Joey Santiago – Pixies – Pedal Board Breakdown

Joey.. Joey.. Joey. When I think about Joey Santiago.. and the Pixies, I can’t help how much he’s influenced me as a guitar player. Not in the sense of style per se, but more in concept. I’ve been a fan of the Pixies, well, forever. They’ve been a mystery for me over the years. I’ve always tried to understand *why* I like this band. What’s the recipe?

I had a few opportunities to see the band throughout the years, and things never lined up. I always thought, I would see them at some point, and then they broke up, but then they got back together, and that opportunity presented itself again. This time, I learned, and made the effort to see them. This was back in 2003 I think?  I saw them in Spokane, WA, and at that show, I finally understood (in my mind) the recipe. To me, the Pixies is the classic – “the sum greater than its parts” situation. Being in a band, it’s easy for the all the players, to attempt to playing something great and fantastic all the time. You’re in a band.. so you play right? Pixies showed me to relax. To play slower. To play one note if needed. Joey Santiago is the master of this. Making tasty decisions. Working with Charles/Black/Frank’s guitar. Support. No Clutter. But then when it’s ‘go time’… it’s guitar fury in your face.

I was so stoked to see that Premier Guitar do a rig rundown for Joey Santiago

Here is the breakdown of pedals on his board

Boss FS-6 Dual Footswitch
Boss EV-5 Expression Pedal
GigRig G2 switcher
DOD FX-17 wah-volume
Electro-Harmonix Nano Holy Grail Reverb
GigRig QuarterMaster
Empress Tremolo2
Lehle Dual Amp Switcher
Boss LS-2 Line Selector
Keeley Compressor (2 knob)
Swart Atomic Boost OC44
Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz
Fulltone OCD
Maxon AD9 Pro Delay
TC Electronic Polytune

Under the board, some Moogerfoogers!

Moog Moogerfooger MF-104M analog delay
Moog Moogerfooger MF-108M Cluster Flux
Moog Moogerfooger MF-105 MIDI MuRF

Also, I just watched a Tiny Desk Concert of the Pixies.. which are is an awesome series on NPR. I thought I would share this as well:

[iframe_loader width=”425″ height=”344″ frameborder=”0″ longdesc=”” marginheight=”0″ marginwidth=”0″ name=” click_words=”” click_url=”” scrolling=”auto” src=”http://www.npr.org/templates/event/embeddedVideo.php?storyId=269542317&mediaId=269544385″]

Let me know what you think of Joey Santiago and/or the Pixies by commenting below. Any of you influenced by this guitarist?