Dave Murray & Adrian Smith: Pedalboard Updates

Several weeks ago we posted an overview of the effects pedals used by Adrian Smith and Dave Murray during the recording of Iron Maiden's Piece of Mind album. While attending a recent Iron Maiden show on the Somewhere Back in Time tour, we noticed that Adrian Smith and Dave Murray were sporting some new equipment. Always aiming to keep our readers up to date, we thought a follow-up post would help those looking to capture Iron Maiden's live sound.

• Adrian Smith's set-up:
• an Ibanez CS9 Stereo Chorus pedal;
• an Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer pedal;
• a Dunlop DCR-2SR Custom Shop Rack Wah;
  
• a Peavey TubeFex Effects Processor with PFC-10 Foot Controller pedal; and
  
• a custom Pete Cornish pedalboard designed to control the above-mentioned effects.

• Dave Murray's set-up:
• a MXR Ten Band Graphic Equalizer pedal;
• a MXR Phase 90 pedal;
• a MXR Distortion+ pedal;
• a Dunlop DCR-2SR Custom Shop Rack Wah;
• a Marshall JFX-1 Digital Signal Processor; and
  
• a custom Pete Cornish pedalboard designed to control the above-mentioned effects; and
  
• a Korg WT-12 Chromatic Guitar Tuner.
  

If you catch a glimpse of Iron Maiden's pedalboard set-up on the current tour, please do not hesitate to let us know.

Don Felder: Pedalboard of The Eagles Rebel

While Joe Walsh is known for his bluesy edge, Don Felder is regarded for adding technical prowess and flair to The Eagles chart-topping Hotel California album. Most notably, Felder melded flamenco, classical and rock influences to compose the chord progressions and solos for the album's title track. Initially rejected by Glenn Frey, "Hotel California" became The Eagles most recognizable song and their highest and longest charting hit recording. In addition to "Hotel California", Felder's multi-faceted playing added a country twang and blues-rock edge to the songs "New Kid in Town" and "Victim of Love", respectively. If you have some old Boss stomp boxes lying around your abode, it shouldn't be too difficult to fashion the following pedalboard set-up favored by Felder:

• Guitar Effects:
• a T.C. Electronic Stereo Chorus/Flanger pedal;
• a Boss PS-3 Compressor/Sustainer pedal;
• a Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive pedal;
• two Boss DD-3 Digital Delay pedals;
• a Boss PSM-5 Power Supply & Master Switch pedal;
• a Whirlwind A/B Selector-Multi-Selector Instrument Switch pedal; and
  
• a Jim Dunlop Crybaby Wah Wah pedal.

• Amplifiers:
• a Marshall JTM-45 head;
  
• a Fender Blues Deluxe amp; and
• a Pendulum SPS-1 Stereo Pre-amp - rack mounted pre-amp used to process Felder's acoustic guitar signal.
  

Comments and corrections welcome.

Joe Walsh: Pedalboards, Eagles and Gangs

Joe Walsh is one of the most charismatic guitarists of all-time. Whether as a member of the James Gang, Barnstorm or The Eagles, Joe Walsh has endeared himself with audiences throughout the world with his bluesy guitar tone and quirky stage antics. And the James Gang song "Rocky Mountain Way" actually made the talk-box a cool pedal to have on your pedalboard. That's quite an accomplishment! Limiting Joe Walsh to a single pedalboard configuration is an impossible task. Whether as a member of the James Gang, The Eagles or as a solo artist, Walsh has relied heavily upon effects pedals to redefine his guitar tone. To kick off our analysis, we thought it would be helpful to start in the middle with the Walsh's Eagles-era pedalboard set-up:

• Pedal Effects:
• a Boss CH-1 Super Chorus pedal;
  
• two Boss DD-3 Digital Delay pedals;
• a Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer pedal;
• a Boss GE-7 Graphic Equalizer pedal;
  
• a Dunlop Heil Talk Box; and
  
• a Boss PSM-5 Power Supply and Master Switch pedal.
  
• 
  
• Amplifiers:
• a Peavy MX 100-Watt head;
  
• a Trace Elliot TA C-200 Acoustic Combo amplifiers;
• a Leslie Hammond Rotating Speaker - driven by a custom pre-amp; and
  
• two Roland Cube-40 Combo amplifiers - used strictly for his talk-box pedal effect.
  

