Stuart Duncan, Viktor Krauss, and JD McPherson from the Raise the Roof touring band raise the curtain on their road gear.
Fourteen years after their Grammy-winning debut, Raising Sand, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss followed up with Raise the Roofāwhich was nominated for three more Grammys. Now on tour, the duo also has a new band that includes bassist Viktor Krauss, guitarist JD McPherson, and utility player Stuart Duncan. But before they hit the road, Krause, Duncan, and McPhersonāand their techs Paul Ackling and Kevin Devogelā invited the PG team to a rehearsal at Soundcheck Nashville for a look behind the gear curtain. Hereās a sampling of what our team of John Bohlinger, Chris Kies, and Perry Bean saw. Watch the Rundown for the whole picture.
Brought to you by DāAddario XPND Pedalboard.
Fender Bender
This Fender Squier Telecasterāproperty of Stuart Duncanāhas a palm bender for a steel-like effect, and wears Ernie Ball M Steel 2915s, gauged .010ā.052.
Brown Silver
Duncanās vintage Silvertone is strung with Ernie Ball Power Slinky nickelwound 2220 strings, gauged .011ā.048.
Lilā Git
Stuartās Yamaha Guitalele uses Ernie Ball Ernesto Palla 2403 classical-style guitar strings. Also in his acoustic line-up is a Gibson J-45 and a Martin D-28, which both take Ernie Ball Earthwood phosphor bronze strings.
The Giraffe
This Gibson long-neck banjo uses Ernie Ball 5-string Banjo Frailing strings gauged at .010ā.024, with loop ends.
Resophonic Rouser
Duncanās Gold Tone Paul Beard Signature Series Resonator wears Ernie Ball bronze-alloy Earthwood light acoustic strings.
Stuart Duncan's Pedalboard
This comparatively stripped board does the job for Duncan. Itās got two Boss TU-3 tuners, an IndyGuitarist Effects custom OD, a Carl Martin TremOāvibe, and a Benado multi-effects with a Steel-Verb, Echo-Zen delay, and NutraDrive OD.
Tone Tools
Victor Krauss has a distinctive sonic setup, since he covers both bass and guitar in the band. One of his main instruments is this 1967 Galanti Grand Prix.
Towers
And a Yamaha RA-200R rotating speaker cabinet driven by a Groove Tubes GT Trio preamp.
Meet the
Hereās Kraussā stock 1964 Gibson SG Standard.
Solid Guitars
He also plays a high-mileage 1961 Gibson Les Paulāa double-cutaway from the era before this body design became tagged as the SG.
Get Shorty!
This ā60s Vox Octave 12āa short-scale instrument also called a mando-guitarāhas been modified to a 6 string.
Dano Dancer
Among his other vintage instruments is a 1957 Danelectro UB-2 6-string bass thatās still stock.
Twang Thang
One of the few new axes in his arsenal is this 2022 Gretsch Duane Eddy Bass VI.
The Organic
For acoustic, Kraus chases two options: this 1943 Gibson LG-2.
Fantastics
And the other is a velvety 1953 Martin 0-18.
Viktor Krauss' Pedalboard
From his hands and instrumentsā strings, the signal goes to a Boss TU-3W tuner, an Xotic EP Booster, a Guyatone ST2 compressor, another EP Booster, a Boss LS-2 Line Selector (with a send/return to an EHX Pitch Fork and a Danelectro Back Talk), a Nobles ODR-1, a Mostortion MT10, a Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor, a Klon KTR, a Game Changer Audio Plus Sustain (controlling a Boss RE-2 Space Echo), a Fulltone Supa-Trem2, a Strymon Volante, a Hologram Microcosm Granular Looper & Glitch pedal, a Line 6 DL4 MkII delay, a Strymon blueSky, and an Ernie Ball volume pedal for the Yamaha RA-200R, another Strymon blueSky, and a Demeter VTDB-2B Tube DI for the Danelectro.
Pink Panther
This Fender Jazzmaster features some custom work by guitar maker TK Smith and the Fender Custom Shop. All JDās guitars are strung with DāAddarios.
Flex-Able Flyer
This Supro Dual Tone stays dropped down a half-step.
This custom TK Smith 6-string has long been one of McPhersonās favorites. Groove on those pickup covers and that whammy bar!
The Rest of the Best
The remaining gunslingers in McPherson's holster including a Fender Custom Shop Tele, a Gretsch G6134T-58 Vintage Select '58 Penguin with Bigsby, and a pair of TK Smith creations (right side)
Amp Trinity
McPherson plays through a Fender tweed Pro-Amp reissue and a ā68 Vibrolux, while a Texotica Presidio 15 hangs in as a backup, but gets used as his main sound source when he does his own opening set.
JD McPherson's Pedalboard
McPherson runs his guitars into a DāAddario tuner. From there, the signal hits an Echoplex preamp, a Fender ā65 Deluxe pedal, a Crowther Hot Cake, a Way Huge Havelina Fuzz, a Tsakalis AudioWorks Six, an MXR Tremolo, a Fender MTG Tube tremolo, an Echoplex delay, an EHX Stereo Memory Man with Hazarai, and a Dr. Scientist Reverberator and Reverberatoāall into a Live Wire Solutions ABY box leading to JDās amps.
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- Rig Rundown: Buddy Miller āŗ
- Robert Plant & Alison Krauss Announce Can't Let Go Tour 2024 āŗ
- Alison Krauss 2025 Tour - Premier Guitar āŗ
Danelectro keeps bring the past to the future by recreating cult classics from their history. The masonite masters brought a pair of new electrics, their Sitar in a cracked-black finish, and some new colors on the Longhorn basses.
Tsakalis AudioWorks Phonkify X and Mothership Tube Overdrive + Preamp Demos | NAMM 2025
The latest iteration of Tsakalis' expansive envelope filter is a pure funk machine. All the classic '70s-era sounds are packed in there, but with three separate filters, you can get so much more out of it. Both the octave and filter are switchable, and with effect order switching you can really push the limits of out-of-this-world wah sounds. It will be available in March for $229.
EHX always brings some fresh goodies to NAMM and this year they showed us a trio of tone twisters. The most impressive unit had to be the POG3 that builds off their stupendous previous iterations and put lightning-fast tracking and perfect polyphony over four octaves with smoother tone and performance than ever before. It has six voices including DRY, -2, -1, +5th, +1, & +2, you can mix each with individual sliders and create enveloping stereo effects with dedicated pan knobs and selectable LEFT/RIGHT/DIRECT outputs. The effects section has been expanded to offer envelope control and adjustable Q for the new multi-mode FILTER, enhanced DETUNE section with SPREAD, and individual DRY effect selection, plus the famous ATTACK slider for subtle or dramatic swell effects. It also includes expression effects like Freeze, Glissando, Volume, Filter, X-Fade, and Warp.
Collings brandished a fresh offset solidbody electric. The 71 M is built with an ash body, a slab-sawn hard maple neck, rosewood fretboard (with a 10" radius), Mastery Offset bridge & vibrato, and a set of Lollar JM-Style pickups ā P-90 (bridge) and Blademaster (neck). A 25 1/2" scale length, Kluson Supreme tuners, Davies Radio knobs with push-pull series/parallel on the tone, Jupiter Vintage Yellow capacitors, and narrow-tall frets round out the experience.