Skip to main content
Music Radar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Artist news
  • Guitar Amps
  • Guitar Pedals
  • Synths
  • Guitars
  • Drums
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Software & Apps
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About Us
More
  • EVH trance state
  • Antonoff on Please Please Please
  • “Mick looked peeved. The Beatles had upstaged him”
  • 95k+ free music samples

Recommended reading

Scott Ian of Anthrax introduces his new X Series signature King V in black with gold hardware, and the original Jackson logo on the headstock.
Guitars Jackson gives the Scott Ian King V a classy makeover and puts an old school logo on the headstock
Joe Satriani and Steve Vai fistbump onstage during their show at the Valley Center, California in May 2024. They have their signature Ibanez guitars. Satch has the Chrome Boy JS1. Vai is playing his Daphne Blue PIA in Powder Blue
Artists Joe Satriani and Steve Vai get their teenage kicks in video for new single featuring Glenn Hughes
Jackson American Series Soloist SL2 DLX: The latest US-made S-style from the high-performance guitar brand offers the Soloist with a Floyd Rose or Hipshot hardtail bridge, and [from left] in Porsche Grey, Black, Lemon Ice and Snow White finishes, with colour-matched headstocks.
Guitars Jackson expands American Series with the SL2 DX, a top-tier shredder with Floyd Rose or hardtail 
Lee Ranaldo plays his Thinline Telecaster Deluxe as Sonic Youth perform at the Forum, London, in 1996. Steve Shelley, Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore are is pictured in the background.
Artists Sonic Youth Reverb store lists Lee Ranaldo’s first guitar and the synth behind his Diamond Sea tone
Jackson Pro Plus Pure Metal Series: the new limited range strips the Soloist, Rhoads and Kelly down with a single Fishman bridge humbucker, Floyd Rose and black finishes as standard
Guitars Jackson unveils stripped down single-pickup shred classics in ltd edition Pro Plus Pure Metal range
A bare-chested Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin performs at Earl's Court, London, in 1975. Guitarist Jimmy Page plays his Gibson Les Paul Standard in the background.
Artists Robert Plant is selling gear for charity, including totally unique John Birch-modded ‘62 Stratocaster
Jackson Pro Plus Series Misha Mansoor Juggernaut: the newly refreshed signature Superstrat is offered in Red Crystal and Blue Sparkle with a string-through-hardtail, and in Riviera Blue with an EverTune bridge. Stainless steel frets and an ebony fingerboard come as standard.
Guitars Jackson gives Misha Mansoor’s Juggernaut a new lick of paint and upgrades to stainless steel frets
  1. Guitars
  2. Guitar Rigs

Rig Tour: Rival Sons

News
By Matt Parker ( Total Guitar ) published 21 August 2014

Scott Holiday's unrivalled gear haul

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Introduction

Introduction

California's Rival Sons take their musical cues from classic rock's 60s/70s riff-wielders and imbue them with a visceral, modern edge. They tour hard - albeit without the luxury of custom-painted Boeing jets - and believe in the life-changing power of a rock 'n' roll.

Like his riff-worshiping forbears, guitarist Scott Holiday is cut from the analog cloth. He's built-up one hell of a gear collection over the years and, refreshingly, he actually tours with it. You'll find no amp-modellers or B-rigs here, just a mouth-watering combination of vintage, rare and boutique gear...

Page 1 of 28
Page 1 of 28
Gibson 1965 Non-Reverse Firebird

Gibson 1965 Non-Reverse Firebird

"We'll start with my beloved quiver [of guitars]! This is something that only sees a few songs, but it's really great. I've replaced the pickguard and dropped in new pickups.

"Originally it just had two P-90 pickups in it and I put these wonderful Tom Short mini-humbuckers inside of it. It's light and beautiful and a great instrument."

Page 2 of 28
Page 2 of 28
Fender 1962 Jazzmaster

Fender 1962 Jazzmaster

"I call this 'old trusty'. It's obviously been refinished and it had these [tone and volume] knobs when I got it. I think it was re-finished in, like, 1963 though because it's looking pretty worn-in!

"I also replaced these boys [the pickups] with a set of Lollar Jazzmaster P-90s. I keep this guitar in open-G and I love it!"

Page 3 of 28
Page 3 of 28
Gibson Firebird VII

Gibson Firebird VII

"I'll break out one that a lot of people will know, at least, if you know my band. This is my trusty Pelham Blue Gibson Firebird VII.

