Black Country, new road – Ants From Up There

In this interview, Luke Mark mentions his use of the AC30 for the recording of Ants From Up There: “There’s definitely something about the attack that’s a bit Tele-like, especially for a hum-cancelling pickup. I just played that through an AC30."

Luke has a Maxon Distortion Master, a Boss EQ modded by Adrian Thorpe of Thorpy FX, and an Electro-Harmonix Canyon delay. These go into Orange amps, currently TH30s, but they have plans to go to stacks when bigger gigs are possible again.

Luke has a Maxon Distortion Master, a Boss EQ modded by Adrian Thorpe of Thorpy FX, and an Electro-Harmonix Canyon delay. These go into Orange amps, currently TH30s, but they have plans to go to stacks when bigger gigs are possible again.

From a Total Guitar interview with Luke in March 2022:

There’s not really any obvious delay but there’s a [EHX] Memory Man on most of the time because the preamp just makes everything sound wicked. There’s some tape delay on the guitars, from a tape machine I think, not from a delay unit.

When the Maxon isn’t enough by itself, Luke hits it with a JFET clean boost pedal that Isaac built. Elsewhere, effects are fairly minimal.

From a March 2022 interview with Luke in Total Guitar:

But the Fenders continue to be hacked! I’ve been using Isaac’s gold Strat. It still has a Mojo Pickups Gold Foil in it, and now I’ve put an anodized metal pickguard on it: Gold Foil in the middle and the Creamery Firebird pickups in the neck and bridge.

Luke can also be seen playing this guitar live in the band's 'Live at Bush Hall' video released in February 2023.

A separate Total Guitar article (https://www.guitarworld.com/features/inside-black-country-new-roads-freewheeling-diy-guitar-approach) corroborates this:

[Luke] also plays a guitar Isaac built from the remains of a Mexican Strat.

It has since been changed to have a telecaster neck.

During Black Country, New Road's performance Luke Mark can be seen playing a double neck SG. In this YouTube video of Luke Mark performing Basketball Shoes, it is shown around 2:55 and 7:02 that the headstock says CSL. Luke's guitar is shown to have a cherry sunburst.

From this 2022 Total Guitar interview with Luke:

But the Fenders continue to be hacked! I’ve been using Isaac’s gold Strat. It still has a Mojo Pickups Gold Foil in it, and now I’ve put an anodized metal pickguard on it: Gold Foil in the middle and the Creamery Firebird pickups in the neck and bridge.

A Artec Mini Humbucker Toaster Pickup is visible in the middle of the Stratocaster.

” Luke says. “But the Fenders continue to be hacked! I’ve been using Isaac’s gold Strat. It still has a Mojo Pickups Gold Foil in it, and now I’ve put an anodized metal pickguard on it: Gold Foil in the middle and the Creamery Firebird pickups in the neck and bridge.

A Shure SM57 is visible in front of the Vox amplifier.

As seen in the video, Luke uses Audio-Technica ATH-M50X headphones.

At the 10:25 mark in the video "Black Country, New Road - Full show (live at Haldern Pop Festival 2020 at home) Official HD" on YouTube, Luke Mark can be seen using a Dunlop Tortex Standard 0.73mm Guitar Pick. The video is provided by Haldern Pop Festival and is available on their channel.

The pedal board in this photo.

According to a Reddit comment, Isaac uses an Artec Mini Humbucker Toaster Pickup.

Luke says. “But the Fenders continue to be hacked! I’ve been using Isaac’s gold Strat. It still has a Mojo Pickups Gold Foil in it, and now I’ve put an anodized metal pickguard on it: Gold Foil in the middle and the Creamery Firebird pickups in the neck and bridge.

As seen in the photo, Isaac is using a Shure SM58.

As seen in the photo, Isaac is using an Coles Electroacoustics 4038.

As seen in the video, Isaac is using the Neumann KMS 105.

The use of Dunlop Tortex Standard 0.73mm Guitar Picks by Isaac Wood is confirmed by their appearance at the 7-minute mark in a video of Black Country, New Road's performance at the BBC 6 Music Festival 2021, as uploaded by lucaslockeridge on YouTube.

“Isaac plays acoustic guitar on basically the whole album. It’s a Sigma acoustic with a Gold Foil pickup going into an Orange Custom Shop 50 with a bass cab. We also had a mic on it attached near the soundboard. Because we tracked it live we ended up not being able to use much of the mic. It was mostly to get that liveliness, that string noise and stuff. Isaac sang all the vocals live.

As seen in the video, Isaac is using Beyerdynamic DT 250 headphones.

In the video "Black Country, New Road - Athens, France (6 Music Festival 2021)" by BBC Music, Tyler Hyde is seen using a Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner at the 25th second.

As seen in the video, Tyler is using an Audio-Technica M50x.

At the 28:03 mark in the video "Black Country, New Road - Full show (live at Haldern Pop Festival 2020 at home)" on YouTube, Tyler Hyde can be seen using a Dunlop Tortex Standard 1.14mm Guitar Pick. This footage serves as the proof of her choice of guitar pick.

The organ visible in the first few seconds of the video.