Brent Rowan

Brent says he uses almost every Boss pedal made but the EQ is one of his favorites.

Brent mentions using a Keeley modded Tube Screamer.

Brent says he has a silverface Deluxe but it was modded by Kye Kennedy to be blackfaced.

In this Dec 2008 Vintage Guitar Magazine interview, Brent Rowan mentions using the Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail reverb pedal on Josh Turner songs, positioning it before the microphone, as reported by Zac Childs in Vintage Guitar® magazine.

Q: What’s in your “Josh Turner rig?” A: Some of the songs are heavy on the baritone, with low-strung guitars augmenting his voice, but never getting down to where he is, range-wise. Then there’s this crazy, whacked-out Tele guy that is part of his band, in my mind. This guy is part Brad Paisley and part James Burton. He appears on each album a couple times. With those parts, I try to walk a fine line playing parts that will make people think “Is he kidding, or is he not.” Frank Rogers, Josh’s producer, loves that, and he produces Brad also, so he borderlines on whether or not they’re kidding. Pure tones for Josh, not a lot of processing. On some songs I did use an E-H Holy Grail because I think verb before the mic can sound so heavenly.

In this Dec 2008 Vintage Guitar Magazine interview, Brent discusses his 1960 slab-bard Telecaster:

Q: What’s the story with the slab-board Tele?

A: Steve Henning found it for me. He and his dad have Heart of Texas Music in Austin. I have a couple of older Teles, but was looking for a nice rosewood-board. This one came through, and they sent it to me. Michael Stevens flattened the radius of the fingerboard and put slightly bigger frets in it – made it a much better player. So many early-’60s Teles are hard to bend on because of the overly curved fingerboard.

Q: What are some notable songs you used it on?

A: Joe Nichols’ “Brokenheartsville” and all the Tele stuff with Mark Chesnutt like “Going Through The Big D,” and “Bubba Shot The Jukebox.” I also used it for all the Tele stuff on Josh Turner’s records.

Brent Rowan has stated that if he were to go on tour with Josh Turner, one of the instruments he would bring is his Jerry Jones Longhorn 6-String Bass, as mentioned in an article by Zac Childs for Vintage Guitar® magazine.

Per this Dec 2008 Vintage Guitar Magazine interview, Brent has D’addario 10-46s on his 1960 Tele.

Q: What’s the story with the slab-board Tele. A: Steve Henning found it for me. He and his dad have Heart of Texas Music in Austin. I have a couple of older Teles, but was looking for a nice rosewood-board. This one came through, and they sent it to me. Michael Stevens flattened the radius of the fingerboard and put slightly bigger frets in it – made it a much better player. So many early-’60s Teles are hard to bend on because of the overly curved fingerboard. Q: What are some notable songs you used it on? A: Joe Nichols’ “Brokenheartsville” and all the Tele stuff with Mark Chesnutt like “Going Through The Big D,” and “Bubba Shot The Jukebox.” I also used it for all the Tele stuff on Josh Turner’s records. Q: What’s it strung with? A: D’Addario .010-.046.

In this Dec 2008 Vintage Guitar Magazine interview, Brent shared the following:

Q: What about the Olympic White 1960 Strat? A: Somebody called me, wanting to sell a guitar. I didn’t need it at the time, but boy am I glad I bought it. It has a wonderful, Stevie-Ray-type of throaty tone. I love it. It has an original finish with a three-color sunburst underneath. Q: And some tracks you used it on? A: On all of Blake Shelton’s Pure BS, which I produced and played on. Also, some Montgomery Gentry stuff I’ve played on.

In this 2008 article from Vintage Guitar Magazine, Brent gives a run through of his collection. Regarding his Fiesta Red Strat with EMGs, he states:

It’s a ’56 that Joe Glaser refinished with what was supposed to be an original can of Fiesta Red he found. I bought it from songwriter Willis Alan Ramsey about 20 years ago. I have the original pickups set aside.

A nice photo of the Strat (and his many others) is also provided.

He used it on Kenny Rodgers version of Prairie Wedding and Tim McGraw’s Down On The Farm.

Here is Brent posing with his Martin 0-28.

The image shows Brent Rowan with his National Trojan resonator guitar.

In this Dec. 2008 Vintage Guitar Magazine interview, a photo of Brent's white Anderson Guitar Words T Classic is show, along with the following caption:

Tom Anderson-built guitar used a lot on Julie Roberts’ ’04 self-titled debut album, which Rowan produced.

Brent ordered unit 56 from Soldano.