- 2 hours ago
Become a member (it's FREE) at https://digtb.us/signup
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On this episode of DTB’s “Gear Masters”, Richard Chowenhill, guitarist of the black metal band, Agriculture, shows off the gear that he uses onstage, while on tour with Knoll. Agriculture is currently supporting their newest album, The Spiritual Sound.
PLAY THE SAME GEAR:
EVH Wolfgang Special Electric Guitar - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/KBB6ON
Lollar Custom Prototype Humbucker Pickups - https://www.lollarguitars.com/lollar-humbucker-pickups
Graph Tech Ratio Locking Tuners - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/DWW6O2
Ernie Ball Regular Slinky Nickel Wound Electric Guitar Strings (10–46) - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/k44K9L
Jim Dunlop Primetone Mandolin Pick (1.4mm / 1.5mm) - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/qWWKOn
Fender Third Man Records Coiled Instrument Cable - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/DWW6Ry
Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/vDNn23
JHS Pedals Kill Switch - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/jRR7Jn
Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork Polyphonic Pitch Shifter - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/5kkd1n
Morley Mini Bad Horsie Wah Pedal - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/aNNorj
Line 6 HX Stomp Multi-Effects Processor - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/AggORR
JHS Pedals Muffuletta Distortion/Fuzz - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/Jkk6RQ
Voodoo Lab Pedal Power Supply - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/ZVVGYR
Orange Pedal Baby 100 Power Amplifier - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/X44a25
VIDEO INFO:
Film Date - February 4, 2026
Location - Empty Bottle in Chicago, IL
KEEP UP WITH AGRICULTURE:
Facebook - https://facebook.com/agriculturemusic
Instagram - https://instagram.com/agriculture_music
TikTok - https://tiktok.com/@agriculture_blackmetal
Twitter - https://twitter.com/Agriculture666
FOLLOW US:
Website/Email List - https://www.digitaltourbus.com/#/portal/signup
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/digitaltourbus
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/digitaltourbus/
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@digitaltourbus
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/digitaltourbus/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/digitaltourbus
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/digitaltourbus/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/digital-tour-bus-llc
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/user/digitaltourbus
VIDEO SUMMARY:
00:00 Introduction
00:37 Skip Intro
01:34 Guitar
05:25 Guitar Pick
08:24 Pedalboard
13:56 Amp & Cabinet
ABOUT DIGITAL TOUR BUS:
Digital Tour Bus is your backstage pass to your favorite touring artists! With daily video releases, we cover all genres, and have had the pleasure of featuring the likes of Matchbox Twenty, Twenty One Pilots, Megadeth, MGK, Papa Roach, AJR, Pierce The Veil, Simple Plan, A Day to Remember, and thousands of others over the past 15 years. "Bus Invaders" takes you inside an artist's home on the road, "Cooking at 65mph" showcases the culinary skills of artists on tour, "Gear Masters" unveils the equipment musicians use on stage, and "Stage Threads" dives into the meaning and inspiration behi
Buy official DTB merch at http://digtb.us/merch
On this episode of DTB’s “Gear Masters”, Richard Chowenhill, guitarist of the black metal band, Agriculture, shows off the gear that he uses onstage, while on tour with Knoll. Agriculture is currently supporting their newest album, The Spiritual Sound.
