Tosin Abasi's 2019 pedalboard has just been revealed in glorious detail

Tosin Abasi, once the poster boy for Fractal Audio’s Axe-Fx processor, has re-embraced tube amps and fully loaded pedalboards in recent years - however, his recent stompbox setups have been put together in a somewhat haphazard manner, so he sought out some assistance for his 2019 ’board.

That helping hand came courtesy of The Rig Doctor, aka Vertex Effects’ Mason Marangella, who has documented Abasi’s 2019 pedalboard build in exhaustive detail as part of a fascinating YouTube video.

“The [existing] ’board was kind of thrown together in rehearsals with whatever cables I had,” Abasi concedes. “It was noisy, certain buttons on the Octa Switch had to be taped down, because they were damaged. It wasn’t built to spec for professional use.

“So part of this was needing to build it from the ground up to be resilient for tours, and not worry about signal loss or noise in the signal, or any of that stuff. And then the perks are the added functionality and the reduction in size.”

Marangella then goes on to build The Animals As Leaders virtuoso’s dream pedalboard, detailing all the elements of the setup, from the pedals chosen, right down to the pedal risers, cabling and power.

Abasi explored some new effects for this rig, including Vertex Effects’ own Dynamic Drive and Steel String, in addition to his staple distortion pedals, the Friedman BE-OD Deluxe and, of course, the Abasi Pathos.

Other integral elements of the rig are Mesa/Boogie’s High-Wire buffer, the Boss ES-8 Effects Switcher and the One Spot CS12, one of the best pedalboard power supplies on the market.

After playing through the rig, Abasi is clearly impressed.

“I’m really stoked; it actually exceeded my expectations,” he enthuses.

“The amount of sounds I’m going to be able to get out of this ’board… It’s just going to be an inspiration station.”

For tips on assembling your own stage-ready pedal setup, check out our guides to building a guitar pedalboard and guitar pedal order.