Ana Popovic Guitars & Gear: The Complete Guide to the Serbian Blues Queen’s Strat and Mesa Boogie Rig

Ana Popovic grew up in Belgrade in the 1980s and 1990s under the Milošević regime — not the most accommodating environment for a young woman who wanted to play blues guitar. American roots music was contraband-adjacent in certain respects, and the guitar itself was a specifically male instrument in the Serbian context where she was developing. She watched her father and his friends gather at the end of every night and jam: “Whoever could play a couple of notes could sit in.” She wanted to sit in. She began studying guitar at fifteen — not as a career decision but as the resolution of an obsession she hadn’t chosen. By twenty she was performing professionally in Serbia. By the mid-1990s she had moved to the Netherlands to study at the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music. By the 2000s she was playing blues festivals across America, Europe, and Asia and had been endorsed by Fender. She has now toured for over twenty years, playing approximately 100–150 shows annually. She is, on the evidence of that curriculum vitae, one of the most consistently working and most consistently excellent blues guitarists of her generation.

Popovic was born on May 13, 1976, in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia). Her father is an active guitarist and bassist — a working musician who made American roots music a constant presence in their household in circumstances where that music was not the dominant cultural product. She was “a toddler when she started to absorb major musical mojo through her father’s love of the blues, classic rock,” as Vintage Guitar describes her formation. She is a guitarist, singer, band leader, songwriter, and producer. She is also a documentary filmmaker — her 2013 documentary “ANA” captures a year of her touring life and was screened at film festivals. She lives in Nashville. Her latest album POWER (2023) merges soul, funk, blues, gospel, and rock — a synthesis that reflects the full breadth of the American roots music tradition she absorbed from her father’s record collection and developed across twenty years of professional playing.

Background: Belgrade Under Milošević, Rotterdam Conservatory, International Blues Circuit

The specific context of growing up in Belgrade in the 1980s and early 1990s shaped Popovic’s relationship with American music in a particular way: it was music that required effort to obtain, that had to be sought out and valued specifically, rather than music that was ambient and unavailable. Her father’s collection was the gateway; his living-room jams were the school. By the time she decided to pursue music seriously in the mid-1990s — having “almost pursued a career in graphic design” — she had been absorbing the tradition for two decades, as a listener and as an increasingly serious player.

The Rotterdam Conservatory years gave her the formal musical training that her self-taught Serbian period hadn’t provided: theory, harmony, sight-reading, ensemble performance. The conservatory’s jazz curriculum also introduced her to the formal structures underlying the blues and funk traditions she had absorbed intuitively, giving her the same kind of theoretical sophistication that characterizes Eric Gales (Series 2 #135) and Marcus King (Series 2 #132) — the ability to understand harmonically what she was doing intuitively and to apply that understanding to compositions and arrangements of greater complexity.

Her international career was built through the specific infrastructure of the blues festival circuit — the network of European and American blues events that provides the professional foundation for working blues musicians who don’t fit the mainstream pop commercial model. She has performed at festivals across Europe, America, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, building an audience that is genuinely international rather than regionally concentrated. Her endorsement by Fender — one of the most selective major endorsements in the guitar world — reflects the industry’s recognition of both her technical ability and her visibility.

Her slide guitar work is the most discussed dimension of her playing. She has described developing her slide technique through specific practice with the Vox 847 wah pedal: “I also use a wah-wah pedal, especially with slide playing.” The combination of slide and wah — two of the most expressive tools available to a blues guitarist — in her lead playing vocabulary gives her a tonal range that extends from clean, articulate fingerpicking to raw, wah-drenched slide passages within the same performance.

The Rig: Ana Popovic’s Guitars, Amps, and Effects

Guitars

1964 Fender Stratocaster (Primary Guitar, Sunburst / Rosewood Neck): Ana Popovic’s primary guitar is a 1964 Fender Stratocaster with a sunburst finish and a rosewood fingerboard neck — one of the most celebrated production years for pre-CBS Fender electric guitars. “My favorite guitar is a ’64 Fender Strat with a sunburst and a rosewood neck,” she told Guitar World. The pre-CBS 1964 Stratocaster occupies a specific position in guitar collecting and professional use: it is the last year of production before CBS acquired Fender in January 1965 and began implementing the production changes that collectors consider inferior. The specific character of a 1964 Strat — the “A” neck profile, the slab rosewood fingerboard on earlier examples transitioning to the curved “veneer” board, the specific winding of the late-period pre-CBS pickups — is considered by many professional Strat players to represent the optimal combination of vintage character and practical playability. For a blues guitarist who values the Stratocaster’s single-coil clarity and dynamic responsiveness, a 1964 is the authentic working tool: old enough to have the tonal character of aged wood and vintage components, recent enough to be manageable as a working instrument.

