*UPDATE: Taylor’s gear tends to change a decent amount…I’ll post updates as much as often as I get info.
Quick Disclaimer: After telling some guys my idea for gear talk, we started discussing how unimportant gear is if you’re not practicing scales and getting better at guitar without all the awesome gear, then none of this matters. Great tone is a big part of becoming a better player, but none of that matters if you can’t play a G chord.
Anyone who has heard or seen Phil Wickham, Brandon Heath, Shane & Shane, Robbie Seay Band and many other bands (including David Crowder Band) has seen Taylor Johnson play. Here is Taylor’s old board, newer board (Crowder and Shane & Shane tour spring 08) and I’ll tell you what he’s playing through now.
Here are the pedals on the first board:
- Volume Pedal
- Budda Budwah
- Boss TU-2 Tuner
- Keeley Time Machine Boost
- Fulltone Fulldrive 2
- Boss DD-5 (with Tap)
- Line 6 MM-4
- Line 6 DL-4
- Electro Harmonix POG
Pedals on the second board:
- Ernie Ball Jr. Volume Pedal (with Tuner out to TU-2)
- Fulltone Fulldrive 2 (Ferrari Yellow Special Edition)
- Way Huge Green Rhino
- Xotic Effects RC Booster
- Pro-Co RAT
- Digitech WH-1 Whammy (with Keeley true bypass switch)
- Boss DD-20 Giga Delay
- Line 6 MM-4
- Line 6 DL-4
- Boss RV-5 Reverb
Taylor’s third board:
- Fulltone Fulltone Clyde Deluxe Wah
- Ernie Ball Volume Pedal Jr (under the wah pedal in the pic)
- Fulldrive 2 (Mosfet)
- RC Booster
- Boss DD-7 Delay
- Line 6 MM-4
- Line 6 DL-4
- Zvex Fuzz Factory (Which he told me he replaced a few months later with the Boss Reverb)
- Electro Harmonix Micro POG
Taylor’s fourth board (Phil Wickham tour) (picture from this guy here)
- Fulltone Fulltone Clyde Deluxe Wah
- Ernie Ball Volume Pedal Jr
- Barber Tone Press Compressor
- Fulldrive 2 (Mosfet)
- Keeley RAT
- RC Booster
- Digitech Whammy IV (with Little Lehle as true bypass looper)
- Boss DD20 Giga Delay (with the little black external tap)
- Line 6 MM-4
- Line 6 DL-4
- Boss RV-5 Reverb
Taylor’s fifth board (still with Wickham)
- Digitech Whammy IV (off board)
- Analogman King of Tone
- Keeley RAT
- RC Booster
- Ernie Ball Volume Pedal Jr
- Keeley Boss TR-2
- EHX Micro POG
- Boss DD-5
- Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man
- Boss RV-5
- Line 6 Echo Pro (in rack – controlled by Midi Mouse and Line 6 Expression Pedal)
New board with a Looper (picture from Cody Perrin):
- Ernie Ball Volume Jr (Tuner out and then into the true-bypass looper made by Loopmaster)
- Diamond Compressor (which he apparently leaves on all the time)
- Zvex Box of Rock
- Analogman King of Tone
- RC Booster
- Micro POG
- DD-20
- JHS modded MM4
- JHS modded DL4
- RV-5 (not in the looper)
- Ernieball VP with Tuner out
- Full Drive 2
- Zvex Box of Rock
- RC Booster
- Micro POG
- Boss DD20 (with external Tap)
- Boss Vibrato
- Diamond Tremolo
- Strymon El Capistan
- RV-5
Taylor typically plays a Tele, Les Paul or a Gretsch Country Gentleman Jr. through an AC30, Matchless or Divided by 13. He told me in September 2011 he was currently playing a Matchless SC-30.
Instead of talking about what each effect does, if you have questions, feel free to leave it in a comment…
Love your gear…Love your tone… Its really been awesome playing with you, but more importantly its been awesome to get see the call for your heart.
Keep Rockin!!!!
Hey… Any ideas what pickups Taylor has on his Les Paul? I would assume the Gibson Burstbuckers, but not sure. Love the tone he gets from his stuff.
I’m not exactly sure, but I’m pretty sure it’s the Burstbuckers. I’ll try to see if I can find out…
I saw Taylor play March 28 with the RSB. He was playing a gretsch hollowbody. Do you know which gretsch it is?
if it’s the same one he had, i do believe it’s a chet atkins country gentlemen (G6122-1962 or G6122II)
I played with him recently and he had an old country gent jr.
the les paul is a 60s vos les paul, so whatever pickups are in that. the gretsch is actually a country classic jr. they are a rare breed, but youll see many a ‘christian rock’ guys playing them. taylor is one of the best guitar players in the christian guitar world, and definitely knows his gear. been friends with him for a while. i fi could label him, id say a tone freak. he got a jrt9/15 %13 a few months back, and runs it and his ac30 stereo. thats a huge part of his sound these days.
He’s got really good taste in pedal’s, My favorite board out of the three is the last one, He must not be playing stuff where he needs the Rat anymore. Its good to see someone modernizing and getting a DD-7 instead of a DD-5. lol
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Everybody should check out the pedalboards from Phil and Taylor. http://img251.yfrog.com/i/1w2p.jpg/
so does taylor run his pitch based effects pog/whammy after his drives or before?
both…his newest setup has the whammy first and the micro pog later after drives i believe.
Taylor is now a JHS Pedals artist. He has all the DL4 and MM4 mods! and probably some other stuff.
Last night I saw the Robbie Seay Band play and Taylor wasn’t playing with them. Some forums have said that he’s moved on. I’m not too surprised, he’s an amazing in-demand guitarist! But RSB’s new guitarist Matt “Frodo” Kidd was equally amazing! Here’s a picture of his pedalboard (http://plixi.com/p/55049472), he was tap dancing all night and his tone was amazing!
I’m starting to see a lot of guitarist use multiple delay pedals being ran through bypass looper. I think Matt has 4 delays being ran through a looper and I’ve seen Matt Adkins run 3 delays through a looper.
do you know who Taylor is playing with these days? Of all the bands he’s been with I enjoy his sound with Robbie the best – curious what he’s up to these days…
think he’s still on with phil…not certain though.
What settings does he use on the Divided by 13? I am running that amp right now, but it always seems to get dirty fast. I end up having to dial down the volume on the guitar, to clean it up a bit.
I noticed that in a lot of RSB stuff, Taylor likes fairly clean tone, with very little overdrive. Is he achieving that thru the /13 or with the AC30?
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