I was Editor-in-Chief of Guitar Player for 20 years; Editorial Director for Bass Player, Keyboard, Electronic Musician, Gig, EQ and Rumble; Content Director for Modern Drummer and co-owner of three professional recording studios, so I’ve pretty much seen a galaxy’s worth of gear in my career.
But since landing at Guitar Center, I realize my experience with cool music equipment was actually—shocker—limited.
The amount of products acquired, distributed and promoted in the Guitar Center universe to serve serious and aspirational musicians is beyond galactic. This bounty of sonic toys and peripherals can be the real-world embodiment of the blessing and curse cliche, as there is so much wish-list fodder to consider across myriad gear categories.
But, almost miraculously, I was able to narrow Guitar Center’s many thousands of options to a personal Top 5 list.
Pictured: D'Addario XPND Pedalboard and BOSS PX-1 Multi-Effects Pedal
Table of Contents
Really? How Could You Choose Just Five Products?
My Top 5 Music Gear Picks
Dreaming Gear
Really? How Could You Choose Just Five Products?
Well, I’m not managing broad, “serve all players” gear coverage for magazines anymore, and, as I quit owning studios a few years back, I’m no longer tracking the needs of clients for installing new recording equipment in the facilities.
Today, it’s all about me and the gear I want/need for my five bands, home-recording projects and session work.
So, yeah, it was still tough as all hell—hahaha—but the applications made a gear culling possible. For now.
Pictured: Mike Molenda Performing with The Trouble with Monkeys
My Top 5 Music Gear Picks
Gretsch Drums Catalina Club 4-Piece Shell Pack
Why I Picked It: The quest for a bigger boom.
Key Features:
- 22x18" bass drum
- Bass drum mount for rack toms
- Guitar Center-exclusive white satin flame finish
Shop Now: Gretsch Drums Catalina Club 4-Piece Shell Pack with 22" Bass Drum in White Satin Flame
I have an awesome Gretsch Renown 57 kit for my drummer gig with Surf Monster. The band does tons of shows from breweries to festivals, and the Renown 57’s petite 18x14" bass drum is easy to fit on crowded stages—from being squeezed between two risers when opening for Men Without Hats to negotiating the “acreage” between a pool table and a shuffleboard game at a local bar.
But I miss the beautiful bass wallop of a bigger kick drum—especially in situations where the kit is not miked, and I have to really thump the low end to punch through guitar and bass amps.
With its 22x18" bass drum, the Gretsch Catalina Club solves this problem. In addition, as I’m constantly setting up and breaking down, and I often volunteer to backline for other drummers on a multiple band show (who invariably mess with my drum and cymbal positions), I’m kind of done with tom mounts on cymbal stands. I like the convenience and rapid adjustment of a kick drum tom mount.
Now, I know some drummers don’t want a hole cut into their bass drum, but I’ve always wondered if that caused a significant tonal compromise. Happily, when I interviewed Ludwig Director of Sales Mike Nieland about Guitar Center’s exclusive Heritage Cherry drums, he felt it made “zero difference” whether the toms were mounted on the drum or on cymbal stands. That did it for me—I’m going with convenience. And a bigger bottom end.
Find your own groove in our article, How to Choose the Best Drum Set.
D'Addario XPND Pedalboard
Why I Picked It: Expandable.
Key Features:
- Telescopes from a basic pedal rig to everything-but-the-kitchen-sink gigs
- Cable management system
- Angled surface
Shop Now: D'Addario PW-XPNDPB-02 XPND Pedalboard 4-Rail System
I’m an idiot. I mean, I was, but now the D’Addario XPND pedalboard can save me from bad stompbox decisions. (Sadly, the rest of my life choices remain “challenged.”) You may ask why, so here it is: I built three different pedalboards for various gigs. Expensive. Difficult to adapt. Just dumb.
There’s a small board for my punked-up Monkees tribute, The Trouble With Monkeys, because I just need a tuner, a wah and an overdrive/distortion for solos. A medium-sized pedalboard handles most of my on-the-go needs for session work in recording studios (when I’m asked to be in-person, rather than provide tracks recorded in my home studio). Then, there’s a massive combination pedalboard and hard case for ambient stylings with singer-songwriter Eva Jay Fortune. But then, I recently joined a Cher tribute band (Cher Alike), and navigating the guitar stylings from the icon’s Sonny & Cher era, disco resurgence, ’80s hard rock, and pop and country hits requires I add some more pedal muscle to the already huge board.
The D’Addario XPND will save me a ton of reconfiguration hassles, because I can keep it small when appropriate and slide out an expansion board to add pedals. I hate messy cables, so the XPND’s neat cable management system is a plus, and everything connects with Velcro, so I can simply pop out and pop in new pedals as I please. Also helpful is the angled surface, because I wear Doc Martens boots in The Trouble With Monkeys, and anything that helps me not miss my target when clicking pedals is much appreciated.
Need some tips on building pedalboards? Don’t take my advice—just check out How to Build a Guitar Pedalboard. Don’t forget to review our pedal-focused guides such as The Best Fuzz Pedals of 2025, The Best Reverb Pedals for Shoegaze, The Best Distortion Pedals for Metal and many more.
BOSS PX-1 Plugout FX Multi-Effects Pedal
Why I Picked It: Minimal pedalboard footprint with many effects options.
