William Reid

In this photo, William can be seen playing an ES-330.

Picture shows 1991 rig of William Reid of the Jesus and Mary Chain

William can be seen playing a Hofner Verithin in a live MTV performance from the Honey's Dead era (1992). Colour? Black of course.

William playing Sept. 16 2012 live at Riot Fest

William has been quoted in more than one article plus live footage of saying he uses a Fender Twin (along with a Mesa Boogie and a Marshall on 3 different channels in the studio) for the high reverb and stompbox user friendliness.

William Reid has consistently used a Boss OD-1 Overdrive since early Mary Chain days. Currently it seems to be used in conjuntion with a Boss EQ as a solo/boost (controlled by his Boss ES-5 Effects Switching System board).

William Reid has had a Boss DD-3 delay in his rig for ages, though there's not a lot of evidence of it in JAMC recordings or shows. He can be seen kicking it in during the ring-out of an MTV live performance for a bit of colour during the noise at the end of a song.

"We'd literally only been playing guitar for a few months," Jim admits, "so it was a case of, 'Unless we turn that pedal up to the max, then people are gonna know we can't actually play. But with that thing [ie, William's Shi Ei Fuzz Wah pedal], you just kicked it once and it went 'Kkkkkrrrrzzzzz!' It didn't matter if you were playing the right chord, no-one could hear that stuff." - Q Magazine interview, February 2017

Previous Reid pedalboards featured multiple Shin-Ei fuzz units, which he presumably stacked for maximum fuzz saturation. However, in recent years he seems to be using a ZVex Box of Rock (supposedly a dimed JTM45 emulator). It's unclear where this sits in the effects chain.