Kenny Wayne Shepherd

Kenny Wayne Shepherd is a blues-rock guitarist whose relationship with Analog Man pedals goes back to the late 1990s. His best-known setup habit is running two modified Ibanez Tube Screamer overdrives in a row, a stacking approach Analog Man says he shares with Trey Anastasio of Phish¹². Around that core he has built a board of Analog Man chorus pedals, a King of Tone overdrive, analog delay, and octave fuzz, with Dunlop Octavio and Uni-Vibe units joining along the way²³.

His gear choices run through one maker heavily: Analog Man's Mike Piera met Shepherd at Experience Hendrix tour stops in 2007 and 2008, where Shepherd bought pedals and put them straight on his board³. Guitar.com notes Shepherd among the players using tweaked Tube Screamer pedals, alongside the Edge with Keeley mods⁴.

Two modified Tube Screamers in a row

Shepherd's signature move with overdrive is stacking: he runs two modified Tube Screamers one into the other. Analog Man names him and Trey Anastasio of Phish as famous customers who use two in a row¹². Shepherd has been playing Analog Man's modified TS9 Tube Screamers since late 1998, when he sent three pedals to the company for mods¹.

Stacking Tube Screamers is a recognized use for the pedal. Analog Man describes them as suited to running into other pedals to add thickness and sustain¹. Guitar.com places Shepherd in the lineage of players using tweaked TS pedals, with the Edge using Keeley-modded versions⁴.

A Sweetwater demo video connects this approach to the wider TS tradition, grouping Shepherd with Stevie Ray Vaughan and John Mayer as historic players of TS-style overdrives, and noting that these players invariably pair the pedal's midrange-heavy circuit with a scooped Blackface Fender-style amp platform⁹.

The KWS mod

Analog Man offers a heavy-duty KWS touring option on its TS9/808 modification, named for Shepherd. Guitar World's November 1999 issue reported that he was using the company's modified TS-9/808s⁵. Analog Man has been modifying Tube Screamers and pedals like the Boss SD-1 and DS-1 since 1995¹.

Analog Man chorus pedals and Leslie sounds

Shepherd's chorus use is tied to Leslie-style sounds. Analog Man's Mike first met him in May 2001, when Shepherd tried a range of pedals and added the Clone Chorus to his board that night; Mike says he used the Clone Chorus for a Leslie sound in many songs⁵. By 2026 Analog Man said Shepherd "seems to turn his on quite often, for over two decades now"⁶.

In late 2007, at the Experience Hendrix show, Mike brought Shepherd a BI-CHORUS because he wanted a slow chorus in addition to his Leslie sounds, and Shepherd was using it through 2008⁶. At that show Shepherd and Doyle Bramhall II each picked up four pedals and both put the BI-CHORUS straight on their pedalboards³.

The Analog Man chorus does true time-delay based chorusing, delaying the signal and mixing it back with the original while the delay time varies at the speed set by the SPEED knob⁶. Analog Man describes the sound as similar to the early 80's Boss chorus, but with a nicer oscillation, a deeper sweep, and much higher speed for fast Leslie sounds¹⁰.

The BI-CHORUS carries one chorus circuit with two sets of SPEED and DEPTH knobs, giving two preset settings¹¹. It began as a clone of the original chorus pedal, but Analog Man says improvements in features and sound have taken it past the original¹¹. A true stereo version is offered for use with two amps, and either output can be used in mono¹¹.

The pedalboard and the King of Tone

The King of Tone overdrive reached Shepherd's board on the Experience Hendrix tour, where he put it on alongside Analog Man's AR20DLXL Analog Delay after his Line 6 delay died³. Analog Man says the King of Tone was steadily on his pedalboard in 2008 and still on it after that, and that he was using it in the studio, all over his 2011 album How I Go⁷. As of 2011, Analog Man also noted he had used one for the last few years on tour⁵.

His board changed in other ways between the 2007 and 2008 tour stops: the Dunlop Octavio replaced an RM Octavia, and a Dunlop Uni-Vibe was added³. At the 2008 show he had his new Fender signature series Stratocasters with him³.

Shepherd has described what he wants from gear in his own words:

Octave fuzz and amplifiers

Shepherd's fuzz slot has sat in the Tychobrahe Octavia tradition: an RM Octavia on his board in 2007, replaced by a Dunlop Octavio about a year later³. Behringer's Octavia octave fuzz, modeled after the Tychobrahe Octavia, is described by gearnews.com as emulating the sound of Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Kenny Wayne Shepherd¹³. Shin-ei credits Shepherd, with Doyle Bramhall II and Jonny Lang, as a user of the vintage clean octave boost pedal its Screaming Sister Octave Boost tributes¹⁴.

On amplification, MusicRadar names him among Dumble owners, noting that players like him will tell you even Dumble clone amps are not quite like the real thing⁸.

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