She has also been working with Fender to build a new Custom Shop Stratocaster based on the ’64: “a ’60 Custom Shop that I’m currently building with Fender” as of an earlier TrueFire interview, suggesting an ongoing dialogue with Fender’s Custom Shop team about her specific tonal and playability requirements.

1957 Fender Stratocaster Reissue “Road Warrior” (Equal Priority Second Guitar, On Cover of Albums): Popovic’s second primary guitar is a 1957 Fender Stratocaster reissue — “a maple neck ’57 Fender Strat reissue, which is equally as good even though I got it as a reissue,” she told Guitar World. “All my slow blues I play with that guitar.” This guitar appeared on the cover of at least one album: “I’ve got my ’64 reissue Strat and a ’57 reissue that’s on the cover of the album. I’ve had that guitar since my Belgrade days.” The ’57 reissue’s maple fingerboard gives it a slightly different tonal character from the ’64’s rosewood — maple generally sounds brighter and more defined, with a snappier attack, while rosewood is warmer. For slow blues, the ’57’s brighter maple character suits the specific note-by-note expressiveness of slow blues playing, where each note needs to sing individually. She calls it her “road warrior” — the guitar that has been with her “throughout my whole career” in Guitar Girl Magazine’s documentation.

The combination of a rosewood-board ’64 Strat and a maple-board ’57 reissue gives Popovic the full tonal range of Stratocaster vocabulary: warm and full on the ’64, bright and articulate on the ’57. Both are played without modification — no pickup swaps, no hardware changes — reflecting the same “if it sounds good, leave it alone” philosophy that characterizes other professional Strat players who found their instrument and stayed with it.

Fender Custom Shop “Foggy” Stratocaster (New Build, Foggy Mirror Chrome Color): Popovic’s most recent signature instrument is a Custom Shop Stratocaster she designed with Fender Custom Shop master builders — nicknamed “Foggy” for its Foggy Mirror Chrome color. “The new build Ana Popovic Custom Shop Strat ‘Foggy’ — Foggy Mirror Chrome color that I designed together with Fender Custom Show master builders. It just takes my breath away with its slick design,” she told Guitar Girl Magazine. The Foggy Mirror Chrome finish is not a standard Fender color — it is a specific custom color that Popovic developed as a deliberate departure from the vintage sunburst and natural colors of her existing collection. “I wanted something different and by no means was gonna copy my ’64 Strat; I wanted something that looks and sounds hip but at the same time stays true to me as a guitarist.”

D’Angelico Jazz Guitar (Semi-Hollow/Archtop): A D’Angelico jazz guitar appears in Popovic’s current documented collection — providing the archtop jazz tonal character that neither her Stratocasters nor her Mesa Boogie amplifiers can produce. D’Angelico’s archtop tradition runs back to John D’Angelico’s original New York workshop, and the contemporary D’Angelico line maintains that tradition with quality semi-hollow and full archtop instruments. For jazz-inflected blues passages, the D’Angelico’s warmer, rounder attack and sustain character is a specific tonal option unavailable from any Stratocaster.

Ovation 12-String Acoustic and Martin Acoustic: Popovic’s acoustic instruments include an Ovation 12-string acoustic-electric and a Martin acoustic. The Ovation’s round-back construction and built-in pickup system make it a practical acoustic-electric for live performance contexts where feedback resistance is important. The Martin provides the authentic acoustic steel-string character for recording and intimate performance.

