George Thorogood and the Destroyers have been burning the world up with their blues- and boogie-rock for more than half a century, and before their February gig at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, our Rig Rundown crew met up with Thorogood, tech Rev Jones, and veteran Destroyer Jim Suhler at PRG Nashville for a look at how they cook up their kick-ass riffage onstage these days. PG’s John Bohlinger takes you through all the details in our video, but have a look at some essential pieces of the pie below.
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White Lightning
Thorogood’s long been a vintage Gibson ES-125 TDC devotee—the dual-P-90, single-cutaway, semi-hollow design has been his calling card for decades—so Epiphone created the George Thorogood ES-125 “White Fang” Outfit for him so he’d always have a road-ready 125. The instrument has P-90 PRO pickups and Wilkinson Deluxe tuners.
Thorogood’s tech, Rev Jones, cuts and tapes lengths of copper pipe for Thorogood to use as slides in open-G and open-D tunings. Jones uses GHS strings, with .012–.054 for standard tuning and .015–.056 for open tunings.
Paint It Black
Aside from its finish, this black ES-125 is as close as can be to Thorogood’s primary “White Fang,” so they can be switched out at any time with almost no change in feel.
George Thorogood’s Pedalboard
Thorogood uses Electro-Harmonix 22 Caliber Power Amps—which aren’t manufactured anymore—on the road, cranked through Mesa/Boogie 1x12 cabinets. Ahead of that setup, he runs a rack-mounted board operated with a Voodoo Labs PX-8 Plus Programmable Switcher, which includes an MXR Boost/Line Driver, Empress Para EQ, DigiTech FreqOut, Boss BF-3, Boss TR-2, and Boss DD-5.
Goldie Rocks
Longtime Destroyer Jim Suhler likes this goldtop Epiphone Les Paul Traditional Pro III for touring thanks to its comfort and consistent tone.
Jim Suhler’s Pedalboard
Like Thorogood, Suhler’s sound runs through a combo of Mesa/Boogie cabinets and EHX 22 Caliber Power Amps. Upstream from them, on Suhler’s board, are a TC Electronic PolyTune 3 Noir, Fender Micro DI, TC Electronic Spark Mini, J. Rockett Archer Ikon, and Boss TR-2.
