HSS pickup configuration; the second is an original American Pro. The AmPro II lives in heavier tunings and takes a set of .012–.052s, but Baizley prefers both in the fourth position of the 5-way selector switch to build space around Gleason’s leads.
Tele Twins
Gleason rocks two Fender Telecasters, again from both the American Pro I and II series. She actually prefers the first iteration of the V-Mod pickups for their aggression and grit in live contexts, while the V-Mod IIs make for a smoother recording weapon. One stays in D-standard tuning while the other is in C standard with a dropped A#. Gleason strings them with .009–.046s and .010–.046s, respectively, and the whole band loves D’Addario NYXL sets.
So Bass-ic
Bassist Nick Jost is a Fender man, too, with a Precision Bass and American Professional Jazz Bass that both run through his mini-but-mighty rig: A diminutive Gallien-Krueger Legacy series head powers a classic Ampeg 8x10 cabinet. He usually plays with his fingers, but when he loses a game of dice on the road, he’ll sometimes be forced into playing with a pick.
Dual Stereo
Baizley and Gleason both run stereo amp setups. Baizley changes his amp backline often; he used to run twin Roland JC-120s but just recently switched in this Fender ’68 Custom Deluxe Reverb.
Gleason keeps the Fender train rolling with a ’59 Bassman reissue and a ’68 Custom Princeton Reverb.
John Baizley’s Pedalboard
Baizley’s board is packed with staged dirt boxes and tasteful mod stomps, all held in check with a GigRig G2, Peterson StroboStomp, and Ernie Ball Volume Pedal. The crown drive jewels are a heavily modded EHX Big Muff and Crowther Double Hot Cake, but a Beetronix FX Overhive and Pro Co RAT add some sizzle, too. A Boss DD-3, DM-2W, and TR-2, EarthQuaker Devices Dispatch Master and Tentacle, MXR Phase 90 and Dyna Comp, and EHX Deluxe Memory Man handle the rest, while a DigiTech Whammy lurks for its moment to blast off.
Gina Gleason’s Pedalboard
Gleason’s favorite drive these days is the EQD Zoar, their instant-classic 2023 release. Piling on top of that are a MXR Super Badass Distortion, MXR Timmy, modded EHX Big Muff, and a touchy Philly Fuzz Infidel prototype; an Xotic SP Compressor and UAFX 1176 Studio Compressor tighten things up when needed. Three time machines—the Strymon TimeLine, EQD Space Spiral, and Boss DD-3—handle delay, and a Walrus Slo dishes out reverb. The MXR EVH Phase 90 adds some color along with another DigiTech Whammy. The Ernie Ball Volume Pedal, Peterson StroboStomp, and GigRig G2 keep Gleason’s board in line, too.
Nick Jost’s Pedalboard
Jost’s bass board, powered by an MXR Iso-Brick, is a touch more simple, with an Ernie Ball Volume Pedal and Boss TU-3 for utility duties before an Xotic Bass BB Preamp, Boss ODB-3, DOD FX69B Grunge, MXR Stereo Chorus, and Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Driver DI.
Roland Jazz Chorus-120
Fender '68 Custom Deluxe Reverb
Fender Bassman
Fender '68 Custom Princeton Reverb
Fender American Professional Telecaster
Fender American Professional Stratocaster
Fender Precision Bass
Fender American Professional Jazz Bass
Gallien-Krueger Legacy 800 Bass Amp Head
Ampeg 8x10 Cab
Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Drive DI
MXR Iso-Brick
Boss TU-3
Xotic Effects Bass BB Preamp
Boss ODB-3
MXR Stereo Chorus
Modded EHX Big Muff
Boss DD-3
MXR Dyna Comp
Pro Co RAT
MXR Phase 90
Boss TR-2
EHX Deluxe Memory Man
EarthQuaker Devices Dispatch Master
DigiTech Whammy
Walrus Audio SLO
Boss DM-2w
EarthQuaker Devices Tentacle
Peterson StroboStomp
Beetronics Overhive
EarthQuaker Devices Zoar
MXR Timmy
MXR Super Badass Distortion
Xotic SP Compressor
MXR EVH Phase 90
UAFX 1176 Compressor
Ernie Ball Volume Pedal
D'Addario NYXL .110 Strings
Strymon TimeLine