PLAY THE SAME GEAR:
EVH Wolfgang Special Electric Guitar - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/KBB6ON
Lollar Custom Prototype Humbucker Pickups - https://www.lollarguitars.com/lollar-humbucker-pickups
Graph Tech Ratio Locking Tuners - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/DWW6O2
Ernie Ball Regular Slinky Nickel Wound Electric Guitar Strings (10–46) - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/k44K9L
Jim Dunlop Primetone Mandolin Pick (1.4mm / 1.5mm) - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/qWWKOn
Fender Third Man Records Coiled Instrument Cable - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/DWW6Ry
Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/vDNn23
JHS Pedals Kill Switch - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/jRR7Jn
Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork Polyphonic Pitch Shifter - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/5kkd1n
Morley Mini Bad Horsie Wah Pedal - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/aNNorj
Line 6 HX Stomp Multi-Effects Processor - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/AggORR
JHS Pedals Muffuletta Distortion/Fuzz - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/Jkk6RQ
Voodoo Lab Pedal Power Supply - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/ZVVGYR
Orange Pedal Baby 100 Power Amplifier - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/X44a25
VIDEO INFO:
Film Date - February 4, 2026
Location - Empty Bottle in Chicago, IL
KEEP UP WITH AGRICULTURE:
Facebook - https://facebook.com/agriculturemusic
Instagram - https://instagram.com/agriculture_music
TikTok - https://tiktok.com/@agriculture_blackmetal
Twitter - https://twitter.com/Agriculture666
FOLLOW US:
Website/Email List - https://www.digitaltourbus.com/#/portal/signup
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/digitaltourbus
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/digitaltourbus/
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@digitaltourbus
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/digitaltourbus/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/digitaltourbus
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/digitaltourbus/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/digital-tour-bus-llc
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/user/digitaltourbus
VIDEO SUMMARY:
00:00 Introduction
00:37 Skip Intro
01:34 Guitar
05:25 Guitar Pick
08:24 Pedalboard
13:56 Amp & Cabinet
ABOUT DIGITAL TOUR BUS:
Digital Tour Bus is your backstage pass to your favorite touring artists! With daily video releases, we cover all genres, and have had the pleasure of featuring the likes of Matchbox Twenty, Twenty One Pilots, Megadeth, MGK, Papa Roach, AJR, Pierce The Veil, Simple Plan, A Day to Remember, and thousands of others over the past 15 years. "Bus Invaders" takes you inside an artist's home on the road, "Cooking at 65mph" showcases the culinary skills of artists on tour, "Gear Masters" unveils the equipment musicians use on stage, and "Stage Threads" dives into the meaning and inspiration behi
Category
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FunTranscript
00:00You don't have to go toe down to click it on.
00:03I actually use a mandolin pick.
00:04There's even a little thing in the back where it holds a spare fuse.
00:08So I just have a Euro fuse on one side and then a US fuse on the other side.
00:38Hey, this is Richard Challenhoe from the band Agriculture.
00:40I play lead guitar and I'm also the producer of our records.
00:45So right now we're on tour in Chicago.
00:47We're at the Empty Bottle here for a sold out show.
00:52We're about in the middle of a US tour.
00:54So we started in Philly and we're kind of going through East Coast, Midwest, up to Canada
01:00and then back down for finishing off with three shows in New York.
01:04And we'll be back in the States again in the spring as well as over in Europe.
01:09So hopefully we'll catch you guys out there.
01:11We're supporting our new record that came out last year called The Spiritual Sound.
01:15It's out on the Flenser in all formats on all streaming platforms.
01:19You can check that out.
01:20Also, if you come see us, you can buy all the physical copies from us.
01:24We've also got tons of cool merch and stuff and we also love talking to y'all.
01:27So if you ever want to come out, talk to me or Leah or Dan or Kern about gear or
01:31anything like that.
01:32We're pretty friendly and I love chatting about that stuff.
01:34So this guitar is an EVH Wolfgang Special that I've done some mods on.
01:43So the first thing is these are Lawler pickups and these are prototypes of a humbucker that's going to be
01:49coming out soon.
01:50In fact, it's likely that by the time this video is out, they'll already be available.
01:55So this is the newest offering from Lawler.
01:58They're really, really, really good.
01:59I love them.
02:01I really like clarity.
02:03Clarity is really important for me even with a lot of gain.
02:05And we actually don't play with a ton of gain just because I like that extra clarity.
02:10But this has allowed me to get even more clarity and sustain, especially with the bigger tremolo picked sort of
02:16black metal style chords.
02:17It really helps to have that extra clarity.
02:20And then for the solos, volume is one thing, but also just overall kind of spectral clarity is really important.
02:27And getting those extra harmonics allows me to still be at a nice level with the rest of the band,
02:33but still come out for the solos.
02:35So that's really important.
02:36And I am loving these pickups from Lawler.
02:38Great company, family owned in Tacoma, Washington.
02:42Really great folks to work with.
02:43So I've been loving these.
02:45I've also got these locking tuners on here.
02:48So I replaced the stock ones on here just because we retune kind of a lot.
02:54So we play our current set.
02:55I think we do four different tunings, three or four different tunings.
02:58And tuning is also really important to me.
03:00It's just a thing that I have, especially with three string players on stage.
03:05So two guitars and the bass, of course, and it's a five string bass.
03:11So a lot of strings, a lot of stuff to go out of tune, a lot of sort of funky
03:15stuff to deal with.
03:16So having the extra stability for me has been really nice.
03:21These are from GrafTech.
03:22The other thing I really like about these, in addition to being locking, is they're the ratio line.
