Recording artist, hit songwriter, and sought-after session player Jedd Hughes invited PG’s John Bohlinger to his soundcheck before his gig at Nashville’s 3rd and Lindsley. Hughes came in with a home-made T-style, a vintage hollowbody, and some custom acoustics. Check it out.
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Homebrew Tele
Hughes built his Tele using a one-piece lightweight ash body with a Gene Parsons long-pull B-bender. Hughes shaped the maple neck to a soft V profile using StewMac tools. The pickups were both designed by Ron Ellis: There’s a 50B in the bridge and a Killa in the neck position to match the 50B. The harness is from a 1955 Fender lap steel. All of his electrics are strung with D'Addario .010-.046s.
This 1967 Guild ST-403 Studio hollowbody was chopped to make room for full-size humbuckers.
Hughes' Acoustics
This 2004 DeGruchy was built specifically for Hughes, made to replicate a golden-era Martin D-45. The acoustics are strung with D'Addario .012-.052 sets, which Hughes strikes with Fender medium picks. All acoustics have K&K Sound Pure Mini pickups running through them.
Hughes’ second-favorite acoustic is this slope shoulder DeGruchy.
For a nylon string, Hughes goes with his old gut string Del Vecchio.
Party For Two
Hughes uses two amps combined, in a non-stereo setup. Amp number one is his 1952 Gibson GA-20, which has been rehoused in a Tweed Deluxe cab with a Celestion G12-65.
Number two is his tried-and-true 1962 Vox AC30.
The Boardroom
Hughes runs a larger board for his electric and a smaller one for his acoustic guitars. The electric board includes a Prescription Electronics Experience, Clark Gainster, a prototype XTS Shadow Box, Greer Southland, Dunlop volume pedal (with tuner out), VFE Old School tremolo, Boss PS-5 Super Shifter, Guyatone PS-023, EHX Deluxe Memory Man, Echo Fix EF-P2 Spring Reverb, and finally a Shaw Audio Vacuum Tube Splitter Buffer, which splits two mono lines to the amps.
Hughes runs his acoustics into a Grace Design FELiX2 preamp. From there, it hits a Guyatone PS-023, a Universal Audio Golden Reverberator, and a Boss TU-2.
Shop Jedd Hughes' Rig
Vox AC30
Dunlop DVP3 Volume (X) Volume and Expression Pedal
Boss PS-6 Harmonist Pedal
Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man Analog Delay / Chorus / Vibrato Pedal
Grace Design FELiX 2 Instrument Preamp/Blender - Silver
Universal Audio Golden Reverberator
Boss TU-2
D'Addario NYXL1046 NYXL Nickel Wound Electric Guitar Strings - .010-.046 Regular
Tim Pierce’s guitar can be heard on more than a thousand recordings, starting in the ’80s, when he played on hits by Bon Jovi, John Waite, and Rick Springfield. In subsequent years, he’s added to his resume with recorded performances for Crowded House, Christina Aguilera, Seal, Avril Lavigne, Tracy Chapman, Joe Cocker, Ricky Martin, Meat Loaf, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Rob Thomas, Rick Springfield, Phil Collins, Madonna, Toy Matinee, Don Henley, Santana, Rascal Flatts, Chris Isaak, Jewel, Faith Hill, Celine Dion, Dave Matthews Band, the Goo Goo Dolls, Lana Del Ray, Demi Lovato, Jason Mraz, Kelly Clarkson, and many more.
These days, Pierce also has a popular YouTube channel with more than 400,000 subscribers and offers an online masterclass program for thousands of users. You can get more information at timpierceguitar.com.
Meanwhile, here’s what we saw—and learned—when Pieces shared the wisdom and the gear he’s accumulated in four decades of playing sessions.
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Tim’s Troupe
Here’s a look at Tim Pierce’s go-to instruments, including a 1962 ES-335, a 2020 Gibson Custom Shop 1960 Les Paul reissue with Arcane humbuckers, a one-off PRS McCarty 594 Singlecut in black with binding, and a ’62 Fender Jaguar strung with flatwounds.
Ol’ ’35
After nearly four decades of sessions, Pierce has pretty much every tool for any job. His heavy rotation includes this 1962 Gibson ES-335, which has enough wear to be considered “player grade,” with Ron Ellis pickups. Most of Tim’s electric guitars are strung with Elixir nanoweb strings, either .009 through .042, or .010 through .046.
Green Machine
This 2022 Mario hardtail S-style with a paulonia-wood body weighs a mere 4 pounds 13 ounces!
The Right Stripe
You’d be hard pressed to find a more beautiful flame top than this 2019 PRS McCarty Flame Top Doublecut. It sports a carved flame maple top on a mahogany body, a rosewood fretboard, two volumes, two push-pull tone controls, and a 3-way switch.
Marshall Power
Pierce has a lot of amps to choose from in his control room, including this 1967 Marshall Super PA 100 head (top) and 1968 Marshall Super Tremolo plexi.
A Park, Divided
There’s also a Park JTM 45-100 from a limited run of 10 and a Divided by 13 RSA 23 head, with 23 watts, natch.
More Amped Up
Rounding out the lineup of Pierce’s amplifiers is a Bad Cat Lynx, a Bad Cat Hot Cat, and a Joe Morgan custom 15 head (not pictured).
That’s 16 x 48
Pierce’s amp cabs live in a separate, sealed room, built specifically for isolation, far from the control room. They include these four vintage Marshall 4x12 cabinets, dating from 1968 through the early 1970s. There’s also a vintage Vox 2x12 with 15W Bulldogs.
He keeps his cabs miked with Shure SM57s, two Royer R-122V tube ribbon microphones, and two Sony C800 large diaphragm condensers from the early ’90s. A Scheops CMC5 condenser microphone is used for acoustic guitars.
Tim Pierce's Pedalboard
Pierce began the interview playing though his main mobile Pedal Board, which includes a Nobels ODR-1, a Strymon Lex rotary, a Keeley/Timmons Halo delay, a Meris LVX delay, a Karma MTN-10 overdrive, an XTS Modded Boss GE-7 equalizer and Boss TR-2 Tremolo, a vintage Boss VB-2 Vibrato, an MXR Reverb, a Fairchild Circuitry Shallow Water modulation pedal, a Providence System Tuner, two Dunlop mini expression pedals, a Dunlop volume pedal, a Voodoo Lab Dingbat pedalboard, and a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power Mondo.
Pedal Muscle, Part II
While in his studio cockpit, these are Pierce’s effects, which you can hear him play in his online videos: Ibanez MT10 Mostortion, Vemuram ODS-1, Nobels ODR-1, MXR Boost/Line Driver, Way Huge Red Llama, Boss OC-2 Octave, Boss VB-2 Vibrato, Way Huge Supa-Puss Analog Delay, Fender MTG Tube Tremolo, Universal Audio Golden Reverberator, Neon Egg Planetarium 3, Ebo E-verb, three Eventide H9s used with the iPad App, and a Boomerang Looper. And as you can see with the additional gear photos, Tim Pierce owns (nearly) every tone-tweaking device ever made!