John Frusciante: Pedalboards & Chili Peppers

On the Red Hot Chili Peppers' tour in support of the Stadium Arcadium album, John Frusciante has been sporting a landing strip-sized pedalboard. Until recently, Frusciante was widely known for his rich trebly guitar tone, as heard on "Under the Bridge", "Californication", and "Scar Tissue". In the capable hands of Frusciante, however, the addition of twenty-four effects pedals can be magic. If you're interested in keeping up with Frusciante's ever-evolving guitar style and playing the recent hits "Dani California", "Snow (Hey Oh)", and "Tell Me Baby", here are the pedal effects you're going to need:

• Pedalboard:
• two MoogerFooger CP-251 Control Processor
  
• a Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble pedal;
• a MoogerFooger MF-103 12-Stage Phaser pedal;
• a Dunlop DB-02 Dime Custom CryBaby
• an Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail pedal;
• an Ibanez WH10 Wah Wah pedal
• a Mosrite FUZZrite pedal;
  
• a Boss DS-2 Turbo Distortion pedal;
• an Electro-Harmonix English Muff'n fuzz pedal (occasionally uses a Big Muff pedal instead);
• a MXR M-133 Micro Amp Boost pedal
• a Digitech Whammy pedal;
• two Line 6 EX-1 Expression pedal;
  
• a MoogerFooger MF-102 Ring Modulator pedal;
• a MoogerFooger MF-101 Low Pass Filter pedal;
• two MoogerFooger MF-105 MuRF Filter pedal;
• two more MoogerFooger MF-101 Low Pass Filter pedals;
• a Line 6 FM-4 Filter Modeler pedal;
• a Guyatone VT-X Vintage Tremolo Flip Series pedal;
• two DigiTech PDS-1002 Two Second Digital Delay pedal;
  
• an Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Electric Mistress flanger pedal;
• a Line 6 DL-4 Delay Modeler pedal;
• a Boss FV-50L volume pedal
  

• Amplifiers:
• two Marshall Jubilee 25/50 heads;
• a Marshall Major 200-watt head; and
  
• four Marshall 4X12 speaker cabinets.

Comments and corrections welcome!

Joe Perry: Aerosmith Pedalboard

We had hoped to post this pedalboard overview yesterday in time for Steven Tyler's 60th birthday party. Unfortunately our own birthday celebrations for Mr. Tyler carried on a little longer than expected! In honor of the Aerosmith-frontman's birthday, it is only fitting to examine the pedalboard of his Toxic Twin, Joe Perry. Over the past three decades, Aerosmith has recorded countless rock classics, including "Dream On", "Same Old Song and Dance", Sweet Emotion", "Back in the Saddle", and"Walk This Way". What each of these songs have in common is Perry's instantly recognizable "hooks" and solos supported by his distinct overdriven tone. If you're interested in becoming as "toxic" as Tyler and Perry, you're going to need the following pedalboard set-up recently used by Perry on tour with Aerosmith:

• Amplifiers:
• two Marshall Major 200-watt heads (one is a spare);
• two Marshall 4X12 Speaker Cabinets; and
• a Variac power attenuator.

• Effects Pedals/Pedalboard:
• a Radial Studio Guitar Interface SGI-RX receiver - enables a guitar signal to travel over 300 feet through a standard, low-impedance XLR mic cable with very limited signal loss;
• a Klon Centaur Overdrive pedal;
• a Chicago Iron Tychobrahe Octavia pedal*;
  
• a MoogerFooger MF-104Z Analog Delay pedal;
• a Line 6 MM-4 Modulation Modeler pedal**;
• a Line 6 DL-4 Delay Modeler pedal;
• a Carl Martin Plexi-Tone pedal;
  
• a Digitech Whammy pedal;
• a Vox Wah-Wah Pedal;
• a Ernie Ball 6180 Mono Volume Pedal; and
• a Radial Studio Guitar Interface SGI-TX transmitter.

* Joe Perry has been know to alternate his octave pedals betwen the Octavia pedal, a Electro-Harmonix POG pedal, and a Fulltone Ultimate Octave pedal.

** Perry also alternates his delay pedals between the DL-4, a Fulltone Tube Tape Echo pedal, and an Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man pedal.

Comments and corrections welcome.

Doyle Bramhall II: Touring Pedalboards

Many guitarists were first introduced to Doyle Bramhall II through his involvement with Roger Waters and Eric Clapton. On tour with Roger Waters, Bramhall somehow managed to faithfully reproduce the original vibe of Pink Floyd's classics "Money" and "Comfortably Numb" while simultaneously injecting his playing style and character. If you're a Pink Floyd fan, it can be safely assumed that you have watched Roger Water's In the Flesh DVD and were blown away by Bramhall's virtuosity. If you're not a Pink Floyd fan, we strongly recommend that you pick of a copy of the In the Flesh DVD and savour the guitar playing of Doyle Bramhall II, Snowy White and Andy Fairweather Low.

