Rig Rundowns

Tennessee has a rich tradition that has helped shape American music. Memphis was a big contributor to blues, soul, and early rock ’n’ roll thanks to Sun, Stax, and the influx of Delta musicians. Nashville has been the long-standing capital of country music, and more recently, has developed as a hotbed of Americana storytellers. The Smokies and the surrounding Appalachian areas have given us bluegr...

Over the last four decades, the courageous and creative Flaming Lips have put out 16 studio albums. Their genre is an alphabet soup that ranges from acid rock and ambient to zany psychedelia, all while pumping on a pop heartbeat. They’ve won three Grammys, written and filmed an alien colonization movie and soundtrack ( Christmas on Mars ), reimagined  Dark Side of the Moon  with Henry Ro...

Since we last saw  Yvette Young in 2019 , the guitar-playing musical illustrator has been challenged, and proven courageous. “I went from a situation where I was afraid of one of my bandmates, and did what I needed to do to free myself from what I felt to be an emotionally, and thus creatively draining, situation,” Young  revealed to  PG  earlier this year . She parted ways wit...

Maestro  Warren Haynes  invited  PG ’s John Bohlinger to Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium, where they hang out after Gov’t Mule’s soundcheck and take a tour through his live rig. This Gibson-heavy collection has been a 40-year-work in progress for the guitarist, who has spent his career playing with David Allan Coe, Dickey Betts, The Allman Brothers, The Dead, leading Gov’t Mul...

It’s all about the yin and yang … and the heavy guitar tones when  Scott Holiday of Rival Sons  plugs in and rocks out onstage. This year, the band has got something special cooking: a pair of albums, the just-released  Darkfighter  and the upcoming  Lightbringer , speaking of yin and yang. On the current  Darkfighter  tour, Rival Sons recently stopped at  N...

Two months ago,  Lindsay Ell  released her latest single, “Sweet Spot,” plus she’s on the way to issuing a new album, following up 2020’s  Heart Theory . And for the tour leading into her next record, she’s also got a passel of updated gear since her  2018 Rig Rundown . No surprise, since there’s always something new happening with Ell—whether it’s touring under her own banner...

Theo Katzman  plays with a fluency and fire that makes this guitarist, producer, singer, and songwriter an MVP of modern, funk-fueled rock and pop. At a recent gig at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl outpost, Katzman—who’s also a member of the formidable  Vulfpeck  collective—invited  PG ’s Rig Rundown team to soundcheck, to see the gear that makes his tone sing. And Katzman’s tech, N...

Fourteen years after their Grammy-winning debut,  Raising Sand ,  Robert Plant  and Alison Krauss followed up with  Raise the Roof —which was nominated for three more Grammys. Now on tour, the duo also has a new band that includes bassist Viktor Krauss, guitarist  JD McPherson , and utility player Stuart Duncan. But before they hit the road, Krause, Duncan, and McPherson—a...

Our third  Rig Rundown  with Periphery’s Jake Bowen,  Mark Holcomb, and Misha Mansoor —at Nashville’s  Marathon Music Works  on April 2—caught the band on their final tour stop for a spring run in support of the brand-spankin’-new  Periphery V: Djent Is Not a Genre . Our time with the triumvirate of tone reminded us that these fellas never rest their ears. They know g...

“Tone is not important,” is an interesting phrase to hear while filming a Rig Rundown. But  Underoath’s Tim McTague  has good reason to shake his head at tone purists. “Gear infatuation can be super cool because it’s a passion or a hobby, but it’s not necessary for me to do my job. I don’t want to degrade anyone who is into it, but it’s not my thing,” admits McTague. So, what is his thin...

“Our relationship is everything about this band,” conceded  Rebecca Lovell to  PG  in 2022 . “The way that we communicate, the way that we play together, the way that we facilitate one another’s musicianship. It is the air that we breathe as a band, and everything revolves around our siblinghood.” Their symbiotic sorcery has taken them from budding bluegrass pickers in the Lovell Si...

Tim Pierce’s guitar can be heard on more than a thousand recordings, starting in the ’80s, when he played on hits by Bon Jovi, John Waite, and Rick Springfield. In subsequent years, he’s added to his resume with recorded performances for Crowded House, Christina Aguilera, Seal, Avril Lavigne, Tracy Chapman, Joe Cocker, Ricky Martin, Meat Loaf, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Bruce Spring...

