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Rig Rundown - REO Speedwagon's Dave Amato

REO Speedwagon guitarist Dave Amato details his rig during the recent Midwest Rock 'n Roll Express tour with Styx and Ted Nugent.

Guitars
For the current tour, Amato only brings out a small portion of his extensive guitar collection. On this run he brought out several Gibson Les Pauls (two prototypes of his signature model), a Gibson '57 Custom Shop Black Beauty, a Gibson Lonnie Mack V with a Bigsby, a Fender double neck Esquire/Telecaster (that he uses on "Time for Me to Fly"), a pair of Bill Nash T-style guitars, a Gibson EDS-1275, and two (J-200 and J-185 12-string) Gibson acoustics. All the guitars are strung up with Dean Markely .009s.

Amps and Cabs
Amato is a big fan of Marshall amps, specifically the JCM800 2210 model. He brings four heads on the road (two wired in stereo and two for backup) and runs them through Marshall 4x12 cabs loaded with 75-watt Celestion speakers. In order to maintain everything, the amps get re-tubed and biased once a year and he swaps out speakers every two years because Amato "likes them fresh."

Effects
With a Bob Bradshaw-designed rig, Amato is able to cover a lot of ground. In the rack for his main rig he has a Yamaha SPX90 Delay, Roland SRV-2000 reverb, Eventide Ultra Harmonizer, DBX 160A compressor, TC Electronic 2290 delay, TC Electronic 1210 Spatial Expander+Chorus/Flanger, and a Lexicon PCM70. The upper rack houses his "B" rig, which contains a Dunlop Tremolo, Korg ToneWorks G4 Rotary Speaker Simulator, Dunlop Uni-Vibe, MXR Noise Gate, Boss DSD-2 Digital Sampler/Delay, Boss DD-3 Digital Delay, Boss RV-3 Digital Reverb/Delay, Boss PS-3 Pitch Shifter, and a Line 6 MM-4.

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