THE ROYAL BLOOD RIG CHALLENGE!

Youtubers reckon they can get Mike Kerr’s rig for £1500. Mike himself says he could do it for £600! TG’S Amit Sharma explores both options...

BUDGET £1500

GRETSCH G2220 JUNIOR JET 2 BASS £319

Though he sticks with Fender basses these days, it was a tobacco sunburst Gretsch in Kerr’s hands for much of the first album cycle. As the man himself tells us, the shorter scale-length makes it an instrument that lends itself well to being played like a guitar.

BLACKSTAR UNITY 500 COMBO £549

Presuming you already have a guitar rig, you will need a bass amp too, – and quite possibly something you can also gig with. The Blackstar Unity 500 brings a lot of power and tone without breaking the bank.

ELECTRO-HARMONIX SWITCHBLADE PLUS £40

Giving you the option to route to your guitar amp or your bass amp, as well as both at the same time, this clever little box from the New York pedal titans does a lot for very little money.

TECH 21 RED RIPPER £165

The all-analogue bass distortion stompbox from Tech 21 offers some seriously aggressive tones and vintage filter-style effects. There’s an active three-band EQ and an R.I.P. dial that allows the user to shape the kind of gain being added.

ELECTRO-HARMONIX POG2 £280

The Royal Blood frontman may have a love/hate relationship with the polyphonic octave generator, but it’s also one of the most important pedals in his rig – so much so, he uses two. The tracking for single notes and chords is superb, and there are controls to blend your dry signal against two octaves up and down and other faders to control the amount of attack, detune and low-pass.

TC ELECTRONIC MIMIQ DOUBLER £89

Instead of using two POG2 pedals feeding into two guitar amps, you could stick with one and thicken your signal with a doubler. Something like the Mimiq can create a wider stereo image.

BUDGET £600

FENDER ABY SWITCHER £35

For those on a tighter budget, you could always try it the other way round and pitch-shift your guitar downwards. This Fender ABY switcher will split your signal and allow you to effect each end of the rig independently.

DIGITECH DROP £105

If Digitech are known for anything, it’s this kind of pedal, as evidenced by the long list of players who have sworn by their Whammy over the years. The Drop has nine settings, though it’s the octave down option you’ll be needing to cover the lower register.

BOSS GE-7 GRAPHIC EQUALIZER £85

It would be wise at this stage to reshape your ‘bass’ tone and dial in more body to really emphasise its place in the spectrum. It would also make sense to take out some of the bass on your guitar amp, in the hope of establishing two sonically independent rigs that can exist side-by-side.

FENDER RUMBLE 100 BASS COMBO £309

The revamped Rumble line lives to its promise of being “lighter and louder than ever”. It comes with a footswitchable overdrive circuit, which could be handy to kick in for bigger riffs and choruses.