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Rig Rundown: The Winery Dogs' Richie Kotzen and Billy Sheehan

The power-trio super group fulfills the promise, brings back rock armed with signature instruments from Fender and Yamaha.

Kotzen runs through two of his Cornford signature RK100 heads. The one on the left simply acts as a power amp for the left cab while Kotzen plugs straight into the one on the right. Each head runs on a quartet of EL34 tubes and the matching cabs are loaded with Celestion 35 speakers.

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The Brian May Gibson SJ-200 12-string in the hands of the artist himself.

Despite a recent health scare, guitarist Brian May cannot be stopped. With the Queen reissue project, he’s celebrating his legacy, and with his new SJ-200—a limited edition signature Gibson acoustic guitar—he looks to the future.

Long lasting instrumental relationships are something we love to root for. Neil Young and Old Black, Willie Nelson and Trigger—those are inseparable pairings of artist and instrument where, over the course of long careers, those guitars have been shaped, excessively in both cases, by the hands that play them. Eddie Van Halen went steps beyond with Frankenstein, assembling the guitar to his needs from the get-go. But few rock ’n’ roll relationships imbue the kind of warm-and-fuzzy feelings as the story of Brian May and his dad building Red Special, the very instrument that hung around his neck for his rise to superstardom and beyond.

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Every level of player uses backlines, from the smallest stages to the biggest. Here, SIR Chicago sets up a backline for Bettye LaVette before she opened for the Rolling Stones at Soldier Field.

Photo by Andy Awsumb, SIR Chicago

On the road, in the clubs, or on outdoor stages, you’re going to encounter all kinds of gear, from ace to disgrace. If you need to assemble one of your own—or don’t have backline experience—here are some things you should know—straight from one of Nashville’s top providers.

Picture this: You’ve been tapped to play a small stage for a date on the Warped Tour. You find out that you’ll be on at around 4 p.m., and your band is slotted third in a lineup that includes seven other groups. You think, ā€œHow could they possibly turn the stage over between each band swiftly enough to make every set happen on time?ā€ That’s where a backline comes in.

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There’s so much to explore when you decide to dip your toes into altered tunings.

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Introducing Torpedo Reload II - Two Notes Audio Engineering's latest groundbreaking reactive load solution, featuring twin-channel operation, multi-impedance compatibility, and continuous attenuation. With a CelestionĀ® Approved Load Response and 215W per channel power amplifier, Reload II redefines backline control.

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