Article and photos: http://bit.ly/LuceroRR

PG’s Chris Kies catches up with Lucero’s Brian Venable, Ben Nichols, and John C. Stubblefield before the band’s first tour date in support of All a Man Should Do at Nashville’s Cannery Ballroom.

Lucero’s longtime lead guitarist eschews a loaded guitar boat—that’s for his studio time—and brings out two identical Fender Highway One Telecasters. The only modification that Brian has done to either axe is adding a custom-made leather pickguard that was given to him by his friend Danny from Crazy Heart Leather Goods. Oh, and the other customization he did to his pink No. 1 is that he carved his son Henry’s name onto the side.

Ben Nichols, the band’s founding member, has been a big fan of Epiphone 6-strings since he bought his first Dot model decades ago. Since then, he’s graduated to the Epiphone Sheraton II that gets beats to hell all night, every night. At the end of the day, Nichols appreciates how it sounds, how it plays, and that if something ever were to happen to it he could go to a local guitar store and replace it without taking out a loan. He actually records with the Sheraton II rather than the higher-end, fancier cousin ES-335. Like Venable, he uses Ernie Ball Slinkys .011–.048 strings.

To continue learning about the gear behind Lucero's live sound, visit: http://bit.ly/LuceroRR