Cory Wong At That Pedal Show [New Music Man Guitar, Quad Cortex & Much More]

He’s a modern funk phenomenon and he’s wacka-wacka'd all the way to Schwangri-La!

Welcome to the show! It is our great pleasure to welcome the incomparable, the irrepressible and the extremely funky Cory Wong to TPS! Cory is notable for many things, the most arresting of which in our little world is that he’s a non-singing, predominantly rhythm guitar player… who fronts an 11-piece band in big venues all around the world. Add to that his continued work with Fearless Flyers and Vulfpeck, and we’re starting to build a picture of an artist who is utterly committed to his craft.
During a 2025 European tour, Cory stopped in to TPS to talk guitars, effects and reflect a little on his journey so far.

Enjoy the show!

Cory on the web: https://www.corywongmusic.com/
Cory on YouTube:    / @corywongmusic  
Fearless Flyers: https://thefearlessflyers.com/
Vulfpeck: https://www.vulfpeck.com/

A note on the Quad Cortex / mic’d amps comparison…
Cory uses a Neural DSP Quad Cortex at the heart of his live rig that delivers the entire front-of-house guitar sound via the main XLR outs. He also has a couple amps on stage, fed from other outputs on the QC. It’s the same thing hitting FOH and the amps.
We’ve replicated that arrangement today and edited sections so you can hear the comparison of the two. So I don’t have to write it a million times in the comments, here’s how the front-end recording was done today (into Logic).

Amp mics – this is the standard TPS setup that you hear every week on the show (albeit with different mics sometimes).
Close amp mics: Austrian Audio OC18 mics into a Neve 1073 DPX preamp. Very tiny bit of EQ boost (maybe 2dB at most) at 3.2k and 10kHz+. No plugins.
Room amp mics: 2 x AKG C414 XLII arranged mid-side as room mics into Neve 1073 500 series pres / Rupert Neve designs 551 Inductor EQ modules, with some brightening to compensate for a very dead room sound. No plugins.

Quad Cortex direct feed
QC XLR left and right out into Neve 1081 preamps (two channels of a 4081) with no EQ.
I have added a tiny bit of brightness lift via FabFilter Pro-Q 3 plugins - 2dB boost high shelf from 2kHz up because it sounded very dull to me. I would actually go much further, but I don’t want to misrepresent the QC or Cory’s sound. My guess is that this is how Cory’s FOH likes it, then the engineer will EQ/process it to taste depending on room (just the same as you would any guitar amp, analogue, digital or hybrid).

Audio interface for all of the above is a UA Apollo x16

Pedals & Stuff used in this show
Shure GLXD+ Dual Band Wireless Guitar Pedal System
Hotone Cory Wong Press Expression Wah & Volume
Wampler Cory Wong Compressor
Jackson Audio The Optimist Dual Overdrive & EQ
Neural DSP Quad Cortex

If you use these links to buy stuff - any stuff – we receive a small cut.
UK & Europe: Andertons Music - https://bit.ly/3zaTX5Z
USA: Sweetwater - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/5g6ALN
Australia: Pedal Empire - http://bit.ly/2mWmJQf

Interesting bits and go to sections…
0:00 Intro playing and HELLO!
0:50 Working hard, always
2:20 Cory & The Wong Notes Show - how?!
7:30 Let’s talk about funk, Minneapolis style
11:10 Learning early - guitar AND bass
13:10 Non-singing rhythm guitar, out front!
15:25 Band mates from college
18:05 The importance of fun in music
20:38 How do you play at that tempo?
22:28 Marching band for the rhythm
26:22 Metronome under the pillow?!
27:55 Corey’s current gear
29:10 Wireless system
30:00 Quad Cortex
30:35 Wampler Compressor
34:05 Jackson Optimist EQ function
36:06 Quad Cortex effect blocks
38:10 Amps on stage?
40:00 Delay and reverb - mics and direct comparison
43:40 Hotone Wah / Volume / Expression
46:45 Wah sounds
51:26 Music Man StingRay II guitar
57:45 The Strat is 2% smaller?!
1:03:20 Position 4 panic button
1:05:30 Ambassador of fun and skill
1:06:45 New releases?

Guitars in today’s show
Fender Cory Wong Signature Stratocaster
Ernie Ball Music Man StingRay II Cory Wong

Amps in today’s show
Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb with Jensen C-12K speaker
Fender Custom Shop Bass Breaker (c2002) with 2 x Celestion Vintage 30 speakers (It’s a ’59 Bassman with 2x12 configuration)

You can buy TPS merch to support our efforts https://www.thatpedalshowstore.com

We are on Patreon – crowdfunding for creatives
  / thatpedalshow  

Please visit our preferred retailers!
UK & Europe: Andertons Music https://bit.ly/3zaTX5Z
Australia: Pedal Empire http://bit.ly/2mWmJQf