Little Feat’s Fred Tackett and Scott Sharrard take PG through their 2023 touring rigs.
Formed in 1969 by slide guitar juggernaut Lowell George, disbanded after his death in ’79, then revitalized in 1987, Little Feet combines George’s bandmate and co-writer Fred Tackett along with virtuoso Scott Sharrard in their new recording and touring lineup. Tackett and Sharrard invited PG’s John Bohlinger to their soundcheck at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium to talk gear and tell classic stories from Little Feet’s early days.
Brought to you by D'Addario XSRR Strings.
Fred Tacket's Gear:
Fred Tackett tours with two stock ’80s Stratocaster Ultras. The 1988 Sunburst, which features a rosewood board, is used for conventional playing.
Tackett’s maple neck 1984 Red Strat Ultra is set up higher for slide.
Tackett’s 1964 Fender Deluxe was modified years ago by Paul Rivera.
Tackett’s pedal board features a Boss TU-2 Tuner, Dunlop Cry Baby, JHS Pulp ’N Peel V3, Boss Tremolo TR-2, MXR Phase 90, Boss DD-5 Delay with Boss FS-5U tap, Ibanez TS9, and a tiny mystery M boost.
Scott Sharrard's Gear:
This Heritage H-137 features Lollar P-90 pickups and stays in standard tuning with StringJoy strings (.095-.046). Sharrard uses Magslide pinky-model slides and Jim Dunlop Primetone picks.
This Gibson CS-336 is Sharrard’s #1. It features Wizz pickups, as well as custom wiring and work by Paul Schwartz.
This custom Novo Serus T also sports Lollar pickups. It lives in open-G tuning with a heavier set of strings (.013-.056).
This 1988 Fender Strat Plus circa 1988 is Sharrard’s primary electric guitar. It’s got Lollar pickups, an Alembic Stratoblaster mid-boost switch (a la Lowell George), and currently lives in open-A tuning.
Sharrard tours with three amps, and runs either one or two depending on the size of the venue. On this show, he ran a Two Rock Classic Reverb 100/50-watt head with a 2x12 vertical closed back cabinet, loaded with Celestion Heritage G12-65 speakers
Sharrard’s second touring amp is his vintage 1966 Fender Vibrolux Reverb 2x10 combo amp, with Celestion G10 vintage speakers
Sharrard’s pedalboard contains a TC Electronic PolyTune, Analog Man Bi-CompROSSor, custom Klon made by Charlie Martinez, Strymon Lex Rotary Speaker Simulator, Strymon Flint, Radial Switchbone for when both amps are in use, a backup PCE-FX Aluminum Falcon, and Radial DI for acoustic guitar.
Little Feat's Rig
Fender '84 Red American Ultra Stratocaster
Fender '88 American Ultra Stratocaster - Sunburst
Gibson CS-336
Boss TU-2 Tuner
Dunlop Cry Baby
JHS Pulp N Peel V3
Boss Tremolo TR-2
MXR Phase 90
Boss DD-5 Delay
Ibanez TS9
TC PolyTune
Strymon Lex Leslie
Strymon Flint
Radial Switchbone
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The final day is here! Enter Stompboxtober Day 31 for your last chance to win today’s pedal from Keeley and finish the month strong!
Keeley Octa Psi Transfigurating Fuzz Pedal with Polyphonic Pitch Shifting
Meet the OCTA PSI Transfigurating Fuzz – The Ultimate Combination of Pitch-Shifter, Octave Generator, and Tri-Voiced Analog Fuzz! Key features include: Instant Effect Order Switching, Flexible Output Configuration, Momentary or Latching Octave/Pitch, and more! Each pitch shift mode includes an up, down, and dual setting, resulting in 24 different modes.
Does the guitar’s design encourage sonic exploration more than sight reading?
A popular song between 1910 and 1920 would usually sell millions of copies of sheet music annually. The world population was roughly 25 percent of what it is today, so imagine those sales would be four or five times larger in an alternate-reality 2024. My father is 88, but even with his generation, friends and family would routinely gather around a piano and play and sing their way through a stack of songbooks. (This still happens at my dad’s house every time I’m there.)
Back in their day, recordings of music were a way to promote sheet music. Labels released recordings only after sheet-music sales slowed down on a particular song. That means that until recently, a large section of society not only knew how to read music well, but they did it often—not as often as we stare at our phones, but it was a primary part of home entertainment. By today’s standards, written music feels like a dead language. Music is probably the most common language on Earth, yet I bet it has the highest illiteracy rate.
Developed specifically for Tyler Bryant, the Black Magick Reverb TB is the high-power version of Supro's flagship 1x12 combo amplifier.
At the heart of this all-tube amp is a matched pair of military-grade Sovtek 5881 power tubes configured to deliver 35-Watts of pure Class A power. In addition to the upgraded power section, the Black Magick Reverb TB also features a “bright cap” modification on Channel 1, providing extra sparkle and added versatility when blended with the original Black Magick preamp on Channel 2.
The two complementary channels are summed in parallel and fed into a 2-band EQ followed by tube-driven spring reverb and tremolo effects plus a master volume to tame the output as needed. This unique, signature variant of the Black Magick Reverb is dressed in elegant Black Scandia tolex and comes loaded with a custom-built Supro BD12 speaker made by Celestion.
Price: $1,699.
Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine is one of the loudest guitarists around. And he puts his volume to work creating mythical tones that have captured so many of our imaginations, including our special shoegaze correspondent, guitarist and pedal-maestro Andy Pitcher, who is our guest today.
My Bloody Valentine has a short discography made up of just a few albums and EPs that span decades. Meticulous as he seems to be, Shields creates texture out of his layers of tracks and loops and fuzz throughout, creating a music that needs to be felt as much as it needs to be heard.
We go to the ultimate source as Billy Corgan leaves us a message about how it felt to hear those sounds in the pre-internet days, when rather than pull up a YouTube clip, your imagination would have to guide you toward a tone.
But not everyone is an MBV fan, so this conversation is part superfan hype and part debate. We can all agree Kevin Shields is a guitarists you should know, but we can’t all agree what to do with that information.