A backwards Strat, a radical Jetsons-y guitar, Def Leppard's secret weapon, and more pedals than currently listed on Reverb fill this YouTuber's tone lounge.
He's played with Santana, Stevie Wonder, and a host of other greats, and his lessons and demos on YouTube have garnered more than 15-million viewsāso there's a good chance you already know this Nashville-based guitarist.
Now, take a look inside his studio and eyeball an impressive armada of guitars, amps, and effects with PG's John Bohlinger.
[Brought to you by D'Addario XPND Pedalboard: https://www.daddario.com/XPNDRR]
Guitars
(Ronquillo has a lot of 6-strings, but we narrowed down this Rundown to a few favorites that do most of the heavy lifting.)
Pretty in Pink
This Nash S-81 features an EMG SL20 Pro Series Steve Lukather signature set of pickups, and it's strung with a D'Addario NYXL .010ā.046 set.
Original Senn
This is one of Nashville builder Jeff Senn's Fullerton S-styles, with Lollar pickups, a Vega-Trem tremolo, and a set of D'Addario NYXL .010ā.046s.
In for the Pun
Yes, Senn thinks this is funny, too.
Bet on the Knaggs
Here's a Doug Rappaport signature Knaggs Kenai DR, featuring a Seymour Duncan Slash neck pickup and a Duncan Custom Shop '78 in the bridge. Ronquillo added a String Butler tuning stabilizer. Once again: D'Addario NYXLs, .010ā.046.
Photo Finish
This Novo Custom Serus J features a one-of-a-kind "Ron-Tealio" finish with Brandonwound P-90s. Same D'Addario NYXLs. Cool speed dials and whammy bar tip, yes?
S-Style with a Twist
And now for something completely different, here's an RS Guitarworks Twisted. The guitar has an alder body and a rosewood neck, with Fralin Woodstock pickups. RJ uses a Stringjoy Hendrix set: .010, .013, .015, .026, .032, and .038. The lighter G string supposedly provides a more balanced tone.
Make Way for Junior
Here's another axe with history in its genes: a Grez Mendocino Junior. In classic Junior form, it has a 1-piece body, but it is made from reclaimed old-growth redwood. The neck is solid Honduran mahogany with a Macassar ebony fretboard. The pickup is a dog ear Wolftone MeanerP90. This one sports RJ's usual D'Addario NYXLs.
A BarneyāNot the Purple One
This cherry sunburst 1964 Gibson Barney Kessel Custom is all stock, replete with bow-tie inlays and elegant binding. For a bit more beef, it's strung with Thomastik-Infeld George Benson strings: .012, .016, .020w, .028, .039, and .053. Note the cool badge at the bottom of the tailpiece.
AmpsāLoud City
RJ has a lot of amps, so we narrowed it down to those in "Tonehenge," the part of his studio that houses his amplifiers that are in current heavy rotation.
Morgan Horsepower
Want classic American amp tone? Here's your pony. This 35W head uses two 5881 power tubes, two 12AV7s, and a GZ34 rectifier.
Yes, Suhr
This Pete Thorn signature has three channels, an effects loop, four EL-34 power tubes, six 12AX7 preamp tubes, and is set up for MIDI control.
Sibling Revelry
This Friedman Twin Sister uses 40 watts to go for classic British tone. It's inspired by the Marshall JTM 45. Each channel has a bright switch and a 3-position gain switch, and there are two 5881s and five 12AX7s lurking inside.
Sultan of String
With a nod to Howard Dumble, here's Amplified Nation's Steel String Sultanāa 25 watt version of this custom build. As you'd expect, the Boston-area company has packed it chock full of top-of-the-line components, including orange drop and NTE caps, and Classic Tone and Heyboer transformers.
White Box of Rock
Helping Ronquillo have even more options when it comes to recording and routing, he employs this Two Notes Torpedo Captor X Stereo Reactive Load Box.
