Episode 23 - Joe Bonamassa Returns – With Gary Moore's Amp!

0:00 We got Jared for the weather report. Hey guys, it's looking pretty bad out. Here, Jared, where are you, man? Dude I'm out here bro it is cold. I'm assessing all of the trees down in my backyard right now with my puppy and we got a lot. Yeah, same here. I was attempting to drive to find some bread and milk and there were trees.

0:24 Trees everywhere man. Dude, it's crazy. I can't believe what's happening. I'm hoping everyone's safe and healthy, but over here at the Blues Power Shred Shed, we don't stop. There's been a winter storm in Nashville. Maybe you've heard about it on the news, maybe not. I don't know how it goes across the country, but I came home to about four inches of water in my basement and the.

0:45 Same bro. Insanity. I called the, I called the people and they quickly sawed 2 foot pieces out of my walls. And there are about 12 fans down there, and they're not the fans that we met at NAMM, by the way, man. Can I just say our sunny California trip was quickly. We went back to reality, the no cover charge boys went back home and we went right into the apocalypse. First off too, I can't believe that we both made it home on Sunday with how many flights were cancelled, everything that was going on, it's insane.

1:22 We made it and I'm super grateful, man. We made it back in one piece. Yes, this too shall pass. All the good stuff we got coming on the No Cover Charge podcast, starting with this episode, our first repeat guest. We got our hands on something that Joe got his hands on. We we placed our hands upon it for a brief moment.

1:44 Gary Moore's slow 100A Soldano from 1989, storied in its recording history and capturing one of the greatest guitar players whoever lived in his element. It is peak APEC. We got to hear that thing cranked up all the way. There were some trials and tribulations along the way, which we scared us a little bit.

2:07 We made it through just like we made it through this storm. So, Jared, would you like to introduce our guest? Ladies and gentlemen, my friends, without further ado, Joe Bonamassa is it on? Tyler, where are you? I'm on a mountain. Are you joking me? Look at this driveway. Your transmission better not go out. Come on, baby.

2:38 There we are. We've. Arrived at the top of Nerdville. Perfect. Well, this is either AI or it's my lucky day. Dude this is like the cardio house bro. No free steps. Nerdville. It is. Great to see you right on the silver sky right bro the comments are great. Literally something about it was just like.

3:18 Play like Jared James. Biggles. That's it. That's all you can do. You don't use a pic. I don't, yeah. It's like I'm not fucking. Stevie Ray Vaughn, Why? Would anyone put that? Caption. Greg. What he told you we have a string cutter out here. I saw one on your on your I. Got to cut this. I got to cut this cable tie.

3:37 What's? Going about this one, excellent. Yeah, nice. Oh, by the way, if this thing functions in this room. It's going to. Beat our heads off, it's going to be loud as fuck. That's like the silver bullet right there. That's the amp we grew up. This is it. That's Gary. It's all set, just got to turn on the part first. Oh, no, no.

4:00 No put put. That on OK, so then we got we got a table out here. Oh boy, I can tell you. I heard something. Place to put a Coca-Cola. Oh, here, yeah. Out of the room. Oh, don't worry about that. That's just that's just Tom Dowd's Macintosh. That that, that, that mixed Layla and all of them. Yeah, let me.

4:28 Just put my shit over here by this. Hold on now. So I'm going to get a photo of you before, OK? See what happens. Are we safe? It's lighting up. Do you see lights? OK, it's been a minute. You know, the first one of these I ever played, I was 1415. It was at Arden Studios in Memphis, TN and we belong to Warren Haynes. Warren produced a couple of tracks on the Bloodline record and he brought his custom shop, Les Paul and he brought his the number one Soldano in the road case. And he's his had a mod, his had a bass. Based boost or.

5:20 Something and I immediately fell in love and I and I never owned an OG like I have a reissue. You've never even had an OG. No, I never had an OG this came out. I mean like Clapton was using them. This was the Knopfler. This was the shit. Moran was using them. This was like the Marshall that everybody wanted, but way more. Yeah, it's also, you know, honestly, you know what this is? Yeah, the 5150 talking about it's going to work. It's going to like.

5:56 All right, it's going to work. Holy crap, here we go. My help turning knobs you good? I think I remember how these things work. Maybe the gains on three? Wow, are you serious? OK, What was that? I don't know. It wasn't. It wasn't happy going past 6. So I think it's got to go to Bob, but. Use. There we go.

7:08 Well, it keeps turning off. Yeah, I'm an idiot for just this thing. Just came out of a crate from London. I got the chills bro. It's awesome. It sounds sounds great. It's scaring me a little bit. It seems like it. Maybe you just need to blow some dust off man. Yeah, it's, it really needs to go to Bob Dixon.

8:40 If you hadn't played or run in 30 years, would you want an idiot beat you down like built this specifically for him because this thing ran at 50 cycles it's whole life. Wow. So now it's seeing 60 you play. Come on now, Foot. Switch too I the foot switch. I have a few. I have one. Do you have a real original 1?

9:38 No, we have, we have, we have a foot switch. It's a little it's it's like powering off randomly. Is it still? It just did. It just did again, Yeah. It's almost like it's like it's overloading or something. What's your volume at? Unless it's trying to wake up. Yeah, it's sure is responsive. I click the. But it's, it's not, it's not, it's not kicking fuses, but it's, yeah.

10:18 OK, I spoke too soon. Dude, it sounds amazing. Yeah, it's going to be great. It's going to be amazing. I mean if you start. It doesn't it doesn't it? Oh, you know what? I think it's something going on, you guys. Maybe. I think it's, I think it's, I think it's let. Me just set this on here. Yeah.

