What’s on Jack White’s Pedal Board?
Folks over at the Ryan Adams message board are trying to figure out what makes up Jack White’s pedal board, producing some humorous comments. Some guesses as to the gear on the board are the Digitech Whammy (that’s the one Jack is moving his foot to step on), a Boss TU2 tuner, an MXR Micro Amp, and an EHX Pog.
1. White Room Evangelists | 8:41 pm on November 14th, 2005
This post has been removed by the author.
2. White Room Evangelists | 8:53 pm on November 14th, 2005
He also uses the Big Muff Pi (right next to the Digitech Whammy) which is made by Electro-Harmonix. Its usually just called a “fuzzbox” in guitar tabs and stuff. An example of it is the break in “Hypnotize.”
3. Anonymous | 2:50 pm on November 16th, 2005
He has a Boss Tu-2 Tuner, MXR Microamp,Digtech Whammy WH-4, Electro Harmonix Big Muff american, Electro Harmonix POG……….the other footswitch in the far right corner thats red is a cutoff switch to mute his guitar when he doesnt want it feeding back..i used to know the name of the brand but i forgot either way it was special made for him its not a big corporate company
4. Anonymous | 11:22 pm on November 20th, 2005
He colored his Big Muff red, and you left out the Boss compression/sustainer.
5. Anonymous | 10:01 am on November 21st, 2005
HE DOESNT USE A BOSS COMPRESSOR/SUSTAINER! he used one back in 2002 for like 3 shows then scrapped it obviously hes not using one cuz ummm there isnt one on his board!
6. Anonymous | 1:12 pm on January 6th, 2006
That’s not a Big Muff, it’s a Fulltone 70′ Pedal!
http://www.fulltone.com/70.asp
Jack painted it White!!!
7. Anonymous | 1:13 pm on January 6th, 2006
That’s not a Big Muff, it’s a Fulltone 70′ Pedal!
http://www.fulltone.com/70.asp
Jack painted it Sorry Red!!!
8. Anonymous | 8:24 pm on January 30th, 2006
i tj¿hink the fullone is smaller (”i think” i say)
9. Chris | 9:51 am on February 17th, 2006
It us a Big muff !!!! Anonymous, don’t claim something when you are not certain !
10. Anonymous | 11:28 am on March 31st, 2006
ehx pog, ehx big muff usa, digitech whammy iv, mxr micro amp, boss tu-2, cutoff switch
11. Reuben | 4:40 pm on April 7th, 2006
Jacks Just Awesome lol. its his sound, who cares what he uses, but its not a big muff lol.
12. Jacob | 9:30 am on May 30th, 2006
It is not a Big Muff nor a Fulltone 70 i have a Big Muff…it sounds just lke what he uses…but its not a Big Muff
13. brenton | 5:34 am on June 17th, 2006
he does use a big muff just its not it that pic
14. Ben | 10:20 am on July 20th, 2006
it’s a big muff he painted red….
15. Richie | 1:01 pm on July 22nd, 2006
The far right red box..isn’t a cut off switch.. it’s a true-bypass loop.
Digitech whammy’s when used an octave down (for bass sounds)
loses alot of volume. That’s where the MXR micro-amp comes in. It’s placed right before the digitech whammy to give it a volume boast when engaged. The true-bypass loop enables a player to hit one button to engage two pedal simultaneously (mxr micro amp+digitech whammy). It makes life easier when playing live.
