John McLaughlin

John McLaughlin is 70 years old now and he is still going strong. McLaughlin is consistently ranked as one of the best guitarists in the world. He is also recognized as having great tone.

His rig is deceptively simple.

He uses one of three preamps depending on his mood: the Seymour Duncan SFX-03 Twin Tube, the  Mesa Boogie V-Twin or the Zendrive — the latter is showing inline on the above picture of his pedalboard.

The Fishmann and Line 6 pedals are used for wireless Midi and audio. His signal flow is basically Zendrive -> MXR Carbon Copy Delay -> MXR Stereo Chorus and out to the house. He does not use any guitar amps anymore.  A tuner, a preamp, delay and chorus. That is it.

Sometimes simple is better.