STEELY DAN’S WALTER BECKER
WIN IT!
Signal Chain: Sonic Research ST- 200 Turbo Tuner > Barber Electronics Tone Press > Eventide PitchFactor > Eventide Space > Boss NS- 2 Noise
Suppressor > Lehle 1@ 3 Switcher. Photo by Joe Coffey
Walter Becker is a bonafide pedal freak. “We have
every pedal ever made by
every manufacturer,” boasts
guitar tech Bob “Nitebob”
Czaykowski. Because of this,
Becker’s board is constantly
changing—even which pedals
are being used on a given board.
Case in point, not everything
CLICK
HERE
Watch both of Becker’s
guitar techs describe his
ever-changing, elaborate
setup in our Rig Rundown
at premierguitar.com.
was plugged in on this board
when we caught up with Steely
Dan in summer 2011. “We had
everything plugged in at one
time and realized he was losing
a little bit of signal,” explains
Becker’s other tech, David Rule.
One of the pedals that
never changes, however is the
Sonic Research ST- 200 Turbo
Tuner. A stickler for intonation, Becker settled on the
Sonic Research because of its
clarity and speed. The Eventide
PitchFactor is set with two presets, while the Eventide Space
is used only on the Spring
Reverb setting. The Boss NS- 2
Noise Suppressor is on the
board to combat building-spe-cific noise. From there, the signal heads into a Lehle switcher
that splits out to Becker’s
multiple-amp setup.
At the time we saw the
board, the Moog MF- 105
Moogerfooger MuRF, Pigtronix
Envelope Phaser, and MXR
Carbon Copy Delay weren’t
connected. Many of Becker’s
pedals are connected and dis-
connected for soundcheck, and
he has additional pedalboards
in his dressing room and hotel
room with completely differ-
ent effects. “We have a big box
[motions with his hands at about
5-feet high] with five drawers
full of pedals that we didn’t
even bring,” says Rule.