10:33 It's almost like. Because you can't set this on the ground, otherwise this wire pushes hard on the ground. Yeah, sure. We can try it again a little It's walking U well at. Least it's staying on. O now that we're all miked U Joe, can you explain exactly what it is we've been trying to turn on, and successfully?

11:39 What we've been holding our breath on. Yeah, just so we can have some exact context of what what it is we're. Hearing OK just to preface this, don't try this at home kids unless you want a real a real repair bill on your hands. This this amplifier has come straight in from London after a 2 month wait of different, different delays over the last couple of months.

12:04 But this is Gary Moore's number one Soldano SLO 100 from about 1989 and we just turned it on. It is UK Power. So we have this, this, this, this set up transformer, this big transformer. And yeah, so we're we're just like geek. We're equally geeking on Gary Moore riffs and Warren Haynes riffs all at the same.

12:30 When you plugged it in, dude, I couldn't believe it. I, I, I heard Gary right away. When you started to play low, you started to play, you know, walking by myself, Riff. I was like, Oh yeah. Instant. I'm I'm not one for, you know, buying celebrity owned gear. It's just, it was just never my, which is never my thing.

12:56 And it's nothing wrong with it. I mean it's a huge market for it, but I made an exception when I saw this come up. I was like, you know, and I know, I know, I know Gary's son, Jack, and he's a good friend and, and he asked me over this last summer. He goes like, are you going to go for anything on the auction? I said, man, I want the sold out. I go.

13:16 And I and I sat there and I was like, so you know, my friend Rick Gould, he he was up early in the morning and and I won the bid. What they don't tell you the auction kids is is after you're done bidding. That's when the real. Charges. That's when you're truly going to pay. Come in 28% buyer's premium like oh, OK.

13:36 Would you say it's worth it though, even after all those premiums and wages and taxes? I'll now, you know, honestly, this is a lifer for me. I'll, I'll never get rid of it. It's so so when it's all said and done, you know. Would it be 1 of the more expensive Saldanos to ever be sold? Yes. It might be the one. It might be, but I know the last time I went after and a Saldano is, I've actually, I've actually gone after three. Eric Clapton sold his journeyman rig in the 2010 Crossroads auction.

14:10 But there was a, there was a guy who literally bought everything. I believe he was from Russia. He literally bought the entire thing. And I was going after the, the, the, the Cornish rack and the Soldanos. And I wanted the, the, the, the Daphne blue Strat that he played with me at the Albert Hall. That was, yeah.

14:29 So I was like, it's sentimental and and then years go by and then the next time we went after a Saldana was Mark Knopfler, the money for nothing. And the same era like 8990, these were built. And then finally the Gary Moore one comes up. I'm like, I don't care who's in on it. Let's get it and no regrets.

14:50 I mean, it's instant. It takes you down memory lane of all those sounds that that that you heard from Gary and Lauren. He didn't use that much gain but it. Oh, careful of that input. Sorry. What's crazy and fascinating is the fact that it it's like we're talking about, it's like jamming an old car on the freeway.

15:13 Like just burn it. That thing sounds, is it? The amp model, that particular year and model itself, that's special. Obviously it's special for who owned it. Is it modified in any way? What's different versus one off the rack in 1989 in this one? Well, I I've never seen a AA240. OK Saldano, I'm sure, I'm sure they might built them. I I never and and I didn't really calculate for that today knowing you guys were coming over. Yeah, yeah.

15:43 Well, this was a surprise. I opened the, the John Henrys Rd. case that says BBM and Gary Moore on it. And I'm like, I was fucking cool. And, and I pull the head out. It's covered in old road case foam that, you know, like, like the the case is, I mean, the case is 3540 years old and the foam to center.

16:02 So the amps covered in foam and and I pull it out and I see the the the claw, the English claw. And I'm like, oh. Yeah, like, no. And I said a. 3 pronged thing that does not fit into outlets in the. United States, of course, it's 2:40. But yeah, it's, you know, when I first heard Still got the Blues and when I heard, you know, especially that there's a DVD or there's a showing my age, a VHS that was floating around Gary live, I believe, at the Rex Theatre in Paris during this Still Got the Blues tour. And you're just like, man, Albert King comes out, but like, you know, and he's playing through like a rolling jazz chorus.

16:40 Albert Collins comes out and then Gary just I, I never could I still to this day don't know what to use for reverb, but he was using some sort of reverb with this and that that that famous 59 Les Paul and they play greenie, you know, and you know, like. You know, and it just seems so ferocious. Soldano's really is when it comes to the the first like boutique high end, high gain amp Mike was the first, you know, like one of the first.

17:17 I mean, you know, the you know, you at that time you had, you had Mesa Boogie, you had Soldano, you had, you know, Alexander Dumble building stuff. But they were definitely less gain. And it was all a reaction, you know, to like, you know, trying to find the perfect Marshall, you know, and you know, you know, Eddie's amp and and you know, the Jose modded ones. And you know, I mean, like, you know, this is equal parts Clapton, Mick Mars, Gary Moore, Warren Haynes. It brings me back to my formative years when I was like really getting into like, you know, the, the, the, the, the more fiery Blues Rock, You know, and, and it's and it's, it's an honor to own it it.

18:06 Kind of blows my mind how your OverDrive setting right now you're. Yeah, it's it's on like 3. It's not even 10:00, so like 2 1/2. It's got, it's got gain. We're not lacking gain or treble. clear it's not. So clear. It's so particular. It's not fizzy, you know, even though it's got a lot of gain, it's not fizzy and And you know, I mean, I mean, Van Halen had them. Our buddy Tim Pierce had one.