That’s the secondary purpose of the true-bypass loop. It’s primary use is to take the TONE Sucking pedals out of his signal chain when he’s not using it. Digitech whammys are noturioius for sucking alot of tone out of your sound when it’s not in use. So when the true-bypass loop is OFF the digitech whammy and mxr micro amp are not going through his guitar to amp signal. Saving alot of his tone and overall volume. when it’s ON
it brings it mxr micro amp and digitech whammy back into the signal chain simultaneously.
hope this makes sense,
Richie
16. Ben | 3:20 pm on August 3rd, 2006
the kill off/kill switches are made by analogue man…..they ven feature a custom peppermint sprayed one on their site
17. tim | 1:55 am on August 10th, 2006
Jack White is cool. He doesnt use any of those pedals. Ur alll wrong, there is no whammy or compressor/sustainer or kill off switch. Thats not his pedals board. He doesnt use any pedals, he uses the distortion from the fender twin reverb and wen he wants an octave he just hums while playing guitar and it sounds like he has and octave pedal. U guys are stupid. Jack Black is the best guitarist and the white stripes would b nowhere without him, the drums and bass by themselves would be sooo boring. i LOve jack Black
18. joe | 9:36 am on August 10th, 2006
well your just an ass, how the hell can he get fuzz from his fender amp? and yes he does use whammy, firstly to get the bass sounds and secondly to harmonise in certin songs such as the call and responce bit on ‘girl you have no faith in medecine’. not sure about the rest though. also im prety sure it is a big muff for the fuzz tone.
19. Richie | 10:48 pm on August 13th, 2006
It’s great to know that Tim has an opinion. Good job Tim you get a hi five for wasting your time.
20. Andrew | 3:36 pm on August 14th, 2006
I know Jack uses the digitech whammy for bass tones. How does he get guitar and bass sound at the same time? I would also like opinions on which octave pedals out there that are good.
21. zachy | 10:03 pm on August 27th, 2006
He records the bass and guitar sounds at different times. And if you mean live, then he uses the pog most likely which plays whichever octaves or settings you choose and the dry signal at the same time. And as for all of the confusion on the muff, you can tell that red pedal is just a painted muff because of the shape and location of the knobs, footswitch and input/output jacks, and just the general shape and size of the pedal, its very unique. Plus I have the pedal and you can get perfect white stripes tones at level a little bit south of 5, tone at 7 1/2, and sustain cranked pretty well.
22. jeremy | 12:29 pm on August 30th, 2006
Why doesn’t he have a dyna comp? That’s red!
23. whatever | 12:05 pm on October 21st, 2006
I think is not a big muff or a fulltone… the one that jack uses is similar in looks but… the led on the center of the pedal is on a diferent position for both big muff and fulltone… maybee he chaged not only the color but also the position of the led lol.
24. whatever | 12:09 pm on October 21st, 2006
This one has a led right in the middle of the pedal… and seems to have something, maybee a led too beetween second and third knob. Big Muff has just one led and is located beetween first and second knob.
25. eric | 8:05 pm on December 8th, 2006
whammy for sure. theres no other way to get a guitar sound like he gets it to on “ball and a biscuit” and “blue orchid” and “walking with a ghost” as far as the big muff pi goes, i would put money on it, but i might lose that bet. it might be the 70s thing that the one guy said. i’d say big muff sounds most like it.
26. Davidcoupe | 6:47 pm on January 13th, 2007
I think his Big Muff was modded by Analogman for increased mids. He could have two leds because one is to switch from the mod back to the original sound of the Muff(??MAybe??)
The Pog is probably for the bass sounds while the Whammy is used for high pitched solos.
27. tyman | 10:08 am on January 24th, 2007
For elephant he used the whammy for everything, including seven nation army. When the POG came out a year or two ago he used it for Get Behind Me Satan, a good example is on Blue Orchid where he uses it to polyphonically generate an octave down and keeping his dry signal coming through. Also he uses the POGs built in filter to make the guitar sound processed, kind of keyboardy.
There is no doubt that the pedals are TU-2 > MXR Micro Amp > Whammy (looped through that red switch) > Digitech Whammy > Big Muff (probably a very old model painted red for those of you arguing about the LED placement, also could be a russian Sovtek model) > EHX POG > Fender Twin Reverb (which does NOT have any fuzz or distortion).
