Mac DeMarco's Guitars, Amps & Gear List

This is one of the early acoustic guitars owned by Mac DeMarco. It was seen in numerous photos taken at his house, and it seems that he started using it around the time he started working on “2”. Most likely, it was his main acoustic guitar on that record.

He also used the guitar occasionally live, for instance on Studio 360 at PRX, which was posted on YouTube on July 16, 2015.

Most of the online sources, including Mac’s subreddit, have the guitar listed as a Kingston Sorrento V2, which indeed looks very similar. However, the rosette design is no the same as on Mac’s guitar, and the pickguard on the Kingston model is shaped very differently than the pickguard that was on Mac’s guitar at some point.

Mac DeMarco was seen using this guitar at the Pitchfork Live concert filmed on May 8, 2017, and on the gig he played for the Konbini YouTube channel sometime later that year.

Based on the looks, the guitar is a Gibson LG-2. Some sources have it listed as a J-45, but Mac’s guitar is smaller, and it has more pronounced body contours than a J-45. The two do look very alike though, so the confusion is understandable.

Mac’s LG-2 has an old-school Gibson script logo, which was used on Gibson guitars up until around 1947. The LG-2 model was introduced in 1940, so that means that Mac’s guitar was made sometime between those two years.

Mac DeMarco used this National 1155E acoustic guitar during the Live at Austin City Limits concert in February 2018 and at the Lollapalooza Chile that same year.

This guitar model, although branded as National, was actually produced by Gibson – or at least the body was. It is the exact same body that Gibson used on their J-45/J-50 model, and National just bolted their neck on it.

Mac’s guitar is an electrified version of the 1155 model (therefore the “E” at the end). This means that it had a pickup built-in, which interestingly was mounted under the end of the fingerboard with pole pieces sticking through the rosewood.

Mac played this guitar in a video posted over at Indie88 YouTube channel where he played an acoustic version of “Without Me”. The video was filmed in Ontario, Canada, and was posted on Jul 27, 2016, and as far as one can tell, this was the only time that Mac appeared publically with this guitar.

The Sigma DR-41 is sort of a knock-off model of the Martin D-45/41 – which is among the more expensive and fancy guitars out there. The brand Sigma itself was actually owned by C.F. Martin until 2007, so the models they produced were basically budget versions of Martins, and people generally regard them as well-built instruments for people who don’t really care about brands. Since AMI became the new owner of Sigma guitars in 2007, they were not allowed to use the brand name “Sigma” in the U.S. market, and instead, they are sold there as “Kindred” guitars.

The DR-41 model that Mac was using features a solid Sitka spruce top with Indian rosewood back and sides, and a mahogany Indian rosewood fretboard. The guitar also features Abalone fretboard inlays, styled after the Martin D-45 model, and gold-plated Grover tuners. This specific model is no longer available, but a similar one named DT-41 currently sells for around $700 new.

Mac has used an Epiphone FT-79 Texan since at least around 2019, but it has recently become his main acoustic guitar, the one he used on most of the recent shows (around 2023/24), Based on the photos, it’s a vintage model, probably from the 60s (based on the headstock logo), and it features a dark sunburst finish.

On a few ocassions, Mac had it fitted with a Sunrise S2 soundhole pickup.

In some of the most recent shows, a photograph can be seen glued on top of the guitar. If you happen to know who the person on the photo is, please be sure to leave a comment below.

Mac was seen playing this guitar live at the Bunny Glade during Pickathon, on August 3, 2014. Since this was his only public appearance with this guitar, it’s possible that he borrowed the guitar from someone just for this occasion.

This is the amplifier that Mac DeMarco used on his early records, at least up until Another One (2015). The amp belonged to Mac DeMarco’s grandmother, who aside from being an opera singer, was also a music teacher, and shed this exact amp to teach her student micing techniques.

The amplifier that I used to record my guitars – my grandmothter she gave me this, what is it, a Fender Vibro Champ. It’s a small 8-inch speaker guitar amp.

Mac DeMarco talks Dream Guitars | Gearheads

My grandmother once gave me an old amp, a Fender Vibro-Champ, which I’ve used to record all of the guitar parts on every one of my albums.

