The Los Angeles League of Musicians—LA LOM for short—brought the vintage vibe with them on the road last year.
It wasn’t long ago that LA LOM—guitarist Zac Sokolow, bassist Jake Faulkner, and percussionist Nicholas Baker—were cutting their teeth together as the house band at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, playing poolside for guests. Now, with eight EPs and a full-length record (2024’s The Los Angeles League of Musicians) since 2021, they’re a full-blown sensation, celebrating and interpreting instrumental tropical guitar traditions.
The trio played Nashville’s The Basement back in December, where PG’s John Bohlinger caught up with Sokolow and Faulkner to see what road rigs they use to bring their psychedelic cumbia and Peruvian chicha dreams to life.
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This vintage National Val-Pro, circa 1960 to 1962, belongs to Faulkner, who received it as his very first electric. When he switched to bass, the Val-Pro took a backseat, so Sokolow had been more than happy to borrow it long-term. All the controls are disconnected except for the volume knob. Sokolow strings it with a .012–.052 gauge set of roundwounds, and he’s partial to D’Andrea Pro Plec 1.5 mm picks.
Leader of the Pack
Sokolow’s other sidekick is this Kay Style Leader from 1960. Each of the three pickups has a volume and tone control. The body’s been mostly routed out, so it lends the resonance and darkness of a semi-hollowbody.
Live and Loud
While he’ll often play through Fender Deluxe Reverbs at home, Sokolow trusts the Twin Reverb to get the job done in performance settings. The stage volume is loud enough that he and his bandmates often don’t need monitors: They can just listen to each other’s instruments onstage.
Zac Sokolow's Pedalboard
From his guitar, Sokolow’s signal runs through a spicy-red Voltage Cable Co. coil cable into his board. A TC Electronic Polytune 2 starts things off, followed by a Fulltone Full-Drive 3 for just a hint of dirt, then a Boss DM-3 delay, followed by a Catalinbread Topanga spring reverb. A TC Helicon VoiceTone handles some more echo work along with the DM-3.
Flight-Friendly Upright
Jake Faulkner’s traveling upright is thisJohnson bass, which has been modded by Tom at Fantastic Musical Instruments in Pasadena, California. Tom gave the upright a bolt-on neck that comes off easily, making it a perfect travel mate. For amplification, Faulkner uses pickups from Underwood, based in Palm Springs. On a tip from Tom, he glued a small piece of wood to the side of the pickups to reduce noise issues, and two sound posts have been installed inside the body to reduce feedback concerns.
Thumbin' Through
For electric needs, Faulkner uses this Fender Vintera II ’60s Precision Bass; he’ll switch between the two basses depending on what he feels best suits the song. He uses a thumb pick from time to time to accentuate certain rhythms.
Lightweight Low End
Faulkner’s been converted to this Ampeg Venture V12, a compact bass head weighing less than nine pounds—a godsend for sore-backed bassists. It’s set for a pretty neutral, SVT-style sound and runs into a Fender Bassman 410 Neo cabinet, which has four neodymium-loaded speakers.
Jake Faulkner's Pedalboard
Rather than at the start of his chain, his Korg Pitchblack Advance tuner goes at the end, with everything running out of it to the Venture V12. An Origin Effects Bassrig Super Vintage lends color and tone to the V12, then the Fire-Eye Development Red-Eye Twin acts as an A/B switch to maintain output and gain between the Johnson and the P-bass. An MXR Ten Band EQ helps balance out the upright’s tone.
Shop LA LOM's Rig
Origin Effects Bassrig Super Vintage
Fender Bassman 410 Neo Cabinet
Fender Vintera II '60s Precision Bass
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Grammy Award-winning artist Warren Haynes is a cornerstone of the American music landscape, lauded as one of the most formidable and prolific guitarists, vocalists, songwriters, and producers of the modern era. Gibson is proud to announce its partnership with Warren Haynes for the release of his first signature guitar, the Gibson Warren Haynes Les Paul Standard. The Warren Haynes Les Paul Standard from Gibson is available worldwide now at the Gibson Garage Nashville and London, at authorized Gibson dealers, and on Gibson.com.
“I’ve always been a Gibson guy—I got hooked on that sound as a teenager and have been playing them ever since,” says Warren Haynes. “Needless to say, I’m honored to be partnering with Gibson to release my Signature Les Paul Standard. Being traditionally a humbucker guy, I’m really loving the hum-free P-90s. It’s a really cool tonal change, and the boost offers even more tonal options. I’m really enjoying playing this guitar on stage and looking forward to using it in the studio. I’m equally psyched that other guitar players will now have the opportunity to own and play one as well.”
