Queens of the Stone Age Rig Rundown with Troy Van Leeuwen

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Fresh off a substantial break and a live acoustic recording from Paris’ infamous catacombs, hard-rock titans Queens of the Stone Age stormed back to life this spring with an American tour, including back-to-back nights in Boston at Fenway’s MGM Music Hall.

PG’s Chris Kies snuck onstage before soundcheck to meet with guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen and get an in-depth look at the guitars, amps, and effects he’s using this summer.

Brought to you by D’Addario.

Echopark Shark

Van Leeuwen started working with Echopark Guitars luthier Gabriel Currie around 12 years ago, and this custom De Leon model is the product. It’s nothing fancy, says Van Leeuwen, with a walnut bolt-on neck and single-coil bridge/humbucker neck configuration, but it’s just made well. This one is tuned to C standard and strung with a custom set of Dunlop strings (.012–.058).

TVL’s RIY (Relic It Yourself)

This is the first-ever prototype of the signature oxblood Jazzmaster that Van Leeuwen received from Fender’s Custom Shop, and it also carries his first attempt at writing out his own signature. (It got better.) Van Leeuwen relic’d it himself with hard playing and natural wear and tear. It’s got a Mastery bridge.

Double the Jazz

This is number two of two double-neck Jazzmasters produced by Paul Waller at Fender’s Custom Shop. The bottom 6-string neck is essentially the Troy Van Leeuwen Jazzmaster, while the top splits the difference between an Electric 12 and a Telecaster, with a single-coil Tele pickup in the bridge and an offset pickup in the neck. A selector at the top toggles between top, bottom, or both signals, and basic controls for tone, volume, and pickup selection stay at the bottom.

Exploiter

This Echopark Explorer-style, nicknamed the “Exploiter,” came from a love of ’80s Ibanez and Hamer guitars. On its way back on a boat from Europe, it got exposed to seawater, which helped Van Leeuwen out with the relic’ing.

Van Leeuwen also packs a custom Echopark modeled after an old Teisco electric and a custom Fender 12-string Telecaster. Van Leeuwen hints that he’s been working with Squier to make an affordable version of the 12-string Tele.

A GMI PSA

Along with Currie and GMI’s Sean Romin, Van Leeuwen helped develop the GMI Public Address Systems 33F6. He describes it as having the power section of a Fender and the preamp section of a Marshall Jubilee. It’s a great pedal platform.

Van Leeuwen runs two 33F6s plus a Vox AC30. One 33F6 has his dry signal, and the AC30 carries the wet, while the second 33F6 carries wet lead signals. One cabinet is dedicated to the dry signal, while the other cab has one 12″ speaker for the AC30 and two 12″ speakers for the lead 33F6 signal. Three Austrian Audio condenser mics capture the signals.

Troy Van Leeuwen’s Board

All of Van Leeuwen’s pedals go through loops, with a RJM Mastermind PBC/6X and Mastermind GT/16 handling the switching, and most processing done through a Fractal FM3 and a pair of Eventide H9s. Van Leeuwen designed the boards, and his tech Cody helped build and program it.

Across the two boards, there’s a pair of both Electro-Harmonix Superegos and Way Huge Saffron Squeezes, plus Dunlop expression and volume pedals; EarthQuaker Devices Tentacle, Rainbow Machine, and Fuzz Master General; Way Huge Effect Pedal, Green Rhino, and Atreides; Echopark Echodriver; Ten Years Is A Decade; modified EHX Holiest Grail; and Dr. No Effects TVL Raven.