PG’s Nashville correspondent shares his favorite moments behind the camera with some of the best guitar players in the world.
When PG started the Rig Rundown series in 2008, YouTube limited videos to a lean 10 minutes. Now running time is limitless and we've packed hundreds of hours of guitar geekery into more than 450 of these addictive videos, racking up millions of views while giving us all-access to what were formerly trade secrets.
For me, it's not so much about the gear as much as it is the stories behind it that makes these videos fascinating. So, in no particular order, here are my Top 10 Rig Rundowns.
Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein
Doyle was in full Misfits' makeup, shirtless, muscled up, and intimidatingly towered over me. This was my first interview ever, so I asked the basic questions about his rig and signed off. Then Doyle says in thick Jersey, "What? It's ov'r? I got all dressed up for this. Ask me more stuff." I realized this big scary monster was just a fun, 50-year-old kid who wants to make every day Halloween.
Mike Stern
In 2016, Stern tripped over construction debris left on the streets of New York, which resulted in two broken arms and nerve damage in his hands. It looked like Stern's reign as a jazz giant was over. A year later, Stern released Trip and was back touring and killing it. In this rundown, he revealed that he was having trouble holding onto a pick, so he started applying wig glue to his right hand. Stern's recovery is a testimony to the indomitable human spirit.
Joe Bonamassa
It's an unworldly experience standing next to arguably one of the greatest guitarists ever as he plays a '59 Les Paul through two Dumbles and two tweed Twins cranked so loud you can hear it from outer space. When Bonamassa said, "John, play this thing," I was both elated and terrified.
Tom Bukovac
Buk and I moved to Nashville around the same time. Although the attrition rate is fairly high for musicians here, 27 years later we're still standing. Buk is a great guitar player, but more importantly, he's one of the most musical people you'll ever meet. Just listen to his improv in the opening. He never runs out of ideas.
Steve Wariner
Chet Atkins assigned the honor of C.G.P., aka Certified Guitar Player, to his favorite pickers. There are three left in the world: PG has filmed Rundowns on two of them. Steve Wariner is a C.G.P., four-time Grammy winner. and mind-blowing talent. From his family band to his teenage years playing bass for Dottie West to playing in Atkins' band to becoming a huge country star, Steve's career odyssey feels like a movie. If the stories aren't enough, listen to Wariner rip on his signature Gretsch.
Tommy Emmanuel
Speaking of C.G.P., this Rundown is the most fun and informative 43 minutes you can spend online. Sitting next to Tommy as he plays is like watching Picasso paint. You see that it's just six strings and 10 fingers, but you hear an incredibly tight band. Not only is the playing amazing, Tommy is just plain fun and funny.
Peter Frampton
As we entered Frampton's massive studio, his iconic black Les Paul Custom was leaning on a stand, with a cable leading to a Klon, then an old Bassman with a talk-box running to a mic. Frampton, standing next to it, said, "Hi, I'm Peter. Here's my rig." He waited a few beats, then opened up a door to another room to reveal his real rig, featuring several boats of vintage guitars, two refrigerator-sized racks, two Bradshaw boards, stacks of amps, a trio of Marshall 4x12s, and more. Frampton's electric and acoustic performances during this rundown highlight his incredibly melodic playing. Somehow he makes his jazz leanings fit perfectly with classic rock 'n' roll.
Waddy Wachtel
When I was a kid, pre-MTV, you rarely saw live music on TV, but when you did, it seemed like Waddy Wachtel was always there. Any concert, be it Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Keith Richards, Stevie Nicks, etc.—at stage right was this guy rocking out with long, crazy hair, granny glasses, and bell-bottoms. He was the guy that made me think, "That's what I want to do: play with everybody." Waddy has great stories, like the time Stephen Stills sold him his 1960 Les Paul for $350, or giving his neighbor Leslie West his first Les Paul Jr.
Daniel Lanois
Lanois produced two of my top five albums: Chris Whitley's Living with the Law and Emmylou Harris' Wrecking Ball. Lanois was touring with his vintage Korg SDD-3000 that he's used since the '80s, on albums like U2's The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree.There were strips of whitetape across the top of the SDD-3000 covered with Sharpie'd tempo reminders from his tour with Emmylou when they performed the entire Wrecking Ball album live. As a pedal-steel player, it was amazing to hear him play his old Sho-Bud in some weird tuning I would've never imagined. His battered '53 Les Paul with a mini-humbucker from an old Gibson Firebird was the icing on the cake.
Larry Carlton
When Mr. 335 invited us to his Nashville home studio, I felt like I was meeting the Dalai Lama. Listen to Carlton's improv on the head and you'll understand why he's a legend.
[Updated 7/26/2021]
Ever wonder what’s so special about the Queen guitarist’s custom guitar?
Brian May is one of the most immediately identifiable guitarists of all time, and part of his sonic mojo comes from his unique 6-string—the Red Special. Let's explore this instrument to learn how it works and discover how you can mod a production or custom replica to make it even more versatile. Once you understand the electronics, you'll even be able to rewire a Strat to Red Special specs.
