“You can barely hear the delay when I play live, but it’s my security blanket”: Vinnie Moore reveals what’s on his ever-changing pedalboard

Vinnie Moore plays his red Dean Superstrat live with UFO.

“My pedalboard is always changing. I’m so fickle and can never decide, so even after all these years, my ’board is never final. It can be my solo stuff or with UFO; I’m constantly switching things in and out. 

“But the constants are an overdrive and a distortion, even though they change a lot. And I’ve always got a wah effect, too. Overall, I keep it simple to keep from shit going wrong on stage.

“My board is powered by a T-Rex Fuel Tank [Classic] Power Supply, but the chain usually begins with my Dunlop Cry Baby Wah, and I’ve got that going into my AnalogMan Beano [Boost], which I’m loving right now when playing live. 

“After that, the Beano leads into another AnalogMan pedal, my current overdrive, the King of Tone. Weirdly – and I know this isn’t too common, but it works for me – the King of Tone goes into my phaser, an MXR Phase 90.

(Image credit: Courtesy of Vinnie Moore)

“But there’s another version – depending on the song – where instead of the King of Tone, I have a Boss Blues Driver [BD-2] leading into my Phase 90. The board usually features any number of delays that I’ve tried, but lately I like MXR’s Carbon Copy Analog Delay [M169], and I keep two around, each with different settings. I’ll add and subtract those as needed, and I usually have them going into an MXR Smart Gate [Noise Gate M135].”

If I had to choose only one pedal for an entire show...

“If there’s an amp with good distortion, and I could use the gain from that amp, I’d probably use my MXR Carbon Copy or my Boss DD-3 [Digital Delay], which isn’t on the board now. You can barely hear the delay when I play live, but it’s my security blanket, and I kinda rely on it.”