Billy Strings
Billy Strings’ Pedalboard
Bluegrass’ biggest ambassador has continued expanding his sound with more pedals and more modeling. When Billy wants to turn his acoustic into space dust, he’s got a hearty squadron of willing vaporizers. This is where Strings tap dances each night—an incredible feat given how much he’s already doing with his hands. A RJM Mastermind GT MIDI switcher is the brains of the operation as it engages all his pedals and the Kemper’s SLO-100 profile. The Grace Design BiX gives FOH a clean, pure acoustic sound. A pair of Mission Engineering SP-1 expression pedals handle manipulating time-based and modulation effects. His two Ernie Ball 40th Anniversary Volume Pedals bring in Leslie effects and the Kemper. A TC Electronic Ditto Looper remains on the board since our last encounter. A Peterson StroboStomp HD covers any on-the-fly tuning needs during his sets. Nashville’s XAct Tone Solutions built out this tonal headquarters, which features several of their custom devices and routing boxes. A couple Strymon Zuma units power everything on the floor, while a duo of Radial boxes helps organize. (The SGI-44 talks to the rack-mounted JX44, and the JDI is a passive direct box designed to handle gobs of levels without any unwanted crunch.)
Here’s a peek behind the scenes, into the inside of Strings’ rack. Starting at the top left, he has a Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive, Electro-Harmonix Micro POG, MXR Bass Envelope Filter, Source Audio EQ2, Boss DD-8 Digital Delay, Source Audio C4 Synth, and a Strymon Lex. A Strymon Ojai powers the pedals in this drawer. Moving to the right, he has a Jam Pedals Waterfall, Boss SY-1 Synthesizer, EHX Pitch Fork, Red Panda Raster, and an Eventide H9. All of these gizmos are powered by a Strymon Zuma. Going down to the bottom left, Strings assembles this drawer with a NativeAudio Pretty Bird Woman, a Chase Bliss Wombtone, Source Audio Nemesis, DigiTech Polara, Boss DC-2W Dimension C, and an EHX Freeze. Another Strymon Zuma powers all these creatures. The final drawer houses a Chase Bliss Audio Mood, EHX Intelligent Harmony Machine, and a Chase Bliss Automatone MKII Preamp. Everything comes to life with a final Strymon Zuma.
Blu DeTiger
Blu DeTiger’s Pedalboard
“I haven’t gone through that phase of using crazy pedals yet. Live, I just really love the sound of a clean bass tone,” admits bassist DeTiger. Whether slapping on TikTok, headlining solo tours, performing with Jack Antonoff and Olivia Rodrigo, or improvising over her DJ set, this board represents her go-to gear. Each piece in this cast of characters gets used for specific moments. She uses the octave up on the Electro-Harmonix Micro POG for “shredding” and the sub octave setting to “change the vibe for a second.” The Electro-Harmonix Bass Big Muff enhances some of the POG’s shadings with added stank. The EarthQuaker Devices Spatial Delivery is used for the funky intro to “enough 4 u,” her collaboration with Chromeo. She prefers the Spatial Delivery to the Mu-FX Micro-Tron III (which doesn’t get used at all now) and the MXR Analog Chorus is engaged for one instance. The Boss RE-2 Space Echo sees action with the Strat for “Sonic Youth freakouts” during “Kinda Miss You.” A Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner keeps all four strings in line and a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus provides the volts.
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
Kingfish’s Pedalboard
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram is well on his way to becoming the blues’ newest 6-string ruler and he doesn’t use much gear to get the job done. Kingfish’s signal starts with a Shure BLX4 Wireless Receiver, which hits a Boss TU-3W Tuner. From there, the route is a Dunlop Cry Baby Mini Wah, a Marshall Shredmaster, and a Boss DD-3 Delay, all powered by Strymon. The pedals live on a Pedaltrain Nano board and were assembled by Barry O’Neal at XAct Tone Solutions.
Emily Wolfe
Emily Wolfe’s Pedalboard
“If I get a new piece of gear, I have to figure out every single part of it before I can really use it,” the shreddin’ Texan confessed to PG while talking about her 2021 album, Outlier. That sensible curiosity has led her to dialing in precise parameters on the pedals and creating colossal combos with singular gain staging. Her silver bullet is the EarthQuaker Devices Tentacle Analog Octave Up, running into a Fulltone OCD, and an MXR Six Band EQ. Wolfe claimed to PG, “That’s the sound that belongs to me.” The sequence creates a “crazy fuzztone” from the overdrive. Then she uses the EQ to reduce some of the lows and boost the mids for a sound she says will get her guitar to cut through any mix.