Still not interested in Pink Floyd? That's o.k., because you may have caught Bramhall touring with Eric Clapton in support of his The Road to Escondido, Back Home, and Me and Mr. Johnson albums. We have previously provided an overview of the pedalboard set-up used by Bramhall during the recording of the Welcome album. So you be asking why we're revisiting Bramhall's pedalboard set-up again. Well, you asked us too! Many of you are Doyle Bramhall II/Pink Floyd fans and aspire to recreate the guitar tones heard on the In the Flesh DVD. Others prefer the Doyle Bramhall II/Eric Clapton sound. As we believe that both incarnations of Doyle Bramhall II are equally special, we decided to provide the following breakdown of Bramhall stage set-ups for both tours:

Roger Waters In the Flesh Tour:

• Electric Guitars:
• a left-handed 1964 Fender Stratocaster with vintage Van Zandt pickups; and
  
• a left-handed Fender Stratocaster copy with a sparkle red finish (built by Charlie Wirz).

• Amplifiers:
• Yamaha DG-130 HD Digital Head - built-in digital processor features compression, modulation, delay, tap tempo delay, reverb, wah, and speaker simulations. Also used by Doyle Bramhall II during his 1999 appearance on Austin City Limits. The portable and more affordable Yamaha DG Stomp pedal has virtually the same circuitry and effects as the DG-130 HD; and
  
• a Marshall 1960A 4X12Speaker Cabinet.

• Guitar Effects:
• a Fulltone Deja Vibe pedal (the gold colored model) - most notably heard on the solo for "Time" from the In the Flesh DVD;
• a Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face pedal;
• a Roger Mayer Octavia pedal - used occasionally during the first solo on "Dogs";
• a Hughes and Kettner Rotosphere pedal - heard on "Eclipse" from the In the Flesh DVD;
  
• a Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler pedal with EX-1 Expression Pedal;
  
• a Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer Reissue pedal; and
• a Fulltone Clyde Deluxe wah pedal.

Eric Clapton Tours:

• Amplifiers:
• a Fender Bassman; and
  
• a Fender Super Reverb.

• Effects Pedals:
• a Fulltone Deja Vibe pedal;
• a Hughes and Kettner Rotosphere pedal;
• a SIB Fatdrive Tube Pre-amp pedal;
• a Pete Cornish P-2 Fuzz;
  
• a Blackbox Music Electronics Quicksilver Delay pedal;
  
• a Blackbox Music Electronics Oxygen Compression pedal;
• an Xotic Effects USA RC Booster pedal;
  
• an Analogman BicompROSSor pedal;
• a Jim Dunlop wah-wah pedal;
  
• an Analog Man Sun Face NKT fuzz pedal;
• a Fulltone '70 Fuzz Pedal;
• a Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer Reissue pedal;
  
• a Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler pedal with EX-1 Expression Pedal;
• a Line 6 MM4 Modulation Modeler pedal;
• a Lehle 3at1 SGoS switch pedal (the blue one);
• a Boss TU-2 Tuner pedal; and
• two Voodoo Lab Pedal Power units.
  

That's a lot of pedals! Here's a helpful link to a photograph of Doyle Bramhall II's pedalboard during the Eric Clapton tours to help you with your pedalboard layout and signal paths

Comments, corrections and requests always welcome.

Lindsey Buckingham: Pedalboard Simplicity

Peter Green's departure from Fleetwood Mac in 1970 left the band in a state of creative disarray. Preparing to record Fleetwood Mac's tenth album, Mick Fleetwood visited Sound City Studios in Los Angeles and was indirectly introduced to the talented Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. To showcase the studio's acoustics for Fleetwood, producer Keith Olsen gave Fleetwood a copy of Buckingham and Nick's self-titled debut album recorded at the Sound City Studios in the previous year. After listening to the album, Mick Fleetwood decided to not only record at the studio, but also to add Buckingham and Nicks to Fleetwood Mac's line-up. The addition of Lindsey Buckingham could arguably have been called an odd decision. Preferring folk music and finger-style picking, Buckingham played without a guitar pick. In order to compensate for his lack of "pick attack", Buckingham built a simple, yet effective, guitar rig that enabled him to produce the over-driven tones on "Rhiannon" from Fleetwood Mac (1975) and "Go Your Own Way" from Rumours (1977) and lead Fleetwood Mac to multi-platinum success in the ensuing years. If you enjoy Buckingham's tone as much as we do, here's the gear you're going to need:

• Effects Pedals:
  
• a Boss SD-1 Super OverDrive pedal;
  
• two Boss DD-5 Digital Delay pedals - the first DD-5 pedal for Buckingham's electric guitar pedalboard and used to generate a slap-back echo effect. The second DD-5 for his acoustic pedalboard;
  
• a custom A/B switch for actuating the electric and acoustic pedalboards; and
  
• two Voodoo Lab Pedal Power units for supplying power to each of the electric and acoustic pedalboards.
  

• Amplifiers:
• a Mesa/Boogie Three Channel Dual Rectifier with matching 4X12 Mesa/Boogie cabinet;
  
• a SWR California Blonde II acoustic amplifier; and
  
• a Trace Elliot TA40R Acoustic Amplifier.