Warren Haynes effortlessly cross-pollinates genres and unfurls solos that broil with passion in his distinctive, signature playing style. Renowned and highly regarded for his work in rock, blues, and Americana music through his work with the Allman Brothers Band, as a founding member of Gov’t Mule, the leader of The Warren Haynes Band, a solo artist, and as a session guitarist and sideman for numerous famous friends and groups. As one of music’s most treasured storytellers, Haynes and his artistry have led to thousands of memorable performances and millions of album and track sales. A master of multiple styles and genres, Warren has also shared his expertise with other players via multiple instructional videos. A self-described “Gibson man,” Warren has used several Gibson models throughout the years, including his cherished ’61 ES-335™, among others.
The new Warren Haynes Les Paul Standard is another standout, with features tailored specifically to Warren’s preferences, including a mahogany body with a plain maple cap, a 60s Cherry finish, a mahogany neck with a chunky 50s vintage profile like all of Warren’s favorite Les Pauls, a rosewood fretboard with acrylic trapezoid inlays and 22 medium jumbo frets, a pair of P-90 DC pickups that deliver hum-free performance with all the sonic nuances of traditional P-90 DC pickups, and a 15 dB boost that can be activated via a mini toggle switch. The quick-access battery compartment is mounted into the control cover on the rear, and the guitar will still function, even if the battery dies, by simply flipping the mini toggle switch to the off position.
Bearing the traditional looks and feel of a 50s-era Les Paul coupled with modern features like hum-free P-90 DC pickups and an onboard boost, the Warren Haynes Les Paul Standard bridges modern and traditional and is a great choice for players who, like Warren, want both a traditional appearance and modern functionality in one outstanding guitar.
Last fall, Warren Haynes released his fourth solo album, Million Voices Whisper, via Fantasy Records. Haynes sounds as energetic and focused as ever on the self-produced album, powering through an 11-song set of soulful blues-rock, his first solo collection in nearly a decade. Accompanying Warren on the collection are members of his current all-star band, including John Medeski on keyboards, longtime drummer Terence Higgins (of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band), and Gov’t Mule bassist Kevin Scott. Million Voices Whisper also features guest appearances from his Allman Brothers Band compatriot Derek Trucks, whose unmistakable guitar sound toughs up three tracks on the album that were co-produced with Haynes, and his Last Waltz tour co-stars Lukas Nelson and Jamey Johnson, who are featured on the forceful “Day Of Reckoning.” Joining Haynes in the studio for the first time since the final sunset of the ABB, one of the featured tracks with Trucks on guitar is “Real Real Love,” a song initially co-written with Gregg Allman that Warren finished in Allman’s style and methods as if Gregg were singing it to honor his friend.
Buzzing through the chart-topping album is the question of how to make things better—in love, in life, in the world—led by Haynes’s soaring vocals and the poignancy of his six-string mastery. Million Voices Whisper opens with “These Changes,” a co-write with Trucks, leading into “Go Down Swinging,” co-written with Johnson, which features a horn section and a Van Morrison vibe. Then, there’s the soulful power ballad “Till The Sun Comes Shining Through,” driven by Warren’s impassioned vocals and slide guitar skills. The expressive pipes of touring backup singer Saundra Williams are also heard on multiple tracks, including the lead single “This Life As We Know It,” which reached Top 15 on the Americana singles chart and Top 40 at Triple A radio. Among the four bonus tracks on the deluxe CD version is a new version of the Trucks-Haynes composition “Back Where I Started” featuring Warren on lead vocals and slide guitar and the power trio of Haynes, Nelson, and Johnson covering the CSNY classic “Find The Cost Of Freedom” into an extended version of “Day Of Reckoning.” Million Voices Whisper combines the eloquent musicianship of a triple-threat blues-rocker with the glowing spirit of a vital creative artist at the peak of his powers.
For more information, please visit gibson.com.
Gibson Warren Haynes Les Paul Standard Electric Guitar - '60s Cherry
Gary is not exclusively a destruction machine. Its distortion/overdrive section is a very streamlined take on EarthQuaker’s Gray Channel, a versatile DOD 250-derived double distortion. Like any good circuit of the 250 ilk, Gary’s hard clipping OD/distortion section bites viciously in the high- and high-mid frequencies, supported by a tight, punchy low-mid output. You can play anything from balanced M.O.R. studio crunch to unhinged feedback leads with this side of Gary. But it’s the envelope-triggered pulse-width fuzz—which most of us will hear as a gated fuzz, in many instances—that gives the Gary its werewolf duality. Though practice yields performance patterns that change depending on the instrument and effects you use around the Gary, its fuzz ultimately sputters and collapses into nothingness—especially when you throw a few pitch bends its way. The cut to silence can be jarring, but also compels a player to explore more rhythmic leads and choppy riffs that would sound like sludge with a Big Muff. The Gary’s unpredictable side means it won’t be for everybody, but its ability to span delicioso distortion and riotous splatter fuzz in a single unit is impressive.
EarthQuaker Devices Gary Automatic Pulse Width Modulation Fuzz/Overdrive Pedal
