Devin Townsend’s Instrumental Medley “Willy Wanka” Runs the Gamut from Hevy Devy to Levity Devy

I love seeing Devin Townsend performing instrumentally. Not that I don’t like his voice– he’s the sound of adrenaline personified as mortal man. But his incredible voice and oversized personality sometimes overshadow the fact that he’s also rock fucking solid on the six string.

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Plus, when you’re in the EMG studios, I suppose it’s a good idea to focus on the guitar. So Devin Townsend put together this long instrumental medley for you all to geek out on, written exclusively for this EMG TV performance. He’s playing the seemingly ubiquitous 57/66 pickups that so many EMG endorsers are, um, endorsing.

I’m intrigued by what’s actually going on with the amplification though. The YouTube notes say that the video is brought to you “in partnership with Fractal Audio and D’Addario,” but it looks like Devin is playing through Mesa Boogie Rectifier (most likely a Road King) and Lone star amps. Maybe those are studio heads and he’s just using the cabs? Or perhaps he has an Axe-FX plugged into the effects returns of those Mesas? I might need to send a spy team over to EMG to install some hidden cameras.

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Chris Alfano has written about music and toured in bands since print magazines and mp3.com were popular. Once in high-school he hacked a friend's QBasic stick figure fighting game to add a chiptune metal soundtrack. Random attractive people still give him high-fives about that.

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  • It would make sense that he’s using the Axe FX in the loop, but not for the amp sounds. If you look closely at min 3:24 in 1080p the 2nd channel is enabled on the Rectifier. At 3:10 you can see Dev switching the channels on the footswitch.

    The amp isn’t a roadking, but either a Dual or Triple with a different face plate. My money is on the Dual since he’s been known to play Dual’s in the past and maxon tube screamer OD808 for boost?

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