Introduction
When it comes to putting together a touring rig, I’ve always believed it’s about finding
the perfect balance between functionality, tone, and, let’s be honest, a bit of
personal flair. For the 2024 Cardinal Black tour, my setup reflects years of trial, error,
and some truly unforgettable collaborations. Every piece of gear I’m using has a story—
whether it’s my Custom Shop Revstar that’s been with me through countless gigs, or
the Springer Firehawk, which came to life after a few late-night chats with Mikäel
Springer.
This rig isn’t just about sounding good; it’s about feeling good when I play, knowing that
everything from my pedals to my amps is dialed in to support the energy of our live
shows. In this walkthrough, I’ll take you through the gear that’s making this tour tick,
sharing the quirks, tweaks, and decisions that have shaped my sound. I hope it offers
some insight into what goes into crafting a rig that’s ready for the road—and maybe
even a bit of inspiration for your own setup.
Let’s dive in!
– Chris Buck
Custom Shop Revstar
I took delivery of my Custom Shop Revstar in January 2020 in Calabasas, California. I
drove all the way up to the Yamaha Guitars HQ to pick it up before a few scheduled
appearances at NAMM. Pat Campolattano, Yamaha's head luthier at the time (though
he's since moved to Jackson), crafted this beauty for me.
Curious about its original look? Check out this video filmed the day after NAMM at
Norm's Rare Guitars with Michael Lemmo, Cody Wright and Sky Garcia. You can see a
few subtle lacquer checking lines that I requested Pat add for a vintage vibe. Other than
that, it was practically mint!
Some viewers of my Premier Guitar Rig Rundown
video expressed disbelief that the guitar aged
naturally to its current state in just 4/5 years. But
that's the magic (or maybe mayhem?) of
nitrocellulose lacquer and heavy touring in crazy
weather extremes – from Norway in November to
Nashville in July. It takes a toll on everything, you and
your instruments included!
Apart from the inevitable march of time, the guitar
itself remains largely unchanged from when I got it.
The biggest modification was swapping the second
volume pot for a master tone pot. While the idea of
individual pickup volume control like a Les Paul
sounded cool, the bottom volume knob was
awkwardly placed and impossible to use for volume
swells. So, I had Huw Price switch it to a master tone
control shortly after getting the guitar.
Pickup-wise, it's seen a few rotations – Lollars, Tyson
Tone, Radioshop, and Sunbear – before settling on the
current set I developed in collaboration with Yamaha.
Aside from that, it's all original and keeps getting
better with every play.
Springer Firehawk
The newest addition to the stable, I took delivery of my FireHawk on June 6th 2024. It
was made by Mikäel Springer in Lorraine, France and I think it’s fair to say is heavily
inspired by the Gibson Firebird. Me and Mikäel got chatting on Instagram after I
stumbled across his work (I think through Sunbear pickups, which he uses in his
guitars) and was intrigued to say to the least. He was kind enough to bring one of his
FireHawks to soundcheck at our show in Luxembourg last December and I fell in love
with it.
I took it out on the road over the next few months (you can see it featured heavily in this
video about our European tour) and went back with a few suggestions (hypothetically,
you understand…!) about how my perfect FireHawk would differ. Lo and behold, a few
months later, this beauty arrived on my doorstep and it is a truly breathtaking bit of
luthiery.
People like Mikaël and Angelo Van Merrienboer (Panucci Guitars) truly blow my mind -
absolute masters of their craft and totally dialled in to what constitutes a great guitar. In
regard to its specs, it’s principally the same as the 3 pickup model that I had on loan for
a few months but with a more straightforward pickup/wiring configuration in that it’s
essentially the same as a Les Paul. TheFireBird has a bit of an unusual wiring setup
(especially those of the 3 pickup variety!) which in the heat of battle, I found a bit
confusing so I had Mikaël simplify it down to 2 pickups (Sunbear Sunbirds) and 2
volume and tone controls. It has a KMS (Kiss My Strings) bridge and custom Springer
vibrola that is notable for its tuning stability which in my experience, isn’t something
that can be said for all of them!