• Electric Guitars:
• a Rick Turner Model 1 electric guitar;
• a Rick Turner Renaissance acoustic/electric guitar - heard on "Sweet Girl" from Fleetwood Mac's The Dance album;
• a 1963 Fender Stratocaster - tuned to open-D for "Over My Head" from Fleetwood Mac album; and
  
• a Martin D-18 acoustic guitar - used on the 1977 recording of "Landslide" from Fleetwood Mac.
  

Comments and corrections welcome.

Kurt Cobain: Nevermind Pedal Effects

The release of Nirvana's Nevermind and In Utero albums reintroduced guitarists to the sonic capabilities of Electro-Harmonix's lesser known effects pedals, including the SmallClone and PolyChorus. Guitar rigs stocked full of rack mounted delays and digital distortion units suddenly became unfashionable (as did spandex-clad guitarists). Whether you're a cover band playing weekend gigs, a basement jam band, or simply a PedalNut like us, it is virtually impossible to replicate Kurt Cobain's tone on Nevermind without adding the following effects to your pedalboard:

• Boss DS-2 Turbo Distortion - standard Boss pedal casing and three knob configuration (level, tone, distortion), with the added bonus of a turbo knob. Set the tone and distortion knobs near the maximum, and turn the turbo knob to "II" to zone in on Cobain's tone. Used DS-2 pedals are readily available on Ebay.com and craigslist.com for about $50.00. New pedals go for $90.00 (presently as low as $40.00 at Musicians Friend). While the DS-2 distortion is known to have been a mainstay of Cobain's pedalboard (look closely at the photographs in the In Utero liner notes), also consider buying the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff pedal which provides dirtier distortion at lower volumes;
• Electro-Harmonix SmallClone - a must-buy pedal if you're planning on playing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" or "Come as You Are" for an audience of more than three people (your parents and significant other excluded). Set the rate knob at the 3 o'clock position and slide the depth switch down to experience the rapid, yet deep, chorus preferred by Kurt Cobain. If you're lucky, you'll find a vintage version of this pedal on Ebay.com, but not for less than $150.00. Vintage SmallClone's are widely considered to be more expressive, but are less reliable than the re-issue pedals from Electro-Harmonix. Also, vintage SmallClones surviving the Punk, post-Punk, and New Wave eras smell awful (and certainly nothing like teen spirit).

If you want to take your Nevermind-inspired playing to the next level, pick up a rack-mounted Mesa/Boogie Studio preamp, a Crest 4801 power amp (or two depending on your budget), and a Marshall 4x12 cabinet. Tweak the settings on the Mesa Boogie Studio preamp to dial in on the right tone, but be sure to use the clean channel with the midrange set quite high.

Comments and corrections welcome.

Ronnie Montrose: Gamma Pedalboard

In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine took up the daunting task of selecting the top 100 greatest guitarists of all-time. If you haven't already scanned the final list, here's a link to Rolling Stone's Top 100 Greatest Guitarists of All-Time article. At first glance, the list is quite comprehensive. The obvious 60s rockers made there way onto the list, including Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townsend, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton. Seventies alternative guitarists Ron Asheton, D. Boon, and Robert Fripp were included as well. Since the publication of the Rolling Stone article, discussions boards have popped up across the Internet drawing attention to the fact that many notable guitarists were omitted, including Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani and Lenny Breau. In our review of these discussions boards, we were surprised that one notable omission was not mentioned: Ronnie Montrose of Edgar Winter Group, Montrose and Gamma fame. His solo self-titled Montrose (1973) album and the instrumental album The Speed of Sound (1988) laid down some of the finest rock rhythms and guitar tones heard in the past 30 years. Check out the following live performance clips of Ronnie Montrose at his best: "Bad Motor Scooter" clip and "Space Station #5" clip. Montrose may not have made the Rolling Stone's Top 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time list, but he certainly deserves to make PedalNuts short list of guitarists with effects pedal set-ups. Be prepared to "Rock the Nation" with the Montrose's original rig (with some recent additions):

• Amp: Gallien-Krueger 200RG pre-amp;

• Cabinet: Harbinger Iso-Box - extremely rare cabinet designed with a built-in microphone;

• Rack-Mounted Effects:
• a Roland SDE-2000 Digital Delay;
• two Lexicon PCM-42 Digital Delays - one for each of the direct (clean) and distorted lines from the Gallien-Krueger pre-amp;
• two Lexicon Super Prime Time Model 97s - programmable digital delay processors, commonly used in studios for voice doubling; and
  
• a Urei 546 Dual Parametric Equalizer - four band equalizer having Low, Mid-Low, Mid-High and High control knobs.

• Pedal Effects and Controllers:
• a Maestro PS-1A Phase Shifter;
• a Fox Electronics (Fox Rox) Captain Coconuts pedal;
• a Goodrich L120 volume pedal;
• five Ernie Ball Mono pedals used to control the number of repeats from the Lexicon PCM-42 Digital Delays (much like the Expression Pedal used with the Line 6 DL-4 Delay Modeler) and to trigger delay settings programmed into the Lexicon Super Prime Time Model 97s.

