Effects Bay

One of my favorite guitarists out there is Lee Ranaldo from Sonic Youth. I had an opportunity to meet him backstage a few years ago to check out his gear and talk shop.. and it was great experience. It was before this blog, I wish I go back in time and take some quality photos and ask some great questions instead of “You remember that time.. when you were in Sonic Youth? That was awesome…”

Anyway, I don’t have a time machine, but I do have the power of the interweb and the ability to query, so I bring you Lee Ranaldo’s latest set up. A ton of info is available on Sonic Youth’s website, they describe equipment in great detail and is an incredible resource.

This is his set up as of 2009. Haven’t found much info on 2010, but I’m guess it’ll still be close.

He has two pedalboards with one single effect on a mic stand.

Pedalboard #1

Moog MF-102 MoogerFooger Ring Modulator
Ernie Ball VP JR. (for the Ring Modulator)
Electro-Harmonix MicroSynth (old version)
MXR M-103 Blue Box

Pedalboard #2

BJF Honey Bee Overdrive
Ibanez AD80 Analog Delay
Hughes & Kettner Tube Factor Overdrive
Klon Centaur
Digitech PDS 1002 two second Digital Delay
Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2+
Custom Line Selector (In/Out/Send/Receive) used for Antenna Box

Additionally he uses a custom delay box called the Antenna box that is mounted to the mic stand. The Antenna Box was custom built by Matt Zivich

This is mainly used for the song Antenna, but might be used for other infinite repeat delay sounds. It looks like he can route his signal from the ring modulation side into the delay and control repeat, time and volume, and then punch it out of his line with the custom selector.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with Antenna, check out this video where you can see the Antenna box in action. Video was submitted by ZeRapaz:

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A few months ago, I wrote a community question asking what the best delay pedal is out there today. There were tons of responses and great suggestions on what people thought about a great delay pedal. Yesterday, @BooDooPerson let me know (via Twitter) about a great video his friend shot at Taylor Barefoot’s studio. This video is a great little boutique delay shootout of some awesome pedals. Two different riffs, with similar settings. Same guitar (1959 Strat) same amp, same mic so you can really hear the differences.

Below are the pedals in the shootout:

• Moog MF-104
• Empress Superdelay Vintage Modified
• Dr. Scientist Sunny Day Delay
• Way Huge Aqua Puss
• MXR M169 Carbon Copy
• Toneczar Echoczar
• EHX Deluxe Memory Man Reissue
• Diamond Memory Lane
• Hughes and Kettner Replex
• Roland SRE-555

Here is the video by Tibbon.. great stuff. Hope you enjoy!

Let me know your thoughts on this! Post your comments below.

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