Jenn Wasner

"I play through a Fender Twin, and my pedal setup is super basic: boss chorus and tremolo, boss dd-6 delay, a fulltone fulldrive coupled with an electro-harmonix lpb-1 boost for good natural tube overdrive, and that’s pretty much it."

Wasner can be seen playing the Reverend Jetstream HB in this February 2011 photo. She has owned at least two and they are among her main guitars. Wasner herself mentions them in the following interviews:

Reverend Guitars, "12 Questions with Jenn Wasner" (2013)

How did you hear about Reverend?

Saw a friend playing a Jetstream at a show once and asked about it. Bought my first one on a whim to take on tour the next day. I bought a second one a few months later. They’ve been my absolute top choice ever since.

What Reverend guitar(s)/basses are you using?

I own two Jetstream HB’s.

What do you like about your Reverend guitar?

It’s sturdy and well made, easy to play, the pickups are loud, warm, and sound amazing. It’s affordable enough that I can take it on tour and kick the shit out of it, worry free.

Music Radar, "10 questions for Jenn Wasner" by Michael Astley-Brown (August, 17 2016)

1. What was your first guitar and when did you get it?

"My mom taught me my first few chords on guitar, so I guess technically my first guitar was the old Fender acoustic that she kept in her closet. I didn't get a proper guitar of my own until much, much later - I wasn't primarily a guitarist, so I mostly just borrowed them from other people. The first guitar I actually purchased was my first of many Reverend guitars - a sunburst Jetstream HB."

Music Radar, "Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner: 'With a guitar you can make it into anything you want. It’s endlessly variable'" by Matt Parker (April 9, 2018)

“Reverend have been such an incredibly generous and amazing company to work with. I love their guitars, so I have a bunch of them. I have a few different guitars, because when we play live my propensity for alternate tunings makes it very difficult to play a full set seamlessly, so I tend to bring a lot of guitars with me. It’s not just for senseless excess! Before I got the Reverend signature, I was playing either a Charger or a Jetstream, two of their other models.

"I play through a Fender Twin, and my pedal setup is super basic: boss chorus and tremolo, boss dd-6 delay, a fulltone fulldrive coupled with an electro-harmonix lpb-1 boost for good natural tube overdrive, and that’s pretty much it."

"The Reverend Jenn Wasner Signature JW-1 combines the dynamic power of the Charger HB with the visual aesthetic of Jenn’s projects (Wye Oak, Flock of Dimes, Dungeonesse). We partnered with the Baltimore textile artist who created Jenn’s stage wear, April Camlin, to create the graphic, called “Optic Interruption.” The visual effect is as dynamic as the sound."

"Now with its transportive fourth full-length album, Shriek, Wye Oak flips the formula: Wasner sets aside her signature axe to hold down the bottom on bass, and Stack takes over the melodic and harmonic duties, triggering layers of synths and electronics that skitter around the periphery." Seen playing a Fender Mustang Bass at 2:09

"I play through a Fender Twin, and my pedal setup is super basic: boss chorus and tremolo, boss dd-6 delay, a fulltone fulldrive coupled with an electro-harmonix lpb-1 boost for good natural tube overdrive, and that’s pretty much it."

She uses the pedal to distort her bass on the link above, and also demos the pedal on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpnTKDsfNrw

"I play through a Fender Twin, and my pedal setup is super basic: boss chorus and tremolo, boss dd-6 delay, a fulltone fulldrive coupled with an electro-harmonix lpb-1 boost for good natural tube overdrive, and that’s pretty much it."

"I play through a Fender Twin, and my pedal setup is super basic: boss chorus and tremolo, boss dd-6 delay, a fulltone fulldrive coupled with an electro-harmonix lpb-1 boost for good natural tube overdrive, and that’s pretty much it."

In this 2017 Reverb article Jenn states:

"I’m also really loving my new Moog MF Drive distortion pedal. I used it a ton in-studio for a lot of the guitar solos on the new record. It’s got an EQ filter in addition to a basic tone knob, so the control over boosting/cutting specific frequencies is like nothing I’ve ever used before. It’s so incredible sounding and versatile."

In this 2017 Reverb article Jenn states:

The TC Helicon harmonizer/vocoder pedal was a gift from my friend Aaron Roche when we were working on If You See Me, Say Yes. We tracked the song “Sometimes It Is Right To Have No Answer" at his place in Brooklyn, and this pedal of his was featured heavily. After we finished tracking, he insisted on giving me the pedal to keep (I protested, but there was no arguing with him). That song later came to bookend the record as a shortened intro and extended outro.

