Photo Every Day 2025

I have posted a lot of way-too-close photos of guitars this year, but I don’t believe I have posted many photos of what is arguably one of the biggest factors in creating the tone that I love and am most inspired by. This is the pedalboard setup that I have been loving lately.

For anyone who wants to nerd out with me for a moment, I am going into the TC Electronic Polytune first, which I love because it allows me to strum all six strings of my guitar and quickly see if any one string is noticeably out of tune. Then, of course, if it is out of tune, I can investigate further.

From there I go into a JHS Pulp-n-Peel Compressor. I love this compressor because I can set a more aggressive compression, but then blend it to taste with the dry sound of the guitar, itself. Sometimes I change this pedal out for the Keeley compressor, which is similar, and sounds great, but also gives me the ability to switch between single coil and hum bucker pickups. That is handy, but ultimately I love the sound of the Pulp-n-Peel.

I typically run two or three different overdrive pedals, which I can stack or not. I run out of the Pulp-n-Peel into the JHS Morning Glory pedal, which also runs out into the little red stomp button. The Morning Glory is a fantastic transparent overdrive, and when you stomp on the Red Remote, it becomes a much more hairy and gritty overdrive.

I am also running the Tim pedal as my second overdrive. I LOVE this pedal. There is nothing like it. Paul Cochrane has reissued the pedal, and V3 is pretty great, but I LOVE this original handmade Tim. It is everything that I could ever ask for in an overdrive, and it offers a boost that really gives my tone more hair and grit (as well as a volume boost, perfect for solos). If I want a more transparent volume boost, I use the Keeley Katana, which is a true boost-simply taking your existing tone and boosting it as many decibels as you set on the side knob. Sometimes I take this pedal off and put a Keeley Bonzai pedal in its place. The Bonzai has 9 different versions of the classic Ibanez Tube Screamer, and they all sound amazing. I really love that pedal, but I was recently playing Johnny Cash style music, and the Tube Screamer is not really the right pedal for that type of playing. It is a super versatile pedal. I basically just use this pedal for special effects, like a tremolo. It is a pretty cool pedal. I used to use it for reverb, but I have found that I like the reverb that is built into my amp more than the reverb that is built into a pedal (plus I have blown through about a hundred Holy Grail pedals).

So… that’s my setup that I am loving right now.

Any guitar players out there who want to share what pedals / gear / guitars they are loving right now?