Mike McCready's Gear Collection

This is one of Mike’s favorite acoustic guitars. In an interview with the Vintage Guitar magazine (source below), Mike noted that he remembers seeing a Gibson Dove on photos of Rolling Stones recording their album Exile on Main Street at Villa Nellcote in the south of France, and that played a big role in him starting to like these guitars.

I love my mid-’60s Gibson Dove and Hummingbird. I also have a newer Doves in Flight from the Montana factory; it’s so beautiful.

Mike McCready – Strat Swap: Fender CS Mark Anniversary of Ten

Mike was seen playing this guitar during an interview with Fretboard Journal in 2013, in which he explained how he came up with the song “Sirens”.

This is one of Mike’s favorite acoustic guitars, next to his Gibson Dove. Unfortunately, not a lot is known about this guitar, and Mike doesn’t seem to use it live very often. If you happen anything regarding when Mike got it, and whether he used it in the studio, please be sure to leave a comment below.

I love my mid-’60s Gibson Dove and Hummingbird.I also have a couple of Martins I like a lot, but I gravitate to the Gibsons because I saw the Stones using them in pictures from Exile on Main Street, and I thought, “Well, they’re my favorite band.” There’s a mythology to them, about how Gram Parsons played them, and the Everly Brothers. I bought into it, and still do, but they also play great and sound so warm.

Mike McCready – Strat Swap: Fender CS Mark Anniversary of Ten

Mike was seen playing a Taylor in a video recorded at this home sometime around 2012. It could be that Mike was using this Taylor as his “idea guitar” – the one that he would use to come up with ideas for the songs – since that’s exactly what’s he doing in the video.

According to Mike McCready, he used a Fender Bassman amp during the recording of Pearl Jam’s debut album Ten, specifically for clean tones. This includes the clean tone heard on one of the album’s biggest hits, “Black.”

I had a Marshall JCM800 with a 4×12 cabinet with, I think, 25-watt speakers in it. And I had a Fender Bassman for the clean tones. You can hear that on Black.

Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready looks back on 30 years of Ten

While Mike mentions using a Fender Bassman, he doesn’t specify the exact model. It could have been a Fender Bassman Tweed, a combo amp, or a Bassman head.

Mike started using this amp around 2011, in conjecture with a 65 Amps Empire head. The amp remained a part of his regular live rig until around 2022.

I’m using 65amps right now—I think it’s a 30-watt. So I’m using that in conjunction with a Satellite headI run both of those consecutively generally through four Marshall 25-watt speakers. I run a combination of the 65 and the Satellite generally the whole time when we’re doing Pearl Jam shows live.

Then I kick on one more head called “Savage” made by Andy Wolf who is the Stones guitar tech. I use the Savage for a clean tone, which goes through two 10″ speakers. I use the two consecutively as I said before then when I’m about to do a solo I kick all three on.

Premier Guitar Interview: Mike McCready on Mad Season Reissue and New Pearl Jam

Mike used this amp on Pearl Jam’s debut album Ten, paired with a Fender Bassman – which he would use specifically for clean tones.

I had a Marshall JCM800 with a 4×12 cabinet with, I think, 25-watt speakers in it. And I had a Fender Bassman for the clean tones. You can hear that on Black.

Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready looks back on 30 years of Ten

Mike started using this amp during the Pearl Jam 2022 tour, paired with a Tonemaster Twin Reverb, and a Rola Lead Custom. Based on the placement of the amp, it seems like this amp directly replaced the 65 Amps Empire amp that Mike was using prior to this.

This amp is actually a modeling amp, meaning it uses a modern digital processor to produce a sound modeled after the legendary Deluxe Reverb tube amp. It has two channels, clean and vibrato, the second of which allows you to play with reverb on.

Mike used this amp as part of his live rig from around 2011 to 2013, at which point it was replaced with a Union Jack HG.

I’m using 65amps right now—I think it’s a 30-watt. So I’m using that in conjunction with a Satellite headI run both of those consecutively generally through four Marshall 25-watt speakers. I run a combination of the 65 and the Satellite generally the whole time when we’re doing Pearl Jam shows live.

Premier Guitar Interview: Mike McCready on Mad Season Reissue and New Pearl Jam

Mike started using this amp around 2021/22 instead of his old Union Jack HG amp. The amp was custom-built by Derek Springer, the same person who built the Union Jack amp that Mike used prior to this. Apparently, Derek at some point lost the trademark to the “Union Jack” name, so he rebranded to “Rola”.

Mike used a Union Jack HG 50w amp as part of his live rig from around 2013 to 2022. The amp directly replaced a Satellite Atom head that he was using prior. In 2022, after Union Jack rebranded to “Rola”, Mike started using one of their new heads instead.

Mike started using this amp around 2022, and it was seen sitting on stage behind him usually below a Tone Master Deluxe Reverb. Based on how Mike arranged his amps in the past, these two seemed to have directly replaced the 65 Amps Empire and the Savage Blitz 50 amp that Mike was using prior to this.

The Fender Tone Master Twin Reverb is basically a modern version of the legendary Twin Reverb amp, but instead of tubes, the amp uses a modern digital processor to model that desired vintage sound.

In a 2013 interview with Premier Guitar, Mike mentioned that at that time he was using a 65 Amps amp in combination with a Satellite amp for dirty tones, and a Savage head made by Andy Wolf for clean tones.