Comments and corrections welcome.

Richard Thompson: Pedalboard Convention

Richard Thompson of Fairport Convention fame has often been mistakenly labeled as an acoustic-only performer. While frequently strapping on an electric guitar during the early Fairport Convention years, his playing style nevertheless had very acoustic quality. Listening to his performances on the classic songs "Meet on the Ledge" from What We Did On Our Holiday and "Genesis Hall" from Unhalfbricking, it is not surprising that Thompson is revered as an acoustic guitarist (such as in 1991 when he received the Orville H. Gibson award for Best Acoustic Guitarist). However, as a solo performer, Richard Thompson can hardly been pigeon-holed as solely an acoustic performer. Thompson's guitar playing on "Shoot Out the Lights" from the Live From Providence DVD exposes his aggressive and entirely unique approach to the electric guitar. Sharing company with the likes of Jeff Beck, John Frusciante and Mike Bloomfield in the shortlist of Rolling Stone's Top 100 Greatest Guitarists of All-Time, Thompson is an electric guitar legend. If you have managed to decipher his odd tunings and complex soloing style, you should definitely reward yourself with the Richard Thompson's preferred electric guitar pedalboard set-up:

• an Ernie Ball VP Junior 25K Active Volume Pedal;
• a Boss DD-3 Digital Delay pedal;
• a Dunlop UV-1 Uni-Vibe rotating speaker pedal;
  
• a Divided by 13 Switchazel pedal - a unique A/B switching box having boost capabilities for soloing; and
  
• a Metasonix (Barbour) TM-5 All Pentode Guitar Preamp pedal;

If you're interested in Thompson's acoustic performances as well, you'll need the following separate "acoustic" guitar pedalboard:

• a Ridge Farm Industries Gas Cooker - a twin channel microphone amplifier and direct input box used by Thompson during live acoustic performances;
• a Fulltone Deja-Vibe pedal -also discussed in the Doyle Bramhall II post to PedalNuts; and
  
• a Line 6 DL-4 Delay Modeler pedal.
  

Hope this helps. Comments and corrections always welcome.

Neil Young: Effects Pedal Harvest

An electric-guitar wielding Neil Young is commonly associated with overdriven amplifiers and violent Bigsby vibrato dives. But pedal effects have long been an important aspect of Young's live guitar playing. Whether used to provide the slap-back echo on "This Note's for You" (from This Note's for You) or to accentuate the pinched harmonics heard on the solos to the legendary songs "Rockin' in the Free World" (from Freedom), "Powderfinger" (from Rust Never Sleeps), and "Like A Hurricane" (from American Stars 'N Bars), Neil Young's soloing owes as much to his aggressive picking style as it does to his selection of vintage effects pedals. As far as effects are concerned, you need one or more of the following guitar pedals to cover your favorite Neil Young songs:

• a Fender Reverb Unit - while not a pedal effect, per se, as mentioned previously, it does come with an on/off foot switch. That constitutes a pedal for our purposes. The re-issue '63 Fender Reverb unit should do the trick;
• five Strobe-O-Tuners - massive units used by Young to tune his guitar after repeated Bigsby-vibrato dives;
• a MXR M-118 Analog Delay pedal - dial in your favorite settings using the Mix, Delay, and Regen knobs, and combine with the following octave divider for crazy results;
  
• a Mu-Tron Octave Divider - set "Bass Only" in the "On" position, and "Ringer" in the "Off" position to achieve the tone heard on "Out of the Blue" from Rust Never Sleeps;
• a circa-1969 Boss Flanger - an impossible to find original Boss Flanger unit. Best bet is to pick up a used Boss BF-2 Flanger from 1985. Like most pedals in Young's set-up, the flanger effect is primarily used during extended solos;
• an Alesis MicroVerb - adjust the reverb dial to "7" in the "Large" range for the total reverb effect preferred by Neil Young; and
• a Maestro EP-4 Echoplex unit.

Rounding out Neil Young's tone is a much-modified 1953 Gibson Les Paul affectionately named "Old Black" and a custom amplifier volume modulating device called a "Whizzer". The Whizzer was conceived by Neil Young around the time of the Rust Never Sleeps album and is adapted to physically turn the volume knobs on his vintage 1959 Fender Deluxe amp between strict presets.

Each of Young's effects pedals (and the Whizzer) are remotely controlled using a switching system. The switching system has four pre-programmed settings for the Whizzer, and at least four loops for independently activating the Echoplex, Octave Divider/MXR combination, MicroVerb, and Boss Flanger effects. Check out the cool behind the scenes look at Neil Young's effects rig here.

Comments and corrections welcome.