In this 2017 Reverb article Jenn states:

Well, on one hand there’s one that’s just on all the time—that’s the Prelude reverb, which I’ve starting using in place of my built-in amp reverb. (For WO I play through a Fender Twin and for FOD I play a Vox AC15.)

In this 2021 Guitar World article Jenn states:

We did a lot of running things through tube amps and then into larger cabinets. So it's kind of a blur really like I think it was very, it's very much dependent on what what we were needing in the moment. But my [Vox] AC15 was definitely in the mix. I think I used a [Fender Hot Rod] Deville a fair amount of well.

In this 2021 Guitar World article Jenn states:

“Effect-wise, my pedalboard’s pretty minimal. But I have been using the Chase Bliss Warped Vinyl [a 'true pitch' vibrato/chorus] a lot. I really liked that pedal. And the Chase Bliss Thermae delay that they do.

In this 2021 Guitar World article Jenn states:

“Effect-wise, my pedalboard’s pretty minimal. But I have been using the Chase Bliss Warped Vinyl [a 'true pitch' vibrato/chorus] a lot. I really liked that pedal. And the Chase Bliss Thermae delay that they do.

In this 2021 Guitar World article Jenn states:

“And I have I've also really attached to the Red Panda Particle, because it's just such a bizarre crazy sounding pedal, it can do so many different weird things. I also use a Moog MS Drive that I really liked, because it’s got tone control in addition to like just gain and master, so you can kind of tweak the frequencies a little bit.”

In this 2021 Reddit AMA Jenn talks about gear on the Head of Roses album:

Synth-wise, this is the session where I fell absolutely in love with the Moog Matriarch, my favorite new synth in ages. It's both versatile and limited, so it's a total idea factory. Such a huge percentage of the synth sounds on the record came from here.

In this 2021 Reddit AMA Jenn talks about gear on the Head of Roses album:

I sang through a Warm Audio 251 mic, which I borrowed from Adam Schatz and later ended up buying for myself because I LOVE it...

In this 2021 Reddit AMA Jenn talks about gear on the Head of Roses album:

We spend a lot of time on the reverbs on this one...we used the OTO Bam a lot and a bunch of cool chippy verbs from the Eventide H3000 harmonizer. A lot of the reverbs were printed as performances that were "played" by hand, which was fun.

In this 2021 Reddit AMA Jenn talks about gear on the Head of Roses album:

We spend a lot of time on the reverbs on this one...we used the OTO Bam a lot and a bunch of cool chippy verbs from the Eventide H3000 harmonizer. A lot of the reverbs were printed as performances that were "played" by hand, which was fun.

In this 2021 Reddit AMA Jenn talks about gear on the Head of Roses album:

And of course Sandy's modular rig was highly involved--I'm a eurorack baby and he's a full wizard but I use the Make Noise Morphagene a lot for weird pads/glitches/sounds...

In a 2017 profile on Reverb News, it is detailed that Jenn Wasner's pedalboard includes the EarthQuaker Devices Sea Machine V3.

In a 2017 profile on Reverb.com, it is confirmed that Jenn Wasner's pedalboard includes the EarthQuaker Devices Night Wire.

Used for the synth on "Glory", as related in this January 19, 2017 Soundtoys artist page for Wye Oak.

“Soundtoys have been on nearly every Wye Oak recording ever made. They are fundamental to our sound and our production. Without these tools, we would be a much different sounding band.”

You can check out the song “Glory” off the album Shriek to hear EchoBoy on the drum and synth tracks:

https://youtu.be/tMOcpGKTh84

Wye Oak came out with a new album, Tween, on June 9, 2016. In the track “Watching the Waiting,” you can hear Soundtoys plug-ins all over the synth solo (1:50 into the video):

https://youtu.be/QlbmiLcX2sQ

Used for Shriek and The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs, as stated in this May 12, 2014 Vox interview and this April 9, 2018 Music Radar interview, respectively.

Vox, "'I got stoned and took a shower': How Wye Oak writes its songs" by Dylan Matthews (May 12, 2014)

Dylan Matthews: You're starting to work with synths for the first time in Wye Oak in a really big way, and some people at least tend to get very passionate about their gear. Did you? How'd you go about choosing equipment?

