Pedalboard tour: how Petter Carlsen from the Norwegian duo Pil & Bue gets his juggernaut guitar tones

Pil & Bue pedalboard
(Image credit: Future)

We had the honour of filming Pil & Bue's rig ahead of a hometown gig in Alta celebrating the release of new album Special Agents. Guitarist / vocalist and drummer Gøran Johansen are local heroes in the small but highly supportive alternative music scene in the remote town on Norway's north coast; a beautiful place that offers one of the world's best positions to see the Northern Lights.

Peter Carlsen and Pil & Bue

(Image credit: Future)

No such luck for us as it's cloudy during our stay in the snowscape, but we still had a great time discovering the music scene is in Alta – home to a yearly music festival that attracts international talents and a hugely supportive community. Alta's Studenhuset City Scene venue where we join Petter for a look at his rig is a state-of-the-art setup most local-level musicians in the UK can only dream of playing. 

Seeing Pil & Bue that night, it became clear why the Indie Recordings duo's name translates to bow and arrow. Petter and Gøran are an immensely powerful combination, with a huge live sound that redefined our understanding of a two-piece heavy rock band. So obviously we want to know how Petter delivers such massive sounds – and he was happy to show us the gear behind it in the video below.  

Rob Laing
Guitars Editor, MusicRadar

I'm the Guitars Editor for MusicRadar, handling news, reviews, features, tuition, advice for the strings side of the site and everything in between. Before MusicRadar I worked on guitar magazines for 15 years, including Editor of Total Guitar in the UK. When I'm not rejigging pedalboards I'm usually thinking about rejigging pedalboards.