Todd Nichols

Here is my current pedalboard setup for you gear heads. Only thing that has changed is I now have a Tim overdrive instead of 2 Timmy's. Dave at L.A. SOUND DESIGN built me this custom board about 5 years ago, and that's definitely the longest I have ever used the same board. — with Toad the Wet Sprocket.

Here is my current pedalboard setup for you gear heads. Only thing that has changed is I now have a Tim overdrive instead of 2 Timmy's. Dave at L.A. SOUND DESIGN built me this custom board about 5 years ago, and that's definitely the longest I have ever used the same board. — with Toad the Wet Sprocket.

On Todd's page, where he sells custom guitars, they are all set in front on a Morgan MVP23 amp.

Nichols Custom Guitars are built by Todd Nichols in his Santa Barbara workshop between summer tours playing guitar with his band Toad The Wet Sprocket. “I’m by no means a seasoned luthier, but after playing professionally for over 30 years, (since 1986 with Toad) I know what a great guitar feels, sounds, and looks like, and what parts work well together.” This all started when Todd was learning how to set-up and maintain his guitars every year to take on the road, which led him to building his ultimate ‘Partscaster’ guitars. A few were made for friends at first, but when he started playing Nichols Guitars exclusively onstage, and featuring them on his Instagram page @NicholsGuitars, he began building and selling more guitars. “I like to build small batches of light-weight guitars with my favorite parts and colors.” The first batch featured Bigsby Vibrato guitars with unique metallic colors such as Candy Tangerine, Candy Plum, & Candy Apple Green.

Featured on Nichols' official sE Electronics artist page.

Lately Todd has been using a stereo rig live, consisting of a couple of Morgan amps miked up with sE's VR1 ribbon mics and guitaRF® Reflexion Filters®.

"I really love the guitaRF baffles for several reasons. First, they are a stealthy double mic stand that can hold a dynamic 57-style mic, and also a ribbon mic that's easily set up to have the capsules equidistant from the speaker cone to avoid nasty phase problems."

"The other big reason I love the guitaRFs is because I use Pro-Sonic clear plexi shields to block the loud guitar amps from bleeding into every other mic on stage, especially the 3 vocal mics up front."

"Before using the guitaRFs, I would get bounce-back from the hard plexi shields directly back towards the miked amp. The guitaRF completely solves that problem, besides being a sturdy mic stand."

Todd Nichols, lead guitarist for Toad the Wet Sprocket, played a Nichols Custom Guitar - Heavy Relic Strat during the 2019 tour with Big Head Todd and the Monsters, notably performing "Golden Age" with it. This guitar was subsequently sold to Seattle-based artist Nate Chatterton.

"Our sound guy loves having the options live to blend in different sounds, but mostly leans on the sE VR1 ribbon mics for my sound." "Besides the VR1 sounding super warm and smooth on my guitar amps, it's built like a tank and can handle going on the road!"

Todd Nichols is confirmed to use a Gretsch G6136TSL Silver Falcon, as he is visibly playing it in a documented image.