The Chains We Forge in Tone
RJ is a pedal guy. His rig flows through a series of boards, but the signal from his guitar firsts lands here, at a JAM Pedals Wahcko wah and a Sabbadius Funky-Vibe Fillmore East edition.
Like a Peach
From there, the signal hits his "Fuzz Board," which includes a One Control Iguana Tail Loop 2 switcher feeding a King Tone MiniFuzz germanium, a Wes Jeans Texas Fuzz silicon fuzz face clone, an Expresso FX Fuzz Bender Mk 1, a Wren and Cuff Small Foot Box of War muff-style, a J.Rockett .45 Caliber overdrive, and an MXR CAE buffer.
Switch It Up
Since there are three more pedalboards in RJ's setup, this Boss ES-5 Switcher is sensible
The Main Vein
A lot goes down here. When that Boss switcher sends the guitar signal this way, it encounters a Peterson StroboStomp HD tuner, a DigiTech Drop, a DryBell Unit 67 EQ/boost/comp, a King Tone Octaland mini octave pedal, an AnalogMan Sun Face, a Pogo Pedals Zen Ray overdrive, a Nobels ODR-1, his signature Mythos Susmaryosep! boost/overdrive/echo, an LPD Eighty 7 distortion, a Vertex Boost, a Roland EV-5 expression pedal, a GFI Synesthesia multi-modulator, JAM's Harmonius Monk tremolo, and a Boss FRV-1 '63 Fender Reverb.
Enter to win pedals from RJ's main board seen above!
Next!
Currently to the right of the main board, these: a Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe, Fulltone's Ultimate Octave, a King Tone Duellist dual overdrive, MXR's FET Driver, and a LPD Seventy4 overdrive.
But Wait, There's More
You ain't seen nuthin' yet. Okay, you've seen a lot. But there's also, to the left of the main board: a Mythos High Road mini fuzz, a Beetronics Vezzpa Octave Stinger Fuzz, a Cornerstone Gladio dual overdrive. a Vertex Ultra Phonix Overdrive, and a Vertex Ultra Phonix HRM overdrive. He uses Truetone, Cioks, and T-Rex power supplies.
And Even More!!
Another board is home to four filthy boxesāa Metropoulos Supa Boost, Hudson Electronics Broadcast-AP preamp (Ariel Posen signature), Lovepedal Tchula Boost, and an Analogman Beano Boost.
- Eastwood Airline H78 Review - Premier Guitar āŗ
- Eastwood Guitars Releases the California Rebel - Premier Guitar āŗ
- On Bass: Advice for Guitarists ⦠from a Bassist - Premier Guitar āŗ
- Do you want to WIN gear from RJ Ronquillo's Pedalboard? āŗ
- Rig Rundown: Dragged Under's Ryan "Fluff" Bruce - Premier Guitar āŗ
- YouTube Guitar Sensation RJ Ronquillo on The Ventures' Influence - Premier Guitar āŗ
- VegaTrem VT2 ND Teletrem Demo | NAMM 2023 - Premier Guitar āŗ
- Sabbadius Tiny-Vibe 69 Review - Premier Guitar āŗ
- Thomastik-Infeld Launches Infeld Bronze Acoustic Strings āŗ
Small spring, big splashāa pedal reverb that oozes surfy ambience and authenticity.
A vintage-cool sonic alternative to bigger tube-driven tanks and digital springs that emulate them.
Susceptible to vibration.
$199
Danelectro Spring King Junior
danelectro.com
Few pedal effects were transformed, enhanced, and reimagined by fast digital processors quite like reverb. This humble effectāreadily available in your local parking garage or empty basketball gymnasium for freeāevolved from organic sound phenomena to a very unnatural one. But while digital processing yields excellent reverb sounds of every type and style, Iād argue that the humble spring reverb still rules in its mechanical form.