Hamiltone Custom Guitar (Prototype from Jim Hamilton): Jim Hamilton — the builder of Hamiltone guitars, including one famously played by Stevie Ray Vaughan — built a prototype guitar for Popovic, documented in her Vintage Guitar interview. “It has the classic double-cutaway body, their signature headstock shape but with a rosewood overlay and the mother-of-pearl Hamiltone logo, and a standard Strat (25½”) scale, which is unusual for Jim — the guitar he made for Stevie Ray had a longer (26″) scale.” The Hamiltone connection provides a specific biographical link to the SRV tradition — the same builder who made SRV’s instrument made a custom instrument for Popovic.

DR PHR-11 Pure Blues Guitar Strings (0.011–0.046): Popovic uses DR Strings PHR-11 Pure Blues — a .011–.046 gauge set with a nickel-plated round wound construction specifically designed for blues guitar. The .011 gauge provides sufficient string resistance for the full sustain and vibrato of her blues playing while remaining manageable for the fast passages in her slide work. DR Strings endorses her and provides the strings as part of her official endorsement package.

Amps

Mesa/Boogie Mark IV (Primary Amp, Most-Used on Stage): Ana Popovic’s primary amplifier is a Mesa/Boogie Mark IV — “I use the most my MESA BOOGIE Mark IV,” she has confirmed in multiple interviews. The Mark IV is one of Mesa’s most versatile and most celebrated amplifiers: a multi-channel head with three distinct voicings (clean, pushed-clean, and high-gain) that have made it a studio and stage standard for blues, rock, and fusion players since its introduction in 1990. For Popovic’s playing, the Mark IV’s clean channel provides a pristine foundation; the second channel (which she describes as “edgy yellow channel that’s great, too”) provides the pushed-clean character for blues rhythm playing; and the third channel (the “orange channel”) gives “a nice boost with a tube screamer pedal” for lead passages. Running a Tube Screamer into the Mark IV’s third channel is a classic pairing: the Tube Screamer’s mid-push adds harmonic richness to the Mark IV’s own saturation, producing the specific “singing” lead tone that defines contemporary blues guitar.

Fender Super Reverb Blackface (Second Amp, Blues Foundation): Alongside the Mesa, Popovic uses “some Blackface FENDERS — the Super Reverb Blackface.” The blackface Fender Super Reverb is one of the most celebrated clean-to-breakup amplifiers in blues history — four 10-inch Jensen speakers, 45 watts, the specific clean warmth and spring reverb of mid-1960s Fender production. Running the Super Reverb alongside the Mesa gives her simultaneous access to American tube warmth (the Fender) and the Mesa’s more complex, multi-channel tonal flexibility. The specific blending of these two amplifiers — two different circuit philosophies, two different tonal characters — is one of the approaches that allows professional blues guitarists to develop a stage sound with more tonal variety than either amplifier alone can provide.

Fender Tweed Bassman (Secondary Recording Amp): The original Fender Bassman — “we use the original Bassman” alongside the Super Reverb in her documented amp setup — provides the specific American tweed tube character that the blackface amps don’t quite replicate. “Oh, pretty hard” is how she describes running her Deluxe (a comparable tweed Fender) in the Vintage Guitar interview. The tweed circuit’s natural saturation under hard playing gives a specific quality of breakup that the cleaner blackface circuit doesn’t produce.

Mesa/Boogie California Tweed (TrueFire Rig Rundown, Studio Use): The Mesa/Boogie California Tweed — a Mesa amplifier built in the American tweed tradition, designed to replicate the specific character of vintage Fender tweed circuits with Mesa’s own construction quality — appears in her TrueFire rig rundown alongside the Mark IV. For recording contexts where the Mark IV’s full multi-channel complexity isn’t required, the California Tweed provides a simpler, more direct signal path with the warmth and natural breakup of the tweed tradition.

Effects

Two Original Ibanez Tube Screamers (Core Overdrive): “I always have two original Tube Screamers,” Popovic confirmed in Guitar Girl Magazine’s Tone Talk interview. She has described her Tube Screamer as “an original one from the ’70s” — the specific TS808 or TS9 of the vintage Ibanez production. Running two Tube Screamers follows the same two-pedal philosophy as Joanne Shaw Taylor: one for baseline grit, one for lead boost. The original vintage Tube Screamer’s specific mid-push and mild overdrive character — different from the more aggressive TS9 and significantly different from cheaper copies — is what she prefers. “My favorite is the orange channel that gives it a nice boost with a tube screamer pedal,” she confirmed of the Mesa Mark IV pairing.