Based on the photos and videos, the exact model that Mike is using is a 22W Empire head with a 2×10 cabinet. He started using the amp around 2012 and continued using it all the way until Pearl Jam’s 2022 tour when switched to a Fender Tone Master Deluxe Reverb instead.

I’m using 65amps right now—I think it’s a 30-watt. Peter Stroud makes them and I love the amps a lot. So I’m using that in conjunction with a Satellite head—Satellite is a local [Seattle] company—and I think it’s a 32- or 35-watt. I run both of those consecutively generally through four Marshall 25-watt speakers. I run a combination of the 65 and the Satellite generally the whole time when we’re doing Pearl Jam shows live.

Premier Guitar Interview: Mike McCready on Mad Season Reissue and New Pearl Jam

This has been Mike’s main choice of wah pedal in recent years. This particular wah pedal has a built-in Built-in MXR MC-401 Boost/LineDriver Effect, and internal Q and gain controls, making it a bit more versatile than a standard wah pedal.

Mike bought this effect unit from Andy Wolf, Rolling Stones guitar tech, around the time Pearl Jam’s album “Ten” came out. In an interview with Premier Guitar in 2013 he mentioned that he still has the unit, and that was considered adding it to his signal chain at that point.

I think I might also use this Billy Zoom Reverb and Tremolo unit that I bought from [Andy Wolf] when X was out. He makes these things and they are amazing and I would highly recommend them to anyone.

Interview: Mike McCready on Mad Season Reissue and New Pearl Jam

The Ibanez TS-9 has been one of Mike’s main pedals ever since the 90s. One of the main reasons why Mike started using one is the fact that Stevie Ray Vaughan, one of his key influences, also used one.

I’ve got the tried-and-true original Ibanez Tube Screamer because Stevie Ray Vaughan used one and I’ve been using it ever since. I love the fuzz from it.

Interview: Mike McCready on Mad Season Reissue and New Pearl Jam

This is another pedal that has been present on Mike’s pedalboard for a very long time, indicating that Mike has used it extensively. Unfortunately, there’s apparently zero interview out there where Mike specified why he likes this pedal, and on which songs he used, so we’re left with very little information.

Line MM4 has 16 different modulation effects, based on what Line 6 discovered to be the most popular modulation effect at the time when this pedal was created. It’s basically an all-in-one pedal that recreates some of the iconic pedals like the Univibe or the Phase 90.

Mike used this pedal in the early years of Pearl Jam, and with Mad Season on their 1995 album Above. It seems like he stopped using it around 1996/96, and resorted to using Dunlop Univibe instead.

This was Mike’s main wah pedal during the 90s. Although there are no direct quotes from Mike, it’s very like that he used this wah on the Ten albums, on songs such as “Even flow” and “Alive”.

Mike, of course, used the 90s 535 model, which has since gone through a couple of different versions, and currently sells as the “535Q”.

Mike McCready used the Boss DM-3 around the “Yield” era, roughly in 1998. It’s unclear why he favored it during that period or why he chose it over the Line 6 DL-4 delay, which he also used around the same time. There’s speculation that the DM-3 might have been featured on the track “Low Light.”

The Xotic Effects AC Boost pedal was seen on Mike’s pedalboard circa 2012.

This pedal was seen briefly on Mike’s pedalboard around 2012, replacing Mike’s Ibanez TS-9. The pedal was captured on a photo posted on Mike McCready’s tumble page that same year.

The Line 6 DL-4 Delay has been one of the longest-standing pedal effects on Mike’s pedalboard, and he has been using it since the early 90s. It’s likely his main delay pedal, but he occasionally used different models, like the Boss DM-2.

Mike started using the Hughes & Kettner Tube Rotosphere pedal to recreate the Leslie speaker effect sometime around the early 2000s. Based on the few photos that show the pedal on his pedalboard, he used the Mk2 model of the Rotosphere.

The EHX POG2 Polyphonic Octave Generator can be seen pretty regularly on Mike’s pedalboard since around 2012. According to an interview he did with Premier Guitar, Mike really likes this pedal and the fact that it makes the guitar sound less like a guitar.

The thing I’ve been really excited about lately that I saw the guys in Soundgarden using at their rehearsal is the POG2—the Poly Octave Generator. I’ve been doing a little bit of scoring and I worked on an episode of Shameless and did this movie Fat Kid Rules the World and ended up using the POG on a few things because it makes the guitar not sound like a guitar. It makes it sound like a weird calliope or an organ—kind of makes some cool sounds.

Interview: Mike McCready on Mad Season Reissue and New Pearl Jam

These have been Mike’s main choice of guitar strings ever since the 90s, and Mike is listed as one of the endorsed artists on the GHS website. He’s known for using the .010-.046 set, but it’s possible that he’s using different gauges on some of his guitars.

These are the strings that Mike McCready used on his acoustic guitars in the 90s. It’s unknown whether he has since changed his preferred set or not, but it’s likely that he’s using something similar, at least in terms of gauges.

The low E string on the M150 set measures 0.054″, the A string measures 0.042″, the D string measures 0.032″, the G string measures 0.025″, the B string measures 0.016″, and the high E string measures 0.012″.

In the 90s, Mike was mostly using the Dunlop Tortex .88mm green guitar picks. Sometime after Pearl Jam became hugely popular, Mike seemed to have struck a deal with Dunlop, and they made him his own custom picks basically for each tour. Early on they were just the same green Tortex .88mm picks with Mike’s own print on them, but later on, he started using different variations with different colors and possibly different thicknesses.