Other spices in the rack include an Analog Man King of Tone, an EarthQuaker Devices Dirt Transmitter fuzz, an Ibanez Analog Delay Mini, an Origin Effects Cali76 Compact Deluxe, a Walrus Audio Julia, and a Strymon Flint. The Empress Buffer puts the Delay Mini and Flint outside the RJM Mastermind PBC’s control.
Underneath the hood, Wolfe has tucked in a pair of MXR M109S Six Band EQ pedals (one hitting the King of Tone and the other hitting the OCD), an Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork, the EarthQuaker Devices Tentacle, and a couple of Strymon power supplies (Ojai and Zuma).
Hermanos Gutiérrez
Estevan Gutiérrez’s Pedalboard
The Gutiérrez brothers pack light. You can see that Estevan Gutiérrez utilizes nearly every square inch of his pedalboard. Overlaps between the brothers’ boards include the MXR Dyna Comp Mini, the Strymon Flint, and the Strymon El Capistan. You might think their setup is basic now, but they used to play sans pedals. Eventually, Estevan discovered the Strymon El Capistan, and their sound was never the same. “I remember that day,” he recounted to PG about first playing the pedal. “I fell in love. I knew it was gonna change something in our sound.” As soon as he purchased the El Capistan, he called his brother and said, “You have to buy this. This is gonna be next level for us.”
The remaining effects for Estevan include a Malekko Omicron Vibrato, a Boss RC-500 Loop Station, and a Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner (off the board) keeps his Gretsch in check. Lastly, you’ll notice a G7th Performance 3 ART Capo on the pedalboard, too.
Alejandro Gutiérrez’s Pedalboard
Alejandro, who plays guitar and lap steel, relies on this compact board that holds a MXR Dyna Comp Mini, a Boss GE-7 Equalizer, a Strymon Flint, and the influential Strymon El Capistan. While Estevan discovered the El Cap and unlocked its magic for Hermanos Gutiérrez, Alejandro has molded it to his sound in different ways. “I use it as a layer,” he explains. “Really subtle. My brother uses it more as a delay. He has this horse sound, like this galloping sound he can create with his slapping, which only he can do.” A Boss TU-3 keeps his guitars in line.
Nile Rodgers
Nile Rodgers’ Pedalboard
The Hitmaker doesn’t drown in effects. Instead, Rodgers maintains a simple, sophisticated signal chain into his Fender Hot Rod Deville. Rodgers uses a Pedaltrain Classic 2, loaded up with an Eventide PowerMax Power Supply. The Eventide feeds a Korg Pitchblack Chromatic Tuner, a Boss DD-3 Digital Delay, an Ibanez CS9 Stereo Chorus, a Mad Professor Snow White AutoWah, an Ibanez TS808 40th Anniversary Tube Screamer, and a Jam Pedals Wahcko Wah Pedal. The stompboxes are all wired together with Reference Laboratory RIC-01 cabling.
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Rodrigo Sánchez’s Pedalboard
The eclectic, trailblazing guitar maestros blend acoustic and electric sounds in their respective rigs. The pickup return from Sánchez’s wireless rack goes to the volume pedal via a Lehle 3at1 switcher, then out to a Lehle P-Split signal splitter. The direct out from the P-Split goes to another Lehle splitter, while the ISO line out runs to the rest of the pedals before ending up at a Fractal. (The ISO out of the first splitter goes to the JHS Mini A/B pedal into the Boss OC-3, then to a separate channel on the desk.) His tone-shapers include an MXR Micro Amp, TWA WR-3 Wah Rocker, MXR Analog Chorus, and a Boss DD-3 Digital Delay. He stays in tune thanks to a Boss TU-3S Chromatic Tuner. It’s all powered by a pair of Truetone 1 Spot Pro CS7 power supplies.
Gabriela Quintero’s Pedalboard
It doesn’t get much simpler than this. Quintero’s pedalboard funnels the acoustic’s first two channels—the undersaddle and the body’s piezos—into a stereo volume pedal. From there, they run through a Dunlop Cry Baby and a Boss DD-3 Digital Delay. The signal is then split, with the first side going back to the DI, and the second running through a Dunlop volume pedal into a Boss OC-3 for an extra bottom octave.
Sunn O)))
Stephen O’Malley’s Pedalboard
Drone metal overlords Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson use volume as an aesthetic. “My concept in playing this music for tone involves many, many, many different gain stages that are all intonated differently depending on the pitch of the sound,” O’Malley told us last year. “There are slight shades of color saturation or grain as if it’s a paint—the shorter bandwidth color gradation or the density of the paint.” All these subtle sweeps of saturation, sustain, and feedback are enlivened and exaggerated with Stephen’s pedal palette. His current collection of slaughtering stomps includes the band’s most recent collaboration with EarthQuaker Devices (Life Pedal V3), an Ace Tone FM-3 Fuzz Master, a Pete Cornish G-2, and an EarthQuaker Devices Black Ash. For subtler shadings, he has a J. Rockett Audio Designs Archer.
