Steve Hackett: Cured by Effects Pedals

Genesis alumnus Steve Hackett continues to be a prolific guitarist and songwriter. After recording eight classic albums with Genesis, Hackett pursued a solo career that saw the further release of twenty-two albums between 1977 and 2008. Not wishing to be cornered by the progressive-rock label, Hackett jumped head first into the pop genre with the 1981 release of Cured. While the previous year's Defector album received greater critical acclaim and charted higher in the UK and US, Cured remains one of Hackett's most important solo albums because it evidences his deconstruction as a purely progressive-rock guitarist. If you're interested in producing the ambient tones on "Cradles of Swans" and "Overnight Sleeper", you'll find the following PedalNut details helpful:

• Macari Octave Divider - obscure 1970s pedal manufactured in England. If you encounter difficulties finding this pedal on Ebay.com or in your local pawnshop, pick up the Mutron Octave Divider pedal or the Boss OC-2 Octave Divider instead;
• Jim Dunlop Cry Baby wah-wah pedal;
• Custom Pete Cornish Compression pedal - substitute your favorite compression pedal here unless you have the cash to order a custom pedal from Mr. Cornish. If you want my two cents, the CompNova Compression pedal by T-Rex Engineering in Denmark looks cool and sounds even better;
• MXR Phase 90 - dial in the fastest sweep setting possible;
  
• Vox Tone Bender (or a Marshall Super Fuzz if you can find one);
• Shaftsbury Duo-Fuzz pedal - apparently makes your guitar sound like a harpsichord, and was combined with the Tone Bender pedal by Hackett on Genesis' song "The Carpet Crawlers" from The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway double album;
• Schaller Volume Pedal; and
  
• Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble.

Once you have compiled and velcro-taped these pedals to your board, you should also pick up an E-Bow sustainer and a couple of metal slides (at least one full finger slide and a ring slide). Hackett produces endless sustain on the Cured album by using a combination of the E-Bow and slide notes on his Gibson Les Paul.

Hope this helps!

Richie Sambora: Effects Pedals in the State of New Jersey

By his own admission, Richie Sambora was not a PedalNut. Prior to recording Bon Jovi's New Jersey album, Sambora's pedalboard set up consisted of a Boss Overdrive OD-1 pedal and a rack mounted Yamaha SPX90 effects processor positioned between a pair of Marshall JCM 800 Lead Series 100-watt heads. Then appeared Bob Bradshaw, pedalboard manufacturer to the stars, who created a MIDI-controlled pedalboard that so impressed Sambora with its quiet, reliable operation that he used it to record the hit tracks "Bad Medicine" and "I'll Be There for You". Can't afford Mr. Bradshaw's services for your own Bon Jovi-inspired guitar rig? No problem. Here's the details of Mr. Sambora's pedalboard in a nutshell (pardon the pun):

• a Lexicon MPX 100 Dual Channel Processor;
• a Yamaha SPX90 Effects Processor;
• an Ibanez Tube Screamer TS-9
• a Rocktron Hush noise reduction pedal; and
  
• a Rocktron 300A Compressor/Limiter pedal.

If you want to mix in a Slippery When Wet vibe, add a Framptone Talk Box and Jim Dunlop Crybaby wah pedal to the above-listed pedalboard.

Comments and corrections always welcome.

See the Light: Jeff Healey's Pedalboard

While Jeff Healey has traded his Stratocaster for a trumpet in recent years, his rocking overdrive tone on songs like "Confidence Man" and "See the Light" is still revered by blues-rockers around the world. Not surprisingly, reproducing Healey's tone as heard on the See the Light album will be a difficult task. This is largely due to the fact that Mr. Healey opted to plugged his Squier Stratocaster directly into the soundboard. Nevertheless, when performing Jeff Healey Band covers live you can get close to the See the Light tones by plugging into a Marshall JCM 800 Lead Series 100-watt head and a 4x12 Marshall cabinet, along with the following assortment of off-the-shelf pedals:

• a MXR flanger - the key to the "Angel Eyes" tone;
• a Jim Dunlop Crybaby wah - used primarily during extended solos in live performances;
  
• a Boss Equalizer GE-7; and
  
• a Tokai Overdrive TOD-2 pedal.
  

Be prepared to crank the master volume on the Marshall head to at least eight (note: bring ear plugs). If your bank account will allow, order a set of Rod Evans' Eliminator-1 Series pickups for your Stratocaster, which Jeff Healey preferred over the stock pickups on his Squier Stratocasters. Act quickly though, because it would appear that Mr. Rod Evans is no longer manufacturing pickups (buy and read about Rod Evans' pickups here).

