Ben Gibbard

In this Facebook photo posted by Toner Guitar Repair, the guitar shop says, "Ben Gibbard's (Death Cab for Cutie) G&L ASAT Bluesboy sent to me for repair. Note the solitary volume control. Both pickup are on simultaneously at all times." The bridge pickup looks to be a black Seymour Duncan, and the neck pickup appears to be a humbucker.

In another photo showing the wiring, they write, "This is the original wiring for Gibbard's Bluesboy. A bit messy with big globs of solder. No insulation to prevent shorts. The pot was worn & needed replacement. Note that both pickups are wired directly to the volume pot. There is no switch between the pickups & no tone pot." (source Facebook post)

Used for standard tuning during the tour for "Codes and Keys". Used until 2014.

Used during the touring for "Plans" for capo 2 songs, and was used since until 2014.

Ben Gibbard used this guitar on the tour for "Plans" for standard tuning. Possibly used for touring with "Narrow Stairs" as a back up or replaced with another.

Ben can be seen using his J-45 in this video from his NPR performance.

At 0:19 in this performance of "No Room in Frame," Ben Gibbered can be seen using a Fender Mustang.

In this live performance, Ben can be seen playing a semi-hollow version of the ASAT Classic Bluesboy guitar.

In this live performance on KEXP with Ben Gibbard, he uses an Epiphone Texan.

Ben used a Fender Coronado in the music video for "You are a tourist"

In this 2001 video of Sleep Spent, Ben is playing some variation of what looks like a black Vintage Modified Telecaster Custom. This is likely what it is because of the one humbucker and 4 knobs on the guitar.

In this performance of Title Track from 2000, as well as many other instances from the early days of Death Cab, Ben is playing an 80s fender bullet, which is sort of a stratocaster with a tele neck. Further evidence of Ben using this gutiar can be found from the lyric in "No Joy In Mudville" : "I'm packing my bullets, and silvertones and heading east."

Gibbard identifies his guitar as a Gibson J-50 in the beginning of the video 0:00

According to Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard at 15:00 in this Premier Guitar Rig Rundown, the guitar player runs his Fender Mustangs through an ACME Silvertone 1484 guitar amp.

In this photo of Ben Gibbard performing live, the large pedal on the left side of the pedal board (Ben's right) is a Line 6 DL4 Stompbox Delay Modeler.

According to Ben Gibbard, the Death Cab for Cutie guitar player uses a ZVEX Super Duper 2-in-1 Boost Pedal in his live rig. "This is such a great pedal, I recommend one to any guitar player," Gibbard said at (16:00).

According to Ben Gibbard in this Premier Guitar Rig Rundown, the Death Cab for Cutie guitar player uses a ZVex Box of Rock. "This stays on all the time," Gibbard said at (16:35).

According to Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard in this Premier Guitar Rig Rundown, "I've never been happier since I went to the [Eventide] Space... Reverb pedal," he said at (17:45).

According to Ben Gibbard in this Premier Guitar Rig Rundown, the Deathcab for Cutie guitarist uses an Eventide Timefactor delay pedal. "These are great because you can store the settings elsewhere on a computer and then put them on a new pedal. These have been fairly bulletproof for me," Gibbard said at (17:15).

The Boss TU-2 tuner can be spotted on Ben Gibbard's pedalboard at (17:47) in this Premier Guitar Rig Rundown.

The MXR Stereo Chorus can be spotted on Ben Gibbard's pedalboard in this Premier Guitar Rig Rundown video at (18:00).

The Electro-Harmonix Micro POG can be spotted on Ben Gibbard's pedal board in this Premier Guitar Rig Rundown video at (18:00).

For simple pedal switching on his live board, Ben Gibbard uses the Voodoo Lab Pedal Switcher, as seen in this Premier Guitar Rig Rundown video at (18:10).

According to Premier Guitar.com "A Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 provides all the juice," to Ben Gibbard's pedalboard.

According to Guitar Geek's rig diagram, Gibbard used Boss GE-7 equalizer.

In this post, L.A. Sound Design shared the pedalboard they made for Death Cab for Cutie. There's a Strymon BlueSky seen on Ben's pedalboard.

The signal chain is detailed as follows:

The guitar board signal chain is as follows: Z-vex Super Duper----Voodoo Lab PX-8 (L1----TUNER----L2 BOX OF ROCK----L3 POG----L4 MXR CHORUS----L5 ZVEX LO FI-----L6 ED DISPATCH----L7 TIMELINE---L8----BLUE SKY) ---RADIAL SGI-TX.

In this post, L.A. Sound Design shared the pedalboard they made for Death Cab for Cutie. There's an EQD Dispatch Master seen on Ben's pedalboard.

The Box Of Rock is a great pedal, but I found it was a little dark. The big distortion was a little bit murky, so the BB pedal has been doing all the big distortion stuff. And these actually layer pretty well; you can use the yellow side of the Box Of Rock, the overdrive side, with the BB, and they do gain up rather nicely.

Excerpted from this post which also discusses the live pedalboard used by Ben.