The EQD Swiss Things creates effects loops to engage the FM-3, G-2, or the Black Ash. In addition, he runs a Roland RE-201 Space Echo through the Swiss Things. O’Malley uses the Aguilar Octamizer as a “fun punctuation that comes on once in a while” that “abstracts the guitar into minimalist electronics.” The custom Bright Onion Pedals switcher keeps the amps in sync with phase controls and ground lifts. A Peterson StroboStomp HD keeps his Travis Bean in check. Off to the side of the board is a Keeley-modded RAT that initiated the band’s core sound, plus a Lehle Mono Volume. This circuit includes the heralded LM308 chip and was the basis for their partnership with EQD and the Life Pedal series.
Elevated off the stage floor and secured by a stand are O’Malley’s Roland RE-201 Space Echo and Oto Machines BAM Space Generator Reverb.
Greg Anderson’s Pedalboard
“To be honest with you, I try to keep it pretty simple now because I love pedals and have fallen down a lot of rabbit holes with them, but I found myself troubleshooting and having more issues than my sound warranted. When I started with this band, it was just a RAT and tuner pedal, so I try to just bring what I need,” says Anderson. He found a potent pairing with the EQD Life Pedal V2 acting as a boost and running into a vintage Electro-Harmonix Civil War Big Muff that creates a “powerful, chewy, ooze” tone. Like O’Malley, he also has a custom Bright Onion Pedals box and an Aguilar Octamizer set to unleash a “ridiculous, beating, fighting, chaotic, sub-bass sound.” An Ernie Ball VP JR handles dynamics, a Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner keeps his Les Paul in shape, and an MXR Mini Iso-Brick powers his pedals.
The Flaming Lips
Steven Drozd’s Pedalboard
Given the nature of the Flaming Lips’ expansive and deranged sounds, you wouldn’t be blamed if you thought Drozd would have a rack of pedals or three tethered boards. But you’d be wrong—as he’s currently touring with nine stomps and an Ernie Ball volume pedal. Doing a lot of the heavy lifting is the Boss GT-1000CORE. The other sonic scalpels and sizzlers are a Subdecay Liquid Sunshine, a duo of Universal Audio units—a Starlight Echo Station delay and Golden Reverberator—a TC Electronic Spark Booster, a ZVEX Fuzz Factory, a Source Audio Nemesis Delay, a Keeley Electronics 30ms Automatic Double Tracker, and a Boss EQ-200 Graphic Equalizer.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Ruban Nielson’s Pedalboard
The New Zealand guitarist is a tone tactician. He’s never been satisfied with stock sounds and a pedal’s inherent limitations. “If I find a pedal I like, I use it for a long time and then I try to build a clone to see if I can improve on it,” he explains. “I sit around in my basement tweaking it plugged in—on the breadboard—and changing out different components and adjusting the trim until I get everything just exactly how I want it.” So, looking down at his stomp selection you’ll notice a few nondescript devices on the beautiful Twin Peaks Woodworks pedalboard custom-built by both Nielson’s tech Ben Gram and Caspian guitarist Jonny Ashburn.
His signal hits an Effectrode PC-2A Tube Compressor (you’ll notice two on the board—one is a backup). He enjoys how the PC-2A up front fattens his entire sound, and how it smooths and shaves off the transient tinges. The Strymon Deco has a stereo out that hits a pair of JAM Pedals RetroVibes. Both are set to have slightly different speeds and depths so that they really take that stereo signal for a journey in real time, and they’re panned in the PA to amplify this effect.
One of Nielson’s creations shows up inside the gray box titled “Octave Magic,” which is based on the Foxx Tone Machine. The suede purple devil next to it is the JAM Fuzz Phrase LTD, about which Nielson says, “It’s the wooliest, most musical Fuzz Face I’ve ever played.” Sometimes the answer to Nielson’s problems is the Benson Germanium Boost. “If something’s wrong,” he explains, “I’ll kick on that pedal and it makes everything louder and resets the gain structure.” The Gamechanger Audio Plus pedal sees a lot of action throughout the set: It helps Nielson seam the tail end of a solo and discreetly rejoin the band in rhythm mode.
