bt 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!

  1. TC Electronic PolyTune 2,
  2. Ernie Ball volume pedal (modded by JHS for no tone loss, with an active buffer),
  3. Chase Bliss Warped Vinyl (chorus/vibrato, for Magnatone type vibrato),
  4. Zvex Fat Fuzz Factory (octave fuzz),
  5. EHX POG (octave/organ generator),
  6. Sarno Earth Drive (Awesome Klon style overdrive, recommended by Nels Kline),
  7. Fairfield Circuitry Accountant (compressor, I mostly use it as a dirty boost),
  8. 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),
  9. 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),
  10. Line 6 DL4 (mostly use this for reverse tape sound),
  11. Strymon El Capistan (tape echo modulator. This is my favorite. The multiple tape head settings and wow and flutter are so lovely),
  12. Death By Audio Reverberation Machine (crazy broken amp deep in a cave reverb).

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