19:04 I think Landau had one. I mean, like, I mean, if you, you, you could go online and there's, there's a picture of the original like the order sheet. When, when, when the word got out about these. And it's just the who's who of LA session guys, the who's who of, of, of active rock and, and you know, players, they, they all wanted that flavor. And then they built a rack version. I remember they, they remember the rack ones. They were pink.

19:30 Yeah, that's all those. And you know who else used one was a guy that that we know well, my friend Larry McRae. Oh wow. Larry McRae tell you how he got to the Soldano. Yeah, he got to the Soldano because Gary and I believe 1990, we still got the Blues was a big hit on the radio in America. He did only one tour.

19:55 And I'll give you one guess who the opening act, Larry. Larry No. Way. Yeah, that's amazing. And so we went to Larry's house when we produced his first the first album that Josh and I produced. We went to his house in Bay City, MI, and in the corner is this purple beat the hell hot rod 50 Soldano. Wow.

20:16 And and I go, Larry, let me guess. You got to Soldano through Gary. He goes yeah, yeah. Wow. Because I always loved his tone, man, you know? And, yeah, So, you know, it's now that this is out, you know, of course, now that it's, you know. Does this amp have certain provenance that you can trace to exact performances and songs et cetera or? Yeah, there's a great like I said, there's a video of him doing all the prime time stuff in Paris. That's that's that's that's that's that amp the video with Gary and B.B.

20:48 King playing the thrill is gone class when they when they were trading fours and you see this on stage and. It's so interesting, Soldano. It's not underrated necessarily because of all the players we've named. It's under the radar. It's under the radar. Not anymore. Hey everybody. Slow 100 though, is a pretty iconic and it's it's an interesting brand where you think of it as all this high gain, but then you associate it to players you wouldn't necessarily think need all the gain Dicky.

21:17 Betts, right, Dicky Betts, I would believe, probably heard Warrens happen with. He said. What's that? Yeah, yeah, because. Dicky had I think either JBL or some like big boost L tech Lansing something in his catch that would be a real that would be a real something combination combination to hear something like that. But stuff that's hiding in plain sight. You know, they still make them you go to Guitar Center, they make they make us all OS and but I've been looking quietly for years for for an original one.

21:47 Just it could have been any, any anyone. So it's rare in itself that it was that model. The the late 80s, early 90's, the SLO one hundreds don't pop up. You see hot rod 50s, hot rod one hundreds, They're not the same. These were the these were the, if you, if you were like in the late 80s or early 90s, you know, you were, you know, going around LA, you know, you know, and playing rock sessions or whatever.

22:12 This had to be in the toolkit because everybody wanted that sound, you know that. What's the Cabinet? This is a 1970 basket weave Marshall cabinet, so it's probably got I I've never popped the back, so it's probably got, you know, is it a base one? Well, it had maybe it had it had me either 100 here or something that said bass.

22:34 So it depends, like if the bass cabinets had a little higher rated speakers but. It's rules with that greenbacks. It's called greenbacks. You know we can. We can cork sniff all day like greenbacks. Well, we were lucky enough that you invited us to smoke some stogies out on your deck there and I was wondering where do most of your gear decisions get made?

22:58 Well, like, like, like the cliche is, is you know, you search a long time for the first thing and then the next time, then the next 750 come to you. The thing is the thing when I, what I do is I never Telegraph anything. You, you won't know I'm interested until you're like, I'll take it or I'll, I'll cut you a check.

23:23 I, I get into things in batches. Like you know you noticed there's 2 JTM 45 like so I'm a big you. Went down the rabbit. Hole Well, there's three in here and there's one in Nashville, so I'm I'm usually a pair and a spare you. Know a pair and a spare? Yeah. And, and, you know, you look at the back wall, there's, there's, there's, you know, a bunch of black blackface Fender amps and, and Selmer's behind you and tweets and, and, and, and everything.

23:49 And, you know, but as far as acquiring stuff, I really slowed down because, you know, you, there's a saturation point there's and, and you know, you know, I'd like to get to the stuff that I own and discover the sounds that I can get out of those pieces, you know, before it just starts piling up and piling up and piling up. And, and you know, you never want to go into a situation. And I've, I've, I've, I've done this when I cleared out this place after the fires where you're pulling out cases and have no recollection of when, where or how you acquired it. And it's that probably starting to get to that, that. Probably helped you come to some of this realization that buyer that was creeping up your lawn.

24:33 Obviously you can't evacuate everything. So you you have to prioritize. And I thought about it for years and said, well, if it if, if, if we got to go, here's what's going. This being one of them, you know, Mr. Skinner has to has to come along. And I believe we talked about this before. It doesn't matter what I plug into anymore.

24:51 It just it kind of sounds like you sounds like you're like, well, you know, it's not going to sound like Warren. You know, I can mimic him. You know, I can mimic Gary and and and, you know, get close. But but it doesn't matter if I'm playing through this or even through that, I'm going to twist the knobs. You know, if I'm getting a sound for a song, I'll twist the knobs on this until it it kind of sounds what I want to hear. Is that would that be?

25:15 Considered this obviously has much less game, yeah, yeah, game. Wise. Considering this is a celebrity owned and it has a name tied to it, you're sort of not obligated, but you tend to drift towards Oh well, this is what they exactly played we're. Geeking out equally with Warren, you know, going down the government mule rabbit hole and the Gary Moore rabbit hole and you know, all with all gear that becomes iconic.

25:40 It always starts off with one common denominator. It's a tool. Yeah, Gary liked this amp because it was the sound he had in his head. But I also done shows with Gary that he played ADSL 2000, and you know what? It sounded like Gary Moore. What's funny, though, is, as you were, you know, turning it on and getting those first sounds of the thing that we looked at each other right away and you hit something and we both were like Warren. It's Warren.

