![Adrian Belew/BEAT Tour Rig Rundown [2024]](https://www.premierguitar.com/media-library/youtube.jpg?id=53638946&width=1245&height=700&quality=85&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0)
Adrian Belew is one of the most inventive guitarists of the past half-century—an incandescent player and songwriter who has a vast menagerie of tones and sounds at his command. You’ve heard him with King Crimson, Talking Heads, David Bowie, and Frank Zappa, among others, and with his pop band the Bears and on his solo recordings and tours.
This fall, Adrian is following dates with the Talking Heads-fueled Remain in Light tour, which he co-led with Heads keyboardist and guitarist Jerry Harrison, with the BEAT Tour—a run drawing on his recordings with King Crimson in the ’80s: the albums Discipline, Beat, and Three of a Perfect Pair. Of course, this is just a small—but extremely potent and influential—portion of his 30-year collaboration with Crimson founder Robert Fripp, who has given BEAT his blessing. But putting this repertoire in the hands of Belew, fellow Crimson alum and super-bassist Tony Levin, the incendiary Steve Vai (playing the guitar role of Fripp), and the Earth-shaking drummer Danny Carey from Tool promises magical performances. It’s also one of the year’s most-anticipated tours.
As I write this, Belew, Levin, Vai, and Carey are rehearsing on the West Coast, and by the time this video posts, they will have played their first BEAT dates. So, word is likely to have spread that Belew has brought some crucial pieces of gear he played with ’80s Crimson back into play. But here, you’ll get a close up look and listen as Premier Guitar joins Adrian—with tech Blair White of Nashville’s Eastside Music Supply—at his mid-Tennessee home for a pre-tour Rig Rundown. Dig in!Brought to you by D’Addario.
Fly Guy
The guitarist’s own Adrian Belew Signature Parker Fly is back on the music highway. The hard-to-find model sports exceptional—and some unconventional—appointments, like a 13-pin out for MIDI/synth capability. It has a DiMarzio humbucker, a Sustainiac humbucker, some Line 6 Variax components, Parker’s flat-spring vibrato system, Sperzel tuners, and a solid poplar body and basswood neck under its carbon/glass/epoxy exoskeleton.
Harmony, Man!
Adrian’s DigiTech Harmony Man is set at a fifth up during the opening of this Rig Rundown—one of his favorite settings with the pitch-shifting device.
Mind the Mastermind
Belew uses an RJM Mastermind MIDI controller as part of his rig’s cerebellum.
The Board, Part 1
A Boss GKC-AD converter lets Adrian use his Parker Fly with conventional stompboxes. Its neighbors include an Empress Compressor MkII, a Fractal Axe-Fx Ultra (Adrian has several hundred programs that he wrote into this Fractal that are not transferable to newer models), a Big Joe lithium battery power box, and volume and expression pedals. That’s all part of his self-proclaimed “modern rig.”
Sir Roland of Synth
Yes, Adrian has taken the Roland GR-300 Polyphonic Guitar Synthesizer that he acquired for King Crimson in 1981 out of mothballs, so he can recreate every sound fans for this much-anticipated tour want to hear. It was used for “Industry,” “The Sheltering Sky,” “Three of a Perfect Pair,” and other classics. “I could not do it right without this,” he says. The GR’s companions are a volume pedal, TC Electronic PolyTune, another Big Joe power box, and a custom glitching device.
Twang Me Back Home
Also on tour is Adrian’s famed Twang Bar King guitar (which debuted on the heels of his 1983 Twang Bar King album), which requires a 21-pin plug to make its sonic sorcery. In the video, Adrian shows how it functions as both a conventional guitar and the GR-300’s controller. This guitar had to be refreshed, since it was semi-retired, and is now back in full service. It started life as a Mustang, and now it’s a one-of-a-kind show pony, with a Kahler and Lace Sensor pickups. In this video, Adrian uses the Twang Bar King guitar to demonstrate some tunings for specific Crimson songs.
Racked Up
The signal to the rack gear flows from Adrian’s guitar to an always-on JAM Pedals Dinosaur Compressor, to a late-1970s V4 op-amp Big Muff, an MXR Ten Band EQ, a Strymon Deco V2, an Eventide H9, a Source Audio Artifakt lo-fi pedal (fuzz, reverb, modulation, rig mod, etc.), a Source Audio Nemesis Delay, and a Lichtlaerm Audio The Key and Gate noise gate. Adrian and Blair spent days running through various Big Muff pedals from different eras, and the ’70s V-4 is the only model that allowed Adrian to recreate his feedback acrobatics!
Echo, Echo, Echo ...
It’s not on the floor, because Adrian manipulates it with his hands, but also on this journey is his original Electro-Harmonix Echoflanger! He likes to use it set to between-setting spots, for maximum weirdness.
The Original JC-120
Yes, that’s right: Adrian is using the early-’70s Roland JC-120 amp he played with Bowie, King Crimson, and Talking Heads for the BEAT Tour. Despite its many road miles, the amp looks pristine.
