Billy Corgan Rig

Billy Corgan is the guitarist, singer, and chief architect of The Smashing Pumpkins, whose early records stacked dozens of Stratocaster tracks into a bright wall of fuzz rather than one roaring amp. On Gish (1991) and Siamese Dream (1993) he ran Fender Stratocasters — especially the silver Bat Strat, a ’57 reissue with Lace Sensor pickups — into an Electro-Harmonix Op-Amp Big Muff Pi hitting the low-gain input of a 1984 Marshall JCM800 2203 nicknamed Soul, retubed with KT88s, and a Marshall 4x12 called Mars. A Mu-Tron Bi-Phase supplied the slow sweep on lead overdubs. That Big Muff-into-JCM800 chain, not a Mesa or a modern high-gain head, is the sound of Cherub Rock and Today.

His mid-career guitar was the Fender Billy Corgan Stratocaster (2008–2012) with DiMarzio BC humbuckers, while Zeitgeist (2007) was tracked through a Bogner Uberschall after the Marshall years. After splitting with Fender he moved to Reverend; the current touring guitar is the Billy Corgan Z-One with Railhammer pickups, driving a Carstens Grace head he co-designed and a Laney Supergroup, both into a Laney LA412. Live fuzz is now a Minotaur Sonic Terrors Evil Eye MkIII, leads go through a Warm Audio Warmdrive, and delay is a Strymon Brigadier — the Op-Amp Big Muff is no longer on the floor.