26:06 It's like, that's Warren, dude. So it's like it makes you smile and it makes you go. And then all of a sudden we're sitting here listening to tracks back and we're going, and you know, because you're not on 10 on the guitar. Nope, you know, and neither was he. And so that's you know, all all. That's why I always say a lot of the great guitar sounds that I grew up enjoying were big amps, big heavy Hunter Waters through 4 by twelves or whatever.

26:52 But but having the headroom where the sound can develop and you don't have to turn the guitar on 10. Yeah, all of our favorite, like my favorite clean tones are a distorted guitar with the volume rolled down. Exactly like you can do here, yeah. And then you just roll it back. and and it's that easy.

27:27 It's just right there. Hey, Joe. So I just got to say it. Is that the Les Paul? That's your favorite Les Paul? It's my favorite Les Paul, and this was, this was #2 I bought this 15 years ago for my friend Ronnie Proller. And this is the Skinner Burst. And it was the Skinner Burst before I owned it.

27:52 It was sold at the Skinner auction house in 2006 and it and it set the record at the time for the most money ever paid for a non celebrity instrument. Speaking of celebrity stuff. Yeah. And when I got it was it was the Skinner burst. And I said, oh, cool. And then immediately called it Principal Skinner because I'm the biggest Simpsons fan. Simpsons.

28:11 Is the best show by the. Way the Skinner burst is serial number 91951. I believe in 2007 they were consigned another sunburst 59 Les Paul for their auction. It was serial serial number 91950 sequential. Well the odds of that right that's insane and you know this is this is my favorite Les Paul and you know I'm very lucky to own a bunch of these and and have for 15 years.

28:40 But when I, when I look at this guitar, I don't see the iconic, Oh my God, you know, glass case 59 Les Paul. I just say I go this, this is all me. That's all you. What is a particular memory that you have with this guitar? Like whether it's a show or a session or something that pops. On I'll show you the John Hiatt Ding. That a Ding memory is the best.

29:02 The John Hiatt Ding, I believe, is right there. And he was nice enough to come out two nights in a row and sing a couple songs with us at the Beacon Theatre in 2011. And the at the end of the, the, the, the, the the second night of the song, I came on stage. He gave him a big hug. And he had AJ 200 that had like these, you know, like the, the little string things sticking out and the headstock of his guitar hit hit. And I like it for a while.

29:32 I'm like, wow. And I go, that's so cool. It's the John Hiatt Ding now, you know, Skinner's, you know, like, you don't have to worry about dinging it up. Yeah. And so that's the John Hiatt Ding this guitar. Speaking of Warren, the Guitar Center used to do this thing called the the King of the Blues. You were in that, weren't.

29:51 You didn't. Yeah, I was in it. Yeah, we're in it. Yeah, I was in it. You. They started that because of you. Yeah, right. But they, they used to do these and they and they used to do the finals and they used to get, you know, I, I did a couple, I know Warren and Government Mule did one at the House of Blues and they would do that House Blues in LA.

30:10 And and the day that this arrived at my apartment, I brought it and and I was like, Oh, this is so cool. You know, I got the I got the Skinner burst and you know, I'm playing with Warren and went out and sang a couple songs with government Mule. But so it kind of like this, this guitar, all I did was put strings on it.

30:34 It was kind of unvetted at the time you're. Like, let's see what goes. Let's see if it works. This screw that holds the pickguard on popped popped out so that this now this is an expensive piece of kit. That's the very expensive piece of plastic. I can't find that plastic everywhere. This plastic, you'd be shocked what people pay for, you know, it's a $10,000 pickguard, but it is it's because it's a legit 59 anyway, so this thing's hanging off and I'm trying to like keep calm and cool and play, you know, but I'm also day one and and the the late great Brian Farmer Warren's old tech rest in peace, rest in peace. What a wonderful human being he was found the screw on stage on stage.

31:18 It's like, it's like the literally. A tiny little. He saw it come out, he found the screw, and then when I was leaving, he goes, oh, let me fix that for you. He screws it in. Now cut to 2000 18 or 19. I'm playing this guitar at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom. Classic. That's one of my favorite venues ever.

31:41 And I've been playing there 35 years, right? Opened up for B.B. King and 90 there, right. But, and I just, I just love the room. It's just, it's just wild, big old. It's almost like, it's like the Billy Bob's of, of, of the East Coast. Yeah, you know, and it's upstairs and the crew hates it. I love it.

32:00 So I love it. So I I override it. I'm going down, we're playing a song, playing an E So and I just get, you know, like do my whatever widdly widdlys and then I go back. While I'm doing that down in the first fret, I feel something sharp hitting my index finger on my left hand. Well, this screw.

32:26 Popped out. Popped out and so this thing was. Hanging Truss rod cover screw so. This thing was like hanging off. I'm like, OK, all right, so get give the guitar back to Hickey and put it we put it back in the rack and it was towards the end of the night anyway, the dressing room, if you ever in the casino ballroom is you're you're in it the the crowds there, you're there my. First concert quick sidebar 7 dust I was the Hampton Beach casino ballroom.

32:54 It's and, and everyone from Louis Armstrong to Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Janis, everybody's played there. OK, I'm coming out after the show. My tour manager Clay goes, hey, somebody wants to meet you, you're going to want to do this. I'm like, OK, guy in the crowd finds the screw. In the crowd hands me the screw.

33:17 Unbelievable. He knew it was from your guitar somehow. He probably saw it go down. Oh, he saw it was like happening in front of. Them, but I mean, it's so small, I know finds the screw and I go dude, I don't I don't care what you take. You've got just go to the merch and take anything shopping spree much as you want. So this guitar has tried to jettison some parts over the years.