Partscaster Jazzmaster
Every time I build a Partscaster, I naively
go into the process thinking it’s going to
be a more affordable way of getting a
particular type of guitar…and every time it
costs me far more than I’d expected! The
body and neck and were brilliant value -
and absolutely superbly done - by Scott
Cameron at Golden Era Aged Guitars in
Northern Ireland but it’s the rest of the
bits (especially on a Jazzmaster!) that
start to add up! The bridge is from
Mastery, I found the trem on eBay in the U.S (purportedly from a pre-CBS Jaguar), the
pickguard I found on Reverb and is made from celluloid nitrate, the pickups are from
Radioshop and the electronics were very kindly pre-wired by James Home of Tone who
very kindly took the time to talk me through what I was looking for. Lastly, it was lovingly
assembled by Huw Price who did a brilliant job, as ever.
The only thing worth mentioning is that I’ve
had a few little niggles with the Trem which
after a few shows, was proving a bit clunky.
After a few failed attempts at smoothing it
out myself, I relented and gave it to Dafydd
Owens in Gloucester who worked his magic
and it’s been beautifully smooth and springy
ever since! Partscasters can be a bit hit or
miss to say the least but honestly, I’m
thrilled with how this one turned out - it’s
light, lively and acoustically-resonant and
just a cool, vibey guitar in general. In
hindsight, part of me wishes I’d got a
modern spec’d neck with a 22nd fret but I’m
not sure what I’m doing up the dusty end
anyway so I’ll learn to live with that one…
Strings & Things
The Capo I’m using for Terra Firma is from G7th which
admittedly, although a bit spenny is absolutely brilliant.
Quick to take on and off and crucially, never seems to
squeeze the guitar sharp which is something I’ve
always struggled with, with various capos.
Strings across the board are Ernie Ball Mega
Slinkys (48, 38, 28, 17.5, 13.5, 10.5) which
unsurprisingly, are a good mix of 10s and 11s!
Not unmanageable for home use when you don’t
have the adrenaline rush of being on stage but
with enough resistance to take a hammering
from my Thor’s Hammer of a right hand when
playing live. Every instrument cable throughout
the rig is by Mogami which thus far, have been
totally reliable and to my ears, sound great. Picks
are 1.14mm Tortex which Jim Dunlop were kind
enough to custom print for this tour.
THE SIGNAL CHAIN IS AS FOLLOWS →
Dunlop Cry Baby Wah Wah
The standard version that you’ll get in pretty much any guitar shop in
the world. I’m not enough of a wah pedal connoisseur to particularly
worry about different inductors etc though I will say I did try the mini
version (because it’d take up less space in my Peli Case) though my
feet were too big!
29 Pedals Euna/Mythos Golden Fleece
Admittedly, I was more than a little skeptical at the
prospect of a £285 buffer (!) but I’ve been seriously
impressed, especially with its ability to put my fuzz
pedal in its loop. I have the ‘B’ and the ‘L’ dip switches
engaged (no idea…) which to my ear, bring back the
high and low end lost with cable runs etc. Its footswitch
turns it off and reroutes the signal through the Mythos
Golden Fleece which as I mentioned, is in its loop as
most fuzz pedals are very sensitive to having a buffer in
front of them. There’s not much to say about the
Golden Fleece that I haven’t said already - it’s superb
and virtually idiot proof. It’s pretty aggressive in
isolation into a clean amp which is why I invariably
stack it with a mid-pushed overdrive pedal (usually the
Mythos Mjolnir which is Zach’s take on a Klon) but the
older I get, the more I like things with just one knob…!