Left to Right: Tony Levin, Steve Vai, Adrian Belew, and Danny Carey
They will come together this fall for an extensive tour across North America performing repertoire from these three King Crimson iconic albums The BEAT Tour will begin in San Jose, CA on September 12 at San Jose Civic with the final show planned for November 8 at Las Vegas, NV’s The Theater at Virgin Hotels. An artist pre-sale goes live today at Noon Eastern (Password: BEATTOUR), with the general on-sale set for Friday, April 5 at 10am local time here: www.BEAT-tour.com.
Guitarist Adrian Belew reflects, “The 1981 through 1984 King Crimson created a music all its own. Timeless. Beautiful. Complex. Fierce. For the fans who lived through it then, and the ones who never got to witness it, our aim is to bring it to life again. A monumental task but we're going for it! There are not enough exclamation points to express my excitement!”
Guitarist Steve Vai states, “Being a part of this ensemble is an extraordinary privilege and opportunity to perform some of the most beloved, timeless, and monumental music of the 80’s (and beyond) with truly inspired musicians. This music resonates deeply with me. Adrian, Tony and Danny are unique musicians with an otherworldly insight into presenting rich musical complexities in a very accessible way, and I am looking forward to searching each other’s musical minds in real time on stage. I’m sure sparks will fly.” He continues, “Father Robert Fripp is one of our historical geniuses. His highly specific and exceptionally brilliant guitar technique is studied and revered. His contribution to the quality of my musical life, and so many others is supreme. I can assure the fans of KC that I will be putting my best foot forward to respect this great music with the care and intensity it deserves. Did I say ‘sparks will fly?’”
Bassist Tony Levin offers, “This is going to be quite a tour. Revisiting some of my favorite music is a treat in itself, but in company of this stellar lineup, I expect to have my musical butt kicked! And it’s also great that we’re not just playing a few shows, we’re hitting it hard. So, Road Dogs are coming to your area soon.”
Drummer Danny Carey shares, “I am very excited to share the stage with three of my favorite musicians on the planet. Tony, Steve and Adrian have always been a source of inspiration for me since the beginning of my career, and now to be able to share a bit of my musical journey with them is a dream come true. There’s nothing better to make some sparks fly and light a fire under your ass than getting out of your musical comfort zone, and I can’t think of any other three guys I’d rather do this with. I think I can speak for all of us when I say I hope all of our fans are as excited as we are about this tour.”
The vision for this undertaking emanated from initial dialogue between Angelo Bundini aka Scrote and Adrian Belew. Tour Producer Bundini recalls, “When Adrian called me to help bring his idea to fruition, I immediately thought it best to focus on the 80s albums: Discipline, Beat, and Three Of A Perfect Pair. These three records famously marked Adrian and Tony's entry into King Crimson. Their fluid, melodic virtuosity, and Fripp's and Bruford's dramatic precision created a totally unique, dynamic push and pull that would influence nearly every rock musician and/or band going forward for years, if not decades, to come.”
The complete itinerary of planned appearances includes events in:
9/12 San Jose, CA San Jose Civic
9/13 Napa, CA Blue Note Napa Summer Sessions at Meritage Resort
9/14 Los Angeles, CA The United Theater on Broadway
9/15 Anaheim, CA City National Grove of Anaheim
9/17 San Diego, CA Humphrey’s Concerts
9/18 Phoenix, AZ Celebrity Theatre
9/20 Austin, TX The Paramount Theatre
9/21 Houston, TX Bayou Music Centre
9/22 Dallas, TX Majestic Theatre
9/24 Atlanta, GA The Eastern
9/26 Fort Lauderdale, FL The Parker
9/27 Orlando, FL Hard Rock Live
9/28 Clearwater, FL Ruth Eckerd Hall
9/29 Charleston, SC Charleston Music Hall
10/01 Charlotte, NC Knight Theater
10/02 Durham, NC Carolina Theatre of Durham / Fletcher Hall
10/04 Washington, DC Warner Theatre
10/05 New York, NY Beacon Theatre
10/06 Glenside, PA Keswick Theatre
10/08 Richmond, VA Carpenter Theater in Dominion Energy Center
10/09 Red Bank, NJ Count Basie Center
10/11 Boston, MA Shubert Theatre
10/12 Hampton Beach, NH Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
10/14 Halifax, NS Rebecca Cohen Auditorium
10/15 Moncton, NB Casino New Brunswick
10/17 Montreal, QC Theatre Maisonneuve
10/18 Toronto, ON Massey Hall
10/19 Rochester, NY Kodak Center
10/21 Albany, NY The Egg
10/22 Greensburg, PA Palace Theatre
10/23 Reading, PA Santander Performing Arts Center
10/25 Cleveland, OH Agora Theatre
10/26 Cincinnati, OH Taft Theatre
10/27 Royal Oak, MI Royal Oak Music Theatre
10/28 Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium
10/30 Indianapolis, IN Murat Theatre
11/01 Chicago, IL Copernicus Center
11/02 Milwaukee, WI Pabst Theatre
11/03 Madison, WI Orpheum Theater
11/04 Minneapolis, MN State Theatre
11/06 Denver, CO Paramount Theatre
11/08 Las Vegas, NV The Theater at Virgin Hotels
For more information, please visit beat-tour.com.