Dan Donegan

The first guitar that Dan Donegan's guitar tech shows in this rig rundown video is Dan's signature Schecter guitar. At 0:33 his tech says, "He just switched over to this company and he's been very happy with them. I think in general the body shape of this guitar matches him a bit better cause he's a big guy." At 1:55, the guitar tech says, "He plays the same guitar—when I first got on this tour with Dan, he was playing all the exact same guitars in different colors...He is extremely about having things be as regimented as possible."

He is also featured on the Schecter's website as the user of the Dan Donegan Ultra model. The backstory behind the collaboration of Donegan and Schechter was told by Donegan in the Music Radar gear rundown.

“When I started working with Schecter they wanted to build a model, and I was looking at body styles that they had in mind and came across the Ultra. I just fell in love with how it felt with me and how it looked. With this Schecter guitar I wanted something that was a little beefier, too, and to have a little bit of weight behind it.

In the same interview, he talks about various finishes of the guitar.

There are different paint jobs on them but they are basically set up the same; the same hardware, the same pickups, just in different tunings. One of my go-tos is my signature model that has the number 96 on it - that was the year Disturbed was formed. That’s usually the one I open up the show with and I play it a couple of times a night. On the paint jobs there’s nothing really too bright; on The Game, the one I use is more a transparent blue. Some, like the 96 guitar, I had them put stripes on there because I wanted it to almost look like a vintage Shelby Cobra. I’m six-foot-one, six-two; I’ve always liked a heavier guitar, a bigger body. When I was younger I had some Les Pauls and I played some PRS guitars, too. I liked the single-cuts. I liked some of the Les Paul body styles. With this Schecter guitar I wanted something that was a little beefier, too, and to have a little bit of weight behind it, maybe get a little bit more sustain out of it. Even though Schecter is my number one endorser I play what I am comfortable with onstage or in the studio. But I really like this model. They all sound good. They play well. They’re consistent. And I’ve got pretty big hands, too, and I like the feel of it. On this recent album, Evolution, all the rhythms were with the Schecter guitar, with the exception of a few of the overdub tracks that might have been something else in the studio that I just grabbed in the moment. It depends on the song. I like layering things, even if it’s just ear candy and it’s very subtle in the mix, it gives it life.”

Dan Donegan uses a Boss Metal Zone MT-2 pedal, which his guitar tech mentions at 4:40, saying, "Again another standard, well-known, cheaply-made, durable Boss pedal. A lot of people use it for overdrive. Dan uses it for a dropout. So he uses the EQ and pulls it back so he can come down to tone that's like a real harsh and raunchy kind of noise boxy, radio-ish, transistor kind of sound..."

As Dan Donegan's guitar tech goes over Dan's rack setup, he mentions that Dan uses a Randall RM4 Modular Tube Pre-Amp at 3:05.

At 0:50 he explains the the pickups that are in his signature guitar

At 3:38 in this Premier Guitar rig rundown video, Dan's guitar tech says, "He has his own signature pedal, the Dan Donegan Weapon pedal, which uses actually two of them...and they do so many different things, so many things I can't label or list all of them...I'm a firm believer in the "Weapon" pedal.

Donegan talks about this pedal in the 2011 Guitar World interview.

I have a Digitech Weapon pedal they built for me some years ago that was modeled after some of the tones I had on The Sickness album. Digitech came to me and said, “Let’s recreate some of those tones so you can pull ‘em off live.” There’s a sitar sound I use in “Stupefy” and a few other songs. And I have a rack Cry Baby Wah. That’s about it.

Back when Dan was endorsed by Washburn, Dan co-created this uniquely shaped guitar named Maya (which was named after his daughter).

Dan used Mesa amps before being endorsed by Randall. In this diagram of the guitar rig hes used in 2000, you can see a Mesa Triple Rectifier.

We can see two Egnater stacks in the background trhoughout the official "The Light" music video. For the most part, the stacks are not clearly visible in the video, until around 2:18 where we can clearly recorgnize the unique front of the Armageddon head. It is unclear if this amp has been used for the recording of the Immortalized album or for the song, but Dan Donegan surely own a couple of these amps.

Use of Egnater Armageddon is confirmed in the Music Radar rig rundown.

The main rig, the A rig I’m using here, I have a Bogner XTC 20th Anniversary head. I use that combined with an Egnater Armageddon head. With the Bogner and the Egnater I’m just giving [the sound engineer] a good blend upfront.

Dan Donegan used a grey PRS Singlecut with .010-.045 gauge strings during the "Believe" era, as shown in the 2003 photo from Guitar.

