FOUR ON THE FLOOR – DREW FOPPE, TOURING GUITAR TECH

The Guitar Knobsblog

What are your four ‘must-have’ pedals? That is what we ask our guests to share with you in our Four On the Floor podcast segment.

Drew is currently on the Smashing Pumpkins 2018 tour, teching for guitarist Jeff Schroeder. He has tech’d for many other internationally celebrated bands, as well as designing and producing his own line of amplifiers and pedals under the brand Foppstar. If you are not familiar with Drew do yourself a favor and check him out. He gave us a fantastic interview with Jeff Schroeder too! You can hear the episode for yourself right here. Check out these choices for his Four On The Floor.

1. Bixonic – Expandora Overdrive

“I have been a huge fan of Billy Gibbons since I was a little kid. He has used the Expandora for a really long time. I remember seeing a photo in an old guitar magazine and he had nine of them chained together and I thought “Man I want that!” I bought one and it ended up being my favorite top 3 overdrive pedal still to this day. I have the old school original one. It has dipswitches inside so you can dial it to be a clean boost, and overdrive or a full-blown fuzz. I have not found anything that comes close to it. It’s mellow and gnarly all at the same time and they stack perfectly together.”

Check out the Bixonic – Expandora Overdrive

 

2. JHS – Angry Charlie Overdrive V2

“I like version 2 of this pedal. It does not have a separate mid control, just four knobs. It is a hot-rodded JCM800 in a box and it is just screamin’. The Angy Charlie, as opposed to the Charlie has more output and more grit and you can run it at 18-volts for a little bit more headroom. It works great with other overdrive pedals if you are into stacking overdrives, which I really enjoy doing, for random tones and options, and this is a great pedal for doing that. I will run the Angry Charlie at 18 volts with less gain after a different cranked 9-volt overdrive.”

Check out the JHS – Angry Charlie Overdrive V2

 

3. Catalinbread – Dirty Little Secret Overdrive Mark II

“This is another great stacking overdrive, and the Mark II is my favorite of the series. This another Marshall style overdrive that works great with clean or overdriven amps. They call it a “Foundation Overdrive” pedal.”

Check out the Catalinbread – Dirty Little Secret Overdrive Mark II

 

4. Foppstar Amps – The Gentleman Input Attenuator

“Let’s say you have a cranked overdriven amp and you love the sound of it but you need a clean channel and you like the tone of your guitar on volume 2 or 4. This pedal is designed to attenuate your input signal without losing tone and without changing the impedance. This allows you to cleanup and tame the overall gain on virtually all overdriven amps while keeping your signal clarity and maintaining the original tone characteristics of your amp.”

Check out the Foppestar Amps – The Gentleman Input Attenuator


Huge thanks to Drew Foppe for being a guest on our show and please check out Foppstar Amplification. We wish him continued success!