Red Special history.
Guitar freaks know the story about May's main axe and how as a kid he built it with his father in the early '60s. From the moment May started playing with Queen—filling stadiums worldwide and recording monster hits—the Red Special's distinctive tone has been essential to his music. What makes this guitar different?
The Red Special boasts three single-coil pickups, Telecaster-style master volume and master tone knobs, and individual on/off and phase switches for each pickup. Like some older Danelectros, its pickups are wired in series rather than in parallel, and this yields a very fat, loud sound.
Photo by Chris Kies
The theory behind series wiring is that the ground wire of one pickup is connected to the hot wire of another pickup. As a result, they become a kind of compound pickup with one ground and one hot for both.
When wired in series, the pickups' impedance (resistance) is summed and the output is very high. (To learn more about series wiring, read "Stratocaster Parallel/Series Switching.")
May's original Red Special is constructed with unusual materials.
The body is made of oak and blockboard, and topped with a mahogany veneer. Its center block and neck consists of an unknown wood taken from an old fireplace mantel, and the fretboard is oak. The result is a kind of semi-acoustic guitar that's almost impossible to copy, but a standard Strat isn't a bad foundation.
Image 1
Wiring diagram courtesy of guitarwiring.blogspot.com
If you're intrigued with the idea of configuring a Strat à la May, Image 1 is the wiring diagram for a stock Red Special. Naturally, you can physically arrange the on/off and phase switches to your personal taste.
Pickup details.
A big part of May's tone comes from the Red Special's Burns Tri-Sonic pickups. Though Tri-Sonics are single-coils, they're wider than standard Stratocaster pickups. This means if you want to install a replacement set of Tri-Sonics in your Strat, you'll have to enlarge the pickup holes in the pickguard and reroute the pickup cavities in the body. Fortunately, Burns also offers a drop-in replacement for Strat pickups called the Mini Tri-Sonic. These pickups sport ceramic magnets and a chrome cover, and have a typical DC resistance of around 7k ohms and an inductance of approximately 1.9H.
The Tri-Sonic's unique construction gives it richer harmonics than a standard Stratocaster pickup. In fact, a Strat-sized P-90-style pickup will get you closer to Brian May territory than a Strat pickup. But to get as close as possible, Tri-Sonics are the ticket.
The Red Special boasts three single-coil pickups, Telecaster-style master volume and master tone knobs, and individual on/off and phase switches for each pickup.
Instead of a common 5-way pickup selector switch, May uses an on/off switch for each pickup. This arrangement gives him seven different combinations from the three pickups. Besides the five well-known Strat combinations, he can also pair the bridge and neck pickups, as well as engage all three pickups. His Red Special uses slide switches, but mini-toggle on/off switches work just fine.
A passing phase.
On his Red Special, May also incorporates an individual phase switch for each pickup, so he can reverse its phase in any pickup combination. When two pickups are in phase, they work together and sonically reinforce each other. When they're out of phase, two pickups work against one another, cancelling many frequencies. The resulting sound is the "leftovers" from these cancellations.
Before we go any further, let's review two things about switching pickup phase: You don't have to engage two phase switches—reversing the leads of both pickups puts them back in phase again and thus yields a stock sound. And switching the phase of a single pickup has no audible result. For example, the bridge pickup by itself sounds the same whether it's switched in or out of phase. You can only get an out-of-phase sound when you use two pickups together and only one of them is out of phase.
So why add all these phase switches?
Consider this: There are two ways you can use the bridge and middle pickups together with one of them being out of phase with the other. The bridge pickup can be in phase and the middle out of phase, or the other way around. Each configuration delivers different harmonic content, especially when you're playing with distortion. The difference is subtle, but audible, and May is known for tinkering with this option a lot. It's an important part of his signature tone.
Image 2
Wiring diagram courtesy of John Hewitt (guitarnuts.com)
May typically plays with heavy distortion, pushing his amps hard with those series-wired Tri-Sonics. His out-of-phase sounds are an excellent choice for cutting through the mix, and this whole circuit is perfect for his playing style.
To get close to the Brian May tone, there are several more things to consider: He plays with very light strings (.009–.036) and uses an old sixpence coin as a plectrum. He also runs his guitar into a treble booster and a wall of Vox AC30s. There are other details, but to enter the May zone without breaking the bank, use thin strings, pick with a coin, plug into any Rangemaster Treble Booster clone, and use a Vox amp—ideally an AC30.
There is a Vox Brian May signature amp (the VBM-1), which was designed to mimic his studio sound and has a built-in treble boost circuit. Though the amp is no longer in production, it sometimes shows up used on eBay.
There are a lot of mods out on the web for Red Special replicas and clones, mostly designed to coax more sounds out of the guitar. My favorite (Image 2) is by John Hewitt, an Australian guitar tech and the mastermind behind the GuitarNuts website. This mod incorporates series/parallel pickup switching, leaves all stock wiring sounds untouched, and only requires one additional switch, which acts as a master series/parallel switch. Parallel switching of the pickups offers more traditional Stratocaster tones. Compared to the series wiring, it has reduced output but delivers enhanced clarity, twang, and top end.
