Rig Rundown: Jeff Tweedy

Back in September, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy released his fifth solo album, Twilight Override. The triple album, recorded at the band’s Chicago studio, the Loft, features 30 tracks total. Tweedy set out across the U.S. this fall to celebrate the monumental release.

On October 29, he performed at the Caverns in Grundy County, Tennessee, and welcomed PG’s Nashville correspondent John Bohlinger to the bat cave to check out a ripping collection of pawn-shop specials.

Brought to you by D’Addario.

Pawn Shop Prize

Tweedy has had this heavily modded Jaguar for a very long time—he bought it at a pawn shop when they were still cheap. He guesses it’s a 1964, and it’s been modded to run only on its Seymour Duncan Antiquity bridge humbucker.

Root of All Evil

Tweedy got this Fender Jazzmaster at a pawn shop in Chicago for around $500. With its Mastery bridge, he tunes it with bass strings for some of Wilco’s heavier, lower-tuned material like “Dawned On Me.”

Half Moon Fun

Ric Ocasek is one of the few other well-known guitarists to play one of these Kawai MoonSaults, a Japan-made guitar from the 1980s with a scorching-hot preamp wired into it. Tweedy has a soft spot for them, and has collected six or seven of the oddities. He strings this one with flatwounds.

Everyman’s SG

Tweedy didn’t like the feeling of being handed his $20,000 Gibson SG onstage. He wanted to model some more reasonably priced instruments to his fans, so he started bringing out this early-’80s-built Greco SG copy. It features PAF-style Maxon Dry Z pickups.

Tele: Fully Loaded

Fender didn’t make many of these Telecasters with top-loaded strings, and Tweedy loves the sound of this one’s snarl into his Fender Deluxe. It was purchased at New York’s RetroFret Vintage Guitars and lives in open-G tuning.

Tweedy’s Tweed

Tweedy bought this 1954 Fender Deluxe in 1994 for just a couple hundred bucks. This wide-panel, 10-watt 5D3 model still has its original speaker and transformer.

Jeff Tweedy’s Pedalboards

One of Tweedy’s boards is dedicated almost entirely to pedals by Fairfield Circuitry, based in Hull, Quebec. In addition to a TC Electronic Polytune 3 Noir, Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail, and Black Mountain volume pedal, there are seven Fairfield units: the Accountant compressor, Barbershop overdrive, ~900 fuzz, Randy’s Revenge ring modulator, Shallow Water k-field modulator, and two Meet Maude analog delays.

On a second board for his acoustics, Tweedy runs another Holy Grail, Polytune 3 Noir, and three more Black Mountain volume pedals, plus a Radial Shotgun splitter and buffer and three Rupert Neve RNDI-M direct interface boxes.

Fender Telecaster

Fender Jaguar

Fender Jazzmaster

Seymour Duncan Antiquity Bridge Humbucker

Martin D-18E

Martin D-28E

TC Electronic PolyTune 3 Noir

Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Nano Reverb Pedal

Radial Shotgun Splitter and Buffer

Rupert Neve RNDI-M