Skip to main content
MusicRadar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Artist news
  • Guitars
  • Guitar Pedals
  • Synths
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Guitar Amps
  • Drums
  • Software & Apps
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About Us
More
  • Lemmy vs Dylan
  • Are 'Friends' Electric?
  • Flava D - DnB is hard
  • Prince's drummers
  • 95k+ free music samples
Don't miss these
Troy Van Leeuwen of Queens of the Stone Age plays a red/orange Gretsch onstage, and is framed by a triangle of yellow-green stagelights.
Artists “It was the most bizarre musical experience”: QOTSA’s Troy Van Leeuwen on playing Paris's Catacombs
The KHDK Electronics Digital Bath was co-developed with Deftones frontman Chino Moreno, who is pictured here in a white T-shirt and black trousers, performing at Lollapalooza 2024.
Artists KHDK teams up with Chino Moreno for a “melancholic” delay that promises an iconic Deftones tone
Orbit Culture's guitarists
Electric Guitars Orbit Culture show us their ESP guitars – and tell us why the EverTune bridge is a game-changer
JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE! "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" airs every weeknight at 11:35 p.m. ET and features a diverse lineup of guests that include celebrities, athletes, musical acts, comedians and human interest subjects, along with comedy bits and a house band. The guests for Monday, September 8 included Spinal Tap (Nigel Tufnel aka Christopher Guest, David St. Hubbins aka Michael McKean and Derek Smalls aka Harry Shearer) and Marty DiBergi (aka Rob Reiner) ("Spinal Tap II: The End Continues"), and musical guest Spinal Tap. (Disney/Randy Holmes) SPINAL TAP  (Photo by Randy Holmes/Disney via Getty Images)
Bands Five basses! Spinal Tap recruit Tal Wilkenfeld and Thundercat for bottom-heavy Jimmy Kimmel performance
Sleep Token
Drums “We tried it as a laugh and now it’s our standard setup”: The secret sauce behind Sleep Token’s live drum sound
Atlas DSP - Your Final Steps
Plugins Atlas DSP, Your Last Steps Review
Third Man Hardware x Black Mountain Roto-Echo: the roller wheel equipped delay pedal is a compact and performance-friendly stompbox that's available in black or limited edition white. Jack White has used it onstage and in the studio during the sessions for No Name.
Artists Jack White’s Third Man teams up with Black Mountain for the Roto-Echo, a delay controllable by foot
verses gt
Artists “I’ve never fully gelled with Logic and Pro Tools – they kind of feel like Microsoft Excel to me”: Jacques Greene and Nosaj Thing on the making of their new collaborative project, Verses GT
Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi perform live in 2023, with Trucks playing his Dickey Betts Artist Series SG, Tedeschi playing her Les Paul Standard.
Artists Derek Trucks says Tedeschi Trucks Band have completed new album and have been sneaking in some of the tracks live
SPAIN - JULY 12: Nine Inch Nails (NIN) will perform on the second day of Mad Cool 2025 at the Iberdrola Music venue on July 11, 2025 in Madrid, Spain. Today's performance at Mad Cool of the historic American industrial rock band has been one of the most anticipated moments of the international event, during which they have flaunted their powerful live show and new songs. The festival, which kicked off yesterday, brings together legends and new promises in four days of music, consolidating itself as an essential event of the European summer. (Photo By Ricardo Rubio/Europa Press via Getty Images)
Gigs & Festivals Nine Inch Nails have just played their first show back with drummer Josh Freese
Peavey Decade pedal review
Guitar Pedals "If you're seeking a polished, smooth, modern distortion, this is most definitely not the stomp box for you": Peavey Decade preamp pedal review
Catalinbread Proto Club Triton Pitch Echo
Guitars “The Tritone was universally loved by the crew but the vibes clashed with the palette of the Soft Focus Deluxe”: Catalinbread is selling off its prototype guitar pedals, and the first is a “B-side” pitch echo from its smash-hit shoegaze stompbox
MXR Randy Rhoads Special Edition Distortion+: A black and white shot of Randy Rhoads with his Jackson Concorde; on the right, the new signature distortion from MXR in a finish inspired by the guitar.
Artists Good news for Randy Rhoads fans – his MXR Distortion+ is back, and you have got to see its supersonic finish
Jackson Pro Origins 1985 San Dimas: these retro S-styles take the high-performance electric guitar brand back to the '80s, offering single and dual-humbucker platforms for shred with the choice of rosewood or maple fingerboards – and what about that "Two-Face" black-and-white finish?
Guitars “These guitars empower metal artists with the authentic, crushing tone that built Jackson’s legendary reputation”: Jackson takes us back to the heyday of shred with the Pro Origins 1985 San Dimas series – and what about that Two Face finish?
Gretsch Electromatic CVT: The bolt-on double-cut assumes a familiar form to the Jack Antonoff signature model, and features dual humbuckers, a wraparound tailpiece, and some neat vintage finishes.
Guitars Like the Jack Antonoff signature Gretsch? Then you are going to love the CVT Electromatic
  1. Guitars
  2. Guitar Pedals