All you need for this is a 4PDT mini toggle or slide switch. A mini toggle switch should be easy to acquire, but finding a 4PDT slide switch can be more difficult. Using the new switch is fairly simple: Dial in a pickup combination of your choice—for example, bridge-plus-middle—and you'll hear them connected in series (the stock wiring). If you want a more Strat-like sound, flip the new switch and both pickups are now wired in parallel for a more traditional tone. Flip it again and you are back to the stock series wiring.
This isn't an easy wiring project, so be methodical and don't rush through it. The third pickup wires (not shown in Image 2) from the Tri-Sonics are twisted together and soldered to ground as shown in Image 1's stock wiring (represented in green).
And that's it! Until next time, keep on modding!
[Updated 9/28/21]
Rig Rundown - Queen's Brian May
Article and photos: https://bit.ly/BrianMayRRIf there was a Mount Rushmore of British guitar heroes, undoubtedly, @Queen Official's Brian May would grace that...Guitarist Tommy Thayer talks Les Pauls and philanthropy while Gene and Paul’s techs give us a peek behind the curtain and show us the gear behind the hottest band in the world.
Not many bands can claim as much influence on today's hard rock and metal scene as the makeup-wearing, blood-spitting, pyro-shooting foursome. PG caught up with current guitarist Tommy Thayer, along with techs Francis and Michael Berger, to dig into all the axes (in some cases, literally), effects, and amps that the band brought out on their 2014 tour with Def Leppard.
Tommy Thayer's Gear
Tommy Thayer is a longtime Les Paul man and brings several on the road with him. A Custom Shop '59 Standard with Seymour Duncan JB pickups sees most of the action.
Gibson had just delivered a new white Les Paul Custom that could see some considerable onstage time.
Thayer's black Les Paul Classic houses the classic Kiss pyro behind the headstock.
When he needs some midrange honk, he reaches for a Custom Shop Gibson Explorer decked out in silver sparkle.
For the past eight years, Thayer has been touring exclusively with a pair of his signature 100-watt Hughes & Kettner DuoTone heads (Thayer donates all the royalties from this amp to The Children's Hospital of Los Angeles). After an experiment where he switched cabinets with Paul Stanley, he discovered the Engl E412SG and has been using a pair of them ever since.
Thayer doesn't use any effects at all, except when "Christine Sixteen" shows up on the setlist. For that song he uses an Electro-Harmonix Micro POG. His rack houses a Furman power supply, four Shure U4D-UHF wireless units, a Tour Supply Multi Selector, and a Peterson VS-R StroboRack tuner.
Paul Stanley's Gear
Stanley's tech Fran Stueber posing with his action figure.
Paul Stanley tours with several of his signature Washburn PS12 Starfires.
Each one is outfitted with a Seymour Duncan Custom 5 in the bridge and Duncan '59 in the neck.
Stanley's contract with Washburn expires this year, so he's returning to his famous Ibanez PS10, which is planned to be released at next year's Winter NAMM show. Currently, Stanley is rocking the PS10 that he first used on the '95 reunion tour.
Stanley plugs into custom Engl heads that are loosely based on the R. Blackmore model, but powered with EL84s instead of the stock 5881s. He runs that into a pair of Marshall 4x12 cabs loaded with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers.
Stanley doesn't use any effects, but his rack features a quartet of Shure U4D-UHF wireless receivers and a Radial JD-7 where the signal is split to the various amps and then is routed through a Tech 21 SansAmp PSA-1. A Furman Power Conditioner supplies the juice.
Gene Simmons' Gear
Gene Simmons plays his signature line of basses exclusively. His iconic Axe bass features a mahogany body, maple neck, Indian rosewood fingerboard and EMG PJ active pickups.
Simmons' Punisher bass features neck-thru construction, mahogany body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, and EMG PJ active pickups. The controls have been simplified to a single volume knob with the input jack routed through the front of the bass to accommodate Simmons' costume. Super fans can even buy the actual basses played on tour after the Demon himself bleeds, sweats, and spits on them. Maybe gross, maybe cool, but definitely profitable to Mr. Simmons with a starting price of $12,000 per bass.
The thunder starts with a Shure U4D-UHF into a Radial JD-7 Injector. From there it goes out to an Empress Compressor and one of two Tech 21 VT-Bass 1969 amps. A Strymon el Capistan is inserted in one of the loops of the JD-7 and is used during Simmons' blood-spitting solo.
The signal then hits one of two Tech 21 SansAmp PSA 1.1 preamps and is blended with the 1969 for Gene's in-ear mix. The amps run into one of two Ampeg SVT 810 E cabs.
A Furman PL-Plus C keeps the amps powered up while a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power Digital handles the pedals. A Peterson VS-R StroboRack tuner lives in the rack as well and keeps everything in tune.
[Updated 10/11/21]