What is Jeff Austin using here?

**Alex Orr** · Jul-13-2020, 1:43pm

I was hoping anyone with way more experience using pedals on acoustic mandolins might have an idea what Jeff Austin is using to "electrify" his Gilchrist here to get that sound. I am also perfectly aware that a sizable portion of the mando community might hear it and say, "Whatever's he's doing should simply not be done at all!"

I will grant that it is not everyone's cup of tea, but as someone with a fondness for often abrasive guitar tones (Sonic Youth, The Velvet Underground, My Bloody Valentine, etc...) I actually really dig the sounds he's getting.

There's gotta be a delay pedal in there, but how is he getting that electric sound?

**dang** · Jul-13-2020, 2:15pm

I believe he played a Nugget, not sure if I have ever seen him with a Gilchrist?
No actual idea but I think he just has a piezo pickup and ran it through that pedal board in front of him with some overdrive?

**Alex Orr** · Jul-13-2020, 3:41pm

Originally Posted by dang

I believe he played a Nugget, not sure if I have ever seen him with a Gilchrist?
No actual idea but I think he just has a piezo pickup and ran it through that pedal board in front of him with some overdrive?

Good catch! My mistake on saying it was a Gilly.

I had a pretty good idea he was running his mando through his pedal board...I was wondering more about the specifics

I've run my Brentrup (which has an internal K&K Twin) through a Tube Screamer and it did NOT sound like that, nor did it sound very good

I'm wondering if he's got a compressor somewhere in that chain.

**Tom Wright** · Jul-13-2020, 6:13pm

Originally Posted by Alex Orr

I was hoping anyone with way more experience using pedals on acoustic mandolins might have an idea what Jeff Austin is using to "electrify" his Gilchrist here to get that sound. I am also perfectly aware that a sizable portion of the mando community might hear it and say, "Whatever's he's doing should simply not be done at all!"

I will grant that it is not everyone's cup of tea, but as someone with a fondness for often abrasive guitar tones (Sonic Youth, The Velvet Underground, My Bloody Valentine, etc...) I actually really dig the sounds he's getting.

There's gotta be a delay pedal in there, but how is he getting that electric sound?

I know Don Stiernberg's and Drew Emmitt's Nuggets have the Baggs undersaddle pickup, that can easily sound sweetly electric. Yes, mainly gobs of delay, but the nosy ambience doesn't help to analyze the sound.

**pops1** · Jul-13-2020, 6:17pm

To me a pickup in the saddle sounds the same in nearly all instruments. The bridge plate pickup sounds like the instrument. This goes for guitars too. That being said the saddle pickup sounds more electric to begin with. IMHO

**Dave Sheets** · Jul-13-2020, 7:07pm

Quite a bit going on there, he uses a looper at points to record and repeat some sections. There is also some delay there. Compressors often improve how distortion pedals work, so he could well be using a compressor to enhance a distortion pedal. A tube screamer is really an overdrive, rather than a distortion, some folks use them to create distortion in the preamp section of a tube amp, so the sound you get depends on the interaction of the tube screamer with the tube amp.

A distortion pedal, something like a boss DS-1, BD-1 or a Proco Rat generates distortion within the pedal. A pedal in this category could be involved here, but it sounds like the amp to me. This is a pretty "high gain" sound, he manipulates the mandolin position at times to control the amount of feedback, a common guitar tactic. People will also "stack" two distortion pedals or a distortion plus an overdrive to get these types of sounds.

The more I think about this sound, the more I think there is a compressor involved, that can give you some of the tonality I'm hearing here, a certain flavor to that distortion can come from a compressor cranked up quite a ways.

I spent years trying to get the guitar distortion sound I heard in my head. Turns out it was heavy compression and a Marshal DSL, old style british heavy metal amp. Last thing I ever expected, I should have been more open minded about Marshals.

Anyway, it's actually hard to get this sound without it turning into mush, there is probably a good equalizer involved in his rig somewhere as well, unless he got lucky with an amp that does this naturally.

Got any friends who play electric lead guitar with a big pedal board who will let you tinker with their rig? That would be the quickest way to figure this out.

**Southern Man** · Jul-19-2020, 2:57pm

Originally Posted by Tom Wright

I know Don Stiernberg's and Drew Emmitt's Nuggets have the Baggs undersaddle pickup, that can easily sound sweetly electric. Yes, mainly gobs of delay, but the nosy ambience doesn't help to analyze the sound.

Jeff bought Drew Emmitt's Nugget. In a 2011 interview he said he was using a Baggs pickup (so it may have been the same pickup).

I miss Jeff.

**Southern Man** · Jul-25-2020, 9:24am

I asked about Jeff's setup in a fan group that I am in. I am not an electric player and don't have any real knowledge of pedals or what most of this means, so I can't answer any follow-up questions, but maybe this helps:

I think it changed a bunch through the years... In JAB I did not see his rack mounted gear on stage with him. I think it consisted of a rack tuner like the korg dtr2000, a 15 or 30 band eq and a single space rack preamp. That was with YMSB....
I think he used a fishman platinum pro or aura or a baggs venue di pedal with JAB in more simplified setup.
On his nugget for pickups he has mentioned a baggs radius which I imagine would be internally mounted somehow... but he does have a bridge piezo on the nugget like the fishman but probably a custom pickup just for the nugget. Its hard to say if he uses them both in a TRS cable or just one of the signals...
He may send each individual signal separately to the board and the other to his monitors like how Sam bush does.
Completely unsure except for what I have observed on stage but logic seems like this makes sense...
For effects: I really have no clue but in YMSB there was a delays and various distortions for the self titled release era stuff. I remember him having a boss or roland all in one style pedal like the ME70. Other than that probably an ambient reverb with trailing decay and light mix at the end of the chain to smooth it all together. I have chased his sound for a while and that seems to be what makes the most sense to me.

Ken

**j. condino** · Jul-26-2020, 1:13am

Originally Posted by Alex Orr

Good catch! My mistake on saying it was a Gilly.

I had a pretty good idea he was running his mando through his pedal board...I was wondering more about the specifics

I've run my Brentrup (which has an internal K&K Twin) through a Tube Screamer and it did NOT sound like that, nor did it sound very good

I'm wondering if he's got a compressor somewhere in that chain.

Most piezo pickups sound pretty bad when you run them through a Tube Screamer. I've had the best luck using a Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive- basically a tube screamer circuit but with an additional clean blend. There is something about the clean blend that allows them to work very well with a piezo to the point where you can gain it out pretty heavy. If you want to go into David Gilmour territory, piggy back it with another tube screamer in a row!

**danielpatrick** · Jul-26-2020, 7:45am

Jeff also used to run through an electric guitar amp in Yonder. There appears to be a head and cab behind him but where it is sitting it’s though to say if it is his or Adam’s. That would help explain the compressed tone. If you have access to an amp, try that with a distortion in front of it. They also have a pretty great front of house guy so that my also explain the compression. I do know that the FOH guy had Jake use a bridge pickup (LR BAGGS?) and that same electric amp I mentioned because that was the tone he wanted out front for the mix.