No one’s really toured for a year, but that hasn’t stopped us from catching up with guitarists of all stripes to find out what board candy has got them excited. Pandemic be damned! Here are some of the coolest stomp stations from the last year of PG Rig Rundowns.
Caspian's Phil Jamieson
Post-rock instrumentalist Phil Jamieson’s most recent live board features four main food groups—dirts, loopers, delays, and reverbs—plus Electro-Harmonix Voice Box and MEL9 pedals for a snack. A Boss GE-7 graphic EQ—used for a clean boost with low-mid punch—is always on, while a Strymon Sunset and an Empress Heavy provide three layers of beef.
Next is an Ernie Ball VP Jr. volume pedal, then a TC Electronic Ditto X4, which Jamieson favors for its hold and tape-stop modes. Four more Strymons follow—a TimeLine, an El Capistan (“The pedal I can’t live without”), a blueSky Reverberator, and a Flint. At the end of the signal chain are a Boss RC-3 Loop Station loaded with samples for use as interludes, a mini black box for dramatic signal cuts, and a TC Electronic PolyTune Mini.
Nick Perri — Photo by Justin Higuchi
The Underground Thieves frontman (and former hired gun with Shinedown and Perry Farrell) has a fairly modest and old-school board.
His guitar signal first hits a vintage Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face, then proceeds to a Texadelphia Germanium Booster, a Sir Henry Uni-Vibe clone, a Metropoulos Supa-Boost, a Peterson StroboStomp HD, a Maxon AD999 Analog Delay, and a Hamstead Soundworks Signature Analogue Tremolo.
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10. (B) Brendan Benson
A trip into the bona fide Raconteurs guitarist's inner lair of rare vintage acoustics, super vibey amps, and a few choice goldtops.10. (A) Elder
Swooshing Pink Floyd vibes, kerranging Sleep chugs, and mutating mellow Motorpsycho tones symbiotically swirl in this guitar duo’s growing setups.A trip into the bona fide Raconteurs guitarist's inner lair of rare vintage acoustics, super vibey amps, and a few choice goldtops.
Just days before everything shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brendan Benson was putting together his touring rig to support his new album, Dear Life. The Raconteurs' Benson was cool enough to open up his Nashville studio to Premier Guitar’s John Bohlinger to sit in on the process and extract the new details on both his live and studio setups not seen in the 2014 episode.