Vox 847 Wah with Union Jack Graphics (Primary Wah, “The Best”): Popovic is specific about her wah preference: “I’ve got a Vox (847) wah with the Union Jack graphics. They’re the best — their sound is awesome. It’s very bluesy and doesn’t have the scream that the regular one has — it’s more subtle, has a bigger ‘loop’ and a more-diverse sound,” she told Vintage Guitar. The Vox 847 is the reissue of the original Vox wah circuit that preceded the Cry Baby and defined the British blues-rock wah sound from Clapton through Hendrix through Page. The “Union Jack graphics” version is a specific cosmetic variant of the 847 reissue with British flag decoration. Her assessment that it is “more subtle” and “has a bigger loop” than the standard Cry Baby reflects a genuine tonal preference: the 847’s specific sweep character (its Q factor and frequency range) is different from the Dunlop Cry Baby’s voicing, and Popovic finds the 847’s character more suited to her blues slide playing. She also uses a Dunlop MC404 CAE wah as a secondary option.

Boss CE-2 Chorus (Original Two-Knob Blue Unit): “I am also using the original BOSS chorus pedal, you know the one with just two knobs only (note: the Boss Chorus CE-2),” as the Equipboard documentation captures her own description. The Boss CE-2 — produced from 1979 to 1990, with its distinctive light-blue color and two-knob simplicity (Rate and Depth only) — is the most musically musical chorus pedal ever built according to many professional guitarists. Its bucket-brigade analog circuit produces a warm, organic chorus that adds dimension without the artificial, overly fast shimmer of modern digital chorus. That Popovic uses an original CE-2 rather than the reissue or digital alternative reflects the same vintage-gear orientation as her Tube Screamer preference: the original circuits have specific character that later versions and digital approximations don’t fully replicate.

MXR Carbon Copy Delay and MXR Reverb (Time-Based Effects): An MXR Carbon Copy analog delay and MXR reverb appear in her documented TrueFire and Guitar Girl Magazine rig documentation. The Carbon Copy’s warm bucket-brigade analog delay provides the echo texture for her lead lines. The MXR reverb adds the ambience that the blackface Fender’s spring reverb provides for that amplifier’s signal, extending the reverb capability across her full rig.

MXR Super Badass Distortion / Dunlop Super Badass (Heavy Distortion): A Dunlop/MXR Super Badass Distortion — “Dunlop Super Badass distortion” in the Guitar Girl Magazine documentation — provides the heavier, more saturated distortion option for harder passages. Unlike the Tube Screamer’s mild, transparent overdrive, the Super Badass delivers genuine high-gain distortion with its own tonal personality.

Dunlop JDF2 Fuzz Face (Fuzz, Hendrix-Adjacent): A Dunlop JDF2 Fuzz Face appears in Popovic’s documented rig — the germanium fuzz circuit associated with Jimi Hendrix and the late-1960s blues-rock tradition. The Fuzz Face’s specific warm, rounded fuzz character (particularly in the germanium JDF2 version) is distinct from both the silicon fuzz of the Black Arts Toneworks Pharaoh and the modern high-gain distortion of the Super Badass — a specifically vintage, specifically blues-rock tonal option.

Line 6 DL4 and Other Delay Options: A Line 6 DL4 delay modeler also appears in her documented rig — the same multi-algorithm digital delay that appears in the rigs of many professional guitarists who want access to tape echo, slapback, and other historical delay types without multiple dedicated pedals. Popovic’s rig documentation across different periods shows some variation in the specific delay pedals used, reflecting the practical approach of a touring musician who updates specific components while maintaining the core signal chain.

Cordial Cables (Premium Signal Cables): Popovic uses Cordial Cables — a premium German cable manufacturer known for their specific low-capacitance cable design that maintains high-frequency content across longer cable runs. “I use Cordial Cables,” she confirmed. For a guitarist whose rig involves multiple amplifiers, a pedalboard on each side of the Atlantic (she documents having separate pedal boards for European and American touring), and complex signal routing, cable quality is a practical concern rather than boutique speculation.