33:38 Yeah. Keeps coming back, but. It keeps coming back and it's like, you know, it's got a nice top on it and you know, it's got a really extreme carve. So this is really tall. It's like not all of them are that that extreme. So you know, this here you could you know, you could see where I I mean, I've kind of I've kind of just nicked it over the years and it's Skinner.

34:01 But you know, Joe Glazier refretted it and it's got the same pretz on it since I literally first bought it. Not a lot of people see this, but I'm seeing it on this guitar and I see it on a lot of vintage Les Paul's. The double wheels on the. The bridge, yeah. Was that on there or was that? Something you I do that so I tend to judge the neck angle. It's a case by case basis.

34:25 A lot of later 60 sunburst Les Pauls the neck angle. The bridge sits up pretty high and they shouldn't sit too low or else, uh oh, we got, we got some authentication issues and they and they, they also shouldn't sit too, too high because again, Gibson had a process and they had there's a, there's a pitch. OK, The variances on these is here. Some like like the snake bite, which is 3 numbers away from this, that that ring is pushed all the way against the, the necks here you have a gap.

35:00 So there's some variances on them, but but not much. But the double thumb wheels, it just keeps those, keeps the bridge straight because a lot of times those things start pulling or pushing and it'll crack the wood. So you're better off double thumb Wheeling. Did you figure that out over time or did somebody show you that? I believe Mike Hickey did that.

35:23 Mike Hickey and you know me being an idiot in an anorak. These are, by the way, both sets of thumb wheels are authentic from the late. 50s they got to be. Service department. I need to make sure of that. Forbid I was. Going to delete the footage of it, yeah? I mean, because if it wasn't, I mean like. You know, does that actually mess with you if you, if you had one, you know, wrong thing.

35:45 Yeah, I get it. Will you go find it? Well, it's part of the fun I. Have a Fender Esquire in New York and I just did a record with Steve Ferroni on drums, Will Leon bass, Kevin Shirley produced and I have this like 52 Esquire which is really great and it was really an MVP for this album. I mean it just sounded amazing, but every take, literally every take the B string on the original tuner. It's going down.

36:13 It would detune itself to almost slack. Whoa. So I've never seen, I've never had that happen on a vintage Cluson. But you also have to figure that now we're 75. These things are 75 years old, including the tuners. So my friend Rick was was in Nashville at the time, overnighted a set of new Clusons, shiny brand new Cluson tuners, which I then replaced the 1B string tuner on it.

36:40 Ask me how many times I picked up that guitar after. Well, I can tell it was never. Again, I couldn't look down. I couldn't look down and see that one. So it is psychosomatic and I am weird about that. But generally, you know, you know, some people say, well, why? You know, why don't you put a, you know, a replacement pickguard on?

37:00 Well, I go, well, I paid a lot of money for this guitar. I want to look down and I want to see the damn pickguard. Now The only exception to that is when I do play the Tommy Bolan Les Paul, it has the painted pickguard with the American flag and then the little word. Oh, you mean this one? I. Mean that one. Yeah, that's right.

37:18 When I play the Tommy Bolan Les Paul, my friend Tony, who has a company called Pickguardian, I took, we took really high resolution photos of the pickguard and he recreated it. Oh, that's awesome. Because it's kind of like you can see in this photo, it's not worn yet. So everything is pretty intact. And what you didn't realize is like right here, I guess is the there was a word, the F word was painted on here. And but now after Tommy was on American Bandstand, like one of the producers saw this guitar and said, hey, this long haired hippie kid's got the word buck on his pickguard. So they made him scratch it off.

38:01 So the CK is scratched off and they, no, the CK is still on it. The FU is gone. The FU is gone. And right down here, you know, he wore out some of the paint. I said, well, we're going to keep this thing tight and intact because it took me almost a decade to hunt this thing down. And so I have a replacement pickguard on that when I play that. Guitar.

38:24 That's acceptable. That's acceptable and it's I generally play that guitar when I'm when I sit in with Glenn. Of course. And, and yeah, it's, you know, they both Glenn and and and David covered up and they love Tommy and I, I get nothing gives me more of a throttle. I'll text them both like pictures of of, you know, the if I find some uncirculated Tommy pictures with the guitar or whatever. I'm sure they love to hear.

38:49 Anything Tommy Boland like these are replacement tuners on here. I have the originals in the case, but they're they they, they've been on there so long. I don't care, you know, but it's got to stay in tune, right? You know, I'm not precious about frets. Yep, it's got to play it. It's like you want to race car with bald tires.

39:06 No, you've got to play it. And so I'm not precious about it at all. But yeah, certain things. Got to keep it. Got to keep it. The Soldano to bring it back here, what is your usage rate with a lot of amps? Is this going to be a session tool? Is it going to be a ornament? Is it going to be? I need some inspiration.

39:27 Is it going to go on the road? I might take it on the road. Really. Well, you know. It wants to be on the road bro it. Used to be there. It wants to go. Back well, you know, we all have a fine item at a time in this business and if I'm not going to use this, then what are you dealing with? It's not going to just sit here, you know, on top of two JTM 40 fives.

39:47 It really needs to be he played. I mean, I can't take 500 amps out on the road, you know, it's insane, but. You can bring about what is it 14? 7 on stage 3 to 4 spares, you know you got a case, one kicks off, you know, you know you know you know if you're in Stockholm and. Something with a, you know, with AD on it kicks off. Well, you can just plug that right into the wall in Stockholm, right?

