Bonamassa's Amp Rig

[50MkII]

Hey Mike, nice pictures there. Any ideas on what you would recommend for suspending a 4x12 or 2x12 off the ground say 5-8" for isolating the sound of the cabs/speakers like the Auralex Gramma Pads are being used?

 

[mikehickey]

Hey Mike, nice pictures there. Any ideas on what you would recommend for suspending a 4x12 or 2x12 off the ground say 5-8" for isolating the sound of the cabs/speakers like the Auralex Gramma Pads are being used?

the Auralex are about 4" I think... I would just use those.

As far as the Euro rig, I will be seeing all of that stuff in a few weeks for the first time.

 

[Tone Merchant]

I heard Joe was going to contact dave and I for a marsha. But, it never happened.

 

[guitarnie]

I feel stupid, I bought a Class 5 because I thought that was his workhorse.
Thanks for "shedding the light"

 

[steve_k]

Bonamassa would fit right in here as a Rig Talk forumite and be the ultimate amp flipper.....

 

[Greg Riley]

Joe has a gig during NAMM week on Tuesday at the Baked Potato. Maybe he'll swing by Tone Merchants or the Amp show at the Ayers in Anaheim.

 

[joepete77]

Cool thread and an even cooler gig!! How did you get the gig for joe? Word of mouth or you know him from yrs ago?

 

[Rich7620]

Looking at the photo on his Twitter, Did he pick up anothe '58/'59 Burst

 

[mikehickey]

I heard Joe was going to contact dave and I for a marsha. But, it never happened.

I am going to let him try mine at some point for sure. But he has to buy his own if he likes it

 

[Mr. Willy]

I would think there would be some negative sounds picked up from the mics due to the plexi-shields.

the amps all go direct through Palmers... there is one mic to add some "air" from the Jubilee if needed...

Is there any delay when miking and running direct?

 

[Mr. Willy]

I heard Joe was going to contact dave and I for a marsha. But, it never happened.

A Marsha would be right down his alley.

 

[ConcreteVampire]

Joe has a gig during NAMM week on Tuesday at the Baked Potato. Maybe he'll swing by Tone Merchants or the Amp show at the Ayers in Anaheim.

Oh hell yes! Im there!

Allan Holdsworth that Sunday...

I love LA, the Baked Potato rocks..

 

[gibson08]

Awesome gig dude, Congrats!! Thanks for posting the pics! Just purchased the Royal Albert Hall DVD, AMAZING guitar tones in that! I am curious as to what amp he uses the most, I know by all the reading the Jubilee is always there, but what other amp is mixed the most,,my guess is the Van?? Again, Awesome gig!

 

[Carol-AnnAmps]

I heard Joe was going to contact dave and I for a marsha. But, it never happened.

A Marsha would be right down his alley.

Joes been a friend of mine for over 5 years now. 6 amps in, I know his basic tastes and playing quite well.

Joe runs heavily in to power tube overdrive. Heavy gain preamp centric amps don't work. THe Bogner lasted a millisecond as have other high gain amps. Darker, heavy mid-range, less gain, large dynamic range and next to no preamp compression and most importantly it has to sit in a mix with a Jubilee. He's a volume control junkie and has an expressiveness in his playing that can use as much dynamic range as you can throw at him. Compression and Saturaton are the anti-Joe. So many Companies send him amps to try to replace the Jubilee, some even attempt to clone it. I'll never forget the one that electrocuted my good friend Dave Pate, Joes long time guitar tech. Mike, you should ask him about that !! It's a funny and actually pretty ironic story.

The reality is when everything else will come and go, the Jubilee is a lifer. Like that amp or not, it's his fave. The rest of the amps are mid-range 'fillers'. THe jube is on all of the time and he switches and mixes the other amps in.

Joe buys what he wants and pays for it, no endorsements (on amps anyway) and he changes his rig around a lot like many guitar players. The CA's have been on and off the rigs more times than I can remmeber in the past 5 years. Sometimes there's none, sometimes one and sometimes 2. I don't pay much attention these days. He contacts me when he needs something or to hang out if they are local. They're his amps, he can use them when and if he wants, if he doesn't thats fine, I ain't going to get upset. He will again at some point.

At the end of the day I still have never heard a guitar tone from him quite as good as the second solo in 'Stop'. An EL34 100W JB-100 in red tolex. Red amps always sounf the best. But I'm biased. With over 1.5 million views on youtube, I actually think that song is possibly his most viewed. He hasn't played it live in while, wish he would, but I think the vocals are real tough night after night. I always though that cover was a fantastic remake of an already great song and should hve been a single.
That 100W EL34 amp is featured all over the Ballad of John Henry CD and it's no suprise that I think he has the best tones of any of his albums. Like I said I'm biased.

 

[stephen sawall]

Thanks for the insight Carol-AnnAmps....

 

[Greg Riley]

It was great meeting you Mike at The Baked Potatoe gig. Hope to see you again sometime fellow Rig-Talker. Thats ConcreteVampire (Diego) on the left. I went to the Ernie Ball 50th Anniversary Party also. JB lit the place up! What setup did he use there?

 

[mikehickey]

It was great meeting you Mike at The Baked Potatoe gig. Hope to see you again sometime fellow Rig-Talker. Thats ConcreteVampire (Diego) on the left. I went to the Ernie Ball 50th Anniversary Party also. JB lit the place up! What setup did he use there?

He had a borrowed Morse model guitar right off the NAMM show display, a Twin Reverb, and a Tube Screamer.

 

[Spaceboy]

I think it's rad to see Bonamassa using those Palmers! He's definitely one of the last people I would expect to use speaker sims.

 

[Badronald]

It was great meeting you Mike at The Baked Potatoe gig. Hope to see you again sometime fellow Rig-Talker. Thats ConcreteVampire (Diego) on the left. I went to the Ernie Ball 50th Anniversary Party also. JB lit the place up! What setup did he use there?

He had a borrowed Morse model guitar right off the NAMM show display, a Twin Reverb, and a Tube Screamer.

Funny you mention that. My buddy just bought a Twin Reverb. I ran my Stratocaster with a Suhr pickup in it into a Keeley Baked TS-9 and the tone was absolutely sick. Amazing really. Much darker than I thought it would be. I remember reading Robben Ford saying that Twins are too dark for him that's why he uses Supers. I read that and thought WTF? Yup the Twin can get bright, but it's on the darker side of the Blackface spectrum. Anyway. It's a classic setup that has timeless tone.

 

[Carol-AnnAmps]

I think it's rad to see Bonamassa using those Palmers! He's definitely one of the last people I would expect to use speaker sims.

He has two amps running at a high SPL at any one time with a plexi-glass screen a foot away from the cabinets. You get a hell of a lot of phase cancellation and other weird anomilies from the reflected sound waves off the screen coming back to the mic on various axis. The screen is zig-zagged to reduce direct 180 deg reflection as much as possible but inevitably weird stuff still happened. . Channel seperation of the different amps was very difficult too because of the massive amount of sound pressure in such an enclosed space. all amps have a mic and overspill from the two amps not in use is totally unavoidable. It certainly doesn't make for an easy mic up situation. It was pretty inconsistent night after night. On some occasions the FOH sound was nowhere near the same as the stage. Other times it was fine. Mic placement and plexi-screen placement are so critical and so difficult to repeat night after night. The FOH sound quality of the guitar was incredibly better once the Palmers were used on all of the amps. At first just the Jubilee used the Palmer if I remeber correctly, but now they all do.