Danelectroās Spring King Junior, an evolution of the companyās Spring King from the āaughts, is as mechanical as they come. It doesnāt feature a dwell control or the huge, haunted personality of a Fender Reverb unit. But the Spring King Junior has a vintage accent and personality and doesnāt cost as much as a whole amplifier like a Fender Reverb or reverb-equipped combo does. But itās easy to imagine making awesome records and setting deep stage moods with this unit, especially if 1950s and 1960s atmospheres are the aim.
Looking Past Little
Size factors significantly into the way a spring reverb sounds. And while certain small spring tanks sound coolāthe Roland RE-201 Space Echoās small spring reverb for oneāitās plain hard to reproduce the clank and splash from a 17" Fender tank with springs a fraction of that length. Using three springs less than 3 1/2" long, the Accutronics/Belton BMN3AB3E module that powers the Spring King Junior is probably not what you want in a knife fight with Dick Dale. Even so, it imparts real character that splits the difference between lo-fi and garage-y and long-tank expansiveness.
In very practical and objective terms, the Danelectro canāt approach a Fender Reverbās size and cavernousness. Matching the intensity of the Spring King Juniorās maximum reverb and tone settings to my own Fender Reverbās means keeping dwell, mix, and tone controls between 25 to 30 percent of their max. Depending on your tastes, that might be a useful limitation. If youāve used a Fender Reverb unit before, you know they can sound fantastically extreme. Itās overkill for a lot of folks, and the Spring King Junior inhabits spaces that donāt overpower a guitar or amplifierās essence. Many players will find the Spring King Junior simply easier to manage and control.
There are ways to add size to the Spring King Juniorās output. An upstream, edgy clean boost will do much to puff up the Danelectroās profile next to a Fender. The approach comes with risk: Too much drive excites certain frequencies to the point of feedback. But the Juniorās mellower sounds are abundant and interesting. Darker reverb tones sound awesome, and combined with modest reverb mixes they add a spooky aura to melancholy soul and spartan semi-hollow jazz phrasingsāall in shades mostly distinct from Fender units.
Watch Your Step!
Spring reverbs come with operational challenges that you wonāt experience in a digital emulation. And though the Spring King Junior is well built, its relative slightness compounds some of those challenges. The spring module, for instance, is affixed to the Spring King Juniorās back panel with two pieces of foam tape. And while kicking a spring reverb to punctuate a dub mix or surf epic is a gas, the Spring King Junior can be susceptible to less intentional applications of this effect. At extra-loud volumes, the unit picks up vibrations from the amplifierās output when amp and effect are in tight proximity. And sometimes, merely clicking the bypass switch elicits an echo-y āclankā. This doesnāt happen in every performance setting. But itās worth considering settings where youāll use the Spring King Junior and how loud and vibration-resistant those spaces will be.
Though the Spring King Juniorās size makes it susceptible to vibration, many related ghost tonesātaken in the right measureāare a cool and essential part of its voice. Itās an idiosyncratic effect, so evaluating its compatibility with specific instruments, amps, studio environments, and performance settings is a good idea. But for those that do find a place for the Spring King Junior, its combination of tone color, compact size, and hazy 1960s ambience could be a deep well of inspiration.
PGāsJohn Bohlinger caught up with Moak at his Nashville studio known affectionately as the Smoakstack.
Grammy-nominated session guitarist, producer, mixer, and engineer Paul Moak stays busy on multiple fronts. Over the years heās written, played, produced and more for TV sessions (Pretty Little Liars, One Tree Hill) and artists including Third Day, Leeland, and the Blind Boys of Alabama. But most recently heās worked with Heart and Ann Wilson and Tripsitter.
Time Traveler
Moak is most loyal to a 1963 Stratocaster body thatās mated to a 1980s-vintage, 3-bolt, maple, bullet-truss-rod, 1969-style Fender Japan neck. The bridge has been swapped as many as four times and the bridge and neck pickups are Lindy Fralins.
Cool Cat
If thereās one guitar Moak would grab in a fire, itās the Jaguar heās had since age 20 and used in his band DC Talk. When Moak bought the guitar at Music Go Round in Minneapolis, the olympic white finish was almost perfect. He remains impressed with the breadth of tones. He likes the low-output single-coils for use with more expansive reverb effects.
