Gear history
The boards behindthe records
What was actually on the floor when those records were made, why each pedal was there, and what it costs today. Assembled from interviews, rig rundowns and live photography.
- Rigs
- 23
- Records
- 58
- Tracks
- 128
- Pedals
- 55
3 rigs, filtered to Wah and filter, 1980s.
- Stevie Ray VaughanDouble Trouble · 1983 to 1990
The definitive argument that an overdrive pedal is a volume control, not a distortion box. The Tube Screamer is barely breaking up on its own; it is there to hit an already loud Fender hard enough to make the amp do the work.
Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer
4 pedals · 3 records · 8 tracks
- SlashGuns N' Roses · 1987 to 1993
A Les Paul into a Marshall with almost nothing in between, which is the point. The wah is the only effect most listeners could name, and it is used as punctuation rather than as a texture.
Dunlop Cry Baby
4 pedals · 2 records · 4 tracks
- Joe SatrianiSolo · 1987 onward
Proof that a cheap orange distortion pedal is a legitimate main gain source. The DS-1 has been on the board for decades, and the smoothness people credit to expensive gear is mostly the compressor and the playing.
Boss DS-1 Distortion
4 pedals · 2 records · 5 tracks
This is editorial gear history, the same kind every guitar magazine and rig-rundown video publishes. No artist, band or manufacturer listed here is affiliated with Gear Avail, and nothing on these pages is an endorsement. Rigs change between tours and between takes, so each one is scoped to a documented era rather than presented as a career-long setup. Where only the sessions are documented, the record is listed without specific tracks.