03:27Which means that each one is a different ratio.
03:29Essentially calibrated so that one turn gets you the same pitch difference or change per string.
03:37Which again might seem like a small thing, but if you're doing tons of shows a year,
03:41and you're doing different tunings in different, you know, it's like 12 degrees outside right now.
03:47And it's like, what, like 80 degrees in here right now.
03:49So all of those variables, it really helps to have that extra stability.
03:52So I just really love that.
03:54And that's been great.
03:56I put these on pretty recently and I put these in pretty recently as well.
03:59And so far it's been quite nice.
04:00So the other thing I really like about this guitar is it's got a unique neck shape.
04:04So it's a little thicker on one end than the other end.
04:08And that's a kind of a Wolfgang thing that has just always fit my hand really nicely.
04:13It's kind of a have your cake, you need it too situation, which I like.
04:16So that's been working great for me.
04:18In terms of how I gain stage the rig, I do up all the time.
04:23You can see the knobs have fallen off and I've just kept them like that.
04:27I like the roughness here too.
04:28It's sort of like, side note, I get very sweaty when performing live.
04:32And I can just sort of rub the sweat off using this.
04:35It's almost like a file, but I like it.
04:38And it also helps make sure that they just kind of stay set.
04:41So I usually just have them rolled all the way up.
04:43I do play with the volume knob, especially with like transitions.
04:46I like to fade in and out with feedback things and stuff like that, segues between songs.
04:51So I mess with that, but in terms of the actual playing, it's always turned up.
04:55And any dips in volume are programmed on the pedal, and I'll show you that in a minute.
05:00Strings I'm using, I almost always use tens.
05:03So these are Ernie Ball.
05:04This is just the lime green pack.
05:06Robert Ochoa is our guy at Ernie Ball.
05:08Really, really cool guy.
05:10Really great guy.
05:10He sends us these strings and keeps us in tune.
05:13For me, I play about a million notes a night, so I have to change strings every night.
05:16Otherwise, they just break.
05:19So I like them.
05:21You put them on, they sound great, and they last the whole set.
05:24So the pick I use, I actually use a mandolin pick.
05:27And I've been using one of these, right side up for you.
05:31I've been using one of these for, or some version of a mandolin pick for the last, I guess about
05:3715 years now.
05:38I was playing a lot of mandolin at that time, in addition to guitar, and I just really fell in
05:42love with the bigger size.
05:44It just gives me more to work with.
05:46I really like to dig in for some things, the sort of Eddie Van Halen style to get those extra
05:50harmonics.
05:51You know, combination of thumb and pick.
05:53Digging in is nice.
05:53Also, I can like really grip it close, and it works kind of like a Jazz 3.
05:57Also really important, again, back to me sweating a lot, the grip is huge for me.
06:03I just really like that.
06:05It's also beveled on the edges, which for my tremolo style is really, really useful.
06:11For me, it's just, it's just a little bit clearer in terms of the attack.
06:16It's a little less scratchy, a little clearer.
06:18Almost like having a nice filed nail with like classical guitar.
06:21That's kind of what it reminds me of.
06:23And yeah, it's great.
06:25I love these things.
06:25They're really, really great.
06:26These are, these ones are made by Jim Dunwap.
06:29This is a 1.4 millimeter.
06:32So pretty thick.
06:33The 1.4 and 1.5, I'll kind of go back and forth depending on kind of my mood and
06:37availability of pick.
06:38But I think 1.4 is what I tend to use.
06:41And I just like a really thick pick.
06:43There's very little flex.
06:45And that's really important to me also with the really fast tremolo picking is to have a lot of control
06:49and just fewer variables when it comes to like kind of things like bending and flexing and stuff like that.
06:54And if I need, again, if I need something a little like flexier, a little like plunkier or plickier, I
07:00can just loosen my grip and back up my grip.
07:03And then I can get that more kind of classic, like acoustic, plucky sound.
07:09So for me, this pick is all about like convenience, durability, and versatility.
07:13So I love coily cables.
07:16This one is a Fender one.
07:17This is a Third Man series one.
07:19I like the yellow also because it's just sometimes when the stage goes dark or we have strobes on and
07:26I'm, you know, way in the front of stage and I need to come back to my position to get
07:30on the wah pedal or flip a switch, I can see it so I don't kind of trip over it.
07:33It's just easy for me to see.
07:34So I'll usually go with like a green one or a yellow one, something bright.
07:38The coily cable is also just convenient for, you know, walking across stage.
