Guitarists Who Didn't Use Pedals

Guitar pedals are the life-blood of this channel; however, some of the best guitar tones in history were created without using a single effects pedal. Today, I'm walking you through some of the most accomplished guitarists who NEVER used guitar pedals.

Table of Contents
00:00 Intro
01:35 Robert Cray
04:29 BB King
07:02 Duane Allman & Dicky Betts
09:25 Derek Trucks
11:17 Keith Richards
12:55 Jimmie Vaughan
14:47 Angus Young
16:57 Recap
18:05 Thanks for Watching!

⬇ GET A ONE-ON-ONE TONE CONSULTATION WITH THE RIG DR. ⬇

FOLLOW US

⬇BUY VERTEX PEDALS⬇

⬇PODCAST⬇

⬇DIY BUFFER DIAGRAMS & TEMPLATES⬇

⬇RECOMMENDED MATERIALS⬇

CREDITS:
Host/Co-Production: Mason Marangella
Video: Nico Sotomayor
Video Editing: Victor San Pedro
Co-Production/Design: Mason Mejia
Audio Engineering: Hunter Harrison

#GuitarPurist #GuitarPedals #RigDoctor

[VertexEffectsInc]

Did we miss any guitarists that should have made it on to this list? Tell us in the comments below!

[patrickskog]

Charlie Christian, Grant Green, Wes Montgomery, Tiny Grimes, T-Bone Walker, Kenny Burrell, Albert King, Freddie King, Magic Sam, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin, Willie Johnson, Albert Collins, Junior Barnard, Anson Funderburgh, Ronnie Earl, Dave Specter, Kid Ramos, Jr. Watson, Guitar Slim, Gatemouth Brown, Johnny Guitar Watson, Clarence Hollimon, Pat Hare, Luther Tucker, Robert Nighthawk, Johnny Shines, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rodgers, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Lowell Fulson, Wayne Bennett, Ike Turner, Lonnie Johnson and probably a lot of guys buried in my CD collection that I'm blanking on at the moment. Albert Collins again, he's so incredibly unique... and Peter Green too.

[marksummerson]

Wilko Johnson of Dr Feelgood didn't use any pedals. Famously when asked what pedals he used he replied, "I'm playing guitar not riding a bicycle."

[raymondwilliams]

Robert Cray is one of the most underrated guitarists out there, IMHO. Saw him opening for Tina Turner in London, years ago, and he blew me away. Unique style, with an amazing soulful voice.

[Dan-ezdr]

Roy Buchanan. "Extreme Guitar Wizard" was on the ticket when he played Liberty Hall in Houston mid 70's.
A man, a Telecaster, a Twin Reverb and a folding chair to set it on backwards. Jaw dropping stuff

[josephcarmouche]

Wes Montgomery. IMO best pure jazz tone. Listen to anything by him. Never used a pedal or pick for that matter.

[arnyarny]

wasn't BB King a big advocate of the boss Metal zone?

[Jakal-pwyq]

I can't count the number of times I've seen BB King starting in around 1967 here in Seattle at the Paramount Theater.

You're right, his rig consisted of two blackface twin reverbs and his Cherry Gibson at the time it was an ES-345.

I'm a guitar player myself for 50 years so I paid attention to his Rigs and he did move to Silver panel twin reverbs and then ultimately to those Gibson amplifiers.

But you know the one thing in common with all those amplifiers? BB King!

He could have played One Note through a transistor radio and we all would have known who it was! Rest in Peace BB. 💜

Thanks for another great upload Mason! You're the best dude and I absolutely love your effects!

[davidhirst]

I have nothing against pedals, I used to use delay, overdrive, wah, compression and a noise gate. Now I use literally no pedals, I don't even own one. My tone is the best I've ever had. I play a lot of blues and rock.
This is what I do:
1-Set up guitar to have good tension on action, plenty of sound.
2-Have great pickups
3-Have a tube amp with good speaker (mine has good overdrive built in and reverb, most good ones do)
4-Get your levels right on your guitar and your equalisation on your amp. That makes a big difference.
It's not for everyone, but for those who like to hear a more pure guitar sound it's the way to go. A good tip is that if your guitar sounds good before you plug it in then it will sound amazing plugged in.
My reason for dropping all pedals was because I wanted a more real guitar sound, more tactile and responsive. It makes me feel more connected to each note. Not for everyone, but it is for me. It also makes you a better player because there's nothing to hide behind.
Interestingly BB King is probably the greatest blues player of all time, and Angus Young is probably the greatest rock player and they both play straight through the amp, nuff said.

[modestoney]

i think an important thing to consider is amp volume. today very often even at smaller gigs guitar amps are mic`ed up and the sound guy tells you to turn down.
back in the days the amps often had to fill the whole venue, and if you can really turn up an amp the compression and drive starts to kick in. no (such) need for pedals.
it`s better to crank a rather small amp than to put a twin reverb on "2"
so it`s not only the hands, it´s also circumstance

[producerman]

When I started playing the original production of Grease on Broadway, they didn't allow us to use any pedals, I guess in keeping with the era we were re-creating. The only effects they allowed were reverb and tremelo and we used Twin Reverbs. This led us to an ever evolving quest for more powerful pickups to drive the amps harder, and I went through several iterations until I found a '55 tele which has stock a really powerful bridge pickup. Playing like that was great for my technique and tone. These days of course I'm addicted to pedals.

[TheDilligan]

I think the trouble many of us have is we love these tones but we either can't afford those tube amps or we cannot turn our tube amps loud enough to get that tone.
OR we actually need the clean headroom for clean songs and we want to be able to kick a footswitch on for a heavier song without having a crazy volume jump.

So using pedals is really about practicality, but what we want is that tube amp distortion. And that actually does seem to be the initial intention behind the development of every single overdrive circuit.

[brettmarlar]

Hubert Sumberland, T-bone Walker, Wes Montgomery, Chuck Berry, Albert King, and George Benson to name a few.

[jimistheman]

Carlos Santana played Woodstock with a SG/P90's directly into a 800 watt Gallien-Krueger SS amp. Unforgettable.

[johnkapalka]

Roy Buchanan, his '53 Tele into his '59 Tweed said.

[tomdecuca]

Kieth Richard used one of the first "Fuzz" box's on "Satisfaction." The recordings used a lot of effects. "Shattered" with the phase shifters comes to mind. Pedals do help to avoid monotony of straight guitar into an amp. Players need to use discretion to make sure they don't use them too much. Alot of times player search for the perfect amp, and a pedal might have got them there much quicker. It is nice to have an amp like that, but most can't afford an old "Plexi" or a Dumble.

[CarstenGoeke]

Ritchie Blackmore. Sometimes with his Aiwa Tape Echo or Univibe. I think all these players have one thing in common: Loud amps. Cool video. Thanks ✌🏼

[michaelleescott]

One of my favorites who never used effects was Paul Kossoff.

[emmettyoung]

i think another good idea is guitarists who use maybe 1-3 effects. you’ve got jimmy page, SRV, hendrix, kurt cobain, tony iommi, and a bunch of other great artists.

[KevinMcLaren]

The big exception for Keith was “Satisfaction”. He used a Maestro Fuzz for the main riff