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Rig Rundown: Steel Panther's Satchel [2023]

Rig Rundown: Steel Panther's Satchel [2023]

The driving force, one-man guitar army who can single-handedly turn 2023 into 1987.


Steel: hard metal. Panther: one of the most ferocious animals. Put them together, and you have perhaps the greatest band of the 21st century. And, hot off the release of their latest, most ass-kicking album ever, Steel Panther is re-invading America. While in Nashville, before they played a blistering set for a packed crowd at Marathon Music Works, Panther’s lead guitarist Satchel invited PG’s John Bohlinger to soundcheck to show off his mighty rig.

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Wild Tiger

Satchel’s main axe is his Charvel Satchel signature model in yellow bengal, which features a 25.5"-scale maple fretboard with a neck with a compound radius of 12"-16". This tiger also features two Fishman Fluence humbucker pickups and a Floyd Rose tremolo.

Picks of Destiny

All of his electrics are strung with Dunlop .009–.042 strings, and Satchel rips with Dunlop Tortex Flow .88 picks.

Party Like It's 1987

This custom 1987 Charvel Satchel model, made to commemorate Steel Panther's latest album, has all of the ingredients of the standard Satchel model, but features art by Ron Williams from RonzWorld Guitars. The design includes a graffiti-inspired top and back and strippers pole-dancing on the fretboard.

Falcon Folk

When Satchel wants to go acoustic, he steps up to his Gretsch G5022CWFE-12 Rancher Falcon Jumbo 12-String Acoustic-Electric guitar, which remains on a K&M acoustic guitar performer stand so he can easily switch back to his Charvel when he wants to unleash hell.

Satchel's Pedalboard

Although Satchel spent decades in front of a wall of 4x12 cabinets, he now relies on one tiny Atomic Amplifire 3 Modeler running on the “5051” model for distorted sounds and the “D-Lux” model for clean, which sends the signal in mono to the front-of-house and monitors.

Satchel runs his Charvel into a Sennheiser EW 572 G3 Wireless which sends his face-melting riffs into his TC Electronic Polytune 3 Noir Mini, followed by an All Pedals Steel Panther 1987 Distortion & Delay, a Way Huge Smalls Conspiracy Theory Professional Overdrive, and an MXR Phase 95. A Strymon Ojai provides the juice.