Jenn Wasner: Honestly, I've never been the person that is very insistent about the purity of the source. I think if something sounds good and it sounds right and it sounds interesting to me, I don't care where it came from. A lot of the stuff on our record came from beautiful, pristine, gorgeous analog synthesizers but a lot of it's just weird soft synth MIDI shit, too. [...] Going back to what you were asking, as far as synthesizers themselves, I have a Juno 6 that I got a lot of the initial sounds from, but just as many of the sounds came from samples and soft synths and stuff like that. I'm not one of those picky gearheads, to answer your question.

Music Radar, "Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner: 'With a guitar you can make it into anything you want. It’s endlessly variable'" by Matt Parker (April 9, 2018)

“Right now, I have a three-bedroom house and one of the bedrooms is a mini studio, so I’ve got my drum kit, a whole array of synths… On this record, it was mainly my [Roland] Juno-6, and I was using my friend Nick’s Prophet 6 a ton. I have a whole host of drum machines, pedals, etc.

An "all-black, seventies-era" Mustang was Wasner's electric first guitar. She mentions it in two interviews:

Reverend Guitars, "12 Questions with Jenn Wasner" (2013)

What was your first electric guitar?

An all-black, seventies-era Fender Mustang that I still totally love. Odd story about that guitar in particular: although I bought it from a third party before we had ever met, turns out it used to belong to my good friends Chris and Mickey Freeland, two excellent Baltimore musicians and producers who helped to record Wye Oak’s last two albums

Music Radar, "10 questions for Jenn Wasner" by Michael Astley-Brown (August, 17 2016)

3. Is there a guitar, or piece of gear, that you regret letting go?

"Yeah, I once owned a beautiful all-black '70s-era Fender Mustang that I wish I had held onto."

Mentioned in this 2013 interview with Reverend Guitars.

What amps and pedals do you currently use?

I play through a Fender Twin, and my pedal setup is super basic: boss chorus and tremolo, boss dd-6 delay, a fulltone fulldrive coupled with an electro-harmonix lpb-1 boost for good natural tube overdrive, and that’s pretty much it.

Wasner's H64, gifted by a friend, was used during the writing of The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs and for the recording of Head of Roses, as described in the following interviews. It can be seen in this performance recorded prior March 26, 2021 (at 16:52), this performance recorded prior May 6, 2021 (at 2:33), this performance recorded prior to July 1, 2021, and this performance recorded prior to November 15, 2021 (at 0:16).

Music Radar, "10 questions for Jenn Wasner" by Michael Astley-Brown (August, 17 2016)

2. The building's burning down - what one guitar do you save?

"Probably my '60s-era semi-hollow body Harmony Rocket - because it was a gift from a friend, and because it's old and beautiful and difficult to replace!"

Music Radar, "Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner: 'With a guitar you can make it into anything you want. It’s endlessly variable'" by Matt Parker (April 9, 2018)

“One of my favourite guitars that I have was a gift from a friend, years ago - it’s a Harmony Rocket, a semi-hollow-bodied guitar from the '50s that is just gorgeous. The song You Of All People has sort of a distinctly different vibe to it and that was something I wrote on the Harmony as opposed to one of the Reverends.”

Guitar World, "Flock of Dimes' Jenn Wasner: 'I'm such a fan of altered tunings. That's one of my favorite things about guitar – the malleability of it'" by Matt Parker (April 7, 2021)

What were you using on the guitar side for this record?

“Well, one of the guitars that I use a lot on this record was actually a guitar that I've owned for a really long time. It is this old, beautiful semi-hollow body Harmony Rocket. It's got the Bigsby tremolo and it's absolutely gorgeous, but it was just never the right guitar for the moment.

[...]

And was there anything else that you leaned on a lot in this record?

“For Price Of Blue, it was like a multitude of guitars! I used Nick's dad's '80s Strat for the lead guitar on the guitar solo. And the Harmony was layered in. And also my Reverend model that they made it for me, I used that a bunch on that – I can't say enough good things about Reverend as a company, I love their guitars.

Reddit, r/indieheads, "hi, I'm Jenn Wasner AKA Flock of Dimes, AMA!" by u/heyitswaz (May 19, 2021), reply to u/ChristmasInJuly

ChristmasInJuly Tell us about your gear (guitar/synth/vocals)! Was there anything essential you used for Head of Roses? Any recording tips/secrets that happened at Betty’s? :)

heyitswaz Guitar-wise, I mostly played my harmony rocket semi-hollow body guitar, and of course my signature Reverend JW-1.

Used for vocals in the performances of "Two" (at 2:21) and "One More Hour" (at 31:37) recorded for this May 6, 2021 Radio Milwaukee interview.

Visible in this April 22, 2019 Instagram post.