# Billy Gibbon's rig ...



## jcayer (Mar 25, 2007)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6DrxfrbbF8&feature=g-vrec&context=G22b6b48RVAAAAAAAABw

7 - 38 strings gauge ?!?


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## marcos (Jan 13, 2009)

Always amazed at how many rackmount components, effects etc.. these guys need to sound the way they do. What happened to the good old days of plug and play into a Marshall stack or whatever with a LP or Strat. I guess they call this evolution.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

marcos said:


> Always amazed at how many rackmount components, effects etc.. these guys need to sound the way they do. What happened to the good old days of plug and play into a Marshall stack or whatever with a LP or Strat. I guess they call this evolution.


most of the EQ in Billy's rack is used to make his guitars all sound like Pearly Gates.


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## jcayer (Mar 25, 2007)

marcos said:


> Always amazed at how many rackmount components, effects etc.. these guys need to sound the way they do. What happened to the good old days of plug and play into a Marshall stack or whatever with a LP or Strat. I guess they call this evolution.


I don't know, I thought it was pretty simple compared to a lot of musicians... (say Eric Johnson, Satriani, Bonnamossa, Gilmour, etc...)
As hollowbody said, most of the EQ is uses to copy Pearly Gates sound.


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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

It didnt look too bad to me...Just what the world came to when bands stopped filling stages with Marshall stacks, and had to create their tone in otherways before pumping it through PA's.
Billys gotta cover a few decades of tone changes in his rig, but most of the sounds are subtle. This isnt a rig like Vai's for example, even if at first glance it looks similar.

Some of that stuff I suspect are things that Billy would hear more than we would.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

After watching the vid, which was very cool, the three things that surprised me most were:

BG pumps the mids and bass and cuts the treble quite a bit. He's got a fat tone, so the mids being pumped doesn't surprise me, but the bass is just as pumped and I would never have said that his tone lacks in upper end, so I'm kinda surprised that he cuts that much treble.

He uses isocabs. Most guys usually have a small combo or something, but these are just plain-jane isocabs with Eminence speakers to put into the PA. Not really boo-teek mystery at all there!

I knew he used super light strings, but I didn't know he liked his guitars to be completely routed out too! Chambered neck???? Weird.


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## jcayer (Mar 25, 2007)

The super light strings + the chambered neck are the two things that surprised me. Plus the fact that he never breaks strings considering that his G string is almost has small as my e string... (I use 10's and his G string is 11 mils...)


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

Ya, I thought that 9s were light.

It was apparently BB King (I think) that told him to stop fighting with the guitar for the notes.
I think that he was using 11s or something then.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

sulphur said:


> Ya, I thought that 9s were light.
> 
> It was apparently BB King (I think) that told him to stop fighting with the guitar for the notes.
> I think that he was using 11s or something then.


Yeah, BB has pretty bad arthritis or something from what I recall and started using the really light strings as a result.

Someone else kept switching to lighter and lighter strings because of a debilitating illness (not sure if it was arthritis as well) and ended up playing 7s or 6s. I wanna say Roy Buchanan, but I'm not 100%.


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## hummingway (Aug 4, 2011)

That was a good video. Apparently Billy doesn't care much about tone or tuning, just being comfortable! I loved the line about the Bigsby just being there to assure that the guitar goes out of tune. I've been in front of large crowds and not wanted to tune because of the energy. I can't go long since it really bothers me. With 7's my intonation would be all over the place anyway. I can't imagine playing that gauge. 

It seems odd buying so many guitars but EQing them to sound the same.


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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

sulphur said:


> Ya, I thought that 9s were light.It was apparently BB King (I think) that told him to stop fighting with the guitar for the notes.I think that he was using 11s or something then.


Back in the 80s, they guys from Judas Priest were using .007's .As a fan, I looked, but never found a store then that carried less than .008s.


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

That must take one light touch to play that guage.


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## Nick Burman (Aug 17, 2011)

The strings are so light he doesn't touch them. He just has to think about it.


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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

marcos said:


> Always amazed at how many rackmount components, effects etc.. these guys need to sound the way they do. What happened to the good old days of plug and play into a Marshall stack or whatever with a LP or Strat. I guess they call this evolution.


If you're into minimalist rigs, check out the vid of Brian Setzers....I'd say it's prob the simplest of anybody's these days....an old guitar, an old echo unit, and a fender bassman. The guy doing the interview was really reaching to find some magic pixie dust in Brian's stuff, but kept coming up short.


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## zurn (Oct 21, 2009)

Diablo said:


> If you're into minimalist rigs, check out the vid of Brian Setzers....I'd say it's prob the simplest of anybody's these days....an old guitar, an old echo unit, and a fender bassman. The guy doing the interview was really reaching to find some magic pixie dust in Brian's stuff, but kept coming up short.


This one?

[video=youtube_share;0HU84CCvST8]http://youtu.be/0HU84CCvST8[/video]


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## al3d (Oct 3, 2007)

Diablo said:


> Back in the 80s, they guys from Judas Priest were using .007's .As a fan, I looked, but never found a store then that carried less than .008s.


U sure?.....Met Priest for a Press thing, i was doing the picts, and with my long hair and Jean Jacket cut off sleave, studs and big ass Priest logo, i was given the change to "touch and feel" KK's V and Tipton's, at the time, new Hammer guitars, and since i was to a BIG Fan, and actually did haft our set with Priest tunes..the rest been maiden.. and when i took KK's famous red V...i would really have noticed such lite strings..from my recolection, i would have said 9's or at least 10's.


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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

al3d said:


> U sure?.....Met Priest for a Press thing, i was doing the picts, and with my long hair and Jean Jacket cut off sleave, studs and big ass Priest logo, i was given the change to "touch and feel" KK's V and Tipton's, at the time, new Hammer guitars, and since i was to a BIG Fan, and actually did haft our set with Priest tunes..the rest been maiden.. and when i took KK's famous red V...i would really have noticed such lite strings..from my recolection, i would have said 9's or at least 10's.


It was something I read in a guitar magazine.But that doesn't mean it was true or they didn't change, much the way priests music changed over the years.
So you could be right...I once also read in an American men's magazine that Martin Brodeur doesn't wear a chest protector in goal...which is complete lunacy.


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