"I also replaced the [original mini-humbuckers] with Tom Short pickups and I rewired the whole thing."

Page 4 of 28
Page 4 of 28
Kauer Banshee

Kauer Banshee

"A lot you might have seen this, I used it all over [Rival Son's second album, 2012's] Head Down, for the tour. It's by my favourite builder and it's one of my favourite guitars.

"These pickups were actually wound for me by a great guy named Chris Klein [of Klein Pickups] and they've got original '50s Gibson magnets and they're also like a mini-humbucker. It's also got custom pinstripes, which are kind of fun and kind of cool."

Page 5 of 28
Page 5 of 28
Kauer Banshee (Excalibur)

Kauer Banshee (Excalibur)

"Next we have one of my newest and one of my favouritest! This one's called 'Excalibur'! It's also a Kauer Banshee. I came up with the idea to kind of cross a Gretsch White 'Penguin' [i.e. Falcon] with a Gibson Firebird and my buddy Doug [Kauer] built it.

“So you can see it's got the TV Jones Filtertron pickups, the back-painted gold/clear bits [such as the scratchplate] and he did this beautiful job on the gold binding around the edges. It's very accurate. I love this thing, I used it on pretty much the entire new record, Great Western Valkyrie."

Page 6 of 28
Page 6 of 28
Kauer Banshee (Ike)

Kauer Banshee (Ike)

"I decided I had to take extra guitars on the road, so I called Doug Kauer again and said, 'I need another guitar - just loan me another guitar to back-up Excalibur.'

"And he said, 'I don't have anything to loan. But, I can't believe I'm going to do this, I'll build you a guitar in six days to take on the road.'

So he built me my newest best friend in this beautiful Cadillac Green, also modelled after the Gretsch thing. This one's called Ike, and it's wonderful. Who builds a guitar in six days that's this great!? Doug Kauer does, that's who!"

Page 7 of 28
Page 7 of 28
Orange OR50 heads (pair)

Orange OR50 heads (pair)

"Here we are at the loudness area of the rig. I was using some Thunderverbs a while back, but now I'm using these beloved Orange OR50s.

“I use a pair of them. One of them [clad in black tolex] for very dirty, big and extremely ballsy tones and the second one [in white tolex] for slightly-less ballsy and more sensitive sounds. That's it, it's quite simple. A dirty one, a clean one - both OR50s - and set to maximum stun."

Page 8 of 28
Page 8 of 28
Orange cabinet/Radial Tonebone Switchbone/Plexi-glass baffle

Orange cabinet/Radial Tonebone Switchbone/Plexi-glass baffle

"I run both of the heads into a Radial Tonebone Switchbone and that allows me to plug both heads into one cabinet.

"I'm just using the bottom cab, the beautiful white one. Then I've got my glass plexi sheet so I don't kill the guys [next to me onstage]!"

Page 9 of 28
Page 9 of 28
Effects board

Effects board

"These are my robot friends. Usually people like to hide this stuff, but I decided a couple of years back, 'Why hide it?'

"It cost a lot of money, it's very individual and there are a lot of choices. So now I'm going to show you everything and if you want to go buy it, you can and spend a million-billion dollars, like me."

FX board 2

FX board 2
Page 10 of 28
Page 10 of 28
Custom Audio Electronics Dual Inductor Wah

Custom Audio Electronics Dual Inductor Wah

"I've used several wahs throughout time, but this is the one that I'm using right now.

"It's really good. It's got a couple of inductors [giving a choice of high or low-mid emphasis], it's got a boost on it and it's got a cool graphic on top - so it must work good!"

Page 11 of 28
Page 11 of 28
Analog Man King Of Tone

Analog Man King Of Tone

"Right above the wah is the Analog Man King Of Tone. It's the version four King Of Tone, which is coveted. It's a wonderful overdrive - beautiful."

Page 12 of 28
Page 12 of 28
Keeley Time Machine Boost

Keeley Time Machine Boost

"Widely used in this band for all of the early records [2009's Before The Fire and 2011's Pressure And Time] is the Keeley Time Machine Boost.

"It's basically like an old Dallas Rangemaster [the sought-after 60s treble-booster made popular by the likes of Brian May and Tony Iommi]. It's hardwired and it's got a Germanium tranny in it. It's awesome."