Rig tour: Thrice

News
By Michael Astley-Brown ( Total Guitar ) published 27 October 2016

Dustin Kensrue and Teppei Teranishi on baritones, dual-amp backline and pedals aplenty

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

Introduction

Introduction

Since their 2000 debut, Thrice have never stood still musically, weaving post-hardcore with electronic elements, time signature shifts and concept albums to become one of the brightest beacons in modern-day alternative rock.

As they make their post-hiatus return to London’s O2 Forum Kentish Town, four years on from their then-farewell UK gig, their rigs have undergone an overhaul to match the renewed focus that resonates throughout comeback album, To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere (which we discussed in-depth with the band earlier this year).

Here, we join Dustin Kensrue and Teppei Teranishi to discuss their uncompromising approaches to tone, the inspirational quality of a good baritone and some serious overdrive stacking…

Don't Miss

Thrice talk working through tension to create To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere

On the road: Thrice

Page 1 of 11
Page 1 of 11
Nash Jaguars

Nash Jaguars

Dustin Kensrue: “They’re exactly the same. I put Lollar humbuckers in: the High Wind Imperial humbucker in the bridge and the El Rayo in the neck – that’s their own creation, and it sounds a bit like a mix between a humbucker and a single coil.

I feel like those pickups balance pretty well, tonally and output-wise. And all the other electronics are ripped out; it’s just got a Tele-style three-way switch on it. The Jags are tuned D to D or drop C.”

Page 2 of 11
Page 2 of 11
Cave & Canary Solaris baritone

Cave & Canary Solaris baritone

Dustin: “[The Dear Hunter frontman] Casey Crescenzo built it from us just talking about it – I told him I wanted it to look like a mix between a Jazzmaster and a 50s Blacktop Les Paul with the black and the yellow binding. Something went weird when he was making it, and he ended up doing that split pickguard, and I absolutely loved it. I was like, ‘That’s the best thing about it!’

It’s got the same pickups as the Jags, and it sounds great; it’s semi-hollow, which adds an interesting percussive quality that actually I think helps with the lower tuning. I don’t use the Bigsby a ton, but it’s fun to play with. That one’s tuned B to B, or drop A.”

Page 3 of 11
Page 3 of 11
Fender '68 Custom Vibrolux Reverb

Fender '68 Custom Vibrolux Reverb

Dustin: “It responds really well to pedals; I used to play more where I was pushing the amp a ton with the volume knob on the amp and backing it off with pedals. And a while ago, I just switched to trying to use different overdrives to really push the amp.

“So, it’s sitting at 5, just right where as you’re turning it [while] playing, you hear it kind of jump, and it’s really lively there, but it can go a variety of directions. It’s very dynamic, which I like. There’s a Bassman circuit in the amp, and that’s actually what I’m running through.”

Vox AC30

“The AC30’s just because I don’t have my New Vintage DK36 with me, but I played AC30s for a long time, so they’re great workhorse amps. It’s just [paired with the Vibrolux] so it’s not two of the same exact amp. It gives our sound guy a little more to work with.”

Page 4 of 11
Page 4 of 11
Gibson '72 Les Paul Standard

Gibson '72 Les Paul Standard

Teppei Teranishi: “I used to play a black Les Paul Custom a lot, which was my road guitar; that got stolen, unfortunately. This particular guitar is actually the first kind of nicer guitar I bought way back in the day. And so I babied that when I got it – I took it out for a little bit, and I was like, ‘I don’t want this thing to get ruined on the road.’

“And so it’s been hiding for years and years. I’d bring it to studio sessions for recording, and I used it quite a bit on the first few records, up until The Artist In The Ambulance, and then the latest one as well. I believe it’s got DiMarzio Super Distortions, and they were just original with the guitar when I bought it.”

