That Pedal Show Special – Dan Meets James Bay (And Takes Him A New Pedalboard)

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It's not every day you get to hang out with a chart-topping amazo-geezer, but today is that day!

James Bay is the exceptionally gifted singer, songwriter and guitarist whose debut album, Chaos And The Calm, is taking the world by storm in 2015. He's been on BBC Breakfast, The Ellen Show, Jimmy Kimmel and just about every other TV and radio show that matters, but today... Oh today he has truly arrived in the media spotlight. That Pedal Show? Get in! (Ahem.)

James contacted Daniel for help with his ailing pedalboard and, a few weeks later, we visited the band's pre-tour rehearsals to drop off a G2-loaded board and set up some sounds.

In this video, we follow James' first steps with the board and his three-amp rig featuring a Tone King Sky King as the main, dry amp, then a Hamstead Artist 20 and Victory V40 that get the modulation, delays and reverb effects. The amps are running all together, all of the time. Or at least most of the time.

Drive comes from the amps themselves, helped along with a TC Electronic Spark Booster plus a little bit of G2 pre and post gain in certain patches, then a J Rockett Archer, used sparingly.

Reverbs come via a Strymon Flint and Strymon Big Sky; delay is from an MXR Carbon Copy and there's the odd bit of chorus from an Analogman Bi-Chorus. He also uses the tremolo in the Tone King, switched on and off from G2.
James may be adding in more pedals as time goes on, but the ones listed above are what we hear in this video.

James tells us all about his fave 1966 Epiphone Century, and also plays a 1960s Gibson ES-330 and a more recent Gibson Memphis Luther Dickinson ES-335.

Massive thanks to James and his band – Tom Peel, Jack Duxbury, Gerry Morgan and Andy Cortes – for letting us crash their rehearsals and being so generous with their time (and sweets, Jack).
We're hoping to catch up again with Mr Bay during the upcoming tour to see how he's adapting to organised pedalboard life!

For more on James Bay see www.jamesbay.com
For more on TheGigRig, see www.thegigrig.com