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
5 rigs, filtered to Compression.
- David GilmourPink Floyd · 1971 to 1983
The most copied board in the history of the instrument, and the one that proves ambience is a compositional choice rather than a coat of paint. Big Muff into a modulated, heavily delayed clean amp, with a compressor keeping every bent note singing.
Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi
5 pedals · 3 records · 5 tracks
- Randy RhoadsOzzy Osbourne · 1980 to 1982
Classical phrasing over a cranked Marshall, and a board built for precision rather than texture. The Distortion+ tightens the amp instead of adding gain to it, which is what keeps the fast neoclassical runs articulate.
MXR Distortion+
4 pedals · 2 records · 5 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
- Trey AnastasioPhish · 1994 onward
Two Tube Screamers back to back, which sounds like a mistake and is not. Stacking two moderate gain stages gives far more sustain and far less fizz than turning one of them up, and a jam band needs notes that hold.
Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer
4 pedals · 2 records · 4 tracks
- Josh HommeQueens of the Stone Age · 2000 onward
A midrange-forward board that ignores the usual advice to scoop the mids out of a heavy tone. Boosting a narrow band instead of cutting one is what gives those riffs their honk, and it is why they cut through on a small speaker.
Maestro Parametric Filter
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.