THE ANSWERS

All three of those players have amazing live sounds. On the latest Passion And Warfare tour Steve Vai was seen using a Fractal rig for his modulated FX and a brace of Carvin Legacy 1 amps for his driven tones. Satriani also uses a complex rig focused around two Marshall amps, however Paul Gilbert adopts a more traditional amp and pedalboard setup.

01 First you’ll need a great pedal platform, this should be a compact twochannel combo amp with a clean channel that takes pedals well while sporting a nicely saturated second channel. For this I recommend the 2x10 Orange Rocker 32. It’s killer feature for pedals is a stereo output section that allows you to gain a more compact version of the stereo spread all three guitarists enjoy. This coupled with an effects loop gives you the perfect platform for their modulated sounds.

02 To achieve all the modulated/ delay/reverb sounds on a very compact pedalboard, I recommend the Line 6 Helix HX, this offers high-quality modulation (a compact equivalent to the full Fractal systems, Satriani and Vai use) sounds in a compact package. You can wire this using the four-cable method to place delays and reverbs etc in the loop while opting to position your Flanger, Phaser and Chorus sounds before the amps input if you wish.

03 The drive sounds from the Rocker 32 are great for heavy rhythm, but to achieve a killer lead/solo tone I recommend boosting this channel with a boost or drive pedal. All three guitarists have been known to use Boss DS-1s in the past, however with the saturation on tap from the amp, a lower drive pedal with a powerful EQ such as a Timmy by Paul Cochrane or my very own Peacekeeper will be ideal in this case. Finally, all you’ll need to top this rig off is a compact Dunlop Crybaby Wah and an Ibanez guitar!