Comments on: The Last Word on Billy Gibbons’ Live Rig?

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:38:10 +0000

Great writing about one of guitar’s greats. I especially loved the “plugging a ukelele into a potato chip” line. It’s not easy to be clever while still imparting good info.

By: Audioman

Audioman — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 01:06:16 +0000

I did video for a ZZ Top gig last year and got to look at his guitar rig. On stage they had 3 4×12's per side, but I believe 2 per side were empty. There were no amplifiers on stage. Billy's guitar tech had a station side stage. One of the racks looked very similar to the one pictured with the JMP's. There were all those eq's and 2 JMP preamps. He also had another rack though which had Mojave Scorpion custom built rackmount amp. And the tech had a tiny 8 or 10" solid state combo (Kustom?) presumably for monitoring something. I wish I knew whether he was using primarily the JMP's or the Mojave, but I have no way of knowing. I do know that when he switched from his "flashy" guitars to Pearly Gates (or a look-alike), his tone changed quite dramatically. It was much more smoky and a bit lower gain. Great sound though, some of the best live rhythm guitar sounds I've heard.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:46:03 +0000

The sound in the audience always makes a difference. Unfortunately I have a history of somehow picking the broken microphone and only after the show do I find out that people could barely hear me.