Cory Wong At That Pedal Show [New Music Man Guitar, Quad Cortex & Much More]

Video Description

He’s a modern funk phenomenon and he’s wacka-wacka'd all the way to Schwangri-La! Welcome to the show! It is our great pleasure to welcome the incomparable, the irrepressible and the extremely funky Cory Wong to TPS! Cory is notable for many things, the most arresting of which in our little world is that he’s a non-singing, predominantly rhythm guitar player… who fronts an 11-piece band in big venues all around the world. Add to that his continued work with Fearless Flyers and Vulfpeck, and we’re starting to build a picture of an artist who is utterly committed to his craft. During a 2025 European tour, Cory stopped in to TPS to talk guitars, effects and reflect a little on his journey so far. Enjoy the show! Cory on the web: https://www.corywongmusic.com/ Cory on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CoryWongMusic Fearless Flyers: https://thefearlessflyers.com/ Vulfpeck: https://www.vulfpeck.com/ A note on the Quad Cortex / mic’d amps comparison… Cory uses a Neural DSP Quad Cortex at the heart of his live rig that delivers the entire front-of-house guitar sound via the main XLR outs. He also has a couple amps on stage, fed from other outputs on the QC. It’s the same thing hitting FOH and the amps. We’ve replicated that arrangement today and edited sections so you can hear the comparison of the two. So I don’t have to write it a million times in the comments, here’s how the front-end recording was done today (into Logic). Amp mics – this is the standard TPS setup that you hear every week on the show (albeit with different mics sometimes). Close amp mics: Austrian Audio OC18 mics into a Neve 1073 DPX preamp. Very tiny bit of EQ boost (maybe 2dB at most) at 3.2k and 10kHz+. No plugins. Room amp mics: 2 x AKG C414 XLII arranged mid-side as room mics into Neve 1073 500 series pres / Rupert Neve designs 551 Inductor EQ modules, with some brightening to compensate for a very dead room sound. No plugins. Quad Cortex direct feed QC XLR left and right out into Neve 1081 preamps (two channels of a 4081) with no EQ. I have added a tiny bit of brightness lift via FabFilter Pro-Q 3 plugins - 2dB boost high shelf from 2kHz up because it sounded very dull to me. I would actually go much further, but I don’t want to misrepresent the QC or Cory’s sound. My guess is that this is how Cory’s FOH likes it, then the engineer will EQ/process it to taste depending on room (just the same as you would any guitar amp, analogue, digital or hybrid). Audio interface for all of the above is a UA Apollo x16 Pedals & Stuff used in this show - Shure GLXD+ Dual Band Wireless Guitar Pedal System - Hotone Cory Wong Press Expression Wah & Volume - Wampler Cory Wong Compressor - Jackson Audio The Optimist Dual Overdrive & EQ - Neural DSP Quad Cortex If you use these links to buy stuff - any stuff – we receive a small cut. UK & Europe: Andertons Music - https://bit.ly/3zaTX5Z USA: Sweetwater - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/5g6ALN Australia: Pedal Empire - http://bit.ly/2mWmJQf Interesting bits and go to sections… 0:00 Intro playing and HELLO! 0:50 Working hard, always 2:20 Cory & The Wong Notes Show - how?! 7:30 Let’s talk about funk, Minneapolis style 11:10 Learning early - guitar AND bass 13:10 Non-singing rhythm guitar, out front! 15:25 Band mates from college 18:05 The importance of fun in music 20:38 How do you play at that tempo? 22:28 Marching band for the rhythm 26:22 Metronome under the pillow?! 27:55 Corey’s current gear 29:10 Wireless system 30:00 Quad Cortex 30:35 Wampler Compressor 34:05 Jackson Optimist EQ function 36:06 Quad Cortex effect blocks 38:10 Amps on stage? 40:00 Delay and reverb - mics and direct comparison 43:40 Hotone Wah / Volume / Expression 46:45 Wah sounds 51:26 Music Man StingRay II guitar 57:45 The Strat is 2% smaller?! 1:03:20 Position 4 panic button 1:05:30 Ambassador of fun and skill 1:06:45 New releases? Guitars in today’s show - Fender Cory Wong Signature Stratocaster - Ernie Ball Music Man StingRay II Cory Wong Amps in today’s show - Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb with Jensen C-12K speaker - Fender Custom Shop Bass Breaker (c2002) with 2 x Celestion Vintage 30 speakers (It’s a ’59 Bassman with 2x12 configuration) You can buy TPS merch to support our efforts https://www.thatpedalshowstore.com We are on Patreon – crowdfunding for creatives https://www.patreon.com/ThatPedalShow Please visit our preferred retailers! UK & Europe: Andertons Music https://bit.ly/3zaTX5Z Australia: Pedal Empire http://bit.ly/2mWmJQf