28. Anonymous | 7:47 am on January 25th, 2007
Ok, heres exactly what he uses (and I know for sure)
It IS a Big Muff but it has been modded by analogman so it is effectively a USA big muff in a Little Big Muff case. he has then customised it to go with the colour scheme himself.
The MXR micro amp is always on; he has no loop and he needs it for the fat, overdriven sound (the pickups are as weak as hell and couldnt get a sound like that by themselves)
The little red box is a killswitch as someone said before, not a loop or anything, also made by analogman
There are also two silvertone amps that do more for the sound than the Fender Twin does.
And the POG is only used to produce diferent octaves at once, the whammy is switched from one octave up to one down when he needs it.
(Post 3 is spot on)
29. fred | 10:57 pm on July 24th, 2007
I don’t think it’s a big muff. He used a big muff before but now it sounds different. It’s something else.
my 2 bits
30. Alex | 11:55 pm on July 25th, 2007
It IS a USA big muff. definately 100%. he has always used a big muff. the other pedals are MXR micro amp, digitech whammy and the POG. there is also a killswitch and a boss tuner.
post 3 and 28 are right. they know what they’re talking about. we all know it’s a Big Muff. Jack probably has customised it who knows.. he’s a gadget man he could’ve done anything to it. he still uses a big muff. no doubt he always will, the whole white stripes sound is based on jack’s simplistic riffs through the muff.
Also, it’s not on this pedal board but if you’ve seen the “under the black pool lights” dvd, I’m pretty sure you’ll find he sometimes uses an electro harmonix Wiggler for live performances.
cheers.
31. gdub | 12:35 pm on August 5th, 2007
can someone explain which settings Jack uses with the whammy pedal? especially the real compressed/modulated tone in many of his solos. I don’t own a whammy pedal, which is why I’m curious if the pedal itself makes that tone.
And how does he get that staccato like sound when he’s playing sometimes? It almost sounds like he’s flicking his pickup switch very rapidly to a different pickup with the volume turned off, but I’ve seen videos when he gets that sound, and I don’t see him flicking a pickup switch…. is that sound coming from his whammy pedal, or just his guitar playing technique itself?
32. D. Clower | 5:46 pm on August 27th, 2007
The Big Muff is actually the stock USA reissue, but put into a new housing. Below is a direct quote from Mike at Analogman:
“it is a normal USA reissue big muff but rehoused into a more solid hammond type enclosure as he crushes the stock ones.”
So it looks like everything on the pedal board is easily attainable, but it would be around $800 or so. Getting ahold of a Silvertone Amp like the ones he uses is a different story though.
33. anon | 1:05 pm on September 8th, 2007
doesn’t he use like a midi controller to change the whammy octave setting? bending down and fiddling is kinda awkward. Then again this is jack white we are discussing.
34. Anonymous | 6:04 pm on October 2nd, 2007
it’s a modded big muff, that’s for sure
35. The Modern Age » Blog Archive » What’s on St. Vincent’s Pedal Board? | 3:58 am on October 19th, 2007
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36. Anonymous | 4:58 pm on November 25th, 2007
You guys are soooo dumb. He uses a Big Muff USA painted red and a Digitech Wammy
37. Elmo | 5:10 am on November 28th, 2007
I don’t know whats on there but i want it soooooooooo bad!!
38. Anonymous | 3:52 pm on December 16th, 2007
HAHAHAHA!!!!! 17. tim , ur a JOKE. First u sat that he just hums to get his sounds! Then u say he dosnt even have a pedal board, THEN u say at the end “” i love u jack BLACK!!! ur a joke. He uses a Electro harmonic big muff Pi new york that he painted red. I swear on my holy life.
39. Devin L. | 9:01 pm on December 17th, 2007
The red pedal w/white knobs after the POG is a unmodded but rehoused Big Muff Pi NYC Reissue.
his setup
Guitar->POG->BMP->Whammy->MXR Micro Amp->BOSS TU2->Switcher(Switches between Silvertone 1484 and [vintage] Fender 65 Delux Reverb)
40. Anonymous | 9:28 pm on December 17th, 2007
When was that pic taken at the top?
