“I know there’s purists that aren’t into that, but it made me a better guitar player”: Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready explains why switching to digital modeling improved his guitar playing

Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready has made the switch to a digital guitar rig – and he says it’s made him a better guitar player.

In a new interview with Guitar World, McCready revealed that he brought out Fractal’s Axe-Fx on Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter tour, while the Fender Tone Master Pro is a mainstay in his home setup.

“I love the Tone Master [Pro] – I have it right here and I play on it every day,” he says. “I can pick up any kind of pedal on that thing and it sounds pretty great.”

McCready’s tech Josh Schreibeis is the man behind his new live Axe-Fx rig and has been integral in matching his previous tube rig while conjuring up new tones.

“I can say, ‘Hey, I want this to sound heavier,’ and he'll go, ‘OK, bam, it's heavier.’ He knows the technical stuff, and I know the verbiage – like, ‘Make it sound kind of like The Byrds in 1966.’”

McCready has gradually shifted to digital amps over the course of the past few years. He was first spotted playing Fender’s Tone Master Deluxe Reverb and Blonde Twin Reverb combos in 2022, alongside a Lead Custom tube head from Seattle amp builder Rola.

But from 2024’s Dark Matter tour onwards, McCready switched the combos out for the Axe-Fx III, employing Fender’s Tone Master FRFR cabs for monitoring onstage (the Marshall 4x12s underneath are used solely to raise the Fender FR-12s).

In his current setup, the Axe-Fx is controlled via an RJM 10-footswitch MIDI unit – although McCready does bring the Tone Master Pro out for non-Pearl Jam shows, such as his gig with Thunderpussy at Seattle’s Showbox in December.

Traditional physical pedals still in rotation on his pedalboard include the Line 6 DL4, Boss VB-2W, MXR Uni-Vibe, MXR Phase 90, Electro-Harmonix Stereo Electric Mistress, MXR Carbon Copy and J Rockett Archer.

What’s impressed McCready most about his new rig is the consistency of tone night to night. So much so that it has sharpened his skills on the instrument.

“I know there’s purists that probably aren’t into that, but I felt like my amp modeling system along with the old analog stuff has made me a better guitar player.

“It was the consistency of the amps over the Dark Matter tour that pushed me to play better than I have ever done. I just felt more confident.”

McCready is readying the release of Farewell to Seasons, his rock opera that is seeing release as a graphic novel and accompanying soundtrack in October.

Read Guitar World’s full interview with Mike McCready.

UPDATE (04.09.26): This article was amended to update details of McCready’s rig with information supplied by Pearl Jam’s equipment manager, in particular that McCready used an Axe-Fx III for the Dark Matter tour.