I did a breakdown of Ernie Isley’s guitar rig a while back. I didn’t realize how spartan it was until I started looking at the list of gear used by Vernon Reid of Living Colour. Here’s a list of effects and such that he uses to get all those strange and unique sounds he’s known for. I scraped this off the web a while back and I have the feeling that his rig might change quite a bit as new stuff hits the market:

Guitars
- Parker DF824VR Vernon Reid Signature guitar (announced June 2009)
- Hamer Chaparral Customs with Roland GK-3 Divided Pickups
- Brian Moore guitars
- D’Addario EXL115 strings gauged .011-.049
- Dunlop Jazztone 208 picks

If this were a Stephan King novel I'd expect some of those effects he's surrounded by to come to life and attack

Amps and Cabinets
- Bugera 333XL amplifier heads with 4×12 cabs. Also 333XL combo.
- Crate BV300H amp heads
- Crate BV412ST 4×12 Cabinets
- Crate VFX5212 2×12 Cabinets
-Fender Twin Amp
- Marshall, and vintage Fender Deluxe Reverb amps (used on “That’s What you Taught Me”)

Effects
- Roland VG-99 V Guitar System (controlled with an SP300)
- Roland GR-20 Guitar Synth
- Digitech XP-300 Space Station
- Line 6 FM4 Filter Modeler
- Ernie Ball volume pedal
- Ebtech HE2PKG Hum Eliminator
- Boomerang Phrase Sampler
- Muse Receptor VST Plug-In Player
- Apple iBook (with Propellerhead Reason, Native Instruments Absynth, and Ableton Live).
- Moog pedals
- Eventide ModFactor
- Eventide Pitchfactor
- Pefftronics Rand-o-Matic

Speaking of Ernie Isley here is an image of Ernie’s pedalboard next to, what is apparently, a stripped down version of Vernon’s board at Experience Hendrix in Buffalo 2010. Looks like he’s using a Roland FC-300 midi foot controller to control bunch of off camera amps and effects and a Line 6 M9 as his multi-effects unit. I’m guessing the foot pedal in the middle goes to the M9.

Tip of the hat to Seraphim Marcopoulos for the pic (don’t sue me bro!)

So the answer to the question of what gear Reid has in his rig?

Pretty much all of it.