U2: The Edge's Atomic Pedalboard

It goes without saying that U2's The Edge is a Pedal Nut! Whether it is his delay-laden tones on War and Joshua Tree or the over driven tones on Pop and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, The Edge's guitar playing relies heavily on his elaborate rack mounted effects and pedal effects. The following effects pedal set-up has been compiled from The Edge's set-up for the Elevation and Vertigo tours and consists of four components: pedal effects, rack mounted effects, a pedalboard containing switching effects, and a cargo van for transporting the entire shebang from gig-to-gig:

• Pedalboard/Switching Effects:
  
• a Boss FV-300L Stereo Volume pedal;
• a Digi-Tech WH-1 Whammy Pedal;
• a Dunlop Cry-Baby Wah Wah Pedal;
• a Skrydstrup SC-1 System - an enormous custom switching system for controlling the actuation of the rack mounted effects and loops for the pedal effects detailed below. Apparently, The Edge's guitar technician, Dallas Schoo, has a similar switching system for actuating The Edge's effects in the event he wanders out onto the heart-shaped runaway.

• Pedal Effects (pedal chain as listed):
• a Lovetone Meatball pedal- an envelope follower/trigger filter pedal;
• a Lovetone Doppelganger pedal - an twin oscillator phaser/vibrato pedal apparently used in live performances of "Please" from Pop;
• an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff pedal;
• a Scrambler by Ampeg pedal - a simple vintage effect pedal capable of producing thick fuzz tones by manipulating a texture knob and a balance knob;
• an Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer;
• a Boss GE-7 Equalizer pedal;
• a Boss CS-2 Compression Sustainer pedal;
• a Boss PW-2 Power Driver pedal - designed to replicate the overdriven tone of a 4X12 cabinet;
• a Boss FA-1 FET Amp/Preamp Booster pedal - tiny puke green pedal that is hard to come by. Check out the Boss FA-1 clone by Prophecy Sounds Systems called the Sweet FA.
• a Skrydstrup BR-1 Bufferooster pedal - used by The Edge for a gain boost of +25dB for soloing. Call us old-fashioned, but wouldn't turning the volume knob on your guitar achieve the same result?; and
  
• a Sobbat DB-1 Drive Breaker - distortion pedal providing endless sustain and creamy fuzz tones

• Rack Mounted Effects (sequence as listed):
• a Eventide H3000 Ultra-Harmonizer - a classic rack mounted stereo effects processor;
• two Lexicon PCM-41 Digital Delays - also used by Steve Stevens of Billy Idol fame;
• two T.C. Electronic 2290 Dynamic Digital Delays;
• two Line 6 Pod X3 Pro effects processors;
• two more T.C. Electronic 2290 Dynamic Digital Delays - to add digital delay to the effects signal from the Line 6 Pod X3 effects processors;
• two AMS S-DMX Digital Delay Samplers - each unit stores samples that The Edge can trigger using the Skrydstrup SC-1 System;
• two Korg SDD-2000 Digital Delays;
• two Korg A3 Signal Processors - most notably used by The Edge on "Beautiful Day" from All That You Can't Leave Behind;
• two custom rack mounted Line 6 DM4 Distortion Modelers; and
  
• a Rocktron DVC Dynamic Volume Controller - manipulated by The Edge using the above-mentioned Boss FV-300L Stereo Volume pedal to produce the shimmering tone heard on "Where the Streets Have No Name" and the like.

A lot to digest in this PedalNuts post! Comments and, particularly, corrections, welcomed.

Yngwie Malmsteen: Pedalboard of Alcatrazz

Equally as difficult as playing any of Yngwie Malmsteen's songs, is labeling is guitar style. Is it heavy metal? Neo-Classical? Blues Rock? Your guess is as good as ours! What we do know is that Malmsteen's soloing on Alcatrazz' second album Live Sentence is flawless (as is his hair). The songs "Evil Eye" and "Since You've Been Gone" illustrate his ability to effortlessly execute fast arpeggios and single note lines while maintaining the melodic direction of the subject song. The key to Malmsteen's speedy arpeggios, tapping and vibrato is his use of a vintage 1969 Fender Stratocaster fitted with a scalloped fingerboard. While originally hand-carved by Malmsteen himself, he now opts for Fender's Yngwie Malmsteen Artist Series guitar which comes ready to play with a pre-scalloped fingerboard. The full details of the Yngwie Malmsteen's Artist Series stratocaster can be found here. Malmsteen, admittedly, rarely uses effects pedals when performing live. However, effects pedals can be heard throughout his lead and rhythm playing on Live Sentence. Hence, any faithful renditions of Alcatrazz' songs "Evil Eye" and "Since You've Been Gone" will require the following pedalboard setup:

• a Moog Taurus I bass keyboard - an analog synthesizer consisting of 13 foot-operated pedals adapted to add ambiance to Alcatrazz' live performances;
• a Vox Flanger 1902 pedal;
• a Dunlop Cry-Baby Wah-Wah pedal;
• a Boss OC-2 Octave Divider pedal;
• a Roland RE201 Space Echo unit; and
  
• a MXR Phase 100 pedal.