The remaining pedals include a Boss DD-3 Digital Delay (a gift from Mike Baranik), a Danelectro Back Talk reverse delay, an Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail reverb, and in the top-left corner, an unnamed pedal that Nielson built that is currently not in the signal. (He can’t remember if it’s a RAT or Tube Screamer clone.) Utility boxes include a Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner, an Electro-Harmonix Switchblade Plus channel selector, and a Lehle Little Dual II switcher.
“Gear is meant to be destroyed in the line of duty,” laughs Ruban Nielson. “I realize I prefer to see my equipment all dinged up rather than sitting perfect in my basement—that’s a dorky thing to do.”
That doesn’t mean Nielson doesn’t care about his sound. He noted in a 2015 interview with PG that he spends countless hours in his basement tinkering on breadboard circuits and swapping out components, trying to maximize a pedal for his needs. “I like the idea that instead of buying your sound, you’re building your sound,” he said.
Over the course of 14 years, five albums, and thousands of touring miles, Nielsen has been custom-fabricating his guitar voice. But as we all know, the quest is never-ending, like trying to catch the horizon. After all, isn’t it the journey, not the destination, that matters?
“I used to be too much of a savage to care about a clean boost or headroom,” says Nielson. “‘Just give me a distortion pedal already!’ But now I’m exploring the intricacies, subtleties, and nuances of guitar.”
Ahead of Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s headlining performance at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl, Ruban Nielson welcomed PG’s Chris Kies onstage to explore his current sonic lab. Nielson covers his two space-age guitars (and what inspired them), explains how he convinced Benson to put a Monarch inside a vintage solid-state Yamaha, and details the pedals—including a few of his own designs—that extract a kaleidoscope of moods.Brought to you by D'Addario.
Challenge Accepted: The B3-R
Since forming Unknown Mortal Orchestra in 2009, the instrument that Ruban Nielson has been linked to and inspired by is the Fender Jag-Stang. This short-scale offset was codesigned by Kurt Cobain in the early ’90s by simply taking photos of Fender’s Mustang and Jaguar, splitting them in half and pasting them together. The Jag-Stang was treated to separate production runs in the late ’90s and early 2000s before a wider release in 2021. Nielson’s friend gifted him a cherry-red model, shaping Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s first decade of music.
In 2015, Nielson told PG about its impact on his playing style and creative outlook: “When I started on the UMO stuff I pulled it out. It would never stay in tune and sounded really strange, but when I plugged it into a Blues Junior, I started to come up with completely different ideas. I tuned it a half-step down and started playing with my fingers. It was just a whole new style that emerged in the space of about two weeks after messing with this guitar. It’s a kind of imperfect creature and that’s what I like about it.”
Fast forward to a few years ago when Ruban met luthier Mike Baranik. Baranik was a longtime fan of UMO and knew of Nielson’s allegiance to the Jag-Stang, so he approached Nielson with a proposition: “I can make a guitar that will do everything that the Jag-Stang does better and more.” Nielson was intrigued, so the build began. They conversed and collaborated over several phone calls and text chains that culminated in Nielson realizing Baranik was “some kind of genius through his simple innovations that suited the way I think about music and guitar.”
The flaws of the Jag-Stang that informed Nielson’s playing style became features on the above Baranik B3-R. The biggest thing that Ruban wanted translated from the Jag-Stang to the Baranik was the slinky neck pocket that allowed for him to push the neck for emotive bends à la Bill Frisell.
Nielson explains: “When I tuned the Jag-Stang a half-step down—which I just did because Jimi Hendrix did it, and I thought if I was going to start writing some new music that this was my chance to start messing with that—that loosened the strings up. The neck was a smaller scale so it gave me the ability to do completely different things. I was able to get around the neck a lot easier.”
To make that body-neck connection even more expressive and manipulatable, Baranik constructed the trademarked Baraneck floating neck that fastens two springs to the neck joint allowing Nielson to tighten or loosen the neck as wanted. Nielson also routed out wood behind the pickups on his Jag-Stang to reduce the weight and keep it light as possible—just five pounds, nine ounces. The B3-R has a basswood body, koa neck, and ebony fretboard.
Another thing Nielson requested was an approximation of the sound of pickups found in vintage Japanese lawsuit-era instruments, which were often unique, unpotted, and unpredictable. Baranik worked his magic and, via his own alchemy, produced these potted single-coils. Other tag-team easter eggs include a custom Hawaiian print pickguard, an upcycled circuit board control panel, and custom inlays—a row of shark teeth, filled with crushed bone dust—that are a tribute to the family symbol.
All of UMO’s material is based on half-step-down tuning both of his electrics take Ernie Ball Super Slinkys (.009-.042). Nielson goes with a Shure Axient wireless pack at both his Sitar and Baranik guitars and to keep things quiet and tidy, his tech Ben Gram inserted an Electro-Harmonix Hum Eliminator and a Radial Dragster Load Correction box.