40:14 It'll just work. This one, yeah, No. I mean like all my entire I have two live rigs, I have two identical setups pretty. Much. I remember you mentioned that there's a Euro one in. American and they both run on on twin Kikasui power and everything is 1/20 at 60 Hertz so so this will I'll definitely convert this. It's not, it's not, it's not a crime against humanity to, to just, you know, have a Bob Dixon, who I believe is the world's greatest amp amp tech, especially in LA. And you know, Todd Sharp, you know, those are the two guys that, that I trust with, with everything, you know, and it's not, it's not a crime against humanity if we just tap into the 110 or 120 part of the transformer and put A and put A and put a, you know, AUS plug on

41:02 the end. And and well, because you know, it's either that or we, you know, when you start, when you start mixing power, you start, you start running into Earth problems. Inviting a lot of scary. And I use a cable. You sing into a microphone. You sing. Into a microphone and a lot of lot of times in in in nature when there are earth problems with high voltage, guess who? Guess what the electricity likes to do? It likes to earth itself on the.

41:32 First humanoid, it likes to conduct into an organic matter. So, so I, I'm really, I've been zapped a couple times and worst time ever was zapped was when I had I was using 220 amps in in I'm sure in Europe and I had a 110 pedal board and and the, the mix I had one of these step. I had a step down.

41:53 Yep, Now this is a step up. We're we're going from 1:20 to 2:40. I was using a step down and I bought it like some some. Oh yeah, meaning it's containing more voltage. Well, there was some mismatch between that and the PA and it's all. You never know too, what power is running in the venues, right?

42:13 So like what's coming out of the wall? So that's why if I. Hit you in the face? Was it a microphone It. Was a mic. It was a mic and it was like it was, it was life changing to the point where from that, from that day on, I've gotten better in the last, I'd say four or five years. But from that day on, for almost 20 years, I would not sing into a microphone without a windscreen.

42:35 Whoa. The windscreen will not stop you from getting shocked, but it's going to let you know that something's pulling because it's a pole. Oh, it's a sensation of yeah. And, and, and you know, like, you know, everybody knows what a washer and dryer is, right? OK. And in in America they all have the the little power plugs, the 240 power plugs on the wall, so the equivalent voltage that runs a dryer.

42:59 Is going through. Is going through this right now and that's and that's and that's it. I mean, there's something to be said about voltage and, and I'm a firm believer in this like, like, like these probably sound better AT24050 cycles. It's the cycles that make a difference because when I used to before the Kikasui era, which I highly recommend, they're they're expensive, but they're very, very, very worth it. Before I went to that, I was got those, I was using tweed twins and basements and we'd ship them over to Europe and then we ship the rig over to Europe and we play these gigs. Well, I noticed a huge difference between and this was I wasn't plugging tweed twins into 240. Our stage was pre converted.

43:52 So our whole stage was running 1120, but it was 50 cycles and I noticed a huge harmonic difference in the reaction, the feel under the strings. That's what I noticed, the punch, the punch and how the recovery. And it was like, it was almost like it didn't brown out the amps. It just reacted in an unfamiliar way. And I was watching Angus the Angus Young rig rundown and they were going through his setup, which is, you know, it's the most authentic thing you've ever seen. If there's nine stacks on stage, there's 9 heads running those nine stacks.

44:30 Not for show. They're not for show. And and it got down to the power conditioner and he's like, this is this Japanese power conditioner called Kikusui. And Angus likes his, his amps. I don't quote me but it was something like he likes him at 23850 cycles and I go of. Course he does. Because that's what he's used to coming from Australia and that's what those things were designed at. That makes sense.

44:55 And I go, of course, and the light went on and I said that's why my fenders don't sound right when I travel abroad. It's because it's the cycles. It'd be one thing if you just, you're just stepping up, you know, 60 cycles or whatever. No, it's it's it's 50 cycles is a a big it's a big difference between those 10 cycles is a big difference in sound and is And if, as I found out the hard way the first time I shipped a ham and B3 over to Europe at great expense.

45:28 And when Reese Winans sat down at it, he was very out of tune with the rest of the band because there was no switch to bring it up to 60 cycles. And apparently the tone generators on on Hammonds are very specific, designed at 60 cycles, so it. Wasn't giving it enough girth to get fully. It was flat.

45:50 Yeah, that's insane. It was flat and we had to rent in Oregon and at a great expense. So those were the kind of lessons in power that you know, because when you're talking about building out a rig and everything you can, you can you can go first class stretch limousine, you know, it's prom night, you know, you know, you can get the cables that. Are braided and have gold flecks in them. Or you just buy the joke Bonamassa plots. Plots.

46:20 Cables. I love the clots, by the way. Yeah, they're great. You use clots also. Right, I do. I love. I got that from Joe. They're the greatest and you know, and you can use gold tip, you know, connectors and, you know, robots soldering everything and you can go all out and then you plug it into power.

46:39 That ain't right. Everything goes to shit. And I've seen it, you know, and the minute the Kikusui, I'm not endorsed by them because they're actually, they're from Japan and they're very, very confused why musicians want them. You know what are you doing with our? For MRI machines in hospitals, they're not designed.

46:59 And Joe Bon Mosses rig. Well, not just mine. I just Tony Iomi uses them. OK, Angus Young. A lot of cats. Pick Joe Perry uses them. You know everybody. They're like 89 Soldano. They're, they're underrated, you know, and a lot of people kind of like balk at, you know, a $7000 power conditioner. But it's like, man, if you're, if you're, if you hear it a certain way. Oh, of course.

47:24 Or if if in a case like let's say you like a certain outlet going man, every time I plug my amp into this outlet. Yeah, because you don't know what you're getting out of that outlet. You assume it's 120 or sometimes it's 124. If everybody's running their air conditioners in Nashville, sometimes it's 117, OK.

