With the release of Reality Awaits, we revisit the band's gear of choice.
After being delayed from its original release day in June, the Strokes’ seventh album Reality Awaits landed on 24 July, six years after The New Abnormal, with Rick Rubin back in the producer’s chair.
Recording in Costa Rica started back in 2022. Albert Hammond Jr called the sessions the most fantastical he’s worked in and the album his favourite the band have made. The whole stretch was filmed for In Transit: Part II, a sequel to the tour documentary the band shot more than 20 years ago.It’s the most synthetic-sounding record the band have put out, largely due to Julian Casablancas’ use of AutoTune, but the Strokes have never been a band to stay stagnant. Where their first few albums could almost entirely be put into the box of ‘guitar music’, the band has been introducing new and more experimental sounds since the Angles days back in 2011. Even further back, Julian Casablancas’ solo album, Phrazes for the Young, gave Strokes fans a pretty big clue as to what could be next.
With such an evolving sound, the Strokes are still firmly the Strokes, with their own special sauce that makes them so distinctive. With the new record out, there’s no better time to revisit the rigs behind each member.
Revisit more gear rundowns from the archives here.
Julian Casablancas
The frontman’s fingerprints are all over the band’s sound, and on Reality Awaits that means AutoTune. To fans of the Voidz and Casablancas’ solo records, as well as appearances on Daft Punk’s ‘Instant Crush’ to more recent work with Charli XCX, it’s no real surprise. His early vocal sound, though, was built on cheap gear and a bit of grit.
Peavey Backstage Plus
The lo-fi crunch on his Is This It vocals came from singing through a tiny Peavey practice amp. Producer Gordon Raphael explained the trick, saying “He liked to sing through his Peavey practice amp, which is about eight inches tall… He wanted it shitty, but not too shitty. He would always say things like, ‘This sound needs to have its tie loosened.'”
Audio-Technica 4033A
Under all that distortion, the mic he sang into was an Audio-Technica 4033A condenser – he reportedly found the Neumann on the outside of the chain “distasteful”.
Shure SM58
Live, Casablancas has used the humble and iconic Shure SM58 and later the Beta 58A, a big part of the raw vocal sound of the early shows.
Guitars and keys
When he picks up an instrument it’s usually an Epiphone Dot or a Fender Telecaster, and the band’s organ-and-synth textures often come from a Roland Juno-106 and a Vox combo organ.
Nick Valensi
Nick is the lead guitarist and usually shredding the brightest tones in the band. He’s also the man behind side project CRX.
Epiphone Riviera
For years Valensi played a 1995 Epiphone Riviera he got from Hammond back when the band formed in 1999. Calling it “the best guitar Gibson never made,” he pulled the humbuckers and dropped in two hotwired P-94s, and that bright bite became the core of his lead tone and the basis for Epiphone’s Nick Valensi Signature Riviera. He keeps the signatures at home, though: “I just use my original one,” he told Scenecoco. “I have a couple of those signature ones just in cases and stuff, but I only use my OG one.” The original was lost on a flight from New York to LA in 2016 – the band recovered it soon after, a bit worse for wear.
Fender Custom Telecaster
He recorded a fair chunk of Angles with a white custom Fender Telecaster, seen in the ‘Under Cover of Darkness’ video and a regular with CRX. In a Reddit AMA he owned up to the impulse buy: “i obsessed over that white tele… so i just said fuck it and bought it. and it was worth every penny.”
Gibson Les Paul Custom
For the heavier tracks on First Impressions of Earth, including ‘Juicebox’, Valensi reached for a black Gibson Les Paul Custom.
Gibson Les Paul Special
The Les Paul Special with a pair of P90s is Valensi’s, though in typical Strokes fashion it gets passed around – Hammond is the one playing it in the ‘Someday’ video.
Amplifiers
Through the early-2000s run, Valensi and Hammond ran near-identical rigs built on a Fender Hot Rod DeVille 2×12. Valensi’s stage setup has grown since – an earlier version of the bigger rig paired a Carr Slant 6V 2×12 with a Fender Supersonic head, and lately he’s run a Roland JC-120 with a Magnatone Stereo Twilighter, heard on the band’s SNL return and the 2022 tour, with a Carr for the bigger rooms.