Page 5 of 11
Page 5 of 11
Nash Telecaster

Nash Telecaster

Teppei: “I got it back in 2003 or 4, and since then, the specs have kind of erased out of my mind. [laughs]

“I’m pretty sure it’s got Lollars in it. It was one of those things where I got the guitar and it sounded great, and I was like, ‘Sweet!’ So I haven’t touched it; it’s been as is since 2004.”

Page 6 of 11
Page 6 of 11
Fender Jaguar Baritone

Fender Jaguar Baritone

Teppei: “That’s all stock, except for the bridge pickup, which is a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound for Jaguar. I needed something higher output, and that seemed to make sense.

“The guitar doesn’t sound good per se; it’s just a really nasty-sounding guitar, but that’s why I like it, so I tend to just play the bridge pickup and that’s it. It’s an interesting juxtaposition between having a [low] B and a deeper tuning, but then it’s a really bright and kinda harsh tone.

“That guitar, just the way it sounds, has really informed a lot of the riffs I’ve written with the baritone. I don’t think I would have written the Yellow Belly riff if I wasn’t messing around on that guitar.”

Page 7 of 11
Page 7 of 11
Vox AC30

Vox AC30

Teppei: “I’ve used AC30s for I don’t even know how long. It’s funny, because people ask me about my tone, and I’m like, 'It’s just an AC30 – it’s not even a good one!' I don’t even know what the model is technically, but it’s just one of those from the 90s.

“I just run through the Top Boost circuit. Nothing real special at all, but it sounds good. It’s what I’ve been using forever.”

Page 8 of 11
Page 8 of 11
Marshall JCM800 & Mesa/Boogie 4x12 cab

Marshall JCM800 & Mesa/Boogie 4x12 cab

Teppei: “We’re renting the backline on this tour, so I’m running a JCM800 with a Mesa cab.

“Our sound guy just likes to have flexibility, and I think he’s using the JCM800 for some of the heavier stuff.”

Page 9 of 11
Page 9 of 11
Dustin's pedalboard

Dustin's pedalboard

Gain stages: 2x Mojo Hand FX Kensrue Rook, Walrus Audio Harvester, Walrus Audio Iron Horse, JHS Muffuletta

“One Rook is for when I’m using the bridge pickup, and one is when I’m using the neck pickup, so they’re just EQ’ed slightly differently to get those pickups to sit more in the same space – I really hate the overly muddy sound of a neck pickup when I’ve set it for the bridge pickup.

“One of the Rooks is always on, so it’s my baseline tone, and then I’ll use the Line 6 M5 to notch down one or two steps with the volume pedal on there, so that’s decreasing the input into the Rook.

“I have five levels [of gain]: three is the Rook, I can go down two on the input, and then if I want to go up, I add the Harvester in line, and then the next level adds the Iron Horse.

“That Iron Horse is really cool, and that’s my main bigger rock tone, and it can handle getting a bit jumpy without sounding like a Metal Zone or something – it still sounds really musical and full. And then I’ve got the JHS Muffuletta, where they basically put all of the Muff circuits in one pedal, and I’m using their own custom one – it’s really cool.

The reason I end up [stacking drives] is because I was really trying to keep a consistent tonal palette as it built

“That stacks on top of the other ones, so it’s a lot of stacking. The reason I end up doing it is because I was really trying to keep a consistent tonal palette as it built, and I wasn’t liking it going to something completely different.”

FAMC Liquid Foot+ Mini MIDI controller/2x Voodoo Lab Hex Audio Loop Switcher

“Everything on there is tied to that Liquid Foot, and so that’s controlling those two Hexes on top from Voodoo Lab, and they’ll turn any of the things on or off, and then it will also MIDI control which effects are on on the Strymons, as well as the Line 6. I modded the POG 2 to receive MIDI signals as well.

“It’s a lot of work to set up, but once I’m playing, I only have to hit a button and it will change a variety of things. So, with me singing, I just got really sick of dancing around. There are song-by-song presets, and a general logic to the way that I lay out the five or so buttons that I’ll push.”

Walrus Audio Deep Six

“I’ve never used a compressor until really recently. I just didn’t find one that I liked; it felt like it was crushing the tone, and I didn’t feel that way about the Deep Six.”

JHS Mini Foot Fuzz

“It’s a fuzz pedal, but it’s not incorporated in anything yet; I’m just playing around with it.”

