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This is some of the musical equipment used by the members of American hard rock/blues rock band ZZ Top.
Billy Gibbons' most novel guitar is the white spinning fur guitar made by Dean Zelinsky of Dean Guitars (and matching bass played by ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill) featured in the 1983 "Legs" music video. [1] Gibbons described the mechanics of the spin:
"The guitars are attached to our belt buckles. It's a rotary electrical contact and strap mount. A hole is bored in the back of the guitar at the balancing point and the device is mounted there. Oh yeah, you gotta look out for that thing coming back around. Get your head and neck out of the way or else it'll say hello in an unfashionable fashion."
— [2]
Gibbons' choice of electric guitars has primarily been Gibson. His first guitar was a sunburst 1962 Gibson Melody Maker. [3] In 1968 Gibbons acquired the instrument most associated with the sound and style of ZZ Top, when he purchased a sunburst 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard guitar from a farmer in Houston, Texas for $250. The guitar was named "Pearly Gates", a name taken from the dangerous-to-drive, rolling-wreck auto that he sold for the money to buy the guitar. This guitar has become the foundation/benchmark of every ZZ Top album since the group formed in 1969. [4]
Along with Gibson, Gibbons is also known for playing various Fender guitars. During his stint in the Moving Sidewalks, Gibbons used a white 1963 Fender Jazzmaster and Fender Esquire. [5] He has also used an extremely rare "Gretsch Jupiter Thunderbird" given to him by Bo Diddley. The use of this guitar (beginning with the 2003 ZZ Top album Mescalero ) inspired a signature production model, the "Gretsch Billy-Bo Jupiter Thunderbird". For Mescalero, Gibbons also relied heavily on Ulrich Teuffel's futuristic Birdfish guitar, claiming it was second only to his 1959 Les Paul Sunburst Standard, "Pearly Gates". According to Gibbons, "It really shines on Mescalero because of that dirty, raunchy tone. I defy any other instrument, besides these odd-ball things, to get that crazy." [6]
Gibbons has worked with Thomas Nilsen of Cream T Pickups to create the BFG Banger Humbucker Pickup. Billy has used these pickups live for the past decade. [7]
Gibbons' sound is based on a 100-watt Marshall Super Lead made in 1968. According to an interview with music retailer Musician's Friend in 2008, Gibbons stated the importance of the Marshall Super Lead in ZZ Top's sound:
"I would say that it was the '59 Gibson Les Paul, better known now as 'Pearly Gates', plugged into a hundred-watt Marshall. [It] designed a sound that still resonates today." [8]
Along with the Super Leads, he has used a variety of Marshall's products, including the JCM 900 Dual Reverb, [9] Bluesbreaker, JTM45, Major, [10] and Lead 12. [9] Recently, his live touring rack consists of the JMP-1 Preamp, combined with power amps like the Valvestate 120 or the 9200 model. [11]
Gibbons has a large collection of vintage Fender amplifiers (his first amp was a Fender Champ), and collects Fender Dual Professionals. Other Fenders he has used include a Fender Bassman and Fender Tweed Deluxe. [12]
Gibbons now uses Magnatone amplifiers. [13]
At the 2010 Winter NAMM show, Dunlop Manufacturing and Gibbons unveiled a new line of guitar accessories, Rev. Willy's. These include Gibbons inspired picks, strings, and slides. [14]
Preferring the Fender Telecaster Bass, Dusty Hill also used many different basses and amplifiers in different combos, and maintained a large collection of vintage as well as custom basses by noted luthier, John Bolin of Bolin Guitars USA. Hill was noted for designing simple, uncomplicated basses with a single pickup with a single volume knob, with the occasional addition of a specially powered knob for tone control. [15] [16]
ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. For 51 years, the band comprised vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard and vocalist-bassist Dusty Hill, until Hill's death in 2021. Rooted in blues, ZZ Top developed a signature sound based on Gibbons' blues guitar style and Hill and Beard's rhythm section. They are popular for their live performances, sly and humorous lyrics, and the similar appearances of Gibbons and Hill, who were rarely seen without their long beards, sunglasses, and hats.
An instrument amplifier is an electronic device that converts the often barely audible or purely electronic signal of a musical instrument into a larger electronic signal to feed to a loudspeaker. An instrument amplifier is used with musical instruments such as an electric guitar, an electric bass, electric organ, synthesizers and drum machine to convert the signal from the pickup or other sound source into an electronic signal that has enough power, due to being routed through a power amplifier, capable of driving one or more loudspeaker that can be heard by the performers and audience.
A single coil pickup is a type of magnetic transducer, or pickup, for the electric guitar and the electric bass. It electromagnetically converts the vibration of the strings to an electric signal. Single coil pickups are one of the two most popular designs, along with dual-coil or "humbucking" pickups.
Mescalero is the fourteenth studio album by the American rock band ZZ Top. It was released in September 2003, as the band's final release for RCA Records. While the band still retained their foundation in blues rock, Mescalero explored genres like country and Tejano. Recording sessions took place at Foam Box Recordings in Houston, with Billy Gibbons as producer.