07:41I'll walk across to hit the sampler and things like that.
07:44It just gets tangled less.
07:46There's also the whole thing, you know, about the coily cable.
07:51It's a longer cable run.
07:52So theoretically, it rolls off a little bit of the top end, that kind of classic Hendrix thing.
07:58Whether or not that's real or just placebo, you know, that's up to you.
08:01And also, even if it is real, whether you can hear that in a venue, I'm not sure, but I
08:05just like the feel and the convenience.
08:07I think they look cool.
08:08I grew up watching Hendrix videos and he often had coily cables and it's just got a cool vintage look
08:13that I think is fun.
08:14So I like it.
08:15So the chain I'm running is I go straight into just straight up Boss Chromatic Tuner.
08:22It's classic.
08:23These things are just built like tanks.
08:24They last forever and I love them.
08:26I have mine set to bypass as opposed to output, which means that it can just move.
08:31It can just always be on.
08:33I like this.
08:34Again, getting back to the tuning thing.
08:35If in the middle of a song, I hear something kind of out, it's easier for me to see if
08:40it's coming for me or somebody else
08:41so I know if between songs I need to sort of tune something.
08:44Now what that means is it doesn't work as a kill switch.
08:47So immediately after that, I've got the JHS kill switch here, which is on and off.
08:55Pretty convenient.
08:56And I've just got it right here.
08:57So it's just kind of the easiest thing to hit.
08:58It's right on the edge of my board.
08:59This goes into the electro harmonics pitchfork, which I only use for one song.
09:07And it's because even though I do a lot of pitch things in general, I really like having this for
09:14the song The Weight.
09:16During the solo, there's this really kind of gnarly sounding two octaves up pitch thing that happens.
09:23And the reason I like this is it's got sort of quirks with tracking.
09:27The tracking isn't exactly on and you can kind of hear it struggle a little bit.
09:30And for me, that's definitely a feature, not a bug.
09:33I love that sound.
09:35It's like kind of crucial for that part in the solo.
09:37Which is why I just use it kind of standard into everything else is to get that funky sound.
09:44From there, we're going into the Morley.
09:47This is the mini version of the Bad Horsey.
09:50I like to keep everything contained on one board like this.
09:54So with a bigger one, I might have to go off the board.
09:56So I like this one.
09:57That's the first thing I love about this.
09:59The second thing I love about this, you don't have to go toe down to click it on.
10:04You just have to step on it and it immediately comes on.
10:07For me, I love that.
10:09For instance, the solo for Bodhidharma, I'm transitioning from a clean guitar part right
10:14into the solo and the solo starts in the heel down position.
10:17So this way, you don't hear a crack or a pop coming through the system.
10:21You know, those other wah pedals are great for studio and things like that,
10:24but maybe in a louder context.
10:27But for me, especially because I often start in the heel down position and usually kind of
10:34in the middle of a solo, I'll start either in the middle of a solo or right after a quiet
10:38part,
10:39I'll start the wah pedal.
10:40It's nice to have this because it's kind of a seamless transition.
10:44From there, I'm going into my Line 6 HX Stomp.
10:50So I love the Helix system.
10:55I've been using this, I started using this just for time-based effects years ago
10:59when we were still using tube heads on tour.
11:01And now I use it for modeling as well.
11:04So it's basically just got a model of my 6505 plus head and then all the time-based effects.
11:12And I love using this for a few reasons.
11:15First of all, convenience is huge.
11:17So for us, I like to keep consistency in our rig sort of place to place.
11:23And we do a lot of touring in Europe as well.
11:26So I have the exact same rig in the States as I do in Europe.
11:31And that's just really nice and convenient.
11:33The consistency just adds a level of security to your psyche, right?
11:38The other thing I love about this is I have the whole set programmed.
11:44So what I do, and I'll have little fail-safes in between,
11:47but I can go through the whole set this way.
11:51And this is really convenient because the time-based effects are slightly different for each song.
11:57So I produce and mix and master all of our records.
12:00And when we finish a song, what I'll do is I'll go into the Pro Tools session
12:04and look at all the time-based effects I've got and program those directly into here.
12:08So what you're getting live is extremely close to what's on the record.
12:12The last thing about this that's super awesome is the fact that using snapshots.
12:20So within a preset, I'll use snapshots.
12:22And a snapshot can turn on as many pedals as you want.
12:25So I found myself before I was using one of these, like trying to hit three or four pedals at
12:29once.