ThorpyFX Electric Lightning
My signature pedal and one I’m incredibly proud of. Me and
Adrian went through a fair amount of R&D on this one and I’m
ludicrously happy with how it turned out. The boost is similar
to the Heavy Water/The Dane but the drive side is totally its
own thing and about as close as I’ve ever heard to capturing
the dynamism and touch responsiveness of an amp in pedal
form. It’s fairly aggressive - as valve amps tend to be! - but
paired with the boost, can be smooth and saturated. Its drive
side gets a lot of use throughout the course of the set, primarily for any heavier/gritter
moments while the boost is one of those things that difficult to convince yourself that
you ever need to turn off - it just makes everything sound better/fuller. It’s a truly
wonderful pedal and I’m not at all biased ;)
Mythos AirLane Drive
The older I get, the more I’m gravitating towards pedals
that are a bit more ‘warts n’ all’ and that don’t round all the
edges off - in short, pedals that sound more like an amp
and less like a pedal and the AirLane Drive (since
renamed the 210 Double Drive) very much sits in that
category. Originally a collaboration between Mythos and
Novo Guitars, it’s two transistor based drives which can be
used independently or stacked. They’re both pretty
aggressive but I find myself using the left hand side most
frequently for when, at the risk of turning into Nigel Tufnel, I need that push over the
edge or a bit more gain for a part/solo without imparting too much tonal characteristic.
It’s a brilliant pedal and because of its limited circuitry, pretty affordable.
GigRig G3 Switcher
I upgraded to the G3 from the G2 last year for a
bit more MIDI functionality (for the HX Stomp
XL) and although I don’t use it to anywhere
near-approaching its full functionality, it’s a truly
remarkable feat of engineering and pretty much
the beating heart of my pedalboard. I’ll go
through the loops in order…
→ INTO THE G3
Snouse BlackBox2
There’s not a great deal to say about this that I haven’t said already - a
Marshall BluesBreaker clone (minus the original’s idiosyncrasies) made by
Joshua, a good friend of mine in Denver, Colorado. In isolation, this one is
set very subtly but stacked with other drive pedals, gives me a pretty broad
palette of very usable gain sounds.
Great Eastern Effects Small Speaker Overdrive
There’s not many overdrive pedals that pride themselves on making
your sound smaller but with this one, I guess the clue’s in the
name…! It’s based on those small Tweed amps of old that would
break up and bark like an angry terrier no sooner had you looked at
them. As such, its gain is fairly gritty and aggressive but not only
does it stack incredibly well with the Mythos Mjolnir (again,
rounding out that mid range as with the Golden Fleece) but its low control really helps
bring back a sense of size and power to a sound that could otherwise feel a little…well,
small! Brilliant pedal and one of my favourite discoveries of recent years.
Mythos Mjolnir
As I mentioned, this is Mythos’ take on the fabled Klon and as an
owner of an original and various Klones, I can confidently say it’s
a good ‘un! Again, I have it set pretty subtly when used in
isolation but if you stack it any of the other 65 overdrive pedals
on my board (!) thanks to its distinctive midrange, it gives you
varying shades and characters of gain.
Analogman King of Tone
I’m always at pains to point out that I bought this when the wait list
was around 18 months and have always recommended against
buying one for the mad prices they fetch on Reverb…but with the wait
list now apparently around 6 years (!), I can totally understand why
someone would resort to doing so. Is it awesome? Yes. Is it worth a 6
year wait or upwards of £700 on eBay? No but that’s not a slight on Analogman - I
don’t think any pedal is. All that aside, it’s a superb pedal and has been one of my main
drive pedals since I first took delivery of it in 2015. It was also a Christmas present from
my late grandmother Marian, who was awesome, so holds sentimental value.
Origin Effects Cali76
In all honesty, the Cali76 isn’t getting a tremendous amount of use
on this tour - it was primarily for a song called On My Own from
January Came Close which we haven’t played recently - but when
it comes to compressors, it’s virtually unparalleled. I did briefly use
it for the solo in Holding My Breath but with the amount of gain I
was using for that solo, plus single coil Jazzmaster pickups, it was proving a bit noisy in
certain venues so I abandoned the idea. No point in taking it off the board though as it’ll
always come in useful for something. It’s superb.
