Cory Wong's Guitar Rig

When it comes to modern clean guitar tones, few players have carved out a niche for themselves as recognisable as Cory Wong.

Best known for his work with Funk pioneers, Vulfpeck, as well as his prolific solo discography, Cory is a modern-day guitar hero who has put a huge emphasis on being a great rhythm guitar player.

Cory's rig is mostly focused on snappy, high headroom clean tones, with effects only used to emphasise certain elements in his songs. Preferring to hear the transients in the music, his whole sound is based around rhythmic percussion and attack.

In this article, we're going to break down a few of the key components of his unique guitar tone, and highlight the rig he uses to achieve it. We'll also pinpoint some of the gear you'll want to pick up to replicate his tone at home.

Cory Wong's guitars

Fender Stratocaster - Highway One & Signature models

As you might expect from a Funk-oriented player such as Cory Wong, at the centre of his tone is none other than the Fender Stratocaster.

Over the years, his go-to guitar was his Fender Highway One Stratocaster, which is documented as his main guitar for both stage and studio use. The Highway One is on the more affordable side, making it great value for money but also a reliable workhorse of a guitar.

In recent years, he has shifted more towards his signature Cory Wong Stratocaster which features a slightly smaller body (about 3-5% smaller) and a larger headstock (3-5% bigger).

Cory felt that during the design process for his signature model, the smaller body aided the snap of the transients and gave him a better feeling guitar for his needs. Paired with his Seymour Duncan Clean Machine pickups, the guitar provides Cory with maximum clean attack.

One other feature is a switch that Cory refers to as the "Panic Switch", which is a push-pull switch that bypasses the pickup switch and defaults the guitar to position 4 (neck and middle pickups combined).

Ernie Ball Cory Wong Stingray II

In 2025, Cory teamed up with Ernie Ball to release a guitar that no one saw coming: a twin humbucker-loaded Stingray.

While most of us will always consider Cory to be a single coil guy, Cory worked closely with Ernie Ball to design what they refer to as the "ultra-clean Cory Wong HT humbuckers", which are purpose built for players that love the sound of single coils but need the functionality of a humbucker.

Cory Wong's amplifiers

Fender Super Reverb & Twin Reverb

Cory Wong's amp choice is often based around one key principle: high headroom clean tones. For the majority of his career, he has preferred the Fender Super or Twin, and often cites them as being reliable and easy to source anywhere in the world while on tour. 

Both these amps are known for their exceptional glassy, clean tones with enough headroom to satisfy any guitar player. Even when turned up loud, they remain tight and articulate. 

DV Mark Raw Dawg

During various solo tours, and his work with the Fearless Fliers, Cory has also been known to use the solid state DV Mark Raw Dawg head, which is the signature model of blues virtuoso Eric Gales. Being solid state, The Raw Dawg provides zero valve sag, so the attack remains fast and precise. 

Neural DSP Quad Cortex and Cory Wong plugin

Although Cory has always been an advocate of the physical amplifier, in recent years he has worked with Neural DSP, using their Quad Cortex platform and developing a signature plugin. 

In various episodes of his Wong Notes podcast, he has discussed these items at length, saying that live he often uses the Quad Cortex for his main tone front of house, while running through a live amp on stage for stage volume and feel.

Cory Wong's signature Neural plugin allows you to dial in all those classic Wong tones, from those classic DI Funk tones through to some boutique Dumble style sounds. 

Cory Wong's pedals

Compression

If you had to distill the Cory Wong tone down to a single pedal, it would be Compression, which is essential for shaping transients and ensuring note attack is even and consistent.

Wong has always used compression to tighten his tone and to give his rhythm parts that "studio finished" feel, even in a live environment. 

Cory has been a long-time user of the Wampler Ego Compressor and recently teamed up with the brand to release his own signature model, the Wong Compressor.

This signature pedal features a variation on the classic Ego, along with a switchable boost for when you need to push things that little bit further.

Low gain and tone shaping

Distortion and Overdrive aren't specifically tones you'd associate with Cory Wong's style, however he does always have a few low gain pedals in his arsenal to shape some sounds, or to give things a push when needed.

Aside from the switchable boost on his signature Wong Compression, he also has a signature Overdrive/ EQ pedal with Jackson Audio, known as The Optimist.

The Optimist provides a gain boost when needed  without introducing huge levels of saturation.

Cory has also been seen using the Vertex Effects Steel String Clean Drive, which adds a Dumble-style push to any clean tone.

Expression pedals for Wah and Volume

No good Funk rig is complete without the use of a Wah pedal!

Cory recently released a signature pedal with Hotone called the Wong Press, a small form factor expression pedal that doubles as a Wah and Volume pedal with the push of a button.

Prior to the development of this signature unit, Cory had been using the Hotone Soul Press as his main Wah from 2022 onwards, and prior to this he was using the Fulltone Clyde Deluxe Wah.

Modulation and Delay

Modulation and delay are not mainstays on Cory Wong's pedalboard, but instead are used sparingly when needed. Over the years, Cory has been seen using a range of digital products to fill this gap in his tone.

He was a long time user of both the Eventide H9 and the Line 6 HX Stomp, but - as mentioned above - Cory has begun using the Neural DSP Quad Cortex in recent years.

Get the Cory Wong tone at home

The great thing about Cory Wong's tone is that you can easily recreate it at home with very little layout required.

The basic recipe for this tone is a Stratocaster-style guitar with a 5-way pickup switch, and a clean amp with as much headroom as you can find. This doesn't have to be a valve amp: solid state amps also work great for this and have bags of headroom.

If you're chasing this tone on a budget, you could easily get in the ballpark with a Squire Stratocaster and a great solid state modelling amp like the Blackstar ID:X 50 or the Boss Katana. 

Once you've got your clean platform in place, the only other thing you need is a little compression to tighten things up. If you're a big Cory Wong fan, or you want to chase his tone more authentically, his Wampler Wong Compressor is hard to beat.

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Beyond that, Overdrives, Boosts and Modulations are optional. Most modelling amps will have these sorts of things built in so you can easily recall them when needed.

Now go practice your 16th notes, let your picking hand drive your playing, and go forth and be funky!

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Main image credit: Fender