Strymon BigSky, Strymon Mobius, Strymon TimeLine

“They’re all over the place. They’re on a lot of stuff, but I think that the BigSky is just phenomenal, and so I use that a bunch now to transition between songs. There’s a setting on the Liquid Foot that I can hit and it will create a pad out of what I was just playing that will hold until I click something else off, and it’s super-helpful just to help with the flow. But that thing is super-versatile, and it just sounds amazing. All those pedals are fantastic.”

Electro-Harmonix POG 2

“I haven’t used it before this record, but it’s on a lot of the kind of lead stuff; it’s just in there a little bit, so the main riff on Hurricane, it’s on there, and it’s on the guitar in the verses of Stay With Me. So, it’s in there pretty subtly, but it adds a thickness and dimension to some of that stuff.”

Line 6 M5 Stompbox Modeller

“It’s the Swiss Army knife. I feel like it’s not super-useful on its own, because you can only have one thing on at a time, but there’s so many random little things that you can do with it that being able to control with the MIDI is super-helpful. So, I’ll have this spot where I have this weird synth sound in the middle of All The World Is Mad, and I use it for volume cuts right now.”

Page 10 of 11
Page 10 of 11
Teppei's pedalboard

Teppei's pedalboard

Walrus Audio Julia

“I actually never liked choruses ever, but we ended up using quite a bit on this last record and it just worked, so I was like, ‘I guess I need a chorus pedal now!’ So Dustin was like, ‘Try this one!’ and I really like it; it’s beautiful-sounding. It’s got the chorus and the vibrato, and then you can actually blend in between, so I think it’s the vibrato that’s winning me over – I’ve always thought vibrato’s really musical and pretty.”

Walrus Audio Descent

“There’s three different presets that you can do with that, so I just have a basic hall-type setting, one that’s a little more spring-sounding, and then one that’s the shimmer octave setting. There was this pedal that we used to use called the [Boss] PS-3 Pitch-Shifter/Delay – the Cave In pedal was what we called it. And so that has that vibe, and we use that on quite a bit of stuff. So, I’m using the shimmer setting as my PS-3-ish thing.”

JHS Panther Cub

“That’s my analogue delay, which has got tap tempo. It’s cool – it’s got the different subdivisions, but I just keep it on one. That’s my only delay.”

Walrus Audio Transit 5 True Bypass Switcher

“I basically have all the wet stuff running in one loop, so I can turn that on and off. And then I’ll turn little things on or off for different songs – maybe one needs chorus, one needs delay, one needs reverb, so I’ll just turn those on and off.”

Saturnworks Volume Pedal

“Dustin runs his amp halfway and adds; I do it backwards, so I run my amp super-hot, and if I want to clean it up – because the Vox cleans up real nice, and it reacts to the signal that you give it real nicely – I just cut the volume for clean stuff, so that’s what that is.”

JHS Pulp ’N’ Peel

“I run it real light, always. It just adds a little mojo.”

JHS Double Barrel

“That’s just my distortion, overdrive, whatever you call it. It’s all over the board, here and there. It’s pretty simple.”

Line 6 M5 Stompbox Modeller

“That’s my, ‘I need this one random thing for this one part in this one song’ pedal. There’s a couple of things that need that for whatever reason, like the parked wah: there’s a riff in The Artist In The Ambulance that just doesn’t work without that effect. And the Whammy-like pitch-shifter pedal thing for the end of For Miles.”

Mission Engineering expression pedal

“That one is controlling the Descent. That’s just if I want more tail on the reverb.”

Mojo Hand FX Bayou Trem

“That’s just a basic tremolo, so actually I’m not using it at all on this tour. There’s just a couple of songs where I would use it on, Come All You Weary being one of them.”

TC Electronic PolyTune 2 Mini

Don't Miss

Thrice talk working through tension to create To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere

On the road: Thrice

Page 11 of 11
Page 11 of 11
Michael Astley-Brown
Michael Astley-Brown
Social Links Navigation

Mike is Editor-in-Chief of GuitarWorld.com, in addition to being an offset fiend and recovering pedal addict. He has a master's degree in journalism, and has spent the past decade writing and editing for guitar publications including MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitarist, as well as a decade-and-a-half performing in bands of variable genre (and quality). In his free time, you'll find him making progressive instrumental rock under the nom de plume Maebe.