When she first offered it to me, I was like, “Wait! There’s no distortion switch? No reverb?” But it’s the best sounding amp I ever played through and I’ve come to appreciate it so much.

WANTED/NEEDED/LOVED: MAC DEMARCO’S “SIGNATURE” GUITAR

This is actually a keyboard amp, but Mac DeMarco used it as sort of a cabinet for his Fender Vibro Champ when playing live. He’d have the Vibro Champ miced up, and run the mic to the input of the KC-550.

What I’ve been doing recently is to bring a really big 200-watt keyboard amp, take a really small Fender amp — actually the one we use to record the albums with — and put that on top of the big one,

Then I’ll mic that small Fender amp with my own mic, which goes into the keyboard amp, so it’s just a giant cab for the little guy. Then I run all the keyboards on the stage into that big keyboard amp as well.

Mac DeMarco – original source needed.

Mac used this amp around 2012/13 as his main live amp. In an interview with Reverb.com, Mac explained that in those days, he would his guitar straight to the amp, without any pedals.

I would just plug my gutiar, Into an old 70s Twin, like a Silverface one. Obviously, it has spring reverb on it, that’s an effect, but that was it. That was all I did.

Mac DeMarco Nerds Out About Music Gear | Reverb Interview

Mac DeMarco used a Roland Jazz Chorus 120 amp live around the time he released This Old Dog, in 2017. He didn’t use if for too long, and by 2018 he moved on to a Fender Twin Reverb.

Most notably, he was seen using the amp at the Sziget Festival in Budapest and at the Primavera Sound in Barcelona – both available for viewing on YouTube.

Mac used this rack effect unit while recording his second solo album. According to an answer that he himself posted on Yahoo Answers (page now removed), he used the effect on “Cooking up Something Good” “Freaking out the Neighborhood” and “Ode to Viceroy”.

I ran my guitar through an alesis microverb 4 rack unit into a fender vibrochamp. preset 37 is the chorus from cooking up something good. preset 44 is the flanger from freaking out the neighborhood. and preset 84 is the weird delay flange from ode to viceroy.

jah bless

Mac D

Yahoo Answers – page now offline

In a 2019 interview with Reverb.com, Mac also explained how he fell in love with the unit because it had so many effects, and it had a mix knob that allowed him to get either just the clean guitar signal or the full effect signal. He discovered that he really liked the dry chorus, without the clean signal.

This is one of the more recent additions to Mac DeMarco’s pedalboard. It was first seen during the interview that Mac did with Reverb.com in 2019.

Mac uses the mini version of the TC Electronics Shaker, with three knobs.

I got this one recently, it’s called a shaker. Just makes it a little out of tune, you know.

Mac DeMarco Nerds Out About Music Gear | Reverb Interview

This 8-track digital multitracker was what Mac DeMarco used to record his early stuff, and what introduced him to guitar effects.

A lot of my first records that I made when I was a kid were on this Fostex VF80 disk drive recorder thingy. It had built-in effects, so I decided one day to plug my guitar into it.

That was kind of my first guitar pedal, but it was like a giant primitive digital recorder. But it had a chorus on it, I think it had a flanger on it…

Mac DeMarco Nerds Out About Music Gear | Reverb Interview

Mac DeMarco uses the MXR Carbon Copy (both the full-size version and the mini version) as his main delay pedal. He started them very early on, around 2014, and continues using them to this day. Occasionally, he even has two of them on his pedalboard (see photo below).

Mac also noted in an interview with Reverb.com that he only uses the pedals for live gigs, and never used them on any of the studio recordings.

I’ve always used these Carbon Copies – I’ve never used them on a record, but I’ve used them live forever.

Mac DeMarco Nerds Out About Music Gear | Reverb Interview

This pedal was seen on Mac’s pedalboard during the interview he did with Reverb.com in 2019. Unfortunately, he did not really go into much detail regarding his use of the pedal, but it’s worth noting that this is the first compressor pedal that he was seen using.

Mac used this chorus pedal for playing live around 2013/2014.