Pedals
Valensi has shelved the first-gen Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde that drove the early records. “the 1st gen jekkyl & hyde was my jam. i didn’t like the ones that came after,” he said on Reddit. “lately i’ve been using the JHS color box and klon centaur for all overdrive sounds.” The rest of his board runs a Fulltone GT-500, a Maxon DS830 and a Demeter Tremulator, with an EHX Mel9 and Synth9 for the synth-style textures that have moved to the front on Reality Awaits. Back on the first two records his lead passages and solos ran through an MXR Micro Amp, and earlier boards also carried an EHX Deluxe Memory Man delay and Holy Grail Nano reverb, a Visual Sound Double Trouble overdrive and VV10 volume, and a Korg Pitchblack tuner.
Albert Hammond Jr.
Albert is the rhythm guitarist, a bit of a pedal fiend and a solo artist in his own right.
Fender Stratocaster
Hammond bought his 1985 reissue of a ’70s Strat around the same time as Valensi’s Riviera, and picked it because he “looked cool wearing it.” He’s rarely played anything else since, and Fender has given him his own Olympic White signature version based on that guitar, with his custom switching – position four brings in the neck and bridge together, and one and three are flipped from the standard layout.
Amplifiers
He’s now a Blackstar artist, running an Artist 30 – “The Blackstar Artist 30 gives me amazing tube tone and the sonic options I need,” he says – and around 2019 he added a Fender ’68 Custom Deluxe Reverb next to his old Hot Rod. He’s also run an assortment of Fender and Hiwatt amps over the years, and plays through a Hot Rod with the grille removed for solo shows.
Fender Mustang 90
His current backup is a Fender Mustang 90 from the Offset reissue series, shown off on Instagram.
Other guitars
Hammond’s collection runs deep – a Gretsch White Penguin, a Rickenbacker 325 like the one Lennon played in Hamburg and a Vox Apache he writes on for its built-in drum machine: “The built-in drum machine in the body makes it super fun… even when I’m alone in the studio.”
Pedals
If anyone’s expanded the band’s once-bare setup, it’s Hammond. His board has taken in a stack of EarthQuaker Devices (Rainbow Machine, Arpanoid and more), a Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay, an Eventide H9 and, still, a pair of Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde pedals, with a Stone Deaf Parametric Distortion Filter and a Boss TU-2 tuner also in the mix over the years. He strings up with Ernie Ball Slinkys and uses his own AHJ Tortex picks.
Nikolai Fraiture
The band’s bassist, Nikolai switches between melodic lines and rhythmic grooves throughout the discography. He’s also been busy with side projects Nickel Eye and Summer Moon.
Fender Jazz Bass
Fraiture’s main bass is a sunburst Fender American Standard Jazz Bass, seen across most of the band’s shows and videos.
Ampeg SVT
He’s an Ampeg player through and through, running the SVT-810E 8×10 cab – “the fridge” – powered by an SVT-CL Classic head, and he’s visible with it in just about every bit of Strokes footage.
Other basses
Depending on the song he’ll switch it up, from the Rickenbacker 4003 on ‘Last Nite’ to a Music Man StingRay in the ‘Juicebox’ video and a Höfner Club for something shorter-scale.
Pedals
His board is more varied than the band’s stripped-back sound suggests, taking in an Electro-Harmonix Bass Micro Synth and a Boss ME-50B, and he picks with heavy Fender 346 celluloids.
Fabrizio Moretti
“Drums, please, Fab.” Fabrizio is the drummer and metronome behind the Strokes’ driving feel, and is also of Little Joy and Machinegum.
Ludwig drums
Moretti plays Ludwig Classic Maple kits, turning up in a run of finishes over the years – Arctic White in the ‘You Only Live Once’ video, plus Sky Blue Pearl and Red Sparkle.
Zildjian cymbals
Up top he runs Zildjian A Customs – Mastersound hi-hats, A Custom rides and a Projection crash.
AHEAD 5B sticks
An AHEAD artist, Moretti keeps time with a pair of Ahead 5B sticks.
