Dave Knudson (Minus the Bear) guitar rig

Dave Knudson the guitarist of indie/mathcore band Minus the Bear and formally of Botch is one of the more interesting and experimental guitar players going around at the moment.

He’s made a name for himself partly due to his penchant for two-handed tapping, which is particularly evident on the album Highly Refined Pirates, when it’s used on each track.

He’s also a big fan of the Line 6 DL-4 delay unit, using one live, and keeping three on hand as back ups.

Guitar wise, Knudson has excellent taste, favouring a PRS 22 Goldtop, Gibson Les Paul Custom Silverburst as well as a First Act Delia.

Whilst he used to be seen with a Fender Twin Reverb, he no longer uses it live, instead using a Mesa Boogie Lonestar with custom white Tolex through a Mesa Boogie 2X12″ extension cabinet.

Pedal wise, Knudson is clearly a big fan of the stomp box. His pedal line up seems to evolve frequently, however the Line 6 DL-4 delay remains a constant.

Pictured below is an image of his pedal board, taken just prior to the recording of the album, ‘Planet of Ice‘.

As you can see, the four DL-4’s take pride of place, other pedals in that shot include the Digitech Whammy, Dunlop Crybaby, BOSS DD-20 Giga Delay, BOSS GE-7 EQ, Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer, Electro-Harmonix HOG Guitar Synthesizer (with expression pedal attached), Enema FX Mingebox, BOSS Tuner TU-2.

For the recording of the Planet of Ice album the TS-9 was replaced by a Fulltone OCD overdrive. The expression pedal attached to the HOG is used to control the pitch similar to the way a whammy works, although this setup is used for chords.

Knudson has also been known to use the following pedals:

• BOSS RC-2 Loop Station (added in 2007)
• BOSS CS-3 compressor
• Barber Tone Press compressor
• FMR Really Nice compressor (no longer used live)

The variety of compressors are most likely used to assist with the sustain required for all that two handed tapping, although that’s just me speculating.

Update: May 2008

Here’s an image of Knudson’s pedal board taken at a April 2008 gig and posted on the Harmony-Central forums.