Brad Paisley

Paisley uses the Line 6 M13 Stompbox Modeler, “for some pitch effects and some really long delays where I’ll double delays up on a couple of things, use a short and a long delay in it, it’s a really nice piece,” (4:45).

In a GuitarPlayer interview with Brad Paisley, when asked what his basic signal chain is, he talks about the Ernie Ball strings he uses:

"I still use .010-.046 Ernie Ball strings on most of my guitars, the only variation being that I’ve also started using their new Coated Titanium Electric Slinky strings. I like using them on my ’60s Buck Owens Tele because the coating gives strings a slightly darker, more broken in sound, which is good, because that Tele is usually too bright sounding with fresh strings."

Ernie Ball electric guitar strings with .010, .013, .017p, .026, .036, .046 gauge refers to Ernie Ball 2221 Regular Slinky Nickel Wound Electric Strings. Original article here from March 2009.

A photo of his pedalboard on his official site, bradpaisley.com, shows Brad Paisley uses the Aqua-Puss MkII Delay Pedal by Way Huge Electronics.

The upper right of this photo of Brad Paisley's pedalboard shows he uses the Wampler The Paisley Drive Signature Overdrive Guitar Pedal.

Brad has been a long time user of Wampler pedals. Not having quite settled on a good overdrive tone, this is what he had to say about the requirements:

"It needs to be clean but get crunchy with some "beef" to it. It needs to have a fluid tone when soloing. It needs to add a little hair to the tone but then has to be able to give flat out ball busting gain. Oh but please do not wreck the tonality. It needs to have everything, in a pedal format, but do not make it sound like a pedal!"

Brian at Wampler made some prototypes for Brad. Brad selected one which went straight into the live rack and out on the H20world tour.

This photo likely shows Paisley's prototype, since the commercially available version of the pedal has a different, more polished look.

Paisley uses the Wampler Ego Compressor, spotted in this Premier Guitar video at (3:40).

A photo of his pedalboard on his official site, bradpaisley.com, shows Brad Paisley uses the Boss DD-3 Digital Delay pedal.

Bill Crook also custom made a Black and White Paisely Telecaster for country music star Brad Paisley. “We had a black one, it was one of the first ones that Bill Crook had made for him and it was ruined so when I called Bill and said, “By the way, you know, I need, like, eight guitars, you know, yesterday,” he said, “I actually just finished one for a customer, called him up and said, ‘Hey, your guitar’s ready, but Brad Paisley lost all of his in the flood,’ and the guy said, ‘Let Brad have mine, build me another one.’” So bless you, sir, I do not know your name, I was never told, but thank you.” (2:25).

Paisley also uses Tony Bruno Amplifiers, including the Underground 30. According to Paisley’s guitar tech, the Underground 30 is “is pretty much Tony [Bruno’s] take on an AC30. Most of his stuff is very AC30-esque but he kind of tailors to whatever you want,” (2:20).

Country superstar Brad Paisley helps Fender celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Telecaster. Watch as he discusses his first guitar, what makes the Telecaster so special and why it's the "perfect thing for what" he does.

This photo from Brad Paisley's official site show Paisley's Dr. Z Mini Z Guitar Amplifier. The amp is listed as being used for the songs All I Wanted Was A Car, Better Than This, Ticks, Online, and It Did. The original source can be found here.

Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer: “He uses this all the time, it’s his go-to pedal. We use 808s and TS9s pretty much interchangeably, so I hope that ends some kind of fight out there on the internet! [laughs]”

This photo of Brad Paisley's pedalboard is from an article in Music Radar.

We use that specifically on the opening of Water. He does this Jaws lick. He used to do a Van Halen cover, Hot For Teacher, and he used it on that. We have this set really heavy and he only ever uses it dry

A photo of his pedalboard on his official site, bradpaisley.com, shows Brad Paisley uses the MXR M169 Carbon Copy Analog Delay Pedal.