Psy-tar
Two of the songs on UMO’s fall setlist required a sitar. Nielson previously toured and recorded with a Rogue Sitar, but found it to be a nuisance to maintain on the road. He searched for a sturdier stand in and found this electric sitar star: a Jerry Jones model whose voice wholly celebrates Nielson’s love for early psych-rock, and matches its chime with rugged dependability.
Nate the Great
Nielson has plugged into all sorts of amps since 2009 when playing under UMO. The longest sidekicks include Fender combos and Orange heads. (When Ruban spoke with PG in 2015, he had a Fender Hot Rod DeVille and an Orange AD 30 head.) He notes in the Rundown that a few years back, he was “getting frustrated with his amp setup and thought he should be like one of those real guitar guys and find a boutique amp company.” After auditioning some combos, he landed on a Benson. One half of Ruban’s stereo setup is the Benson Nathan Junior that maxes out at 5W, has a single JJ 6V6 power tube, and barks with a 10" Celestion Greenback.
Benson in Yamaha's Clothing
Nielson has his feet firmly planted in both amp camps. He appreciates the beef, brawn, and chime only produced by power tubes, but he’s also attracted to the old solid-state amps that offer quirky, charmingly weird tones. Chris Benson’s shop happened to be within walking distance of Nielson’s home, so after becoming acquainted and friendly, Nielson pitched a project for Benson: Could he turn a ’70s solid-state Yamaha TA-20 into a roadworthy tube amp? Benson initially balked at the idea, and Nielson thought his plan was foiled. Three years later, Benson reached out and asked if Nielson still had the Yamaha—he did—so Benson told him to bring it by the shop, and they’d retrofit a Benson circuit into the TA-20. “My weird dream to bring this on tour was finally happening!” says Nielson.
The TA-20 is packed with Benson’s Vinny Reverb guts that includes a JJ EL84 power tube, a 12AX7 preamp tube, a 12DW7, and a JJ 6V6 power tube as a voltage regulator that goes from .25W up to a snarky six watts. The overhauled TA-20 does still have the original polystyrene parallelogram speaker. Both amps are always on, and miked up with Shure SM7Bs.
Ruban Nielson's Pedalboard
Nielson is a tonal tactician. He’s never been satisfied with stock sounds and a pedal’s inherent limitations. “If I find a pedal I like, I use it for a long time and then I try to build a clone to see if I can improve on it,” he explains. “I sit around in my basement tweaking it plugged in—on the breadboard—and changing out different components and adjusting the trim until I get everything just exactly how I want it.” So, looking down at his stomp selection you’ll notice a few nondescript devices on the beautiful Twin Peaks Woodworks pedalboard custom-built by both Nielson’s tech Ben Gram and Caspian guitarist Jonny Ashburn.
His signal hits an Effectrode PC-2A Tube Compressor (you’ll notice two on the board—one is a backup). That’s a change from our 2015 interview, when he he was using an Analog Man Bi-CompROSSor and had it at the end of his chain. (“It’s nice to have a compressor at the end of everything—especially with a phaser pedal, which has frequency spikes,” he said at the time. “It’s nice to control them.”) He enjoys how the PC-2A up front fattens his entire sound, and how it smooths and shaves off the transient tinges. The Strymon Deco has a stereo out that hits a pair of Jam RetroVibes. Both are set to have slightly different speeds and depths so that they really take that stereo signal for a journey in real time, and Dave at FOH has them panned in the PA to really amplify this effect.
One of Nielson’s creations shows up inside the gray box titled “Octave Magic,” which is based on the Foxx Tone Machine. The suede purple devil next to it is the Jam Pedals Fuzz Phrase LTD, about which Nielson says, “It’s the wooliest, most-musical Fuzz Face I’ve ever played.” Sometimes the answer to Nielson’s problems is the Benson Germanium Boost. “If something’s wrong,” he explains, “I’ll kick on that pedal and it makes everything louder and resets the gain structure.” The Gamechanger Audio Plus pedal sees a lot of action throughout the set: it helps Nielson seam the tail end of a solo and discreetly rejoin the band in rhythm mode.
The remaining pedals include a Boss DD-3 Digital Delay (a gift from Mike Baranik), a Danelectro Back Talk reverse delay, an Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail reverb, and in the top-left corner, an unnamed pedal that Nielson built that is currently not in the signal. (He can’t remember if it’s a Rat or Tube Screamer clone.) Utility boxes include a Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner, an Electro-Harmonix Switchblade Plus channel selector, and a Lehle Little Dual II switcher.