47:43 And you're like, you're just, you're just assuming that it's a constant 120 or a constant 115. So. What if you find an outlet that you like? You can measure what's coming out of there and program it into this machine so you get the same consistency. And if and if for some reason we play a lot of old theaters like some reason, the power coming out, you know, you know, in an old theater coming coming through the wall is 1115.

48:14 Well, the Kikasui will bring it up to 120 consistent. It makes power when you know like like a like a great company, the brown box and I know they're working on going up because I have mentioned you got to go up and so you can only you can go down yes, but you can't go up. So I'm an idiot and I do everything opposite that the Internet says you should you should brown out the amps.

48:43 They sound better with 112 wrong. Not for me. I go up because I want the, the most amount of headroom, the quickest recovery and the, the clean headroom and the volume. Yeah. And that's, you know, and it's like to me, it's the difference between, you know, 85 octane and Cam 2. It's like you, you know, if you had, if you're sensitive, you got an old engine. You I know you have old cars.

49:07 You put, you put bad. Or oh, it's it's literally all about performance. It doesn't it, it just it just it's not as fast. No, same thing with with, you know, can you go crazy? Yeah. Will you probably pop off a grid resistor and a couple of tubes during the Yeah, just. Like with listening to you, when you play that, it's like the input, like everything, like the articulation, the dynamics. It's just like the gas in the old car. If you hit it all the sudden you go, this isn't reacting right. And I always noticed like when I would fly over to the UK or we'd go to Germany, right?

49:36 And you'd plug in right away. Of course, you're like, I'm jet lagged a little bit. But you would be like, does that sound weird or does it off? Is it different? And you'd be like, what's up with my tone? Like you just plug straight in. And I always would think to myself, man, it just must be my jet lag or something.

49:52 It is all about the voltage and what it's running. It's coming out. And you know, a lot of times too, is when you sound check. OK, when you sound check in a gig, theater, whatever, Yeah, whatever you sound check what's not on while you're sound checking what's not, what's not. Let's just I'll give you a clue what's not blinking.

50:13 What are you not seeing? The lights well when you. Oh, literally venue lights. Yeah, can. You turn the venue lights on. Well, they're sucking a lot of power too, so you may be happy at 4:00. Come 9:00, you're going. Why the hell? What the hell just happened? Wow. It's because it's sagging. And if you're sensitive to the sag, now, a lot of people like the sag.

50:36 Yeah, that's like a feature on some ample. It's a feature, Yeah. And I preface all this, just like the last time we got together, I preface all of this. Don't listen to me. Just figure it out for yourself. Whatever you like is right this. Is this information you've learned that's worked for? You, if you're frustrated and say, man, maybe that maybe that, that, that that fucking guy Bonamassa makes sense. That's your guy.

50:59 Maybe twice a day he may have an idea that I should listen to as opposed to what the Internet says. Just dismiss everything I say ad hoc because maybe I've done, I don't know, 3-4 thousand shows. This year. Over the course of 40 years and, and, and The thing is, is the trick to all of it is, is finding the center, your center as a, as a player and what you're on stage, when you're on stage and the tone ain't right, you ain't right.

51:31 And sound makes you play. It affects like the whole performance and it affects the way that you're feeling it. It affects the way you're hearing everything. If you're going to improvise, whatever, if it ain't right, it's not right. It's almost as if you're wearing like you can't hear and you're trying to sing.

51:47 It's the same kind of situation. You try to offer solutions like I've been using the baffles, the perspex, right? And I've developed a little technique with the baffles. You've got to create break angles and it makes the high end a lot more. Like if you're sitting here, the rig sounds like it does, but also it just takes the direct beam away and shoots it up into the sky.

52:14 And some people are like, well, we'll see that. It's like, well, there's no way. So I hate the baffles. OK, You have two solutions 1. Turn it down. And try to make that work with a loud drummer or, or argue with the sound guy or whoever person, sound person, and have you, you know, have them throw a fit and not put you in the PA or blah, blah, blah or blah blah, blah. And, and, and create this conflict. Or you can try the Perspex.

52:56 Or you could take the amps off stage and run it through the wedge or turn it around backwards. There's solutions to everything. And I've tried everything over the years and I found that the baffle works best. Now the trick with baffling is like clear Sonic makes them for me now. And we've a guy named Jim Moody from Oklahoma City who's a good friend.

53:20 He built me a baffle years ago and, and it was just the right size for the 4 by 12, but he he, he just cut it at Home Depot and built it, but it was just slightly lower than the cabinet. And when you bring it out and it's still slightly lower, it's allowing this to breathe. It's getting a little.

53:39 And a little, it's like water. It's a little bit skipping over the top. So the high end sounds right. And because before they would build, they would, you know, venues and Sanofi were happy to put a baffle on this cabinet that's that high. Yeah, it's it. And it sounds, and it sounds really bassy.

53:57 It sounds really off. And the symbiotic relationship that you get with the guitar and the amp tends to start going away because the feedback points are weird, the high ends weird, you're weird, you know, and same thing with combo. So. So when you cut them down just slightly below the water level, Quad and Coke, yeah.

54:19 The the tolex. Level the tolex level. It allows them to breathe and then it. But don't just put straight shield in front of it. You've got to break the angle. The angle has to break. It's. Almost like miking a cab, like a little bit off for the speaker cone. Yeah, I mean, do you ever see Clapton, those pictures from Cream back in the day? He's got the two stacks.

54:43 Where's the mic? The mic is out here and it's aimed in the middle. He had good tone. Sounded good to me. I have this thing about, I call it the full sail. Here comes the click bait, the full sail flashlight. Tell me you went to full sail without telling me you went to full sail. Every time I see the flashlight coming out when someone's miking an amp, I go. Because whoever said that the best sound coming out of any speaker is dead center.