Mac was seen using this pedal in the 2019 interview with Reverb.com. The pedal is a DI box, preamp, and equalizer all-in-one, and its circuitry and the gain stages are based on a Neve recording console.

If you wanna get nasty, you get the Colour Box.

Mac DeMarco Nerds Out About Music Gear | Reverb Interview

This echo unit was seen at Mac’s home studio in the Pitchfork documentary filmed in 2014, and he occasionally used it live, although it seems very rarely (see Mac DeMarco performs at One Million Square Feet).

The Roland RE-210 is a tape echo unit that was produced until 1990. In case you’re unfamiliar with tape echos – they produce the echo effect by recording the signal to a tape, and playing it back with a delay.

This pedal was seen on Mac’s pedalboard in the early years, circa 2013/2014. After that, he seemed to have switched to a Little Lanilei Spring Reverb for a brief period of time, and then onto a Boss RV-6 Reverb, again shorty, and then went back the Holy Grail. .

Mac DeMarco used a Zoom multi-effects pedal in the early years when playing live, circa 2015. According to him, he loved the pedal, but it sounded terrible on the PA, so he got rid of it.

I used to play through this – it was a crappy plastic Zoom pedal with like a bunch of multi effects on it. I loved that thing. But, our front of house guy was like – it sounds like garbage.

Mac DeMarco Nerds Out About Music Gear | Reverb Interview

Based on the looks – the color of the pedal, and the chrome ring around the display, he used a G1u model.

Mac used this pedal extensively during the “This Old Dog” tour in 2017/18. By 2019 he replaced it with a TC Electronics Shaker Vibrato.

Mac DeMarco used a Little Lanilei reverb pedal briefly around 2014. This is a pretty unique pedal, because it’s an actual spring reverb, while basically all other reverb pedals on the market are just digital emulators. However, for one reason or another Mac didn’t seem to use it for that long, and by 2015 he moved onto a Holy Grail reverb from EHX.

Mac DeMarco used this pedal briefly for live gigs around 2014, together with a Little Lanilei Reverb and an MXR Carbon Copy delay. In 2015 he most likely used his Zoom G1u to get his chorus effect, and later on he moved onto a Boss CE-2 Chorus.

According to an interview Mac gave to Reverb.com in 2019, this is among the first, if not the first effect pedal that he used.

And then I think I got a delay pedal at some point. And I was like – okay, it sounds like John Lenon on the vocal, that’s cool. I like that.

Mac DeMarco Nerds Out About Music Gear | Reverb Interview

It’s unclear when exactly Mac used this pedal, but it seems impossible to find any photos of it. In the same interview with Reverb, he sort of tells the story chronologically, how he first played straight into a Twin Reverb amp and then got this pedal after a while. The Twin Reverb he used from around 2011, so probably sometime in 2012 is when he got this delay.

This pedal was seen on Mac’s pedalboard around 2015. At that point, he was using it together with a Boss TU-3 tuner (also featured in our Best Guitar Tuners list), Zoom G1u, and an MXR Carbon Copy delay.

This seems to be the reverb pedal that directly replaced the EHX Holy Grail that Mac was using up until around 2017-ish.

This pedal was seen on Mac’s pedalboard around 2014, but he apparently also used it in 2017 during the “This Old Dog” tour. Towards 2020 he moved on to a JHS Colour Box, which essentially does the same thing – it boosts the signal, which is something guitarists usually do when they are about to play a solo.

According to Mac, he’s been mostly using Earnie Ball guitar strings since he was around 13. His main go-to choice is the Regular Slinky set, which is the 10-46, but he occasionally uses different gauges.

I remember being in Avenue guitars which is a guitar store my hometown in Edmonton looking over the counter and you see you know the pack and it’s got it like what is it a hawk or an eagle on the front nice design kind of psychedelic. I was like yeah I guess I’ll get those ones yeah.

I’ve gone through phases of using elevens or even when I wasn’t as on top of everything and a little bit more of a broke man I kind of whatever I had was like okay we’re playing 14s for the show.

Ernie Ball: String Theory featuring Mac DeMarco

Mac DeMarco usually uses these orange Dunlop Tortex .60mm guitar picks when playing live. On occasions he used custom made guitar picks with his own prints.