Key Features:
- It’s one small pedal
- Classic BOSS effects I already know and trust
- Knobs—not parameter menus
Shop Now: BOSS PX-1 Plugout FX Multi-Effects Pedal
You may wonder, with all of my pedal needs, why I don’t simply adopt a digital multi-effects board that does everything. Been there. Done that. And without mentioning any manufacturers, a couple of flameouts while playing in 105-degree heat at the Gilroy Garlic Festival—as well as unexpected glitches at other venues—have made me nervous about 100-percent digital pedalboards. That said, I dig the convenience of multi-stompbox floorboards, and I like mixing digital and analog pedals.
The BOSS PX-1 is seductive, because it’s a standard size that can easily fit amongst the dense pasture of pedals on my board, it can transform into the single pedal I need for a specific song, and it has physical knobs that follow the configuration of BOSS Compact pedals I’m already familiar with.
I’m aware some guitarists will get that, and some won’t. I obviously can’t deny the versatility of digital multi-effects floorboards, and some of my buddies in renowned bands swear by them. But I’m just fine—thank you—with designating the PX-1 as an overdrive, phaser, chorus, delay or whatever the song needs.
The main reason for this is that I don’t typically assemble multiple effects chains—such as a distortion, delay, flanger, compressor, filter signal path—that digital processors are brilliant at organizing. I’m more the one or two effects at a time, “Okay here’s the part where the delay kicks in” player. Your mileage may vary, of course, but the BOSS PX-1 is going to deliver what I want without having to add a multi-effects pedal of any size and deal with the resulting magnitude of knobs and parameter menus.
Explore more BOSS pedals in our article, The Best BOSS Effects to Upgrade Your Guitar Rig.
Squier Classic Vibe '60s Jazzmaster
Why I Picked It: The never-ending quest for weird guitar tones.
What I Considered:
- Value priced
- Tahitian Coral finish is cool and surfy
- Jazzmaster single-coils
Shop Now: Squier Classic Vibe '60s Jazzmaster in Tahitian Coral
I certainly do not need more guitars. I’d be embarrassed to tell you how many I own, how many haven’t even been out of their cases for years and how much garage space—that could be assigned to something like a car—is devoured by hoarding guitars.
But playing with a guitarist in Surf Monster who prizes his collection of Fender Custom Shop Jazzmasters—as well as experiencing the eternal lovefest of shoegaze and offset guitars proclaimed by my supervisor, Max—I decided to see what this model could do for my own creative endeavors.
I also enjoy wielding inexpensive guitars. Surrounded by enormous amounts of custom and costly guitars while I was at Guitar Player, I would often gravitate to the under $1,000 models. So, if I’m going to experiment with a Jazzmaster, I’m all in for the under-$400 Squier Classic Vibe ’60s Jazzmaster.
Part of the attraction is that I’ve never used Jazzmaster single-coils. I’ve heard them in Surf Monster, of course, but absorbing a sound into your own creativity can be different from experiencing it in rehearsal, live or on recordings. I’m assuming the Classic Vibe ’60s Jazzmaster will help me compose instrumentals for Surf Monster, and I’m curious if the tone will work for my other projects. Time to find out …
Compare Squier and Fender models with our breakdown, A Guide to the Fender Jazzmaster.
Quilter Labs Aviator Cub UK Combo
Why I Picked It: Comes in at a delightfully portable 22 lb.
What I Considered:
- Weight
- Choice of three amp sounds
- 50 watts can handle most gigs
Shop Now: Quilter Labs Aviator Cub UK 50W Combo Amplifier
Back in the mists of memory, I exclusively used Marshall half stacks. I adored the sound, and I also loved that someone else lugged them on stage. In my current “less-assisted” career trajectory, I’ve moved to a VOX AC30 (for festival shows) and an AC15 (club gigs). I revere those amps, as well, but now I must lift them into a Mazda CX-5 SUV that has been beaten down by gear and dog transport.
Not to sound like I’m whining—but I am—the AC15 weighs 49 lb. and the AC30 comes in at a truly back-breaking 76 lb. I think it’s time for a lighter, solid-state design to overtake my decades-long love affair with tubes—at least for some gigs.
The Quilter Labs Aviator Cub UK weighs a very refreshing 22 lb., and serves up three accurate simulations of my favorite amp tones—VOX AC30, AC30 Top Boost and JMP Marshall. But I would never have considered a Quilter were it not for other guitarists in the surf community.
Many surf players have the same “problem” I have. A vintage or contemporary Fender Twin Reverb is the Big Kahuna for surf music, but going with that traditional amp brings with it a weight of 64 lb. or more. Lately, I’ve been seeing—and hearing—a lot of Quilter Labs Aviator Cub US combos that produce Fender-inspired tones on surf stages. Even Steve Walton, the guitarist in Surf Monster and a vintage Fender amp aficionado, has opted for the 22 lb. caress of the Aviator Cub for selected gigs.
Hanging out with surf sound zealots committed to Fender, Fender and Fender, who willingly and cheerfully plug into an Aviator Cub, sold me on the Quilter concept. I’m looking forward to authentic British tone and blissful rig cartage. Yes. Sometimes easy is better.
Are you looking for portability, as well? Take a peek at The Best Small Guitar Amplifiers of 2025.
Dreaming Gear
Pictured: Squier Classic Vibe '60s Jazzmaster, D'Addario XPND Pedalboard and BOSS PX-1 Multi-Effects Pedal
All self-aware guitarists are conscious of their “sickness” for tone and the toys that make it. Lucky for us, there’s an entire industry dedicated to innovating and manufacturing music gear.
My “real” wish list is likely populated by 547 products. But prioritizing my desires with five top choices is definitely more manageable and less prone to inciting option anxiety. Maybe this is a tougher assignment for you, and if it is, you can spin by your local Guitar Center to some hands-on, playtime fun or speak to a Gear Adviser for perspective and counsel.