Comments and corrections always welcome!

Recycler Hombre: Billy Gibbons

It's near impossible to pinpoint the source of ZZ Top's distinctive guitar tone on the platinum selling Recycler album. While Billy Gibbon's beloved 'Pearly Gates' Les Paul, a pocket full of Mexican peso-picks, and a wall of Marshall JCM 800s may have something to do with it, the trucks of rack mount effects ("pedals" in the minds of Pedal Nuts) are certainly an essential component of Gibbon's tone. If you find that your ZZ Top covers leave your audiences' heads in Rhode Island, not Mississippi, it's time to double back to check out the following overview of Gibbon's effects set-up:

• Furman AR-117 Line Voltage Regulator - helpful for regulating the voltage of your amps to ensure that you're getting a clean, usable signal. Necessary? Not really, but it looks nice in a rack.
• T.C. Electronics 2290 Dynamic Digital Delay/Effects Control Processor - you'll need to sell your home or stiff the landlord for a couple of months to afford this unit (note: recently found on Ebay.com for US$1,999.00). Buy this unit, move into the RV, tour the country and grow a beard, and you may get mistaken for Mr. Gibbons himself.
• Roland Guitar Effects Processor - while available three years after the release of the Recycler album, the Roland BOSS SE-70 has become a favored rack mount effects processor of Billy Gibbons.
• Bisarktone Ring Modulator - good luck finding this rack unit in your local music store, so seriously consider buying a MoogerFooger MF-102 Ring Modulator (pedal!) instead. Woohoo!
• Digitech Mono 28 MIDI Programmable Graphic Equalizer- we think this Digitech rack mount effect is an optional item. Apparently, Gibbon's uses the Digitech Mono 28 to comp the tone of his Pearly Gates Les Paul when touring and playing with his stage guitars.
  

About Face: In the Studio with David Gilmour

About Face was David Gilmour's second solo album apart from Pink Floyd. While featuring the memorable Pink Floyd delay and phase-shifted tones, Gilmour opted for a more overdriven tone on the About Face album. To achieve these overdriven tones, expect to add the following pedals, used by Gilmour during the recording of the About Face album, to your pedalboard set up:

• Roland SCC-700 Pedal Controller - don't let the Roland name fool you when looking for this pedal. Roland pedals are available under the Boss brand now. Gilmour's SCC-700 Pedal Controller contained a full gamut of Boss pedals, namely SD-1 Overdrive, GE-6 Equalizer, GE-7 Equalizer, DD-2 Digital Delay, CS-2 Compressor/Sustainer, and CE-3 Chorus.
  
• two MXR DDL pedals (digital delays), which Gilmour which controlled separately from the presets in the Roland SCC-700 using an A/B switch pedal.
  
• Pete Cornish volume pedal
• Mesa/Boogie Mark II amp controlled using a footswitch on the pedal board for his overdriven tones.
  

Stevie Ray Vaughan: Genius in Pedalboard Simplicity

Truth be told, Stevie was more of an amp nut than a pedal nut. For the In Step recording session, Stevie Ray apparently trucked in no less than thirty-two amplifiers, including a 150-watt Dumble Steel String Singer, a 100-watt JCM 800 Lead Series head, and two consecutively numbered Fender Vibroverbs. Nevertheless, guitar pedals factor heavily in Stevie Ray's recordings of Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) and Cold Shot on Couldn't Stand the Weather and Say What and Come On (Part III) on Soul to Soul. Here are the essential guitar pedals to power your "number one" Fender Stratocaster:

• Ibanez Tube Screamer - used to overdrive is amplifiers during solos
  
• Vox wah-wah - vital to Stevie's recorded and live performances of Voodoo Chile (Slight Return), Say What, Come On (Part III) and Goin' Down (with Jeff Beck).
  
• Tycobrahe Sound Company's Octavia- try using Voodoo Lab's Proctavia, which replicates the circuitry of the original Tycobrahe Octavi
  
• Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face - the original Fuzz Face pedals are hard to come by, and often don't work very well, so look at picking up a '69 Pedal from Fulltone instead; and
  
• Fender Vibratone - while not a guitar pedal per se, it does come with an on/off foot switch. Fender Vibratones are available on ebay.com and vintage guitar shops, but save your back the pain of lugging it around from gig to gig. Grab Fulltone's Deja Vibe to comp Stevie's soulful tone on Cold Shot, preferably the gold/bronze colored versions from 2000-2001.