Rig Rundown: Peter Frampton

Guitar icon Peter Frampton invites Premier Guitar’s John Bohlinger to his Nashville rehearsal studio to talk and demonstrate his sprawling live setup.

The “Phenix” is Frampton’s famous, modified 1954 Les Paul Custom from the cover of Frampton Comes Alive. The name refers to the mythical bird that was raised from the ashes. This guitar, thought to be destroyed and lost for over 30 years—even surviving a plane crash in Venezuela—recently found its way back home to Frampton. To commemorate this historic guitar, Gibson has recreated a very small, exclusive run of reproductions with every burn, scratch, ding, and crack faithfully copied to match Frampton’s original.

The Phenix's headstock shows the scars of the crashed flight and the resulting fire.

This 1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard previously belonged to famed songwriter JJ Cale and is affectionately named “Paulina.” With the exception of the bridge and tuning keys, it’s completely original. The original bridge was so badly worn that accurately intonating the instrument was impossible. It was replaced by a relic’d TonePro bridge to keep the guitar aesthetically correct.

Frampton lost a “Murphy Burst” Gibson Les Paul in the Nashville flood, and this guitar, which was commissioned by Rick Gembar and Mike McGuire of Gibson's Custom Shop, now replaces it. It was handcrafted by luthier Tom Murphy and is one of Frampton’s favorites. All of his LP’s are strung up with a set of D’Addario XLs (.009–.042) or Ernie Ball Super Slinkys.

Frampton purchased this 1964 Gibson ES-335 from Gary Dick at Gary’s Classic Guitars in Cincinnati, OH, to replace another ’64 335 that was also lost in the Nashville flood. Frampton’s 335s are also strung with .009–.042 sets, but he replaces the 5th and 6th strings with a .034 and .044, respectively.

Frampton has played Martin acoustics throughout his entire career. His beloved D-45 that he used back in the Humble Pie days was stolen decades ago, but Martin’s Dick Boak developed this “Frampton’s Camel” D-42. Usually the acoustics are strung up with either D’Addario or Elixr strings gauged .011–.052, but occasionally he uses .012–.053.

At the heart of Frampton’s live rig lives a trio of 100-watt heads. The main amp (top) is the Marshall 100-watt Super Lead that was modded by Jose Arredondo to include a master volume and effects loop. The other two “Marshall” heads are exact clones of the main amp that were built by John Suhr. The middle amp is used exclusively for the Framptone talkbox and the bottom amp is a spare. There is a custom switch box behind the amps that allows switching between the main and spare heads instantly if there is ever an issue. It silently switches the input, FX send, FX return, and output of both amps all at the same time.

In addition to the Marshall amps, there’s a 1960 Fender Bassman head, as well as an Egnater M4 modular preamp, and a lovingly modified “Dumble Deluxe” amp hiding behind the center Marshall cabinet on stage.

The power section of this amp goes direct to feed the center cab of a trio of Marshall 4x12 cabinets. All of the stereo effects in the rig run through a Mesa/Boogie Recto 2:100 Power Amplifier to the two outside 4x12 cabinets. All three of the Marshall cabs are 1960BV and are loaded with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers.

To the left and right of the Deluxe, and behind the outside two Marshall cabs are two Leslie 147 speaker cabinets hot-rodded by Murph Wanka at Nashville Pro Hammond, in Nashville, TN. They have 1/4” signal inputs and XLR speed controls that interface through a loom with the main rack, and they are always on.

The brain of Frampton’s guitar rig is the Axxess Electronics FX-1 Foot Controller designed by Mario Marino. Frampton’s tech, Aidan Mullen, also operates an FX-1 offstage. Frampton usually makes the set lists the night before the show. Mullen then takes the song list, programs and edits the details of all the patches and loads them onto the FX-1. After the show, the file is saved and emailed back to Frampton to look at and edit if necessary before the next show.

The effects rack is set up in two parts: front-end pedal effects and line-level loop effects. A bypass switch on the front of the rack can instantly jettison the pedal effects if necessary. The output of each line level effect runs in parallel through a Rane SM82S mixer, then sent to the Boogie power amp. A separate stereo output sends the signal to the Leslies, which are on at all times. The pedal effects include a Klon Centaur, Fulltone OCD, Electro-Harmonix POG, Foxx Tone Machine, Roland CE-1 Chorus Ensemble, Origin Effects Cali 76, MXR Phase 90, MK 4.23 Boost, and last but not least two vintage Mu-Tron III Envelope Filters that were modded by audio genius and Zappa alumni Arthur Sloatman, who is also responsible for the popular Son of Kong pedals.

On the line level side of things, there is an Alesis Q20, which is an updated version of the Quadraverb. It’s called “Hank” on the pedal board, tipping the hat to Hank Marvin of the Shadows, one of Peter’s earliest influences. There are two TC Electronic M3000 Delay/Reverb processors, a TC Electronic TC 1210 Spatial Expander/Stereo Chorus, an Eventide Eclipse Harmonizer, and a new Korg SDD-3000 Digital Delay pedal. All MIDI signals are processed through a MIDI Solution T8 and an Axxess Electronics RX-1. Two Voodoo Lab GCX units handle the audio loop switching. The entire system relies on the Furman P-3600 AR G Global Voltage Regulator and Power Conditioner for clean, stable voltage.

The smaller board out front and controlled by Frampton houses a Custom Audio Electronics Wah, DigiTech Whammy, gig-fx Pro-Chop, gig-fx Peter Frampton Mega-Wah, and an MXR Micro Amp.