Shop Ruban Nielson's Rig
Benson Monarch
Shure SM7B
Strymon Deco
Benson Germanium Boost
Boss DD-3 Digital Delay
Danelectro Back Talk Reverse Delay
Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb
Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner
Electro-Harmonix Switchblade Plus Channel Selector
Lehle Little Dual II ABY Switcher
Ernie Ball Super Slinky Strings
Nielson’s oozy, swirling, psychedelic-fuzz-meets-subtle-yet-infectious-grooves were well received by an alternative music world hungry for, well, alternatives. He assembled a band, signed a record deal, and hit the road. Five years and three records later, Nielson alternates between months of solitude—holed up in his basement tinkering, tweaking, recording, looping, and arranging—and playing sold-out shows across several continents.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s music is built around Nielson’s idiosyncratic yet formidable guitar playing. Armed with a Fender Jag-Stang, a Rogue Electric Sitar Guitar, and an ever-evolving collection of boutique and personally handmade effects, he conjures up diverse, otherworldly tones and employs an unorthodox fingerstyle approach. “The music I was playing was more arpeggiated and less about straightforward block chords,” he says. “It just made sense to drop the pick altogether.”
UMO tours as a quartet. In addition to Nielson on guitar and vocals, it features Jacob Portrait on bass, Riley Geare on drums, and Quincy McCrary on keys. But don’t expect to see a strict recreation of the album in concert: Nielson considers the studio and stage to be different animals. “Once we understand what makes the songs tick, then we go pretty nuts,” he offers. “Some songs we completely open up. I like the idea of not knowing exactly what we’re going to play onstage.”
Nielson spoke with PG on the phone from Minneapolis about UMO’s new album, Multi-Love, some of his earliest influences, why he rebuilds his pedals, his high-end lo-fi recording methods, and other adventures in the kingdom of guitar.
When did you start playing the guitar?
My dad was into drugs in my childhood and then he got sober. One of the steps [to sobriety] is to make amends to the people you love. One of the things he did was get me a guitar. I was in college already—in art school—and music turned into my hobby.
I read that your father is a musician. Did you have music around the house? Where did you learn about theory and harmony?
I still don’t really know much about theory and harmony. I know enough to write my songs—that’s about it. But my dad was a composition major and he explains to me what I’m doing in my own songs half the time [laughs].
That’s interesting because your music is more complex than your typical rock song—you have more advanced chords and interesting chord motion going on.
I didn’t start playing guitar until after I left high school, but my dad exposed me to a lot—like Miles Davis, Coltrane, and fusion. I grew up around Steely Dan and all that stuff. I feel that my ear was more developed than my ability to write music. I don’t necessarily know what the voicings are called that I’m using a lot of the time, but I’m hearing them that way in my head. Sometimes it just takes me a while to figure out what it is that I’m hearing.
I hear a lot of ’80s R&B in your songs—Fine Young Cannibals, Terence Trent D’Arby, Prince. Do you listen to any of that?
Yeah, sure. Terence Trent D’Arby is someone I listen to. Prince, of course—I’m pretty obsessed with Prince. Michael Jackson was a big influence on the last record—Off the Wall was pretty important. I was a little kid in the ’80s and a lot of that stuff seeps into my subconscious. When I was a kid my dad put a big Chaka Khan poster on the wall, so I was growing up around that kind of music—Sheila E., the Time, DeBarge.
I also hear a huge Beatles influence on Multi-Love, especially your song “Stage or Screen.”
I’ve gotten to a point with the Beatles where I’ve read every single book and listened to the albums so many times that I have to take a break from them for a little while. A lot of songs I write start off sounding like the Beatles and then I move them somewhere else. On this album, “Stage or Screen” is the most obvious Beatles-sounding song.
While recording Multi-Love I was more influenced by Bowie’s sonic stuff from the ’70s—that whole period between Young Americans and Scary Monsters—the [Tony] Visconti era. Sonically I was thinking along those lines, but I also wanted to use a little bit of digital outboard gear, like digital delays and pitch shifters.
Do you own any of that gear?
I wanted to get an Eventide Harmonizer I found on eBay, but I couldn’t win it. So I found this Lexicon processor—it’s not a digital delay, it’s more like a multi-effects unit—and I use that a lot on the record. I like the sound of it and it was the next best thing I could get to an Eventide Harmonizer. It was cool to use something I’d never really heard of before that could get similar effects.
When a friend gave Nielson (a former Telecaster player) a Jag-Stang, he decided to tune it down a half-step à la Hendrix. It’s been his main guitar ever since. Photo by Raquel Candeias.
What’s your approach to working with effects?
