Rig Rundowns, Gear Reviews, Lessons,

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Rig Rundown: Alice Cooper’s

Ryan Roxie, Tommy
Henriksen, and Nita Strauss
John Bohlinger November 05 2014

The guitar trio details the gear they use

to fuel the shock-rock shenanigans every
night.

Rig Rundown - Alice Cooper

Premier Guitar hung with Tommy Henriksen, Ryan

Roxie and Nita Strauss of the Alice Cooper band
during the Nashville stop on their 2014 tour with
Mötley Crüe. This team of elite ax wielders stay
true to the classic rock tone that Cooper’s band
helped establish in the late ’60s while
incorporating modern shred.

Ryan Roxie's Gear

Guitars

Ryan Roxie's recipe for tone has always included

a Les Paul & Marshall. His current #1 guitar is his
completely stock 2014 Gibson Les Paul,
nicknamed “Peace”, with Gibson’s proprietary
self-tuning system.

When a cleaner tone is needed, Roxie reaches for

a 2012 Gibson ES-335. Since Roxie doesn’t use
channel switching or drive pedals, he moves to
the neck pickup—which is roughly half the volume
than his bridge pickup.

The trio of Gibsons is rounded out with a 2007

Flying V—relic'd by Rock N' Roll Relics —loaded
with three Gibson humbuckers. All of Roxie’s
guitars are strung with Gibson Brite Wires
.010-.046.

Amps

When asked about amps, Roxie is a man of few

words: “Marshall JCM800 into a Marshall 4x12 with
20w Celestion Greenbacks. Enough said.”

Effects

Roxie plugs his Gibsons into a Shure UR4D+

wireless unit before it hits a TC Electronic
Polytune. From there it goes through a T-Rex
Effects Replica, Morley Bad Horsie Wah, TC
Electronic John Petrucci Dreamscape, Dunlop DS-
1 Tremolo, TC Electronic Shaker, TC Electronic
Spark Booster, and a pair of TC Electronic
Flashback delays. Roxie keeps things quiet with a
Boss NF-2 Noise Gate and powers the whole thing
with a Cioks DC10.

Tommy Henriksen's Gear

Guitars

As a tribute to Cooper’s original guitarist Glen

Buxton, Tommy Henriksen goes with three Gibson
SG Customs. The one above is finished in silver.

His second SG is battered and finished in Ferrari

red.

The third one is a 1991 Anniversary model in faded

yellow tuned to dropped-D tuning. Each SG was
refinished and relic'd by Mike Palermo from
Palermo Guitars. All three SGs are loaded with
DiMarzio pickups and SIT .010-.052 strings.

Amps

Henriksen uses a Blackstar HT-METAL 100 plugged

into a Blackstar HT-Metal 4x12 Cabinet and keeps
a Marshall JCM900 as a back up.

Effects

Henriksen plugs his SGs into a Shure UR4D+

wireless unit before going into an ISO/Buffer box
from L.A. Sound Design. His compact, but
powerful, board contains a Korg Pitchblack tuner,
MXR ZW90 Zakk Wylde Phaser, MXR ZW38 Black
Label Chorus, Boss FV-500L volume pedal,
Strymon El Capistan dTape Echo, Analogman
King of Tone, Boss FA-1 (which is controlled by a
custom footswitch), and a EBS Dynaverb. A
Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus powers the entire
board.

Nita Strauss' Gear

Guitars

With her bandmates Henriksen and Roxie going

for a classic rock tone, Nita Strauss keeps it
modern with her rack of Ibanez guitars. Her
current favorite is a red Ibanez RGT320Z Prestige
with a neck-through mahogany body and quilted
Ad
maple top. The neck was planed and stripped to
match the Super Wizard profile from one of her
other guitars. She rocks a DiMarzio D Activator in
the bridge and a DiMarzio Evolution in the neck.

Next in line is Strauss’ Ibanez S5470FDSH Prestige.

The three-pickup configuration includes a
DiMarzio Gravity Storm in the bridge and neck
positions and a DiMarzio True Velvet single-coil in
the middle slot.

For something a little creepier, she has her Ibanez

RG2620ZE Prestige that also features DiMarzio
pickups (Evolution in the neck position and an
DiMarzio Super 3 in the bridge), an Edge Zero
bridge, and a custom “Feed My Frankenstein”
graphic by Robert Emery from Rockstar Trendz. All
of Strauss’ guitars are strung up with D’Addario
NYXL .010-.046 strings.

Amps

Strauss plugs into one loud and proud Blackstar

Series One 104EL34 and keeps a second as a
backup. She chose this amp over others for it’s
heavy tone and because of the ability to switch
channels using MIDI. The head runs into a
Blackstar Series One 412 PRO B cabinet.

Effects

Strauss’ pedal board is about as minimal as it

gets. A Rocktron Prophesy II lives provides all her
effects and lives in a rack with a Shure UR4D+
wireless unit. She controls her effects with her
Rocktron All Access MIDI foot controller and a
Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus provides the juice.

! " # $

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