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Billie Joe's Rack The controller's presets are Clean, Mid—which is designed to mimic a 10" combo cranked all the way up with the lows taking out and the mids pushed for songs like the opening of "American Idiot"—(both settings bypass the Marshalls' preamps in favor of a Custom Audio Electronics 3+ SE guitar tube preamp), Big (both Marshalls without the CAE preamp), and Big Effect (which kicks in a Boss BD-2 Blues Driver pedal for solos). BJA does have a MXR Carbon Copy Delay that is used for "Kill the DJ."
Mike Dirnt's Fender Super Bassman The amps run through Bassman 6x10 cabs that are loaded with Eminence U.S.A. neodymium-magnet speakers. Dirnt doesn't use any effects onstage or in his rack and as Galindo put it, "that's the beauty of designing your own amp, you don't need anything."
Bilie Joe's Rickenbacker 330 A new acquisition to Armstrong's touring arsenal, this Rickenbacker 330 was modified so it only has one volume control and is used on newer material.
Billie Joe's Gibson Les Paul Jr Another go-to is this repaired TV yellow Gibson Les Paul Jr doublecut that Armstrong busted during the Las Vegas I Heart Radio festival, which Armstrong uses on all the "Uno," "Dos," and "Tre'" material like "99 Revolutions," "Know Your Enemy," and "Stay the Night."
Billie Joe's '55 Gibson Les Paul Jr The other is this singlecut '55 Les Paul Jr., also used or material from "Warning," "American Idiot," and "21st Century Breakdown."
Billie Joe's "Meat" Marshall BJA's tech Hans Buscher describes that "the best way to run these amps and to get the most out of their mods is the set everything up at noon, and the master and gain controls at 10 o'clock because if you turn it up any louder than that or add any more gain it doesn't do anything but fizzle out the tone… plus Billie's tone isn't very high-gain because the majority of his dirt and aggression comes from his playing technique and pick attack. Pete is more of a vintage, classic rock tone and Meat is more of a '80s metal sound and when they're blended together you can get a lot of punch and impact." The two heads have been Armstrong's got-to amps since even before their iconic 'mud set' at Woodstock '94 performance. And for his clean tone, BJA uses a rackmount Custom Audio Electronics 3+ SE guitar tube preamp
Jason White's Gibson Les Paul Jr Touring guitarist Jason White's main guitar is a '50s Gibson Les Paul Jr doublecut with two P-90s (and a Gibson Les Paul goldtop with P-90s as its backup).
Billie Joe's Martin GT-70 Also new-to-him is this late-'60s Martin GT-70 with a bolt-on neck and original DeArmond pickups that are described as being bright.
Billie Joe's Gibson Les Paul Jr Another go-to is this repaired TV yellow Gibson Les Paul Jr doublecut that Armstrong busted during the Las Vegas I Heart Radio festival, which Armstrong uses on all the "Uno," "Dos," and "Tre'" material like "99 Revolutions," "Know Your Enemy," and "Stay the Night."
Mike Dirnt's '58 Fender P Bass All the material on Nimrod and prior are handled by his two vintage basses tuned down a half step. All of Dirnt's basses are loaded up with Fender 7150M Pure Nickel Medium .045--.105 strings
Mike Dirnt's P Basses Some other P basses that Dirnt has on this run are a white one with leopard print pickguard (hand painted by Dirnt's tech Eden Galindo), an Olympic white relic'd bass with a Connecticut pin-up girl sticker (the one that had its body snapped the lower bout just below the pickup cavity during the I Heart Radio smashing), an all-black model (with matching black headstock, pickguard, and a black-finished maple neck) with a rosewood fretboard. All of Dirnt's signature basses and other P basses handle newer material from Warning all the way up to and including Uno, Dos, and Tre'. Since they are all P basses with different cosmetics, Galindo said that Dirnt will rotate through his basses and go with whatever he's feeling or wants to play.
Among the things BJA has changed on this axe was the pickup. He originally used a Bill Lawrence humbucker, but eventually inserted a Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB with an EVH-inspired angle and has used that model since the mid-90s. In addition, the guitar's pickup selector is locked in the bridge position and the middle and neck pickups are disconnected.
Jason White's Silvertone For the thin-and-jangly tones of "Kill the DJ" and "Stray Heart," White leans on this vintage Silvertone.