12:30And I didn't want to do a whole MIDI rig and I don't have like an offstage system or anything
12:33like that.
12:33I just kind of wanted to be able to do it myself.
12:36And so this works perfectly for that.
12:38And before every tour, I'll just reprogram the setlist to be whatever it is we're doing.
12:42And I can just run right through.
12:44I got this thing just off of Reverb.
12:46It's by Simple Switches.
12:49And it literally just allows me to just toggle between without having to do the double tap thing.
12:56Finally, this goes into a JHS Muffaletta, which this is just dimed.
13:01And it's on the JHS version of the fuzz.
13:06I only use that for our song Glory of the Ocean.
13:09It's just an extra sort of fuzz, kind of shoegazy noise thing.
13:14And it sounds really good.
13:15And I've been using it since the beginning.
13:16It's on the recording.
13:18It's just really consistent, convenient, and nice.
13:20And then powering this, I have a Voodoo Labs little pedal block.
13:26And what I love about that is a couple of years ago,
13:29they started making them that have variable voltage for traveling.
13:33So again, this is the exact pedal I use in Europe, the UK, and the States.
13:37And it just automatically switches the voltage.
13:40So all I have to do is just travel with a different IEC cable for each country.
13:44And I don't have to deal with any conversion.
13:46Or sometimes in venues the power is kind of funky with the converter and all that stuff.
13:51I just don't even mess with that anymore.
13:53And it's really clean.
13:54And I just love the convenience.
13:56So as I said before, I'm using amp modeling for the head sound.
14:01So the preamp.
14:02And that's going into the orange Pedal Baby 100,
14:06which is just very clean, solid state power.
14:10So this just functions as a power amp.
14:12And the settings are pretty neutral.
14:14It's basically just past noon on the base, just before noon on the treble.
14:20And then volume is just a taste depending on the venue.
14:25Two of these fit in a suitcase really easily.
14:28So again, this is also what I bring to Europe and the UK.
14:31And again, this does have a variable voltage thing.
14:34All you have to do is switch out a fuse in the back.
14:37So I just travel with a box of fuses.
14:39And you know, the fuse is like this big.
14:40It's just like changing a battery basically.
14:43The tech support at Orange was really helpful.
14:45I bought these and just emailed the guy.
14:47He got back to me.
14:48He was like, yeah, I'll just change the fuse.
14:50There's even a little thing in the back where it holds a spare fuse.
14:53So I just have a Euro fuse on one side and then a US fuse on the other side.
14:57And I can just switch them back and forth.
14:59Very easy.
15:00This is going directly into the cab.
15:04Depending on where we are, we'll either use our own cabs or have cab rentals.
15:08But the consistent thing for me is I love the Celestion V30s.
15:12I know people debate about specs of which version they like.
15:16I think, I mean, I have my own favorites obviously for recording and things like that.
15:20As far as live goes, I think it's, I'm just happy with any V30.
15:26They have that like mid-range punch that's really great.
15:28Again, especially with two guitars.
15:30And then Leah's really low, thick, like syrupy, fuzzy bass sound.
15:35It's nice to have kind of extra mid-range density and cut.
15:39And that is cutting through.
15:41And that's why I love the V30s.
15:44And that's pretty much it.
15:46So even though we're doing modeling, I don't do any sort of modeling direct into house.
15:51It's modeling kind of for convenience, but then still getting full stage sound.
15:55This is still cranked.
15:56You're still getting the full pushing of air happening here, even though we're not using tubes.
16:02So again, this is Richard Chowenhill from Agriculture.
16:04You can reach us at agriculturemusic.com.
16:07We have merch.
16:08We have tour dates.
16:09You can buy tickets on there for upcoming tours.
16:11You can see basically our whole calendar for the year.
16:15You can also reach us at agriculturemusic on Instagram.
16:18You can reach me at Richard Chowenhill on Instagram, where I talk about gear.
16:24We have tutorials.
16:24There's all sorts of live videos of the band on the agriculture account as well.
16:28So you can check all that out.
16:29We're currently on tour supporting our record, The Spiritual Sound, which came out last year.
16:34We're going all through the U.S. right now.
16:36We're going to be in the U.K. and Europe in the spring.
16:40Come see us.
16:41We'd be happy to chat with you.
16:42Again, if you ever want to chat with me or anybody in the band about gear or music or anything,
16:46we're always at the merch table and always happy to chat about this stuff.
16:49And we just love hanging out.
16:50So we hope to see you out there.
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