Jonny's Latest Electric Counterpoint Setup
Jonny finger-picking during Reich's Electric Counterpoint at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam on May 16, 2026 (33kbps).
Last week, Jonny performed Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. The concert also featured Jonny's new Violin Concerto. Once again, he’s playing a sunburst Fender Telecaster. But although it displays a similar color to Jonny’s 90s favorites, the guitar differs in some significant ways. In fact, the guitar is quite new: it’s a Fender Player II Modified Telecaster!
This “Modified” variant of Fender’s Player II series was released only last year, and its primarily distinguished from the standard “Player II” due to the inclusion of Fender’s “Noiseless” pickups. The guitar is also set apart visually — both from the standard Player II and from the 1990s Plus — by its rosewood fingerboard and white Pearloid pickguard. The sticker on the upper horn is the produce label from a mango.
Jonny’s Telecaster is connected directly to a Boss FV50H volume pedal, which in turn connects to the vibrato channel of a Fender Twin Reverb amplifier. The “H” in the volume pedal’s name indicates that it’s the high impedance version, which provides a more consistent sweep when connected directly to a guitar’s output (the low impedance version is better suited for placement after buffers or with synths). That nothing is connected to the output of Jonny's Petersen Strobostomp HD tuner, because it’s connected via the tuner output of the Boss FV50H.
Jonny's setup for Electric Counterpoint at the Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam on May 16, 2026 (anne.the.garbage.can).
When Jonny started performing Electric Counterpoint, he mentioned that he re-records the 12 backing guitar parts for each performance (he even once posted a Vine revealing the recording process). As at previous performances of the piece, the backing track is played back from Jonny’s laptop via an audio interface. In this case, it’s a Focusrite Scarlett Solo (Gen4). The interface connects to the concert hall’s sound system. Using an interface provides a balanced output, which is essential for avoiding noise when the signal is amplified to fill a hall.
There’s also an unused Strymon Brigadier delay pedal hidden underneath the amplifier. This is unusual, since Electric Counterpoint doesn’t require any effects (what many assume are loops or delays are in fact the aforementioned pre-recorded backing tracks). Perhaps Jonny was experimenting with the sound of delay in the hall during soundcheck, or perhaps he was testing it out as a source of ambience (in contrast to the more rhythmic delays he’s favored for the past decade).
Left: Jonny playing his new Fender Player II Modified Telecaster during the third movement "Fast" of Electric Counterpoint (karindeg). Note that he has the neck pickup selected.
Right: Jonny removing a headstock tuner from the guitar before the start of the piece (). Presumably he used it while warming up backstage (anne.the.garbage.can).
It’s worth looking a bit more into the new guitar. The instrument's "Noiseless" pickups are designed by Fender to retain the sound of their traditional single coil pickups while mitigating the hum associated with them. In truth, they’re humbuckers, specifically an intentionally unbalanced form of stacked humbucker — the idea being that the upper coil reproduces the sound of the strings just like a regular single coil, while the lower coil is hidden and only attenuated the hum.
Tonally, the noiseless pickups are much brighter from the Lace Sensors in the Telecaster Plus V1 guitars that Jonny is known for. But spiritually, they're quite similar. During the 90s, Lace Sensors were Fender's hum-free option, offered on their modern-oriented guitars. It wasn't until 1998 that Fender released their "noiseless" pickups, and stopped using Lace's products (which is the reason modern pickups just say "Lace Sensor", not "Fender Lace Sensor"). Then as now, Fender puts traditional single coil pickups in their vintage-inspired instruments. But the Telecaster Plus and Player II Modified are both guitars with features, like hum-free pickups, intended for modern players.
Jonny playing his American Professional II Tele during Electric Counterpoint at IRCAM on February 5, 2024. The amplifier is a Fender Tone Master Super Reverb (note the "Tone Master" medallion in the bottom right corner), a digital modeling amplifier with Jensen speakers (unknown).
In 2024, Jonny also used a recently released Fender Telecaster to perform Electric Counterpoint. That instrument was a Fender American Professional II Telecaster, and Jonny used it at the Hallé and at IRCAM. In terms of Fender’s lineup, the Professional II series is even more similar to the 1990s Plus series than the Player II series. It’s designed as the brand’s flagship modern Telecaster, with features like compensated saddles for better tuning, a push-pull switch for added tones, and 22 frets. It also sits in a similar place price-wise: pricier than the standard/player instruments, but cheaper than the more accurate vintage reissues and custom-shop editions. Of course, the Professional II’s vintage-voiced V-mod pickups definitely sound much brighter than the humbucker-voiced Lace Sensor Red and Blue pickups in a Plus V1. Clearly, Jonny is looking for those brighter tones, because he could just as easily have chosen an American Professional II Deluxe, which features Gibson-style humbuckers (for vintage-style Fender CuNiFe humbuckers, you’ll need to pay extra for the Vintage II Deluxe).
Hugh Brunt, who conducted the Violin Concerto, shared this after the concert (hugh.tieppo.brunt).
