JOEL KOSCHE’S GEARBOX
Although Kosche also uses MJ Mirage guitars with P-90s and Tele-style electronics, he tends to favor humbuckers for his live guitars. Note the subtle differences: The two leftmost guitars’ pickups are screwed directly into the body, the
two outer guitars have wraparound tailpieces, and all have Volume knobs for each pickup, a Tone knob, and a 3-position
pickup selector switch—except for the pickguard-outfitted model, which has a Badass bridge, a single-coil in the middle
position, Volume and Tone knobs, and a 5-way pickup selector. Kosche’s live amps include two Vox AC30 Custom Clas-
sics (top right) for clean tones and Splawn Quick Rod (top left) and Nitro (bottom left) heads driving Splawn 4x12 cabinets
with Eminence speakers. The amps are plugged into a Furman PL-Plus D Power Conditioner and Light Module.
Kosche’s favorite guitar is a mahogany-bodied MJ Mirage
with an ebony fretboard and a thin
black finish with no top coating.
“It’s taken some lumps out on the
road,” he says.
Kosche only keeps a Boss TU- 12 tuner, his Voodoo
Lab Ground Control Pro MIDI
controller, his Splawn Quick
Rod head’s channel selector,
and treadle-equipped pedals
like his Morley Bad Horsie
2 wah, Digi Tech Whammy,
and Ernie Ball Volume Pedal
onstage. He powers it all with
a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2.
The SugarFuzz combos that Kosche designed and built himself rom scratch—including everything but chassis welding—feature a
top-boost AC30-style clean channel labeled “Sugar” and a hot-rodded
Marshal-type channel labeled “Fuzz.” The SugarFuzzes are driven by a
quartet of EL84s and have a Master knob, independent Volume knobs
for each channel, and shared Bass, Treble, and Cut controls.
Kosche’s rack includes (top to bottom): a Furman PL-Plus Power Conditioner and Light Module,
a Rocktron MultiValve, a
Line 6 Echo Pro, a Rocktron
Replifex, two Voodoo Lab
GCX Guitar Audio Switchers, and a pedal drawer
containing a Voodoo Lab
Pedal Power 2 (just out of
view) driving a Boss AW- 3
Dynamic Wah, a Boss OC- 3
Super Octave, a Keeley
Compressor, a Z.Vex Vextron Series Mastotron, and
an MXR EVH Phase 90.