I’m usually reacting to something sonic. I got the [Catalinbread] Pareidolia a couple of years ago—it’s kind of a Uni-Vibe effect—it just sounds so good. There are so many riffs and things that I play just by jamming around with it. I’m pursuing things all the time. If I find a pedal I like, I use it for a long time and then I try to build a clone to see if I can improve on it. I sit around in my basement tweaking it plugged in—on the breadboard—and changing out different components and adjusting the trim until I get everything just exactly how I want it.
How do you know what you’re doing?
I just started tinkering. I started trying to fix my guitars so I wouldn’t have to wait for a tech to get them back to me. I started to tear my guitars apart when something went wrong and I would give them to the tech after I messed them up. Eventually I just got to the point where things were working, my soldering was happening, and I could fix them myself. I went from that to pedals and some outboard gear, and now it’s kind of my hobby.
building your sound.”
You have a few no-name, unmarked pedals on your board. Did you build them?
Yeah. I had a Fulltone Octafuzz, which is a really amazing pedal, but I had this idea that I might be able to make my own that was a little more unique. So I built that. I built a Green Ringer and a Foxx Tone Machine—I mean more or less based on the circuit. I can put carbon comp resistors in and use my own combination of transistors until I find something that is exactly the same. I like the idea that instead of buying your sound, you’re building your sound. A lot of kids take photos of my pedalboard, too, so it’s cool to a have a few that are just blank metal boxes that the kids theorize about.
Do you follow any rules in terms of pedal placement?
I’m always moving things around. I’ve got an Analog Man Bi-CompROSSor that I’ve had at the beginning of the chain and at the end of the chain. At the moment I have it at the end. It’s nice to have a compressor at the end of everything—especially with a phaser pedal, which has frequency spikes. It’s nice to control them.
Ruban Nielson's Gear
Guitars
Fender Jag-Stang
Rogue Electric Sitar Guitar
Amps
Fender Hot Rod DeVille
Orange AD30 head
Effects
Analog Man Bi-CompROSSor
Electro-Harmonix Nano Small Stone Phaser
Catalinbread Pareidolia
TC Electronic Ditto Looper
Electro-Harmonix Freeze
Soundblox Envelope Filter
Boss Chromatic Tuner
Catalinbread Belle Epoch (EP3 Tape Echo Emulation)
Catalinbread Topanga Spring Reverb
Electro-Harmonix Memory Toy
Two homemade mystery boxes
Strings and Picks
D’Addario NYXL (.010–.046)
Are you using your amp or pedals for distortion?
I’m using my amp—I like amp drive. I usually push the front end pretty hard but the actual volume will be pretty mellow. Not super quiet, but on 3 or something like that. Onstage I’m pretty quiet. I have my amp shooting at me from the side—I don’t put it behind me. I don’t want my amp to be shooting down my microphone. I have a 500 series compression and distortion on my mic so I need to keep that as clean as possible. So I keep my amp on the side and Jake [Portrait], the bass player in my band, has his amp on the other side of the stage. Both amps are on the side pointing in, rather than pointing at the crowd from the back.
Are you using your amp as your onstage monitor?
Yes and that helps. I don’t like hearing my guitar in my monitor because there’s no telling what kind of crappy stuff they have. I only get my vocals through the monitor. Lately I’ve been trying to phase out my vocal in the monitor and have no monitors at all.
How do you hear yourself?
I have an earplug. I might move to in-ears, but right now I’m just using an earplug and have the monitors really, really quiet. I can hear my pitch better when I have an earplug in.
How many amps do you have onstage?
Just one. I went through a phase where I modded my Fender DeVille so one of the speakers could be plugged in from another amp and the Deville ran only one of its speakers. I would have my Orange AD30 running the second speaker. That’s my ideal setup, but it’s a hassle to do that every night. At the moment I just take the Deville on tour.
What do you like about your main guitar, the Fender Jag-Stang?
It was just this funny guitar my friend gave me. When I started on the UMO stuff I pulled it out. It would never stay in tune and sounded really strange, but when I plugged it into a Blues Junior, I started to come up with completely different ideas. I tuned it a half-step down and started playing with my fingers. It was just a whole new style that emerged in the space of about two weeks after messing with this guitar. The neck is really perfect. When I tuned a half-step down—which I just did because Jimi Hendrix did it and I thought if I was going to start writing some new music this was my chance to start messing with that—that loosened the strings up. The neck was a smaller scale so it gave me the ability to do completely different things. I was able to get around the neck a lot easier—more comfortably than I ever had with a Telecaster. I’ve tried to upgrade my guitar and I always come back to the Jag-Stang. It has a lot of personality.