Billie Joe's "Pete" Marshall Armstrong uses two Marshall 100-watt 1959 SLP reissue heads were modified by Martin Golub at L.A. Sound Design. The top head is affectionally known as Pete and has a crunch mod (a.ka. â??Dookieâ?? mod or Bradshaw gain mod) and Meat (lower head) has Golubâ??s SE Lead mod, which adds another preamp tube for more gain.
Billie Joe's Cabinets Both heads and the CAE 3+ SE run through two Marshall 1960B cabinets that are equipped with Celestion Vintage 30s. The cabs are situated on the back of the stage behind Tre' Cool's drum riser and face away from the stage so there is no bleed over into the vocal mics. There is one cab onstage behind Armstrong that is live and that helps him finesse feedback on songs like "Welcome to Paradise."
Billie Joe's Guitars Armstrong brings a mixed bag of new and old guitars on tour. The mass majority of them are new and vintage Gibson Les Paul Jr models.
Jason White's Effects For White's Big Effect patch, he prefers to use a Chandler Limited Little Devil Colored Boost. Also in his rack is a Dunlop Crybaby Rack Module (with remote foot controller onstage) and a rackmount Line 6 Echo Pro (set to a basic eighth note triplet), and both are used on White's solo for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." Other pedals in his rack (but not actively hooked up) are a MXR Phase 90 and a Boss PS-6 Harmonist. The Shure R4D+ wireless units go into a RJM iS-8 White's tech Chris Schleyer to switch between eight guitar inputs, which then splits off into either the CAE 3+ SE preamp or Marshall heads and the RJM RG-16 switcher and MasterMind MIDI controller that engage the four main presets that Jason uses.
Billie Joe's Blue (back) The back of Blue features a photo of a young Billie Joe with the guitar in much younger days.
Billie Joe's Blue The most iconic of Billie's guitars dates back to the band's early-90s, 924-Gilman-Street days: a super-strat coined Blue. The stickered axe is a Fernandes Stratocaster copy that he got for his birthday when he was 11. Armstrong uses Blue on primarily Green Day's earlier songs like "Basket Case," "Longview," "Brain Stew," and "Hitching' a Ride," so the guitar is tuned to Eb and is strung with Ernie Ball Slinky .010 - .046 strings (the rest of Armstrong's guitars are tuned to E standard).
Jason White's Gibson ES-335 For acoustic needs, White goes with one of his two Gibson ES-335s that are outfitted with a Fishman piezo pickup and plugged into a Fishman Aura preamp with a stereo cable (dreadnought setting selects on the preamp) and into the front of his amps. He utilizes the ES-335s on songs like "King For a Day," "Minority," "Jesus Suburbia," and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" (which has a capo on the first fret).
Jason White's Amps To fully replicate and complement Armstrong's punk-rock tone, White is using the same 100-watt Marshall heads with the same Dookie mod (top) and SE Lead mod (bottom), and like Billie's two-headed monster, White's amps are always used in conjunction with each other for a full, rich, rounder sound with sustain and cut. Whereas BJA's Marhsalls are set to noon, White prefers to contrast his rig by scooping the mids on the SE Lead head. Also, White's clean tones are coming from the CAE 3+ SE tube preamp.
Jason White's Gibson Les Pauls Another favorite is White's Gibson Les Paul that he uses on "American Idiot"'s "Letterbomb" and any of the band's newer material that White takes lead guitar duty because the LP's humbuckers help cut through the mix better. On the LPs, he uses Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinky .009-.046 so he can have smaller gauges for soloing, but still have beefier gauges up to for open and power chords (the rest of the guitars are outfitted with Ernie Ball Slinky .010-.046 strings and he uses Dunlop Tortex .73 picks). For the '90s material, White counts on his black Gibson Les Paul that is tuned to Eb.
Billie Joe's Signature Gibson Les Paul Jr This silver-sparkle signature Gibson Les Paul Jr singlecut has been modded with a Seymour Duncan P-90 Antiquity in the bridge.
Mike Dirnt's Signature Fender P Bass Among his entire boat full of Fender P basses are two of his signature models, including this tobacco burst with maple neck and fretboard.
Also! Click here to watch our video Rig Rundown with Green Day's guitar techs.
Chris Kies has degrees in Journalism and History from the University of Iowa and has been with PG dating back to his days as an intern in 2007. He maintains the website and social media, occasionally writes an artist feature, regularly hosts Rig Rundowns, and shoots/edits video for NAMM show coverage. Other than that, he spends time with his pitbull and enjoys non-guitar-related hobbies.
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