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Guitar World
Guitar World
Entertainment
Daryl Robertson

As a life-long Foo Fighters fanatic, I've spent years decoding Dave Grohl’s stadium-sized wall of sound – here are the 5 essential pedals you need to nail his tone

ProCo Rat in stage with Dave Grohl guitar .

This is a call to all Foos fans! With the Foo Fighters back in the headlines, fresh off the drop of their raucous new single Your Favorite Toy, teasing a soon-to-land album, and currently tearing up the UK with a string of secret, sweat-soaked club shows, we thought it was the perfect time to dive deep into the stompboxes that power Grohl’s massive sound.

Now, Dave Grohl is the king of making a simple setup sound stadium-sized. He might not be the world’s flashiest pedal-tweaker, but he does regularly rely on a few stomps to achieve his signature tone. From the fuzzed-out, face-melting distortion of the ProCo Rat to the subtle modulation of the famed Phase 90 and the spacey delay of the DM-2, Grohl’s arsenal is all about simple, affordable, and reliable pedals.

In this Guitar World collection, I’ve hand-picked the secret weapons on Grohl’s pedalboard, from classic dirt pedals to the wildcards that sneak in for special songs like the talkbox used on Generator. Armed with these stomps, you’ll be able to easily recreate those legendary anthemic tones from just about every era of the Foo Fighters' massive 30-year career. So, this one’s for all the cows, get ready to breakout and play everlong with your new favorite toy.

Watch the Foo Fighters perform the new single Your Favorite Toy live below

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