Saw Bonamassa last night

MisterE

MisterE

Fractal Fanatic
Incredible concert.
Brilliant songs.
Bonamassa is a giant.
What struck me though was the sound of his guitars.
He used an SG, LP's, ES-355, Strats, Teles and an Explorer.
When turning down the volume on the guitars, the character or typical sound of the guitars became more apparent.
When turning up the volume for lead, they more or less all sounded the same. The difference was way less apparent.
Smooth, creamy but all sounded more or less the same.
 
I saw him again a few weeks ago...it wasn't the best concert of his that I've been to, but it was a lot of fun.

And, yeah....that makes sense. If you're distorting so much that your guitar signal into the cabs becomes a square wave synth, then it's just the speakers that really make a difference.
 
Tonedeaf said:
What amps is he playing these days? Still the 5F8 Twins?
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Saw him last year and he had a Dumble ODS, the Twins, and a big rack of Friedman heads. Dirty Shirley’s I think. Might have been a couple Marshalls in that rack too. Kind of weird, it was off to the side close to the front of the stage, with the back facing the crowd.
 
skolacki said:
Saw him last year and he had a Dumble ODS, the Twins, and a big rack of Friedman heads. Dirty Shirley’s I think. Might have been a couple Marshalls in that rack too. Kind of weird, it was off to the side close to the front of the stage, with the back facing the crowd.
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Sounds like he's going after all his past tones. His roadies should tell him about Firmware 25.
 
Tonedeaf said:
Sounds like he's going after all his past tones. His roadies should tell him about Firmware 25.
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Heh. He's played them and talked about it - he likes them but prefers his loud amps for what he does.

skolacki said:
Saw him last year and he had a Dumble ODS, the Twins, and a big rack of Friedman heads. Dirty Shirley’s I think. Might have been a couple Marshalls in that rack too. Kind of weird, it was off to the side close to the front of the stage, with the back facing the crowd.
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The rig I saw looked like it was the same as his last rig rundown on premier guitar, so...

2x 1987 Silver Jubilees -> VanWeeldon cab with EV 12Ls
2x reissue High Power Tweed Twins with his JB85 Celestions
2x Dumble 50W 1x12 Combos (used to be JB85s)
1x Dumble 100W head into a dumble 2x12 (not sure of the speakers)
1x Mesa Boogie Revolver

...used in various combinations with pedals split between them and in the loop of one of the marshalls, depending.

It's a very complex setup.

I've only seen him live with basically that rig (with and without the Revolver and the 3rd Dumble). Based on recordings, I think he sounded better with just the 4 HP Twins or 2 Twins and 2 Bassmans.
 
Seems about right.
As I wrote before, very complex setup, lots of different guitars but not a big difference in his lead sound.
Also, I find that, when turning down the volume on my guitars, I have a lot more control than he had.
 
Chromatizm said:
No love for Josh Smith? Such an amazing musician, perfect sound, everything!
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He was with Joe last year when I saw him. Part of the reason I bought a Ibanez AZ. He had his signature guitar and a couple other AZ’s. Definitely a class act. Still, I prefer Joe as a 1 guitar show. Sounds better that way because his sound is massive and it gets cluttered even with the other guitars backed down in the mix.
 
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