Johnny Hiland

Source Audio's CEO Ray Maxwell has been friends with the great Johnny Hiland for a long, long time. If you haven't heard the incredible guitar playing of Johnny Hiland, you need explore his career. Johnny has been ripping it up in the highly competitive Nashville music scene since 1996. This man bridges the gap between high octane country chicken pickin' to EVH style shredding. The great Ricky Skaggs once called him, "the most versatile guitar player I've ever heard." He has shared stages with artists as far ranging as Ricky Skaggs, Toby Keith, Steve Vai, Joe Banamasa, George Clinton, and Brent Mason. 

Along with his endless list of credits as a Nashville session player, Johnny has also recorded some scorching solo records. He signed first Steve Vai's Favored Nations label in 2004 and released his self-titled debut, followed by his red-hot second record, All Fired Up. Check out the killer opening track, "Barnyard Breakdown" for a quick taste of Johnny's incredible six-string prowess.
Of course, we couldn't be more honored to include Johnny in our Source Audio Artist Gallery. Johnny has not only championed Source Audio pedals, he also made three KILLER demos for our Nemesis Delay, True Spring Reverb, and Kingmaker Fuzz.

Learn More About Source Audio Pedals Used by Johnny Hiland

Johnny Hiland Records an Entire Song with the Kingmaker Fuzz
Who out there loves the chicken pickin' guitar virtuosity of the great Johnny Hiland? We certainly do!!! This Nashville picker was named one of the "Top 3 Country Guitarists" by Vintage Guitar Magazine and has played with the likes of Joe Bonamassa, Les Paul, Ricky Skaggs, George Clinton and P-Funk, Steve Via and many others? We couldn't have been happier to learn that Johnny was blown away by the Octavia and Big Muff based fuzz tones of our Kingmaker Fuzz. So blown away, in fact, that the pedal inspired a song for his upcoming solo record called "The Kingmaker's Quest," and it is a scorcher. This video was shot in Johnny's personal recording studio. He was nice enough to explain how he used the Kingmaker in each of its four guitar  tracks, then completely tear the roof off the joint with some screaming, fuzz infused guitar licks. 

Chicken Pickin' with Johnny Hiland 
and the True Spring Reverb
Ooooh, but wait... there's more. Our favorite Nashville picker is back with some KILLER chicken pickin' with the True Spring Reverb - our beloved spring reverb and tremolo all-in-one pedal. This video features a wonderful country swing intro with plenty of spring reverb drenched Tele twang! We couldn't have been more thrilled when we learned that Johnny was so taken with the True Spring Reverb that he decided to put together this wonderful demonstration video. Thanks, Johnny - you are the man!!!

Johnny Hiland Explores Classic and Contemporary Delays Effects with the Nemesis Delay.
He's back! We all know the guy is a chicken pickin' master, but our good friend Johnny Hiland has absolutely no issues with diving into the myriad of exploratory delay engines in the tonally far-reaching Nemesis Delay. Some of our favorite moments in this video come when Johnny ventures down some of the Nemesis Delay's off-the-beaten-path effects like Degrade, Shifter, Helix, and Reverse. That said... when he rips into a smoking country/blues riff with some classic delays like Tape, Slapback, and Analog, we're reminded why he is one of Nashville's finest session guitar players.

Related Videos

Premier Guitar: Nemesis Delay
John Bohlinger rocks out some fierce riffs in this excellent PG Nemesis demo. The Nemesis won the Premier Gear Award!
Getting Neil Young's Live Tone
Our friend Andy at Reverb.com did a great job of nailing Neil Young's guitar tone with help from the True Spring Reverb.
Alan Iarussi: Kingmaker Fuzz
We were not familiar with Alan's videos before finding this gem. Wow this guy can play - smoking riffs, smoking tone.

    Sign Up for the Source Audio Insider Newsletter.

Join the Conversation
© COPYRIGHT 2022. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.