Playing Style & Tone Philosophy

Ana Popovic’s playing style is the most internationally assembled in contemporary blues guitar — influenced by the American blues tradition absorbed from her father’s record collection, the jazz harmony and theory from the Rotterdam Conservatory, and the specific slide approach she developed independently. Her guitar vocabulary covers clean fingerpicking, blues lead, slide guitar with wah, funk-inflected rhythm playing, and jazz-influenced chord-melody — a range that reflects the breadth of her album catalog, which has moved from straight blues through jazz-blues, to soul-funk, to the gospel-influenced POWER.

Her tone philosophy is both practical and philosophically coherent: “I am definitely not a collector and just have guitars I use. If I don’t like it I sell it.” This approach — guitars as tools rather than artifacts — is consistent throughout her gear documentation. She plays the instruments she needs for the music she is making; when they stop serving that purpose, they are replaced. The ’64 Strat stays because it is “my favorite guitar”; the ’57 reissue stays because it is “equally as good” and serves “all my slow blues.” Every piece of gear that survives in her rig has survived a practical test of actual use rather than a collector’s assessment of potential value.

The Mesa Mark IV’s multi-channel flexibility suits her multi-genre approach: she can access a pristine clean for jazz-influenced passages, a pushed-clean for blues rhythm, and a boosted lead channel for solos without changing guitars or significantly altering her pedalboard settings. The addition of the blackface Fender Super Reverb alongside the Mesa gives her the American vintage warmth that the Mesa’s California-designed circuit, for all its flexibility, doesn’t fully replicate in its clean mode. Two amplifiers, two philosophies, one tone: the specific combination that makes her live sound identifiably hers.

How to Sound Like Ana Popovic

Guitar: A Fender Stratocaster — vintage or vintage-specification — is the authentic starting point. The rosewood-board Strat (for warmth) and the maple-board Strat (for brightness) cover the two primary tonal territories she uses. The Fender American Professional II Strat provides both neck options at a practical price point. DR PHR-11 .011–.046 strings provide the string tension and tonal character her playing requires.

Amp: A Mesa/Boogie Mark IV (or Mesa Mark series equivalent) for the primary multi-channel foundation. A Fender blackface Super Reverb or Twin Reverb for the American vintage clean. Running them simultaneously — the Mesa for lead and heavier passages, the Fender for clean rhythm — approximates her two-amp approach.

Amp Settings (Mesa/Boogie Mark IV, Third/Orange Channel with Tube Screamer):

Effects: Original Ibanez Tube Screamer into the Mesa’s third channel — mid-push, not maximum gain — for lead boost. Vox 847 wah (the specific “Union Jack” version or the standard 847) for slide and expressive lead passages. Boss CE-2 (original if possible, or the Waza Craft reissue) for subtle chorus texture. MXR Carbon Copy for warm analog delay. The two-Tube-Screamer approach: one always on for baseline grit, one for additional boost when needed.

Influence & Legacy

Ana Popovic’s influence runs through two communities simultaneously: the international blues festival circuit, where she has been a consistent headliner for over twenty years, and the specifically European blues community, where she represents the possibility of blues mastery developing outside the American South — in Belgrade, in Rotterdam, in the diaspora spaces where American roots music has traveled and found new practitioners.

Her connection to Samantha Fish (Series 2 #133) and Joanne Shaw Taylor (Series 2 #134) as peers in the contemporary women’s blues guitar space is documented and mutual — she appears on festival lineups alongside both regularly, and the three collectively represent the strongest generation of female blues guitarists since the genre’s founding figures. Joanna Connor (Series 2 #138) and Ally Venable (Series 2 #139) complete the generation.

Her documentary “ANA” — screened at film festivals in 2013 — is a contribution to the genre of musician documentary filmmaking that goes beyond the music itself to document the specific life of a touring artist: the logistics, the relationships, the daily reality of building a music career over twenty years of road work. For aspiring blues musicians who want to understand what that life actually involves, the film is as instructive as any guitar tutorial.

The Hamiltone connection — the custom guitar from Jim Hamilton who built instruments for Stevie Ray Vaughan — places her in the specific tradition that the Hamiltone brand represents: guitars built for serious working blues musicians who need instruments equal to their ambitions. That Hamilton built one for Popovic is the luthier’s endorsement of her playing as belonging to the tradition his instruments represent.

