Every once in a while a special pedal comes along and earns a permanent place in our signal chain. This month—as we celebrate all things stompbox—the PG editors, along with British blues phenom Davy
Knowles, name their favorite pedal. Send your essential picks to info@premierguitar.com.
What am I listening to?
The Chris Duarte
Group’s Blues in the
Afterburner. Produced
by Mike Varney, this record is bold. I’m
digging the chances Duarte takes and, of
course, his usual solid Texas blues.
What pedal can I not live without?
Definitely my Radial Tonebone PZ-Pre,
which is the acoustic player’s jack of all
trades for the stage and studio. It’s like a DI,
AB/Y, EQ, piezo boost, and more built into
one, with multiple outs (pre- and post-EQ).
Andy Ellis
Senior Editor
What am I listening to?
Duane Eddy Road Trip.
Beautifully recorded in
Sheffield, England, this
new release opens with growling bass VI
and offers all the throbbing tremolo, Bigsby
vibrato, and cavernous reverb that made
Eddy a star in 1958.
What pedal can I not live without?
Though I own some nice pedals—including an
original TS9 Tube Screamer and a 1970 Vox
wah, both of which I bought new—they all
sit unused on the shelf. I roll with a purple 10'
Bullet coil cord plugged straight into my amp.
Shawn Hammond
Editor in Chief
What am I listening to?
Ahhh—the wonder of
Spotify! Totally digging older National
stuff, especially Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers.
“Slipping Husband” and “Available” are
gorgeous and gut-wrenchingly intense
What pedal can I not live without?
The Strymon Blue Sky Reverberator. You’d
never know its spring-reverb isn’t the real
thing, it’s incredibly tweakable, and yet it
retains a simple-stompbox ethos. I also love
being able to switch between two presets.
Chris Kies
Associate Editor
What am I listening to?
Two of the most important voices in music are
showcased in these collections: Elvis’ Young Man with the Big Beat
box set and Johnny Cash’s Bootleg Volume
3: Live Around the World, which show both
stars at pivotal points of their careers and
on point as performers.
What pedal can I not live without?
The pedal that makes me sound better
every time—Electro-Harmonix’s Nano
Memory Toy Analog Delay.
Rich Osweiler
Associate Editor
What am I listening to?
St. Vincent Strange
Mercy. Annie Clark’s latest effort, like much of
her other material, could seem complicated
and chaotic to some at first listen. But at
the core are ethereal, well-thought-out compositions that highlight her stunning voice
and the alter-ego rumble of her guitar work.
What pedal can I not live without?
Gotta go with my Boss TU- 2 tuner. There’s
just no tone without tune!
Davy Knowles
Guest Picker
What am I listening to?
As I write this, Joni
Mitchell. Although I
love the blues and rock
classics, I have always loved songwriters,
especially Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne,
CSN&Y, and the whole Laurel Canyon
scene. Some beautiful songs and stories
came out of that place.
What pedal can I not live without?
I just got a BK Butler Tube Driver, and I
can’t stop playing it. It’s a really musical-sounding overdrive pedal.
What am I listening to?
Wynton Marsalis and
Eric Clapton, Play the
Blues. Finally, a band
that can keep Clapton on his toes while still
paying tribute to the history of the genre.
Clapton returns to his ES-335 roots with a
meaty tone that fits in perfectly.
What pedal can I not live without?
My pedalboard is in a constant state of flux,
but my Visual Sound Route 66 Overdrive/
Compressor and Boss DD- 2 Digital Delay
are mainstays.
Charles Saufley
Gear Editor
What am I listening to?
Kouroush Yaghmaei,
Back From The Brink,
Pre-Revolution Psychedelic
Rock from Iran: 1973-1979. Kouroush
learned guitar by copying Ventures records,
then fused it with Persian folk phrasings,
the Stones, and Curtis Mayfield-style wah
into a lyrical, beguiling, and beautiful body
of work.
What pedal can I not live without?
My Echoplex has been broken for about
five years now, so I guess I’ll live. Anyone
out there have a spare erase head?
Peter Thorn
Online Columnist:
The Working Guitarist
What am I listening to?
I love Cage The
Elephant—best new
band I’ve heard in a long time. These guys
capture the spirit of what rock ’n’ roll is
about, and do it in a fresh way.
What pedal can I not live without?
My new Carl Martin compressor! I love
what it does for my clean tones—it just
pumps things up beautifully, without weird
artifacts. Since getting it, I am using compression much more than I did in the past.
