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 views—so 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 .010–.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 .010–.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, .010–.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 Barney—Not 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.
Amps—Loud 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 Sultan—a 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 boxes—a Metropoulos Supa Boost, Hudson Electronics Broadcast-AP preamp (Ariel Posen signature), Lovepedal Tchula Boost, and an Analogman Beano Boost.
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The Hummingbird Studio EC features a mahogany body and sides with a Sitka spruce top, a Round SlimTaper profile mahogany neck, and L.R. Baggs electronics.
The Hummingbird has become more versatile and expressive than ever with the introduction of the Hummingbird Studio EC, Hummingbird Standard EC, and the Hummingbird Rosewood EC. Equipped with cutaway bodies that provide improved access to the upper frets of the Round SlimTaper profile mahogany necks, L.R. Baggs electronics, and shipped in hardshell cases, they’re ready for you to take them wherever the muse carries you.
Hummingbird Standard EC
- Mahogany body and sides with a Sitka spruce top
- Mahogany neck with a Round SlimTaper profile and 12” radius
- L.R. Baggs VTC electronics
- Gloss finish with full-color Hummingbird graphics on the pickguard
Hummingbird Standard Rosewood EC
- Rosewood body and sides with a Sitka spruce top gives more bass and harmonic complexity
- Mahogany neck with a Round SlimTaper profile and 12” radius
- L.R. Baggs VTC electronics
- Gloss finish with full-color Hummingbird graphics on the pickguard
Hummingbird Studio EC
- Mahogany body and sides with a Sitka spruce top
- Utile neck with a Round SlimTaper profile and 16” radius
- L.R. Baggs Element Bronze electronics
- Satin finish with one-color Hummingbird graphics on the pickguard
During routine quality checks, Blackstar has identified a problem with specific Debut 100 Series amps.
Statement from Blackstar:
"Nothing is more important to Blackstar than the safety of our customers.
During routine quality checks, we have identified a problem with Debut 100R 112 and 212 Combos with date codes from 2403 to 2411.
Due to cabinet production errors, a larger than intended gap between wooden parts of the cabinet can cause some electronic components to be accessible or partially exposed. As a result, in some circumstances a user could come into contact with safety critical internal chassis components. This poses a risk of serious electric shock.
Given the circumstances and our commitment to absolute safety, Blackstar has therefore decided to recall these affected products to resolve the issue. No other Blackstar products or Debut 100R date codes are affected.
Blackstar asks all customers with a Debut 100R 112 or 212 Combo to visit the following link to determine whether their product is affected: https://blackstaramps.com/product-recall/
We wish to thank you for your cooperation and to apologise for any inconvenience caused.
If you have any questions or concerns, or need any support regarding the details of this Product Safety Recall, please contact our team in the UK via https://blackstaramps.com/contact-us/"
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A more compact Cortex puts a universe of sounds and tone creation potential at your feet, at a price that’s a fraction of bigger floor modelers.
Fast, easy capture process. Easy to navigate top-level functions. Captures can sound very accurate. Extensive online community creates a trove of downloadable models.
No onboard screen means you rely on a smartphone or tablet for deep navigation. Getting closest possible amp captures via miking can take a lot of trial and error.
$549
Neural DSP Nano Cortex
neuraldsp.com
The complexities and capabilities of modelers like Neural DSP’s Cortex series demand certain tradeoffs. For starters, a powerful modeler can’t be the size of a postage stamp, at least if you intend to adjust many parameters and source numerous presets in real time on a stage. Neural’s newNano Cortex pushes back at the boundaries of that compromise. It's not much wider than two MXR pedals side by side. The $549 price tag, which is just about a third of the price of the Nano’s more capable big brother,the Quad Cortex, makes it an appealing proposition too.
Taken at Face Value
The Nano Cortex is a streamlined piece of hardware. An array of five push buttons enables signal capture and navigation of banks and effects. Two rotary bypass footswitches also move through presets and effects blocks, and six knobs (with LED surrounds that display levels) govern gain, output level, EQ, and wet/dry effects blend. The big omission here is, of course, a screen that displays signal effects chains and preset names. That job, if you choose to use the Nano in that fashion, falls to the Cortex Cloud app and a smartphone or tablet, meaning you’ll need two pieces of hardware on hand to make the most of the Nano’s potential. You can use the Nano in performance without a phone or tablet. But you’ll need to have a photographic memory of what presets are made up of what amps and effects, which gets extra tricky if you use wildly divergent sounds designed to work at vastly different output levels.
Many sounds from the Nano Cortex are fantastic. Many of the factory presets—particularly those dressed up with a little gain, will probably fool listeners in a blind test when those sounds are situated in a mix, and can be fairly classified as authentic in most cases. Like any modeler, the accuracy of modeled tones doesn’t mean that dynamic interactions with those same models will feel the same way, especially if you use feedback and the overtones and harmonics generated via amp proximity in your expression. For guitarists that don’t integrate these methods into their playing, the Nano’s sounds will be more than satisfactory stand-ins for their analog equivalents.
A Captive Audience
Modelers love the convenience of capture technology—the ability to clone the characteristics of many amps and pedals in your collection, which you can then take on the road, to a gig, or practice in a compact floor unit. It’s a very appealing and practical idea, particularly if you’re playing anywhere where parking in front of the venue isn’t a given. Neural’s capture method is fast and easy. To capture an amp’s personality, you mike an amp (or send the signal via a load box) to the Nano Cortex, run a signal from the Nano to your amp, press capture, listen for the test signals and kick back for five minutes while the unit does its thing. The process is fundamentally easy. And it enables you to stuff an approximation of your favorite amp, or 10, in the pocket of a gig bag. It’s also what makes the tone library crowd sourced by the constantly growing and dedicated Cortex artist and user community so extensive.
“Nano Cortex’s capture process is fundamentally easy. And it enables you to stuff an approximation of your favorite amp, or ten, in the pocket of a gig bag.”
But while you can conceivably nail the sound of your amp, or pedal, to the letter in five minutes, achieving the best possible approximation can take many tries—particularly if you use the amp-miking method. Though I got close, I never quite hit the bullseye in my attempts. The same mic placement, amp settings, and audio interface all sounded more expansive and livelier when tracked live than via a capture. Would I love to have close-but-not-quite approximations of my favorite three different amps on a fly date? You bet—especially if I could situate a few key, favorite pedals on a small pedalboard with the Nano.
The Verdict
Though there is no shortage of serviceable sounds built into the Nano Cortex, the real action will, for many, be the abundance of captures and sounds created via the larger Cortex community. This is no bad thing—especially if you have the time to cruise and create these sounds at leisure. There’s no reason that any of these sounds can’t become solid foundations for core live tones. But time spent exploring an extensive online library of captures or creating them is time not spent creating songs. So, for many players, Nano Cortex will be a better bet for home recording than for performance or in a deadline-driven studio situation. This is made doubly true for the lack of the onboard editing interface and the Nano Cortex reliance on a smartphone or tablet for deeper editing. Adding a second piece of gear compounds the risks inherent in an already complex technology.
Still, the number of available presets is considerable, and players with gigs that require spanning multiple styles in a night will have so much to work with here if they manage without a screen and trust their phone. In terms of achieving sheer processing power in a small size, the Nano Cortex is tough to beat. And for those that savor the experience of creating and sourcing a huge library of sounds in a unit with the footprint of a sandwich, thrills and big-time dividends await.