“The pedals I’ve collected take me on a trip through all sorts of beautiful spaceship sounds”: Isaiah Mitchell of Earthless reveals what’s on his pedalboard

Isaiah Mitchell performs live on a Fender Stratocaster
(Image credit: Ken Buglione)

“I need a simple but effective combination of pedals to get a spaced-out, psychedelic wall of sonic textures. I’m forever searching for sounds I grew up hearing, and the pedals I’ve collected pretty much take me on a trip through all sorts of beautiful spaceship sounds. 

“But I also need my pedals to be warm and usable, meaning I’m forever searching for the perfect combination of pedals that give me all I need and have unique characteristics, but aren’t too complicated.

“From my guitar, I run into a Korg Pitchblack X [Chromatic Pedal Tuner], which leads into an Xotic [XW-2] Wah, which I know is weird, but I prefer my wah before my gain stuff. That leads into a Cesar Diaz Texas Ranger [Treble] Booster, which goes into an MXR [Custom Shop] Hybrid Fuzz.

“Then there’s my Klon KTR that I use as a warm drive and tonal filter for the Hybrid Fuzz; I love stacking treble boosters and drives to create an optional, over-the-top fuzz effect.

“Next, I’ve got my Make Sounds Loudly 3 in 1, with one side based on an [EHX] Deluxe Memory Man for longer delay and the other off a Tape Echo Emulator for shorter delay length. From there, the chain goes through a Strymon Flint [V2] Tremolo & Reverb, which I mainly use for the Harmonic and Sixties Reverb settings.”

Isaiah Mitchell's pedalboard

(Image credit: Courtesy of Isaiah Mitchell)

If I had to choose one pedal for a whole show...

“It’s hard to pick only one pedal for an Earthless show, but If I had to, it’d be the Cesar Diaz Texas Ranger Treble Booster all the way. It’s such a great pedal, and I’ve loved it since I got it.”

Andrew Daly

Andrew Daly is an iced-coffee-addicted, oddball Telecaster-playing, alfredo pasta-loving journalist from Long Island, NY, who, in addition to being a contributing writer for Guitar World, scribes for Bass Player, Guitar Player, Guitarist, and Music Radar. Andrew has interviewed favorites like Ace Frehley, Johnny Marr, Vito Bratta, Bruce Kulick, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Morello, Rich Robinson, and Paul Stanley, while his all-time favorite (rhythm player), Keith Richards, continues to elude him.