Ed's Live Rig
I'm now using a Collings C-100 mahogany/Adirondack spruce acoustic in the studio. It sounds consistently fantastic, balanced and classic. It's a tad bit smaller than an OM model but slightly bigger than a 00. It's equipped with a James May Ultrasonic pickup system which sounds terrific. I also just picked up a Recording King 000 that's pretty dang awesome for the price and I've equipped it with a James May pickup as well. This is probably the guitar I'd take out on the road. I've just put together (as of November 2021) an acoustic-specific pedal board with a small buffer first, a Sift Line Astronaut A+ for freeze/drones, a Becos FX COMPiQ for compression, a B.Y.O.C Lil' Beaver for Muff-like fuzz, an F-Pedals PunQmonk for Mutron-esque filter, a Jam Pedals Ripply Fall for chorus and Phaser, an MXR Reverb or Neunaber Wet for reverb duties, a Gecko Pedals Geckoplex for delay and reverb and last but not least a JHS Buffer/splitter at the end. Powered by a Cioks DC10 power supply. All of this is run in the loop of my Audio Sprockets Tone Dexter. I still use Everly star picks, green medium-heavy's and blue 1.0mm on acoustic and purple 1.2mm on electric guitar, G7th and Shubb capos and Martin light/medium model strings on all my acoustic guitars (sometimes I use D'Aquisto Tony Rice model nickel medium strings while I can find some still around since the D'Aquisto factory closed. These strings are great on open tunings and have a somewhat "vintage" sound since they don't contain Phosphor Bronze). For electric on the road and in the studio I'm now using Novelli custom Offset models with Lindy Fralin P-90 and Telecaster pickups. I have two of them. My man Tom Cundall from London also just made me a killer S-style guitar with custom '59 pickups by Vaughan Skowe that's my favorite Strat EVER. My electrics are usually are all strung with Martin Jazz 12's. Sometimes 11's. I try to use as few pedals as possible and interact as directly with the amp as possible when playing roots rock but I sometimes use a Bearfoot Sea Blue EQ, a Ovnifx Smoothie compressor, Bearfoot Model G OD, maybe one fuzz, chorus (for one song), a simple slap delay and a plate or small hall reverb. (my avant jazz rig is far more expansive and constantly evolving but that's another looooong, obsessive story). I love Bearfoot Pedals (kudos to Donner Rusk), Trutone Effects and power supplies, Empress, Monsterpiece, Paul Trombetta, Pigtronix, Eventide, Alexander Pedals, Chase Bliss Audio, Drolo Effects, Faceless FX, Spiral Electric FX and Red Panda. Can't get enough of them. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few. My apologies. My tuners are always Sabine or those TC Polytune clip on ones. My straps are made for me by Long Hollow Leather in Franklin Tennessee and frankly they are the best and great people to boot. Lately I've been playing a bit of piano onstage and in the States I use a Roland 900 and in Europe a Korg Trinity V3 Pro X. And yeah, when I'm playing experimental/free improvisation music I use a crazy amount of innovative pedals with my 8 string lap steels made by Ryan Rukavina but they change from month to month so I don't repeat myself with sounds. Best to follow me on Instagram (@edpettersen) to see them or just drop me a line. I also own a Lazy River 8 string Weissenborn and a Gold Tone 8 string dobro that I use from time to time on recordings where appropriate. I run them through pedals as well. |
GEARHEADS ARTICLES - TABLE OF CONTENTS Heil Microphones The following gear reviews by Ed have appeared in Tape Op Magazine, except where noted:
ADL Labs G-100 Tube DI and Summit Audio TD-100 Tube Direct Boxes Electrix Repeater Looper/Sampler Pick-Up-the-World Contact Pickups The Porchboard Bass/Percussion device Pre Sonus ACP-22 2-Channel Compressor/Gate PreSonus Digitube Mic Pre/Direct box w/EQ PreSonus Digimax mic pre/limiter with digital output Stephen Sank DX-modded Beyer 260 and 500 Ribbon Mics Studio Projects introduces the C-1 and C-3 Mics |
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