Ruban Nielson plays his Fender Jag-Stang with his band Unknown Mortal Orchestra at the Tivoli music venue in Utrecht, Netherlands, circa November 2013. Photo by Justin de Nooijer.
Does it have a Mustang-style whammy on it?
It does, but I never really use it. I have it there because I used to do wobbly stuff. But one of my favorite guitarists is Bill Frisell, and I’ve always really loved the way that he would mess with the neck and bend it out of tune. I do that a lot. A big part of my chord playing is that wonky sound I lifted from him.
It looks like you replaced the humbucker with a single-coil in the bridge position.
The Jag-Stang was a little too noisy for me, so I put Lace Sensor Golds in the bridge and neck positions because they’re good at noise canceling. And they sound really awesome.
How do you go about getting good vocal sounds and recording drums?
I just experiment with it. I didn’t go to engineering school—all I have to go on is making records. I try to keep it simple. I usually use two mics. In fact, all drums on all my records never have more than two mics. I use one mic as the main sound—usually placed somewhere in the middle between the kick drum and the snare—and then use the second mic to get definition in the kick drum.
I discovered you can get much better drum sounds with less microphones. There are so many phase issues. Phase is such an important part of recording and if you have six microphones or more, it can be a phase nightmare. You have too many things. I find that with guitar, too. Sometimes I try to record the guitar with stereo mics, but I don’t think it’s worth it. Just throw a mic up and make sure the part is cool. That’s more fun for me.
So you just record it and then tweak it later?
Yeah. I’ll send it out to different outboard gear, like reamping. I have some compressors now that I use and I run things through pedals. I have no problem running a drum track through a Mu-Tron Phasor or whatever. I’ll put it through anything—a cheap piece of gear or something nice that I have. I try things out and I keep working on the sound until it’s awesome to me.
Do you keep a log in case you want to go back to something you had?
I try to keep to the philosophy that I have to move forward. I do keep insurance—I have all my files saved as I go. But I never find that I go back to things. It forces you to make the decision about what is cool. I think it is really important to make those decisions. You have to decide whether that guitar sound is cool and if you’re going to keep it forever or not. A problem with having options is that it gives you an excuse to not make stylistic choices. And that’s what it is all about—deciding what you think is cool and then going with it forever. All the great records were made like that.
YouTube It
Dig the righteous solo starting at 3:16 and how Nielson uses his index finger as a pick. Listen for the insane tones on the song’s fade out, too.
Did you develop your aesthetic sense through listening or by trial and error?
I was in a band with my brother earlier and we made our own recordings, so I learned a lot. But we were really opinionated music fans before we ever started making records. I had really strong ideas about what I thought was cool and what I thought was lame before I ever started thinking I could make records myself. I think that really helped—having conversations about that stuff already. Then it was just a case of, “Oh, I want to get that clapping sound like On the Corner.” Then it’s years of trying to figure out what it is that makes that sound so fat and so good. We started on Pro Tools, and I remember trying to record hand claps was such a big thing. You put a microphone up and record it, and you’re like, “Why doesn’t it sound like a real hand clap?” You don’t realize until later that you need a real fat preamp to get that sound. “What’s a preamp?” “Why does something sound a certain way?” “Oh, it’s because they recorded it to tape.” It’s that process of learning and thinking that is so much fun.
Ruban’s Lunchbox
Ruban Nielson travels with a 500 series rack—or “lunchbox” in studio parlance—full of goodies. It’s a compact, rugged box with a handle that’s stocked with preamps, compressors, and other devices to enhance or color your sound. API (Automated Processes Incorporated) built the original lunchboxes in the late ’70s to house their 500 series modules. (API owns the name “Lunchbox.”) Over the years the format was standardized. Today, many companies make modules that conform to 500 series specs.Nielson’s lunchbox houses a number of preamps (an essential tool that boosts a relatively weak microphone signal), including a high-end Neve preamp and an Avedis MA5. He has signal-processing units like a BAC-500 compressor and a Radial Tank Driver Spring Reverb Interface. “I have a real spring reverb rackmounted underneath the 500 series rack,” he says. He also uses a number of DIY RE Colour Series modules. “It comes as a kit and you put different cards in it. I have a slight delay card, a tube saturation card, and Cinemag Output Transformer—three different kinds of color that sound cool to me.”
The 500 series is a popular format for capturing great tones. On the road, Nielson uses his 500 series modules primarily for vocals. “When I’m off the mic a little, it’s really clean,” he says. “It breaks up and gets crazy when I get really close. When I cup the mic it sounds lo-fi and cool. I can control a lot of what’s going on just with my mic technique. I can sing clean or distorted and it’s really fun.”