![Rig Rundown: Joe Robinson [2022]](https://www.premierguitar.com/media-library/rig-rundown-joe-robinson.jpg?id=32034880&width=1245&height=700&quality=85&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0)
When Joe Robinson was learning to play in the remote village of Temagog, New South Wales, Australia, YouTube was his teacher. Then he discovered Tommy and Phil Emmanuel—Australia’s sibling 6-string slicers—and set out on a path that would lead him to Nashville, where he’s been a part of the city’s guitar cognoscenti for the past 13 years.
At 31, Robinson’s fans include Tommy Emmanuel (who’s been a committed mentor), Steve Vai, Robben Ford, Eric Johnson, Steve Lukather, Albert Lee, Steve Morse, and Lee Ritenour. He’s released six acclaimed albums, performed in 40-plus countries, and continues to serve a large online audience through livestream concerts and his own popular YouTube channel. Robinson shared his current touring rig before an October 18 show at his adopted hometown’s City Winery.
Brought to you by D’Addario XS Coated Strings.
Aussie Pride
Robinson is equally at home playing fingerstyle on acoustic or flatpicking electric. When he’s on acoustic, Joe plays his 2020 Maton signature model, which features a AA Sitka spruce top, Tasmanian myrtle back and sides, stainless steel frets, and proprietary Maton electronics. It wears Ernie Ball Paradigm or Earthwood sets, gauged .012–.054, but Joe replaces the high E with a heftier .014.
Fender T-Zer
Here’s Joe’s Fender Custom Shop Telecaster styled after a ’53, with 52T pickups designed by Ron Ellis (originally, for Julian Lage), a swamp ash body, and a 9.5" radius neck. It is typically strung Ernie Ball Slinky sets (.010–.046), or, sometimes, Mega Slinkys (.0105–.048).
The “Blessing ’Burst”
This 1960 Les Paul, called the “Blessing Burst,” is being auctioned off for Homes for Our Troops, a nonprofit organization that builds and donates specially adapted custom homes nationwide for severely injured post-9/11 veterans, to enable them to rebuild their lives. HFOT has built more than 345 homes to date, with another 65-plus projects underway nationwide. Robinson played the “Blessing Burst” on this gig, and before that it was on tour with Joe Bonamassa and Marcus King, among others
Fly AER Joe!
Joe usually uses the Udo Roesner Da Capo 75 amp, but on this tour he’s using his tiny but mighty AER alpha because it fits in his flight case.
Lil’ Champ
This 3-dial Fender toughie is from 1967, and Joe uses it for recording electric guitars as well as solo gigs, since it fits, well, just about anywhere!
Dynamite Duo
His burlier amps are a 1966 Fender Deluxe and a Magic Amplification tweed-style. If he needs to get really loud, Joe also has a 1967 Fender Showman that was modded by tube amp guru Kye Kennedy that he runs with a 1x15. Oh, and that’s an Amp RX Brown Box input voltage attenuator out front.
Yes, This is JR’s ’Board
Robinson’s pedals sit on a Pedaltrain Metro 20 with a CIOKS DC-5 power supply hidden underneath. It’s divided into acoustic and electric sides. The acoustic domain houses a TC Electronic PolyTune Mini and a Boss RC-1 Loop Station. For electrics: another TC PolyTune Mini, a Dunlop Cry Baby Mini, a Nobels ODR-1 mini (run at 18v), another Boss RC-1, and a TC Hall of Fame mini.
Gibson 1960 Les Paul 0 8145 is from the final year of the model’s original-production era, and likely from one of the later runs.
Les Paul 0 8145 is a typical 1960 ’burst in most ways. A vibrant cherry color is prominent in the finish—which is a result of a change in dyes Gibson made when owners complained of their new ’58 and ’59 model guitars fading in ultraviolet light—and the neck is thinner than the late-’50s models, similar to what you’d find on the SG-body-style guitars that debuted not long after this 6-string left Kalamazoo.
This close-up of the guitar’s body shows it in excellent condition, and the sound generated by its humbuckers is terrific.
The maple top is hardly the most figured, yet neither is it plain. But one thing certainly jumps out on this guitar: The original owner applied a name plate on the top for all the world to know it belonged to “Johnny B”! Perhaps for this reason, or perhaps because Rumble Seat was never short on amazing guitars on display to compete for attention, the guitar we named Johnny B. hung on the wall for close to eight months.