At 1:00 minute mark of the "Building the Asylum" webisode, Donegan can be seen with the Schecter Ultra Classic.

it states he uses the .010 -.046 strings in this image

Dan Donegan's guitar tech starts talking about the pedals Dan uses around 4:20 in this video. Of the Korg ToneWorks he says, "This is a big part of Dan's sound right here. He uses it a lot...It's set to the same setting." There is a clear enough shot to see the setting Dan uses.

In the April 2003 interview with Donegan, his rig diagram is shown - Randall CY300 can be seen in the rig.

In this performance of Disturbed's "A Reason To Fight", Donegan can be seen playing the Taylor Big Baby acoustic.

As Dan's guitar tech goes over his amp rigs, there is a clear shot of Dan's DigitTech GSP1101 at 3:27, and Dan's guitar tech says, "DigiTech, they've been great to Dan and they've been really good to me as well in that we get all the things we need."

"The DigiTech Whammy comes in for a couple different songs...it's used mostly on a double octave Wah...DigiTech has been really good to Dan and really good to me as well," says Dan's guitar tech, around 11:10 in this rig rundown video.

Back in 2005, this used to be Dan's entire live rig (seen in the picture)

at 0:59, the picture shows dan with this amp

In the video titled "DISTURBED before David - CONFUSION by Brawl," an old photograph shows Dan Donegan with a Gibson Explorer Electric Guitar.

At 3:14 in this Premier Guitar rig rundown video, Dan Donegan's guitar tech says, "He's got a rack mounted Cry baby Wah that he uses a controller on his pedalboard to do different stuff on the fly." The Cry Baby Rack Module was mentioned by Donegan in the 2011 Guitar World interview.

"The Voodoo Lab's GCX Loop Switcher, it's pretty standard stuff everybody uses," Dan's guitar tech says, at 3:22 in this rig rundown video.

Talking about Dan Donegan's amp setup, Dan's guitar tech mentions his three Randall RT2/50s, at 7:05. He says, "We use one to power the ISO cabinet...It's as important as any of this system is having this ISO box, set aside...it's like being in the studio on tour."

Back in 2005, this used to be Dan's entire live rig (seen in the picture)

In a YouTube video titled "Disturbed 'The Animal' Guitar Lesson," Dan Donegan uses the Schecter Solo-6 Limited Edition guitar to demonstrate how to play Disturbed songs.

At 3:03 minute mark in Premier Guitar's Rig Rundown, Donegan's Randall MTS1086 signature module can be seen in his rack.

the pedal is seen in this image

The image shows Dan Donegan incorporating the BBE 482i Sonic Maximizer into his setup.

In this photo, which was posted by Donegan on his Twitter profile, the Kemper Profiler can be seen on the bottom of the rack. Kemper was briefly discussed in the Music Radar gear rundown.

I have a Kemper in the rack, too, which is another profiling amp, and is amazing, but it gives our front of house guy the options up front to take the blend of any three of those - the Bogner, the Egnater and Kemper - and whatever he is doing out front to make it sound the best. I think the rest of the guys in the band are getting a direct feed from the Kemper for their in-ears, which has been somewhat of a blessing because historically we have fought with those issues onstage, with our in-ears not getting a good enough clean mix, and I think getting a direct feed from the Kemper that’s been dialled in for us has definitely improved us. For David [Draiman], having to sing and hearing the key and being on pitch a lot more accurately, and not struggling from the tone, the Kemper is giving him such a clean signal. We have fought with [stage noise] over the years. The in-ears is what saved us. When we were trying to adapt and get used to it, it was a bit of struggle, when you are used to old-school, amps-as-loud-as- can-be. With floor monitors, me and John [Moyer, bass] are fighting over volume onstage and then David is struggling to even hear himself and then he’s blowing out his voice because me and John are blasting. Now our stage volume is so quiet. It’s great. We are having no live cabinets onstage which makes it a whole lot easier for David. We’re not getting any of the bleed through that.

at 1:51, he is playing this keyboard

At 3:22, the amp can be seen behind Dan when he's playing. He talks about this amplifier in the 2011 Guitar World interview.

So when we were making [2005’s] 10,000 Fists, a couple of their technicians came to the studio along with [producer] Johnny K and we really developed the amp there in the studio. We were taking what they had already built and expanding upon it, so it was really a combination between a Mesa/Boogie and a Bogner Ecstasy head. Those were two of my favorite heads I was using in the studio a lot. And we tried to get the best of both worlds, combining both tones. It was a great opportunity because we had a lot of smart, talented guys to help develop this and I got a great head out of it.