Mystery Message Les Paul
Moakās 1970 L.P. Custom has a number of 1969 parts. It was traded to Moak by the band Feel. Interestingly, the back is carved with the words ācheatā and āliar,ā telling a tale we can only speculate about.
Dad Rocker
Almost equally near and dear to Moakās heart is this 1968 Vox Folk Twelve that belonged to his father. It has the original magnetic pickup at the neck as well as a piezo installed by Moak.
Flexi Plexis
This rare and precious trio of plexis can be routed in mix-and-match fashion to any of Moakās extensive selection of cabsāall of which are miked and ready to roll.
Vintage Voices
Moakās amps skew British, but ā60s Fender tone is here in plentitude courtesy of a blonde-and-oxblood Bassman and 1965 Bandmaster as well as a 2x6L6 Slivertone 1484 Twin Twelve.
Guess What?
The H-Zog, which is the second version of Canadian amp builder Garnetās Herzog tube-driven overdrive, can work as an overdrive or an amp head, but itās probably most famous for Randy Bachmanās fuzzy-as-heck āAmerican Womanā tone.
Stomp Staff
While the Eventide H90 that helps anchor Moakās pedalboard can handle the job of many pedals, he may have more amp heads on hand than stompboxes. But essentials include a JHS Pulp āNā Peel compressor/preamp, a DigiTech Whammy II, DigiTech FreqOut natural feedback generator, a Pete Cornish SS-3 drive, Klon Centaur, and Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man.
PG Contributor Tom Butwin dives into three standout baritone guitars, each with its own approach to low-end power and playability. From PRS, Reverend, and Airline, these guitars offer different scale lengths, pickup configurations, and unique tonal options. Which one fits your style best? Watch and find out!
Reverend Descent W Baritone Electric Guitar - Transparent White
Descent W Trans WhiteFeaturing authentic tape behavior controls and full MIDI implementation, the EC-1 is a premium addition to any guitarist's setup.
Strymon Engineering, the Los Angeles-based company behind premium products for the guitar, plugin, and Eurorack markets, announced a new single-head tape echo pedal in their newer small format today, called the EC-1. Initially based around the award-winning dTape algorithm that helped to make the El Capistan pedal an industry titan, development took a different turn when Strymon acquired an immaculate and heavily modified tube EchoplexĀ® EP-2. The new true stereo pedal features two models of the EP-2ās tube preamp with variable gain, as well as a three-position Record Level switch that allows for additional gain control. Glitchless tap tempo allows tapping in new tempos without tape artifacts, and the Tape Age and Mechanics controls modify a large number of parameters under the hood to deliver authentic tape behavior at any setting. Other features include TRS stereo Ins and Outs, full MIDI implementation, TRS MIDI, arear-panel audio routing switch, USB-C and 300 presets. Being true stereo, the EC-1 processes the left and right inputs independently, allowing it to be placed anywhere in the signal chain.
āWe decided to start the project by investigating the preamps from tube echo units, so I bought an original EchoplexĀ® EP-2 to begin the processā, said Gregg Stock, Strymon CEO and analog circuit guru. āIt showed up in pristine condition and sounded amazing, and we found out later that it had been heavily modified by storied guitar tech Cesar Diaz. His mods created a single unit with the best attributes of both tube and solid-state Echoplexes, so we spent a bunch of time figuring out how to recreate its behavior.ā Pete Celi, Strymon co-founder, and DSP maven said āIt was so clean and mechanically stable that other nuances stood out more prominently -chief among them being some capstan-induced variations that help to widen the spectrum of the repeats. With the Mechanics control at around 1 pm, you get a hyper-authentic representation of that golden EP-2 unit, with a high-speed flutter that adds dimension to the echoes.ā
EC-1 is available now directly from Strymon and from dealers worldwide for $279 US.
For more information, please visit strymon.net.