Keeley Katana
One of the first pedals I bought (probably back in 2012/2013 ish) no
doubt because I’d seen John Mayer using one, it’s a no frills clean
boost and on this board, is acting as my solo boost. I know you can
pull the pot out for a bit more gain but I’ve never really had cause to do
so. It’s set around 5/6 in its standard mode and works a charm. What
can I say? It makes me louder…
Mooer Trelicopter
Undoubtedly the cheapest pedal on my board but absolutely brilliant,
nonetheless. Apparently ‘based’ on the Demter Tremulator, it’s currently
a set and forget pedal for the intro trem on Tell Me How It Feels but for its
price and footprint, it’s a brilliantly versatile pedal that does anything
from Fender amp bias-esque trem through to more mental Boulevard of
Broken Dreams on/off style stuff. I bought it from Must Have Music in
Blackwood, South Wales in about 2010. A blast from the past…
Catalinbread Echorec
Honestly, a strong candidate for my favourite pedal of all time
and it honestly wouldn’t surprise me if this is one of the first
10 ever sold. I bought it from Pro Guitar Shop in the U.S the
day it was released after watching Andy’s demo. It’s operated
flawlessly in all the time I’ve had it and has inspired countless
songs/guitar parts. Depending on how you set it, it almost
blurs the boundaries between delay and reverb which is really
inspiring for swells and ambient parts in songs. If you’ve heard anything atmospheric or
slightly weird in a Cardinal Black song, it’s probably the Catlinbread Echorec.
Gurus Echosex
I’m a big fan of delay pedals that even when audible, don’t feel
as though they’re getting under your feet and the Echosex
nails this. This is an older version and is a bit worse for wear
(there’s obviously something broken inside as you can hear it
rattling around…) but I haven’t got around to trying the new
version. I think there may be a Steve Lukather signature
version of it available now? Not sure - I’d be intrigued to try it.
OUT OF THE G3 →
Line 6 HX Stomp XL
I was a longtime user of the HX Stomp but always found
myself cycling through different presets to have access to
different/more combinations of effects so you can imagine my
excitement when the XL came out with its extra foot
switches/increased DSP. I know digital effects get a bit of a
bad wrap on occasion but Line 6 have such a strong history
of incredible effects going back to the Pod and M series that
it’s of very little surprise that I love the Stomp as much as I do.
The main preset I use - called Cardinal Black - is configured with Harmonic Trem, a
slapback delay, a longer delay, a plate reverb for Jump In, chorus for Where Do You Go?
and a ‘freeze’ effect for the verse in Ain’t My Time. There’s other presets dedicated to
different songs which using MIDI, I can cycle between using foot switches 9 and 10 on
the G3. 9 is up, 10 is down
Universal Audio Starlight
In all honesty, I’ve yet to use this on tour but there’s a song on our
new record (yet to be released at the time of writing) that it’s
integral to. Hard to say much more than that at present but the
preset I used (only accessible via the app) has a bit of a Chase
Bliss ‘bee boop boop’ kinda vibe, if that makes any sense at all?
Sorry, that’s a bit vague. You’ll hear it when the record’s released
in 2031.
Universal Audio Golden Reverberator
Unlike Germandude, I find it almost impossible to play
without Reverb so it’s probably of little surprise that
there’s always reverb of some kind on throughout the
show. Despite most of the amps in my rig having their
own Spring Reverb on board, I’m actually using the
Golden Reverberator as the reverb for all amps and
this is for 3 reasons - firstly, I found that when I was
pairing my Super Reverb (4x10) and Pro Reverb
(2x12) together, both with their respective reverbs
going, I found the sound of two very distinct reverb
tanks going at the same time a little strange on stage.
Admittedly, it gave the rig a bit of a sense of width on
stage but stood directly in the middle of the two - which is where my mic stand is
placed - could be a little disconcerting, depending on the room. It’s hard to describe but
it almost felt like a bit of a faux phase issue, even though it wasn’t. Secondly, through
total dumb luck, I discovered that channel 1 on my Super Reverb - the channel without
reverb or trem - sounds quite a bit better than channel 2 so I needed the reverb to come
from somewhere other than the amp. Lastly, I’m actually using the Golden Reverberator
as a bit of a DIY amp splitter. The Radial BigShot that’s mounted on top of my amp splits
the signal into the Super Reverb and Concert but the second output on the Golden
Reverberator goes to the Victory MK Clean and miraculously, all three run without any
phase issues without the need to buy a 1 to 3 amp splitter. In addition to all that, it’s a
tremendous sounding Reverb pedal whose spring reverb in particular sounds better
than some spring reverb tanks I’ve tried.