Eliot Michael, Rumble Seat’s owner, insisted that what Johnny B. lacked in flame was made up for in spades via its monstrous sound. The two original PAF humbuckers are incredible. It’s now common knowledge that many of the best sounding ’bursts do come from the later run in 1960, but it took some convincing for one of my friends and good customers to finally plug Johnny B. in to hear it for himself. Upon doing so, he immediately declared it “the best sounding guitar I’ve ever heard.” And Johnny B. left the shop for a new home.
The back of the guitar also shows TLC—as well as its classic mahogany wood grain.
As tends to happen, the guitar eventually found its way back to Rumble Seat Music, after we moved the store to Nashville, Tennessee. Another friend and customer agreed with that assessment of its sound. His name is Joe Bonamassa. Johnny B. went to live with Joe B., where it took on a new chapter of life on the road and in the studio for several years.
Joe wielded this truly exceptional-sounding guitar in many shows across the U.S. You may have seen it onstage. While some Les Pauls are known for their sweet sound, Johnny B. wants to rock. This is one of the most aggressive, raunchy, and downright rude-sounding Les Paul Standards out there, which seems appropriate for an instrument sharing a name with a Chuck Berry song. It doesn’t get much more rock ’n’ roll than that!
As I mentioned earlier, guitars we sell have a habit of finding their way back to our store, and so it goes with Johnny B.–now returned to our walls after some serious adventures. Typically, good condition 1960 Les Pauls carry tags in six figures, and this one is no exception at $278,000. That’s within the same current range for ’58s and ’59s, since players and collectors have gotten hip to the virtues of 1960 models. And although it was initially overlooked, Johnny B. has earned its place as one of the most recognizable ’bursts around.
After the turn of the 1950s, around the time the Les Paul model was in the early planning stages, Les requested that an instrument be finished all in gold, as a gift for a disabled guitarist. Gibson chose an ES-175 body, and a one-off was made. This gold finish became the standard color for the Les Paul guitar, introduced in 1952. And that striking golden ES-175 became the inspiration for a new two-pickup model that debuted the same year.
This first-year Gibson ES-295 and early Fender Deluxe are part of the original recipe for rock 'n' roll. Elvis Presley's guitarist Scotty Moore bought his 295 in 1953, to replace a Fender Esquire.
Called the ES-295, that guitar was the full-sized hollowbody archtop complement to the solidbody Les Paul model. Is the new Les Paul too radical? Try our ES-295. While the 295 shared the same flashy finish and tailpiece with the Les Paul, it was, of course, still just a fancier two-pickup version of the ES-175. The actual two-pickup ES-175D did not appear until 1953.
A close-up view reveals the usual finish cracking for a model of this vintage, but the pickup housings and pickguard are remarkably intact.
The Gibson catalog's description of the then-new ES-295 stated: "The entire body and neck are finished in gleaming gold lacquer accented with the ivory color of the binding and guardplate." The debut-year ES-295 spotlighted in this column has the standard features for the model, which include that distinctive finish, two single-coil P-90s with cream covers, a 3-way pickup switch, Gibson's usual 4-dial control set, a cream pickguard with a gold floral design, that early Les Paul-style bridge/tailpiece combination, and gold-plated metal parts.
Around the time the Les Paul model was in the early planning stages, Les requested that an instrument be finished all in gold, as a gift for a disabled guitarist.
The bridge, by the way, was created by Paul to increase sustain, although it was a failure on the original generation of solidbody Les Paul guitars, because a design error routed the strings under the bridge instead of over it. They're in the correct place on the highly resonant ES-295. The model's clear, sustaining tone has made it popular with generations of players, from Scotty Moore to Danny Gatton. This ES-295's original price was—get ready for it—$295. The current value for one in excellent, all-original condition is $7,500.
Brand tectonics: Sure, they were competitors, but when it came to establishing the direction of electric guitar, the intersection of Gibson and Fender was transformative.
The amp behind the ES-295 is an early 1953 wide-panel Fender Deluxe 5B3. Two 6V6 power tubes push about 10 watts through the Jensen P12R speaker. The simple controls consist of an on/off knob doubling as a tone dial, a volume knob for the instrument channel, and a volume knob for the microphone channel. The original price was $99.50, while the current value is $3,500.
Sources for this article include Gibson Electrics: The Classic Years by A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Guitars: Ted McCarty's Golden Era: 1948-1966 by Gil Hembree, and Fender Amps: The First Fifty Years by John Teagle and John Sprung.