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
Troy Van Leeuwen of Queens of the Stone Age plays a red/orange Gretsch onstage, and is framed by a triangle of yellow-green stagelights.
“It was the most bizarre musical experience”: QOTSA’s Troy Van Leeuwen on playing Paris's Catacombs
 
 
The KHDK Electronics Digital Bath was co-developed with Deftones frontman Chino Moreno, who is pictured here in a white T-shirt and black trousers, performing at Lollapalooza 2024.
KHDK teams up with Chino Moreno for a “melancholic” delay that promises an iconic Deftones tone
 
 
Orbit Culture's guitarists
Orbit Culture show us their ESP guitars – and tell us why the EverTune bridge is a game-changer
 
 
JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE! "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" airs every weeknight at 11:35 p.m. ET and features a diverse lineup of guests that include celebrities, athletes, musical acts, comedians and human interest subjects, along with comedy bits and a house band. The guests for Monday, September 8 included Spinal Tap (Nigel Tufnel aka Christopher Guest, David St. Hubbins aka Michael McKean and Derek Smalls aka Harry Shearer) and Marty DiBergi (aka Rob Reiner) ("Spinal Tap II: The End Continues"), and musical guest Spinal Tap. (Disney/Randy Holmes) SPINAL TAP  (Photo by Randy Holmes/Disney via Getty Images)
Five basses! Spinal Tap recruit Tal Wilkenfeld and Thundercat for bottom-heavy Jimmy Kimmel performance
 
 
Sleep Token
“We tried it as a laugh and now it’s our standard setup”: The secret sauce behind Sleep Token’s live drum sound
 
 
Atlas DSP - Your Final Steps
Atlas DSP, Your Last Steps Review
 
 
Latest in Guitar Pedals
Walrus Audio Canvas Power USB: The compact pedalboard power supply can be charged via USB.
Walrus Audio’s Canvas Power USB is the super-compact device for powering your rig with a laptop charger
 
 
MXR Randy Rhoads Special Edition Distortion+: A black and white shot of Randy Rhoads with his Jackson Concorde; on the right, the new signature distortion from MXR in a finish inspired by the guitar.
Good news for Randy Rhoads fans – his MXR Distortion+ is back, and you have got to see its supersonic finish
 
 
Strymon PCH Active Direct Interface: the little black box from the digital effects powerhouse offers routing for sending your signal direct from a pedalboard to a PA or FRFR speakers, and it has a headphones output for silent monitoring.
Strymon unveils the PCH Active Direct Interface – the missing link for your amp-less pedalboard setup?
 
 
Boss PX-1 Plugout FX: the white compact series pedal has blue knobs, digital display, and is a platform for 16 digitally modelled Boss effects, one of which is available at a time.
A compact series stompbox you can turn into any one of 16 classic Boss effects? Meet the Plugout FX
 
 
Third Man Hardware x Black Mountain Roto-Echo: the roller wheel equipped delay pedal is a compact and performance-friendly stompbox that's available in black or limited edition white. Jack White has used it onstage and in the studio during the sessions for No Name.
Jack White’s Third Man teams up with Black Mountain for the Roto-Echo, a delay controllable by foot
 
 
A Boss VG-800 guitar processor pedal and electric guitar lying on a sheet of metal
“If you’re looking to turn your guitar or bass into a completely different instrument, there’s no better way to do it than this”: Boss VG-800 V-Guitar Processor review
 
 
Latest in News
Teenage Engineering EP-1320 Medieval
Teenage Engineering is giving away a free EP-1320 Medieval sampler to anyone that spends $999 in its online store
 
 
Fred Again in Naples
Fred Again and again: Producer plays an extra set on a fan's rooftop after a Naples festival appearance
 
 
Joe Bonamassa wears a blue suit and plays his P-90 loaded Epiphone signature Les Paul [left] and BB King cups his hand to his ear to ask for some more from his audience at a 1991 show in Chicago.
Joe Bonamassa announces all-star album celebrating life of BB King on the King of the Blues’ 100th birthday
 
 
Loog Guitars x Gibson: these child-friendly 3-strings reimagine the Les Paul and SG for young beginners.
Gibson teams up with Loog for child-friendly 3-string versions of its most famous electric guitars
 
 
Fender Vintera II Road Worn 60s Telecaster
Fender’s Vintera II Road Worn series has Golden Era vibe, tone and feel with era-correct pickups and aged nitro finishes
 
 
Prince at a press conference where he officially changed his name from the Artist back to Prince. 5/16/00 Photo by Scott Gries/ImageDirect
Back in 1999, Prince offered his opinion on the new generation of DAW-based musicians and producers
 
 

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...