Not convinced that Yngwie Malmsteen is a phenomenal guitar? Check out his live performance of "Evil Eye" from Live Sentence on YouTube here.

Iron Maiden: Adrian Smith & Dave Murray Pedalboards

Between 1980-1982, Iron Maiden was arguably the hardest working band in the music industry. Over the span of three years, Iron Maiden recorded and released no less than three studio albums, namely Iron Maiden, Killers, and The Number of the Beast. Following the completion of The Number of the Beast tour, Iron Maiden's guitarists Adrian Smith and Dave Murray immediately commenced work on what would be one of Iron Maiden's most highly regarded albums, Piece of Mind. The tracks "The Trooper" and "To Tame A Land" are highlights of the Piece of Mind album, and feature the driving rhythms and dual guitar solos bofy Adrian Smith and Dave Murray. Decide which Iron Maiden guitarist you would like to emulate, construct your pedalboard from the respective list of pedal effects below, and give your Marshalls a Piece of Your Mind:

• Adrian Smith's set-up:
• an Ibanez CS9 Stereo Chorus pedal;
• an Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer pedal;
• four Marshall JCM 800 Lead Series 50-watt heads and 4x12 Marshall speaker cabinets with Celestion speakers.

• Dave Murray's set-up:
• a MXR Ten Band Graphic Equalizer pedal;
• a MXR Phase 90 pedal;
• a MXR Distortion+ pedal;
• a Dunlop Cry Baby wah pedal;
• a Pete Cornish splitter box;
• six Marshall JCM 800 Lead Series 50-watt heads and 4X12 Marshall speaker cabinets with Celestion speakers.

Comments and corrections always welcome.

David Byrne's Pedalboard: Talking Effects Pedals

David Byrne, lead singer for the Talking Heads, may not be the first person you think of when pedalboards come to mind. But many of the Talking Heads hits in the early 1980s were built around unusual rhythm patterns punctuated by Bryne's inventive and textural guitar playing. The songs "Burning Down the House" on the album Speaking in Tongues and "And She Was" from Little Creatures are prime examples of David Byrne's proficiency as a solid rhythm guitarist. While Byrne, like many pop musicians in the 1980s, occasionally relied upon a Roland GR-300 Guitar Synthesizer in the recording studio, the core of Byrne's tone is his 1962 Fender Stratocaster and the following effects:

• a MXR Dynacomp - also a favored pedal of Charlie Sexton of the Arc Angels;
  
• a MXR Distortion + -capable of some serious distorted tones as the distortion knob, as demonstrated by Randy Rhodes;
  
• a Boss BF-2 Flanger;
  
• a Boss DD-3 Digital Delay;
  
• an AMS RMX 16 Reverb - this classic rack mounted reverb unit was often controlled off-stage by the Talking Heads' sound technician in response to Byrne's guitar playing;
  
• a Roland 501 Space/Chorus Echo.

Comments and corrections welcome.

Steve Stevens' Rebel Yell and Top Gun Pedalboard

Guitarists are often accused of using guitar effects pedals to conceal their technical shortcomings. The same can't be said about Steve Stevens, Billy Idol's guitarist of choice and the man behind the Top Gun movie theme. If you were alive in the 1980s, you probably owned a copy of the self-titled Billy Idol and Rebel Yell albums. While both albums feature effects laden rhythms and solos, most notably on the tracks "White Wedding", "Rebel Yell" and "Eyes Without A Face", Steve Stevens has demonstrated that he can faithfully play these songs on an acoustic guitar, sans effects pedals (check out Steve Steven's acoustic performance of "Rebel Yell" on You Tube). Reviewing effects-less acoustic guitar performances is not the aim of Pedal Nuts (Editor's Note: Nirvana Unplugged being the only exception), so the following is a summary of the guitar synthesizer, pedalboard and rack-mounted effects used by Steve Stevens' on the Billy Idol and Rebel Yell albums:

Guitar Synthesizer - Roland GR 700 Guitar Synthesizer - an analog guitar synth from 1984 that consists of eight programmable pedals for outputting a variety of synth-voices. Steve Stevens' preferred to use the Roland GR 700 in conjunction with a Roland G-707 guitar. However, many users of the GR 700 insist that Ibanez's X-ING IMG2010 guitar is a more suitable controller (read this website for a full review and pictures of the Roland GR 700);

Pedalboard: The cable output from the Roland GR 700 is then inputted into a pedalboard stocked with the following successive effects pedals:

• a Boss CS-2 Compression pedal;
• a Boss OC-2 Octave pedal;
• a Boss EC-2 Chorus pedal;
• two Boss A/B switch pedals - the first switch pedal establishing a full loop for the pedalboard, and the second switch pedal used to activate and deactivate the rack-mounted Lexicon PCM-41s;
• a Dunlop Cry Baby Wah pedal;
• a ProRat Distortion pedal;
• a Boss RV-1 magnetic volume pedal;
• a Boss GE-7 Equalizer pedal;

Rack-mounted Effects: Steve Stevens controls the following rack-mounted effects using a simple pre-Bradshaw switching system:

• two Lexicon PCM-41 Digital Delays - the first PCM-41 is used by Stevens to create the "machine gun sound" on "Rebel Yell". The second is used as a split-stereo feed to Stevens' Marshall JCM 800 heads;
• a Roland SDE-3000 Digital Delay - an amazing rack-mounted digital delay having delay, phase, filter, modulation and feedback modulation capabilities;
• a Roland SRE-555 Tape Echo - an extremely reliable tape echo device;
• a Roland Dimension D Stereo Chorus; and
  
• an Eventide H999 Harmonizer Effects Processor - the H999 models are much more difficult to locate these days on Ebay.com, but tend to be cheaper then the 3500/3000SE models.

Hope this helps! Comments and corrections always welcome.

Doyle Bramhall II's Texas-Sized Pedalboard

Both Doyle Bramhall II and his pedalboard have grown at a meteoric pace in recent years. Beginning with the Arcangels self titled debut album, his subsequent solo releases Doyle Bramhall II, Jellycream and Welcome, and tours with Rogers Waters and Eric Clapton, Doyle Bramhall II has always had a sizable, and admirable, reliance on guitar effects pedals. A chronology of Doyle's changing guitar pedal usage over the years would be too daunting a task for a single blog posting, so instead we're going to break it down into four separate postings from the Arcangels-era until now. Where better to start than in the middle with Doyle Bramhall II's 2oo1 solo album Welcome (Editor's note: If you enjoy blues-rock, classic rock, rock, guitars or simply breathing, buy this album!). Bramhall's tone can be described as a melange of Hendrix's "Hey Baby", Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Cold Shot", and the Southern Rock sounds of the 60s and 70s. Many factors contributed to Bramhall's phenomenal tone on the Welcome album, including the live, single take recording approach, his use of a Marshall '67 100 watt Super Bass head and 1964 Fender Stratocaster. While you may not have vintage amplifiers and guitars at your disposal, acquiring the following effects pedals behind the Welcome tone is certainly within the realm of possibility:

• a Fulltone Deja Vibe pedal - The discontinued gold colored model is highly regarded but hard to find these days. To achieve the tones heard on "Smokestack" set the rocker switches to "Chorus" and "Modern", Volume at 5 o'clock (i.e. full), Intensity at 2 o'clock, and Speed at 1 o'clock;
• a Hughes and Kettner Replex pedal - retired from Bramhall's pedalboard after recording the Welcome album;
• a Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face pedal;
• a Roger Mayer Octavia pedal;
• a Hughes and Kettner Rotosphere pedal - a fantastic Leslie-rotating speaker simulator;
• a Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler pedal with EX-1 Expression Pedal;
  
• a Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer Reissue pedal; and
• a Dunlop Cry Baby wah pedal - this was subsequently replaced with a Fulltone Clyde Deluxe wah pedal.

Update: We have prepared an update of Doyle Bramhall II's pedalboards and equipment for the Roger Waters (In the Flesh) and Eric Clapton here.

Frank Marino: Pedalboards and Platform-Boots

The virtuosity of Mahogany Rush guitarist Frank Marino has drawn comparisons to Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana and Duane Allman. On the Maxoom and Child of the Novelty albums, Marino effortlessly combines feverish blues solos, simulated slide guitar tones using left hand vibrato, and jazz-influenced single note runs. While you may not have heard of Frank Marino before, which is understandable since he didn't tour much during the 90s, youtube.com has numerous Frank Marino (and Mahogany Rush) live performance clips at your disposal to get you up to speed. In particular, check out Marino performing "I'm a King Bee" at the 1998 Ottawa Bluesfest (here). If you like what you hear (and see), you'll probably want to pick up the following pedals to replicate Marino's tones:

• a DeArmond volume pedal;
• a Maestro Echoplex - the original tape Echoplexes are notoriously unreliable and require near constant maintenance. We recommend that you pick up Line6's DL4 Delay Modeler instead, which has built-in digital samples of Echoplexes and Space Echos;
• an Electro Harmonix Big Muff fuzz pedal;
• an Eventide Flanger pedal - original Eventide pedals are hard to come by. Fortunately, Eventide has recently released a comparable pedal called the ModFactor Modulation pedal which includes flanger effects; and
  
• a Maestro phase shifter - basic looking pedal with three colored rocker switches (turquoise, yellow and red). Just saw one on ebay today selling for $31.00 (Ebay item number 140210501525).

Hope this helps! Comments and corrections welcome.