In this video, Brad Paisley talks about his custom "G-Bender" Fender Telecaster:

“I grew up listening to players that played B-Benders - and a B-Bender guitar, which is what I have here (mine’s got a G) - B-Bender guitars have their own thing and you heard them on everything from the Eagles to Ricky Skaggs and Steve Wariner and those guys. It was really the most prominent bender. And it’s a higher string, that sort of… [pauses to demonstrate] But the G, I actually had Joe Glaser build me a G-Bender a long time ago, and the first guitar I got a G - it's exactly like a steel guitar mechanism. If you look at a steel guitar it’s a bunch of saddles that look like this and they can hook up - levers and pedals and things to any of them - and it'll move this a whole step, and there's a little lever back here when you pull down, it raises this G string up whole steps. [demonstrates] And it's something you can kinda use when you get stuck. The reason being that Jimmy Olander with Diamond Rio had a double bender - and I liked the sound of the G string - he had both where he could… [pauses to demonstrate] But the idea of that lower string… sounded a little more musical me. A little less twangy and a little more throaty… like a steel guitar maybe. What I find is, and I do a lot of bending without it… it’s got a different pedal steel sound to it… [demonstrates]”

A custom guitar made for Brad Paisely, the Crook Water Telecaster was featured on Paisley’s H2O tour. This particular guitar, “it’s kind of what the tour’s based on and it was in the video. The original one was in the video and then Bill Crook had made a mock-up version of it for the video shoot and it got ruined in the pool and then the original one got ruined in the flood, so this is a third one,” Paisley’s tech says at (2:00).

One of Paisley’s guitars is a 1952 Reissue Fender Telecaster. Fortunately, one copy of this guitar survived when Paisley’s equipment was flooded, “but it’s a great guitar, good, this one couldn’t have worked out any better. I honestly thought this would be the hardest one to replace and it was the first one replaced,” Paisley’s tech says at (1:54).

The bottom right corner of Brad Paisley's pedalboard holds an Ibanez Tube Screamer TS808. This photo is sourced from Brad's official site, bradpaisley.com.

This photo, found on the Gear section of Brad Paisley's official website, shows he uses the Dr. Z Prescription Extra Strength "RX ES" Guitar Amp Head. It appears to have a hand-painted, customized graphic on the front of it.

Tony Bruno also makes a custom Underground 45 guitar amp for Brad Paisley. This amp is Tony Bruno’s “version of a Trainwreck Rocket and we use it for some gainier stuff and just crank it up, you know, really good sounding amp.” (03:12)

Brad Paisely also uses a Dr. Z Z-Verb amplifier, as seen in this Premier Guitar interview (0:17).

At 4:57 minute mark, 2 Boss DD-2 pedals are visible in Paisley's board. He further describes this as his favorite delay pedal.

In this Premier Guitar Rig Rundown video, Brad Paisley’s tech shows us a number of Dr. Z amplifiers, including the Z Wreck. At (1:15) he says, “This is the new version of the Z-Wreck, that was an amp that (00:01:15)for all the Trainwreck fans, Ken Fisher, and Dr. Z were really good buddies and it was probably three or four years ago, Ken and Z had decided to build an amp…they sent this amp back and it was incredible.”

This is a picture taken from backstage at the American Music Awards

This is used for certain clean sounds and never with drive

Brad Paisley incorporates the Wampler Plexi Drive into his pedalboard for a unique sound, as featured in MusicRadar's showcase of professional guitarists' setups.

The item can be seen 7:47 into this video

His signature model has Twisted Tele in the neck position.

In this video, Brad Paisley discusses his signature model Esquire guitar from Fender.

Youtube Video At 0.44 Brad Paisley Using The Wampler Signature Brad Paisley Drive Deluxe And The Pedal Is Bundled WIth The Paisley Drive And The Underdog Into One.

In this photo, Brad Paisley can be seen playing live with his signature model Gibson J-45 Acoustic-Electric Guitar. He also lists it on his official website as one of his "Road Guitars".