Big Thief‘s debut album “Masterpiece” has been rocking our world this year – our sister blog named it The Deli NYC’s Record of the Month back in July. We asked the band’s guitarist Buck Meek (who also has a solo folk project we recommend checking out) to tell us about the stompboxes he uses when playing with the band, here’s his very thorough response!
- TC Electronic PolyTune 2,
- Ernie Ball volume pedal (modded by JHS for no tone loss, with an active buffer),
- Chase Bliss Warped Vinyl (chorus/vibrato, for Magnatone type vibrato),
- Zvex Fat Fuzz Factory (octave fuzz),
- EHX POG (octave/organ generator),
- Sarno Earth Drive (Awesome Klon style overdrive, recommended by Nels Kline),
- Fairfield Circuitry Accountant (compressor, I mostly use it as a dirty boost),
- Boss OC-3 (poly octave pedal that lets you set the range of notes to be octaves, so you can keep your higher strings dry, and add a low octave to your lower strings. I put this after my dirt pedals so the octave is fed an overwhelming signal and acts unpredictably),
- JHS Colour Box (Neve 1073 console channel strip clone. This has five gain stages, I use the highest mostly for direct console fuzz sounds on “Real Love”, but the EQ section is so sensitive I can also use the clean stage to completely change my amp’s clean sound),
- Line 6 DL4 (mostly use this for reverse tape sound),
- Strymon El Capistan (tape echo modulator. This is my favorite. The multiple tape head settings and wow and flutter are so lovely),
- Death By Audio Reverberation Machine (crazy broken amp deep in a cave reverb).