Xotic E.P Booster
Very last in the chain - at least for the signal that goes to the Super Reverb
and Concert - is the Xotic E.P Booster. It’s set to its minimum setting but to
echo a sentiment that’s been more eloquently expressed by virtually every
person that’s ever used an EP Booster or Echoplex; it makes everything
sound better. It has a noticeable low end bump that sits in a really nice
spot and seems to sweeten the highs up very subtly. Magnificent pedal
that for a little while, I used as my on/off solo boost but I missed that thing it
did when it was always on.
Radial BigShot
My second BigShot (some bastard nicked my first one during load out at a gig
somewhere) and an invaluable part of my rig if I’m looking to split my amps at my amps
(as opposed to from the pedalboard) without worrying about having to power it. Of
course it’s not the only pedal capable of splitting your amps and correcting phase/
ground loop issues etc but it seems to be unique in doing it all without requiring power.
Not that that’s a be all and end all but using one that requires power would mean having
to find another isolated power source and setting it up by my amps which when you’re
running 3 amps and a step-down transformer, is already quite a lot of power
consumption happening in that neck of the woods!
Full view
Pedalboard Top
Pedalboard Underside
→ INTO THE AMPS →
1966 Fender Super Reverb
Output A of the BigShot runs into channel 1 of the Super
Reverb, volume set at 3, treble set at 5.5 and bass set at
3.5. Admittedly, the volume can vary on some gigs (the
volume at 3 is as loud as it ever goes) but everything else
is pretty much set and forget. It has three Celestion G10
speakers and one Warehouse Veteran (not because I like
the combination - I just haven’t got around to changing
the one remaining Veteran yet!) and runs via a Stepdown
Transformer as it still runs on 110v. This amp is pretty
much the centre piece of the rig - it’s an absolute brilliant
amp and even though it isn’t the most reliable (it’s broken down a few times since I’ve
had it…) I’ll make sure it’s always straight back into the repair shop ASAP. Incidentally, it’s
Anthony Matthews at Tube Distinctions in South Wales that always makes sure it’s up
and running again - he’s a genius. Also worth mentioning that both Brownface amps are
always mic’d with a Shure SM57.
1962 Fender Concert
Output B of the BigShot runs into channel 2 of the
Concert, volume set at 3 or 4, treble at 6, bass at 4 and
presence at 7. When I running the amp’s Harmonic Trem
(which sounds incredible!) I would set the intensity to full
and speed to 4. In all honesty, I do miss running the amp’s
trem (I had it wired it up to footswitch 11 on the G3) but it
made life a little unnecessarily awkward for Brendan, our
FOH engineer who likes to pan my amps out front to give a
sense of width and to create space for the vocals. When it
was the only the Concert ‘tremming’, it meant that panning them too wide was an
impossibility because one side of the audience were getting sea-sickness inducing
modulated trem and the other side weren’t which is why all Harmonic Trem now comes
from the Line 6 HX Stomp. Sacrilegious, eh?! Thankfully, it’s still a stella-sounding amp
otherwise and most importantly, matches the Super Reverb aesthetic. The speakers are
the ones that came in the amp and are unidentified Eminence speakers. I might change
them to Celestion G10s as well at some point but it may be too much of the same…
Victory MK Clean
The last piece of the puzzle. I’ve owned/played a fair
few super high headroom amps and one concern
with them is that they can feel a little sterile and
devoid of character; loud and clean for loud and
clean’s sake. But, I’ve found that the gain control on
the MK Clean, although not really adding gain as
such, essentially acts as a character control which
allows you to dial in a bit of give and compression
under the fingers without really compromising its
headroom, which is especially helpful when you’re
playing it in isolation. In all honesty though, the two
Fenders are only 40watts so don’t actually have all
that much headroom so when I’m pairing them with
the Victory, you can afford to run that a little more
open and let its headroom and sheer loudness do
its thing - it gives the rig a touch of clarity and articulation that isn’t there when it’s not
on. It’s not so much a volume thing - more of a piece of the jigsaw puzzle that helps
things gel together.