41. Anonymous | 1:48 pm on December 26th, 2007
your point is????
42. That Guy | 3:47 pm on December 31st, 2007
If you watch Under Blackpool Lights you’ll see that the “Muff” has one light. ableit blue but ONE light, like a normal muff in NEW HOUSING. all his tone comes from his Silvertone’s, which sound like Fender Twin Reverbs, which is pretty generic fender tone. The micro amp is to boost his lost signal from the whammy 4 (sucks tone TERRIBLY). He pretty much plays with the volume on his amp ALL THE WAY UP. creating a “crunch” with out any effects. which also explains the incredible amounts of FEEDBACK produced at their live shows.
As for the sticatto effect. its all on the wrist. no effect just a really fast wrist! with a signal as hot as his, its not hard to produce. its like jack(white?)-ing off. kinda like palm muting too. like, get in palm muting position andhit the not REALLY fast. you pretty much need a muff for that.
43. mr hat | 7:12 pm on January 10th, 2008
Yeah it really looks like a big muff pi, i got one myself. Maybe a little modified. And a Digitech Whammy. Does anybody know why those whammy pedals are soo expensive?
44. Anonymous | 8:03 pm on March 3rd, 2008
Big muff pi re-boxed and unmodded not sure, 100% sure!
And that’s just because I have one, and it sounds just like that…..
45. Anonymous | 12:13 am on April 1st, 2008
OMFG!! It’s a big muff re-housed, just get over it. I wouldn’t doubt that most of his pedals are modded because i know for a fact that the POG straight out of the factory steals tone like a bitch. the muff sounds the same at the 5,5,10 position like the guy said above. And I dont think its a kill switch, simply because if hes getting alot of unwanted feedback at a show, he just turns the volume down on the guitar. The muff is always on, the MXR micro amp gives him the biting crunch for the choruses and stuff (it just really overdrives the tubes in the silvertones). POG’s used for octave down, organ, and octave blending. whammy is ONLY used for octave up. and he has that boss tuner because that guitar is so old it doesnt stay in tune for a complete song. Now quit arguing about what he has and doesnt have and just enjoy the music
46. Anonymous | 12:17 am on April 1st, 2008
I forgot to add in #45 that if anyone out there has a POG, you get the bass sound from seven nation army by isolating the sub octave and putting the low pass filter all the way to the bottom. enjoy:)
47. Anonymous | 9:52 pm on April 6th, 2008
what a bunch of fucky douchbags
jack is an original
find yer own sounds
48. Anonymous | 3:04 pm on June 29th, 2008
ok, here’s how it goes, he has:
a digitech whammy IV
an electro harmonix big muff, with true bypass
an MXR micro amp
and electro harmonix POG
a boss pedal tunner
and a pedal that is a channel switcher
i know this because the tuner is used to offset the tone sucking of the true bypass on the big muff, and the POG is used for blue orchid and a couple new songs, since he was only introduced to it just before going to the studio for “get behind me satan”
also, the whammy is also used for an octive up, like on black math and ball and ball and biscuit. his airline (his primary guitar that looks like a toy) only has 20 frets, and black math has a peak of 24, and b&B goes up to the 27th fret, which dosen’t exist
i also found out that he had a specialist paint his big muff and POG red to match his red black and white color theme.
plus twin reverbs do not havve footswitches to turn off distortion, so the micor amp still gives off the sound of a twin reverb, but he can still switch from clean to distorted
that’s all
49. Bill | 2:59 pm on July 2nd, 2008
“i know this because the tuner is used to offset the tone sucking of the true bypass on the big muff”
You do know that pedals that aren’t true bypassed suck tone, while pedals that are true bypassed do not suck tone