“I’m simple when it comes to pedals”: Christone “Kingfish” Ingram breaks down his live rig

Blues-rock prodigy Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram has offered a breakdown of his live rig, and the simplicity of things might just surprise you.

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“I wanted something small enough I could put in my suitcase,” Kingfish tells Premier Guitar of his pedalboard, which he says was put together by Barry O’Neal of Nashville’s XAct Tone Solutions.

As for what’s on the ‘board, clearly less is more for the guitarist, who uses just four pedals onstage – a Boss TU-3W Waza Craft Chromatic Tuner, Dunlop Cry Baby Mini Wah pedal, Boss DD-3T delay pedal, as well as a Marshall ShredMaster.

“I have used that wah so much that I’m uncomfortable using a standard-sized wah,” says Kingfish.

And of the beastly Marshall ShredMaster (check out our review of it) – which is quite the choice as the only drive pedal on the ‘board, we might add – Kingfish explains: “When it comes to overdrive or distortion, I like it at high gain. It comes from listening to Gary Moore and Prince. That’s just the sound I’m used to.”

“I’ve been using this for going on a year,” he adds.

The musician also shares that he’s “simple when it comes to pedals,” even if that wasn’t always the case. “I had my fun in the days of trying to be like Ernie Isley – phasers and rotovibes and shit!”

Check out the full rig breakdown below.

In other news, Kingfish recently opened up on how he became one of the biggest new names in blues, admitting, “A lot of my development came from criticism.”

Asked how he keeps things fresh and interesting in an interview with Total Guitar, the guitarist says, “Feel can be such an overused term, but it’s so important. Unless a lick is integral to the song, I don’t really play the same thing twice. I like to go off into the unknown and freestyle!”