A respected act in his own right, Johnny A. took a break from his jazz-tinged solo shows to tour briefly with The Yardbirds, a band whose has previously employed some of Johnny’s most prominent influences. Before a recent gig at Nashville’s City Winery, Johnny took John Bohlinger through his lean-and-mean rig.
Johnny A. has been playing his signature Gibson since before it was unveiled in 2003. However, the hollowbody was a bit too prone to feedback to play with the fuzz units on his board. Johnny has always been a fan of the Les Paul Jr., so he approached the Gibson Custom Shop about making a few tweaks to this classic design. They came back with this one-off modified Les Paul Jr. prototype that features a more ergonomic neck heel, belly cut, and forearm contour. The entire body is painted in a translucent gold that shows the wood grain beneath. Johnny keeps it strung up with D’Addario NYXL .010-gauge strings.
For a trusty backup, Johnny will grab the aforementioned other signature model—the Epiphone Ltd. Ed. Johnny A Custom that features Gibson ’57 humbuckers, a thinline-hollowbody construction built with mahogany and flame maple, and rock-solid hardware in the form of an ABR-1 Tune-o-matic bridge and a classic Bigsby B70 Vibrato.
Johnny A. is currently running two Vox AC30s in stereo. On top of the amp he keeps a Dunlop 212 Pyrex slide and an Ebow.
At Johnny’s feet sits an incredibly tidy board that was built by Johnny and Heath Berkowitz of Boston Guitar. Sitting atop the Temple Audio pedalboard is an Xotic Wah, a custom Analog Man Tone Bender (with a prototype David Main circuit), an Analog Man Mk IV Sun Bender, a pair of Xotic pedals (SL Drive and EP Booster), an Eventide H9, and a Barn3 OX9. Most of the pedals are powered with a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 4x4, but a Vertex Battery Box powers the fuzz units.
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John Bohlinger is a Nashville-based multi-instrumentalist best known for leading the band on NBC's Nashville Star, serving as music director for the CMT Awards and specials on PBS and GAC, and of course for his appearances in PG Rig Rundown, Review Demo, Axes & Artifacts, and What Bohlinger Plays videos.
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