Crobot’s hard-riffin’, smooth-groovin’ rock anthems often ride on the back of guitarist Chris Bishop’s handiwork. The guitarist carefully corrupts his tone with creative pedal tweaking, but he’s never lost sight of his role within the quartet. “The groove is the most important thing in the song and, being the only guitar player, my main focus is to make sure that’s there,”  explains Bishop to...

Steel: hard metal. Panther: one of the most ferocious animals. Put them together, and you have perhaps the greatest band of the 21st century. And, hot off the release of their latest, most ass-kicking album ever, Steel Panther is re-invading America. While in Nashville, before they played a blistering set for a packed crowd at  Marathon Music Works , Panther’s lead guitarist Satchel invited&n...

Full Rig Details: https://bit.ly/EricGalesRR2023 Eric Gales is back again. Since last chatting with John Bohlinger in 2017, the blues maestro’s rig has transitioned to include more signature Raw Dawg gear pieces—including pedals, amps, and, of course, his signature Magneto guitars. Just last year, the lefty slinger released the Grammy-nominated, Crown, which features collabs with his pal Joe Bonam...

Bush had an unbelievable debut with 1994’s  Sixteen Stone  that eventually surpassed 6x platinum status. The post-grunge juggernaut continued making moody, mercurial, and sometimes menacing music has continuing mutating while keeping them modern with a total of nine full-length releases with 2022’s  The Art of Survival  as their most recent chapter. The band’s headlining Ryman...

Right now, they’re in Europe, but Atlanta-based rockers with a distinctly Southern musical accent, Blackberry Smoke, smoked Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium for two nights in February before jumping the pond. Their latest album,  You Hear Georgia , was produced by Dave Cobb in Nashville, and hit the top of the  Billboard  Americana/Folk chart when it was released in mid-2021.  PG ’...

It’s been 11 years since  Kenny Wayne Shepherd  filmed his previous Rig Rundown.  PG ’s John Bohlinger caught up with the blues-rocker before his recent sold-out show at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium to hear some killer playing and see some untouchable—by anyone but Kenny and his tech—gear. The tour stop was supporting the December 2022 release of  Trouble Is … 25 , a r...

College internships can run the gamut. They can lead you into a career or dissuade you from pursuing one altogether. In 2004, while still attending the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, singer Rachael Price, bassist Bridget Kearney, guitarist  Mike “McDuck” Olson , and drummer Mike Calabrese joined forces to perform as what they dubbed a “free country band,” where they intended to...

“I feel like a lot of people, when they see me play, they think, ‘Oh, it's going to be super aggressive, and there's a lot of shades of that,” shares Jared James Nichols. “But I'm so obsessed with the tone, the feel of it…. Growing up listening to  Jeff Beck ,  Albert King , guys like that; the super feel stuff to me is where it's at.” That sentiment is overwhelmingly clear when hearing...

Since their debut,  Before the Sun Goes Down , in 2014,  Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley  have made a name for themselves as some of the hottest country and bluegrass players in the business. As individuals, their credits range from  Willie Nelson  to Earl Scruggs to Merle Haggard—and as a duo, they’ve toured and recorded with artists including  Tommy Emmanuel ,  Taj...

“You gotta remember, I wasn’t really shit until about a year-and-a-half ago,”  Bartees Strange  reminds the crowd at Nashville’s Basement East just before performing his song, “Hennessy.” “I was just in my basement playing guitar. And my wife was like, ‘Do the dishes ... Do something other than play guitar.’ Now all I do is play guitar again [ laughs ].” Strange (born Bartees Leon Cox, J...

When it comes to  jazz virtuoso Julian Lage , you’d be hard-pressed to find an electric guitarist who uses less gear. “Any time I’ve [used too much equipment], there’s an awkwardness where I’m still grappling with the fact that I play here,” he says, gesturing to his guitar, then gesturing to his amp, “but the sound comes out there.” He continues, “It sounds like a joke, but it’s been a strug...

We’ve featured loud rigs. We’ve stood strong in front of  Matt Pike’s octet of Oranges , been washed over with waves of volume from Angus Young’s nine Marshalls for  AC/DC’s “small gig setup”  in an arena, trembled from  J Mascis’ three plexi full stacks , and even withstood  Bonamassa’s barrage of seven amps  at the Ryman, but nothing prepared us or compared to the G...

KingTone’s The Duellist is currently Ariel Posen’s most-used pedal. One side of the dual drive (the Bluesbreaker voicing) is always on. But there’s another duality at play when Posen plugs in—the balance between songwriter and guitarist. “These days, I like listening to songs and the story and the total package,”  Posen told  PG  back in 2019, when talking about his solo debut,&nbsp...