A semi-acoustic guitar,hollow-body electric, or thinline is a type of electric guitar that was first created in the 1930s. It has a sound box and at least one electric pickup. The semi-acoustic guitar is different to an acoustic-electric guitar, which is an acoustic guitar with the addition of pickups or other means of amplification, added by either the manufacturer or the player.
Hunter Benedict Shepherd is an American musician, best known as the bassist of the rock band Soundgarden from 1990 to 2017.
William Frederick Gibbons is an American rock musician best known as the guitarist and primary vocalist of ZZ Top. He began his career in the Moving Sidewalks, who recorded Flash (1968) and opened four dates for the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Gibbons formed ZZ Top in late 1969 and released ZZ Top's First Album in early 1971. He is also known as The Reverend Billy F. Gibbons. Gibbons possesses a gravelly bass-baritone singing voice and is known for his bluesy, groove based guitar style. He is also noted, along with fellow ZZ Top member the late Dusty Hill, for his trademark chest length beard.
Gretsch is an American company that manufactures musical instruments. The company was founded in 1883 in Brooklyn, New York by Friedrich Gretsch, a 27-year-old German immigrant, shortly after his arrival to the United States. Friedrich Gretsch manufactured banjos, tambourines, and drums until his death in 1895. In 1916, his son, Fred Gretsch Sr. moved operations to a larger facility where Gretsch went on to become a prominent manufacturer of American musical instruments. Through the years, Gretsch has manufactured a wide range of instruments, though they currently focus on electric, acoustic and resonator guitars, basses, ukuleles, and drums.
Jimmy Herring is the lead guitarist for the band Widespread Panic. He is a founding member of Aquarium Rescue Unit and Jazz Is Dead and has played with The Allman Brothers Band, Project Z, Derek Trucks Band, Phil Lesh and Friends, and The Dead.
A pickup is a transducer that captures or senses mechanical vibrations produced by musical instruments, particularly stringed instruments such as the electric guitar, and converts these to an electrical signal that is amplified using an instrument amplifier to produce musical sounds through a loudspeaker in a speaker enclosure. The signal from a pickup can also be recorded directly.
Joe Michael "Dusty" Hill was an American musician who was the bassist of the rock band ZZ Top. He also sang lead and backing vocals, and played keyboards. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of ZZ Top in 2004. Hill played with the band for over 50 years; after his death, he was replaced by the band's longtime guitar tech Elwood Francis, in line with Hill's wishes.
"Cheap Sunglasses" is a 1979 single by ZZ Top from their 1979 album Degüello. The song captures many of the sounds and beats for which ZZ Top is famous. It is also featured on the greatest hits collections ZZ Top's Greatest Hits, Chrome, Smoke & BBQ, and Rancho Texicano. In addition, a live version of the song appears on Chrome, Smoke & BBQ and Rancho Texicano.
The Fender Coronado is a double-cutaway thin-line hollow-body electric guitar, announced in 1965. It is manufactured by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. The aesthetic design embodied in the Coronado represents a departure from previous Fender instruments; the design remains an uncharacteristic piece of Fender history.
Simon Alexander Neil is a Scottish vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter.
Kalamazoo is the name for two different lines of instruments produced by Gibson. In both cases Kalamazoo was a budget brand. The first consisted of such instruments as archtop, flat top and lap steel guitars, banjos, and mandolins made between 1933 and 1942, and the second, from 1965 to 1970, had solid-body electric and bass guitars.
This is a list and description of the guitars and other equipment played by musician Stevie Ray Vaughan. Vaughan played a number of Fender Stratocasters throughout his career, one of which, a 1963 body and a late 1962 rosewood neck, became "the most famous battered Strat in rock history." He was notoriously hard on his guitars, and many of them required extensive periodic maintenance, as well as other equipment. He used a limited number of effect pedals, and favored Fender and Marshall amplification.
The musical equipment used by the members of Rush have changed many times over the years. The following is a catalog of the gear they have used or are currently using.
The Whack Attack Tour was a concert tour by rock band ZZ Top. Whack Attack was a 24-week-long tour in the United States and Canada, which was a longer outing than the previous Summer North American Tour. It began in June 2005 and ended in November 2005. The set was designed by Chris Stuba and had a 'retro garage' theme, with custom microphone stands and drum kit; tinsel was used as a backdrop. Risers were made out of diamond-plated steel. The set list highlighted material from the albums Mescalero (2003), Chrome, Smoke & BBQ (2003), and Rancho Texicano (2004). Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill appeared on stage in sequined blazers. The show has received positive criticism, complimenting their showmanship, as well as the longevity of their signature sound and look.
The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele, is the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful solid-body electric guitar. Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music. Introduced for national distribution as the Broadcaster in the autumn of 1950 as a two-pickup version of its sister model, the single-pickup Esquire, the pair were the first guitars of their kind manufactured on a substantial scale. A trademark conflict with a rival manufacturer's led to the guitar being renamed in 1951. Initially, the Broadcaster name was simply cut off of the labels placed on the guitars and later in 1951, the final name of Telecaster was applied to the guitar to take advantage of the advent of television. The Telecaster quickly became a popular model, and has remained in continuous production since its first incarnation.
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