Page 13 of 28
Page 13 of 28
Z.Vex Fuzz Probe

Z.Vex Fuzz Probe

"This is one of my favourite pedals on the board. Look how good it looks, it's got a giant copper plate, funny graphics and it's organic, so it's really great.

"It's kind of like a theremin built-into a germanium fuzz. It's distracting, freakish and hard to control - I love it!"

Page 14 of 28
Page 14 of 28
Zap! "mystery pedal"

Zap! "mystery pedal"

"This is the mystery pedal. What could be inside that box? Well, I won't tell you, but it's called 'Zap!' and that's basically what it does: it zaps ya! It's a fuzz I use on basically everything."

Page 15 of 28
Page 15 of 28
Electro-Harmonix Micro POG

Electro-Harmonix Micro POG

"Everybody knows this one! It's the Electro-Harmonix Micro POG [octave pedal] and I think everybody knows where that goes in our set."

Page 16 of 28
Page 16 of 28
Basic Audio Gnarly Fuzz

Basic Audio Gnarly Fuzz

"Another mystery box. What could it be? I am going to tell you what this one does: it's a Basic Audio Gnarly Fuzz. I use this on a lot of the earlier stuff, too, as well as some of the newer songs."

Page 17 of 28
Page 17 of 28
Orange amp switch pedal

Orange amp switch pedal

"This just switches me between the two OR50 heads. As I told you earlier, I use the two for a clean and a dirty sound and that's how I get it."

Page 18 of 28
Page 18 of 28
Way Huge Ringworm

Way Huge Ringworm

"This is a Ring Modulator made by the wonderful people at Way Huge. It's also difficult to control, unpredictable... What will it do next? We do not know..."

Page 19 of 28
Page 19 of 28
KR Effects Megavibe Phaser

KR Effects Megavibe Phaser

"This is probably one of the best production - if you could call it that. It's just one guy, Kevin Randall, who builds these - Uni-Vibe clones.

"[Ed - hear an original used to great effect by Jimi Hendrix on Machine Gun]. It's called a Megavibe and he makes a big box one like the original and also this small one, which is super-duper accurate."

Page 20 of 28
Page 20 of 28
Dunlop Volume Pedal

Dunlop Volume Pedal

"It's a volume pedal. There's nothing much more to say about that. It's not that exciting, but it's a Dunlop volume pedal and it works great."

Page 21 of 28
Page 21 of 28
Tuner pedal

Tuner pedal

"This is just a little tuner that I rarely use, because I've got a wonderful tech, Mr Chris Draper, who does a great job.

"But it looks cool, it spins around and it makes my 'board look great!"

Page 22 of 28
Page 22 of 28
Strymon Flint

Strymon Flint

"This is something I got when we started touring [third album] Head Down. It's the Strymon Flint and I get reverb and tremolo sounds out of this."

Page 23 of 28
Page 23 of 28
Demeter Tremulator

Demeter Tremulator

"Above it is one of my oldest and trustiest tremolo pedals, the Demeter Tremulator, which was originally built for Ry Cooder to emulate the Fender Tremolo. I love it."

Page 24 of 28
Page 24 of 28
Option 5 Destination Rotation

Option 5 Destination Rotation

"This one is actually out of production. It's the first one he made - my buddy Jay Woods over in the US built that.

"I've had it modded, if you can see, I don't want any of the knobs, except the gain knob, so he plugged it up for me. It's been working ever since I got it years and years ago and does a kind of rotary Leslie speaker effect."

Page 25 of 28
Page 25 of 28
Way Huge Aqua Puss

Way Huge Aqua Puss

"One of the best-named pedals on the 'board - the Aqua Puss. It is an analog delay that we use for all sorts of, well, delay!"

Page 26 of 28
Page 26 of 28
Line 6 DL-4

Line 6 DL-4

"I'm sure everybody will be very familiar with this, it's the Line 6 DL-4.

"I had mine modded by [noted US effects guru] Robert Keeley and he put better lights in it - so that must make it cooler - as well as improving all of the sound, so there's no noise. The floor to noise ratio is really, really good."

Page 27 of 28
Page 27 of 28
Modded Dunlop Volume pedal

Modded Dunlop Volume pedal

"This pedal looks just like the one over [on the right of the board], but my good buddies over at Dunlop turned it into an expression pedal for the DL-4.

"So there you go... That's the robots! Now get the cheque book out and go and buy it!"

Want to see/hear more from Scott? Watch our full rig tour video below...