Internal Links:

• Samantha Fish, Popovic’s peer in contemporary women’s blues guitar at #133
• Joanne Shaw Taylor, another contemporary female blues guitarist at #134
• Joanna Connor, Popovic’s peer in the Chicago blues tradition at #138
• Marcus King, whose Mesa Boogie Mark series amp approach parallels Popovic’s at #132

Frequently Asked Questions: Ana Popovic Guitars & Gear

What guitar does Ana Popovic play?
Popovic’s primary guitars are two Fender Stratocasters: a 1964 Strat with sunburst finish and rosewood neck (“my favorite guitar”), and a 1957 reissue with maple neck (“my road warrior, which has been with me throughout my whole career”). She recently designed a new Custom Shop Strat nicknamed “Foggy” in Foggy Mirror Chrome with Fender’s master builders. Additional instruments include a D’Angelico jazz guitar, Ovation 12-string acoustic, Martin acoustic, and a custom Hamiltone guitar built by Jim Hamilton — the same builder who made instruments for Stevie Ray Vaughan.

What amplifier does Ana Popovic use?
Her primary amplifier is a Mesa/Boogie Mark IV — “I use the most my MESA BOOGIE Mark IV.” She runs multiple channels: the clean channel as a pristine foundation, the second “edgy yellow” channel for blues rhythm, and the third “orange” channel with a Tube Screamer pedal for lead. She also uses a Fender Super Reverb Blackface and an original Fender Bassman alongside the Mesa. For studio work, a Mesa California Tweed is also documented. Running the Mesa and Fender simultaneously gives her the blend of American vintage warmth and Mesa’s multi-channel flexibility.

What effects does Ana Popovic use?
Her core effects are two original Ibanez Tube Screamers (one for baseline grit, one for lead boost), a Vox 847 wah with Union Jack graphics (“the best — their sound is awesome”), and an original Boss CE-2 chorus (the two-knob light-blue original). She also uses an MXR Carbon Copy analog delay, MXR Reverb, Dunlop/MXR Super Badass Distortion, Dunlop JDF2 Fuzz Face, and a Line 6 DL4. She maintains separate pedal boards on each side of the Atlantic for tour logistics.

What is the “Foggy” Stratocaster?
“Foggy” is a custom Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster that Popovic designed in collaboration with Fender Custom Shop master builders. It has a Foggy Mirror Chrome color — a custom finish not in Fender’s standard catalog. “I wanted something different and by no means was gonna copy my ’64 Strat; I wanted something that looks and sounds hip but at the same time stays true to me as a guitarist.” The guitar represents her most recent addition to her primary collection and reflects a deliberate aesthetic departure from vintage sunburst and natural finishes.

Why does Ana Popovic prefer the Vox 847 wah over a Dunlop Cry Baby?
In her Vintage Guitar interview, Popovic explained: “I’ve got a Vox (847) wah with the Union Jack graphics. They’re the best — their sound is awesome. It’s very bluesy and doesn’t have the scream that the regular one has — it’s more subtle, has a bigger ‘loop’ and a more-diverse sound.” The Vox 847’s specific circuit has a different Q factor (frequency bandwidth) and sweep range from the Dunlop Cry Baby, producing a wider, smoother sweep that she finds more suited to blues slide playing. She also uses a Dunlop MC404 CAE wah as a secondary option.

Where is Ana Popovic from and how did she get into blues guitar?
Popovic was born on May 13, 1976, in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia). She grew up watching her father and his friends jam — “whoever could play a couple of notes could sit in” — and absorbed American roots music from her father’s collection in an environment where such music required specific effort to obtain. She began studying guitar at fifteen, almost pursued graphic design, and then dedicated herself to music in the mid-1990s. She moved to the Netherlands to study at the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music, then built an international career on the blues festival circuit. She has been touring for over twenty years at approximately 100–150 shows annually.

What strings does Ana Popovic use?
Ana Popovic uses DR Strings PHR-11 Pure Blues strings in .011–.046 gauge — a nickel-plated round wound set specifically designed for blues guitar. DR Strings endorses her. The .011 gauge provides the string tension and full tone she needs for sustained vibrato and slide playing while remaining manageable for the fast passages in her blues rock lead work.