Page 28 of 28
Page 28 of 28
Matt Parker
Matt Parker

Matt is a freelance journalist who has spent the last decade interviewing musicians for the likes of Total Guitar, Guitarist, Guitar World, MusicRadar, NME.com, DJ Mag and Electronic Sound. In 2020, he launched CreativeMoney.co.uk, which aims to share the ideas that make creative lifestyles more sustainable. He plays guitar, but should not be allowed near your delay pedals.

Stay up to date with the latest gear and tuition. image
Stay up to date with the latest gear and tuition.
Subscribe and save today!
More Info
Read more
Scott Ian of Anthrax introduces his new X Series signature King V in black with gold hardware, and the original Jackson logo on the headstock.
Jackson gives the Scott Ian King V a classy makeover and puts an old school logo on the headstock
Joe Satriani and Steve Vai fistbump onstage during their show at the Valley Center, California in May 2024. They have their signature Ibanez guitars. Satch has the Chrome Boy JS1. Vai is playing his Daphne Blue PIA in Powder Blue
Joe Satriani and Steve Vai get their teenage kicks in video for new single featuring Glenn Hughes
Jackson American Series Soloist SL2 DLX: The latest US-made S-style from the high-performance guitar brand offers the Soloist with a Floyd Rose or Hipshot hardtail bridge, and [from left] in Porsche Grey, Black, Lemon Ice and Snow White finishes, with colour-matched headstocks.
Jackson expands American Series with the SL2 DX, a top-tier shredder with Floyd Rose or hardtail 
Lee Ranaldo plays his Thinline Telecaster Deluxe as Sonic Youth perform at the Forum, London, in 1996. Steve Shelley, Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore are is pictured in the background.
Sonic Youth Reverb store lists Lee Ranaldo’s first guitar and the synth behind his Diamond Sea tone
Jackson Pro Plus Pure Metal Series: the new limited range strips the Soloist, Rhoads and Kelly down with a single Fishman bridge humbucker, Floyd Rose and black finishes as standard
Jackson unveils stripped down single-pickup shred classics in ltd edition Pro Plus Pure Metal range
A bare-chested Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin performs at Earl's Court, London, in 1975. Guitarist Jimmy Page plays his Gibson Les Paul Standard in the background.
Robert Plant is selling gear for charity, including totally unique John Birch-modded ‘62 Stratocaster
Latest in Guitar Rigs
Line 6 Helix Stadium XL: The new flagship amp modeller and multi-effects unit is a dramatic expansion of the Helix framework with a suite of state-of-the-art features
Line 6 debuts all-new AI tech as it supercharges its amp modelling platform with the Helix Stadium
Kemper MK2 Series
Kemper promises more power, flexibility and effects from refreshed and souped-up Profiler Mk2 series
Neural DSP Nano Cortex
Neural DSP gives the Nano Cortex an almighty power-up with free NanOS 2.0.0 system update
Tone King Imperial Preamp: this high-end all-tube preamp pedal offers two channels, includes reverb, tremolo and attenuation, and has onboard CabSims/IR tech.
Tone King offers up boutique tube amp tones for your pedalboard with the Imperial Preamp pedal
Two Notes Audio Engineering Reload II: the new reactive load box is described as a fully featured unit that
Two Notes promises a “watershed” in tube amp control with the Torpedo Reload II reactive load box
Harley Benton PowerPlants ISO-Li05 and ISO-Li09: these high-powered, budget-friendly pedalboard power supplies have an integrated lithium-ion battery
Pedal power to go? Harley Benton unveils two high-powered budget power bricks with onboard batteries
Latest in News
Home studio
You don't need to be a music theory expert to make electronic music, but it helps - here's our guide to the basics
Ed Sheeran, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix
How Ed Sheeran generated royalties for Bob Dylan by borrowing from Jimi Hendrix
Richie Hawtin
“All my equipment kind of glowed and then shut down”: The weather event that shaped a Richie Hawtin classic
Apple's new Automix
Sack The DJ: Apple launches its new feature that can mix tracks using AI
Deals of the week
MusicRadar deals of the week: My pick of Father's Day deals for musicians include $400 off the Polyend Play+, $200 off a Martin acoustic and so much more
pmt
"It’s been a tough few years": UK gear retailer PMT closes its doors, makes 96 staff redundant and sells £2.4m of stock to Gear4Music

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...