55:18 And now again, season to taste. Now if the amp's dark, you know, you move it more inside, you hear it, OK, it's right. But to start there is rough, yes, because that's all the high ends coming out of there. So none of the bass response out of the cone. You're certainly not getting anything summing, you know, you're not, you're not, you're not really hearing what this cabinets doing because that's doing something. It's part of the bottom end, you know, I mean, it's it's yeah, it's got this ants got a lot of bass, but so does a so does a straight basket weave, you know, absolutely. So it's about finding where the amp, the mic and the amp meet and, and, and represents what you're trying to, to, to achieve and the sound in your head.

56:06 Because it's like if you dial this in and you dial that in, but you don't dial that in. It it, it's nothing, it goes, it, it, it goes S fast. Or if you put your, you know, mic right here dead center, it's like plug in one ear and then stick in that that ear right in the center of the cone. Got it. And you're like, oh, that doesn't sound right either, you know.

56:29 So The thing is about it all is there's so many links in the chain to where it's not about the rig so much. It's not. It's about it starts with the guitar and the amp and then you get a good sound. But there's a lot of ways where the sound can go South if you don't understand these little details that make it's like, shouldn't a great guitar sound that you achieve shouldn't be an accident? It should be.

57:02 This is how it was a well executed plan. Absolutely. Also another thing too is sound engineers. I'm not shitting on sound engineers. There's a lot of great ones. Our guys great both in the studio and in live, but but a lot of times what you have to do, especially live is when they they they put the 57 or whatever, whatever mic you prefer and you go, all right, next thing you do take all the EQ out. They're like what like well, I normally high pass up to 250. I said I live in 250.

57:40 Yeah and it's my whole it's my warm and fuzzies between 2:50 and 500 Hertz. That's that's the throat, that's the human voice quality of it. So if you neuter the bass, yeah, it's going to sound real thin. And you're like, well, why does this sound so thin? But it's killing on. Well, how's your house EQ? Oh.

58:01 You're talking about a presetting that they tend to go for, yeah. Is it OK to high pass up to 80? Sure. Because then you're kind of in the bass in the get the way. You want to get out of the way of the kick drum. You want to get out of the way of the cymbals. You want to get out of the way of the bass guitar. You want to fit in the middle.

58:18 You're the midrange instrument and, and, and you know, the snare is very much in your world. The Hammond or the keyboards are very much in your world. So you want to know where to fit in sonically, but also to achieve that, that, that richness in the sound. So it's full range. So the, the, the, the bass strings and the high strings are, are they, they transition equally. So it's not too, not too bassy, you know, on the wound strings and then on the unwounds are like peeling paint. You know, that's, that's a, that's a, that's another thing that you have to be conscious of when you, when you're, when you're in a live situation in the studio. So when this is like going along with that, I think I already know the answer.

59:01 But when you have all this and then you're thinking about what to put on top of it, let's say you need an OverDrive pedal, right? Let's say you've got a green Tube Screamer. Yeah, we don't need an OverDrive with this we've. Got not with that amp, but let's say, you know, you're on stage, you need some sort of OverDrive.

59:15 Yeah, I have a feeling like you're going to use that more as an accentuation of what's already happening. 100. Percent. You're not going to sit and pin the gain and and try and use it as an EQ. You're going to use that to get more fullness and open up what's already happening. Yeah, I mean, now there's now there's, there's schools of there's different ways of doing it. A lot of people use a clean platform and then they get all their drives from, from the, from the, from the, from whatever, you know, and and there's a lot of good amp modelers now that that that go well with, you know, a clean platform.

59:47 So, you know, it does the dumbbelly thing or it does the the green box if I'm using like if I'm just doing a clean platform and was going to put the put an OverDrive pedal. And my, my, my old trick with the tube screamer was, was if I'm sitting in, if I was sitting in with, you know, like, and I have a 65 reissue twin and like, that's what I always spec.

1:00:15 You can rule the world with those things. They're great. Dip the bright switch and what I used to do is I used to take I used to take the gain and the volume I turn them all the way up and I turn the tone about 11:00 just slightly past noon, just slightly left at noon. And then I would use the amp as the volume.

1:00:33 Oh cool. So, and I would normally get the amp up to four or five just when it was just breaking up a little bit, but not a lot. And that created a nice rich sound without, you know, diming the amp and then putting a little Tube Screamer on it because the amp's not working as hard, right? And it's not compressing as much. And so there's that.

1:00:56 And then if you just want a boost, you know an already overdriven signal, you know, you want to add some mids, some perceived mids, because if you add, if you add a pedal that takes mids away and you're trying to use that as your boost, you're going. What happened? You're like, damn, drummer's playing it too loud and like, no, you're just not. You're not poking out enough.

1:01:17 It's got a, the EQ curve's got to go like that and it's got to hump in the middle. Well, when can we expect to see the Soldano out on the road? I know you got plans for going back out there. I would say summer. I would say this summer, because we're a few weeks away from I have to commit every year we have to commit 2 sets of gear.

1:01:38 One goes to Europe, one goes and it's logistically a lot. So by the time this good job, yeah. Dude. It's just a little, He's a little deoxidor. It hasn't been run. It's got to go to Bob Dixon. It's got to go. This has been incredible how long it's been on and. It's. When was the last time it was turned on you think? My guess?

1:02:05 20, 20 years ago, yeah. Not bad. Probably a reasonable guess. 05. Probably 05. Maybe it was when they did the guitarist remember when he plugged into all this stuff. Maybe 06 was. Yeah, maybe something like that. I. Don't know, it's been a long, long time. It's been a long time. It's in a good home now.

1:02:24 Yeah, and I love the road case. It's got a John Henry's. I saw that. So Rd. Case and and and and and John Henry's my friend John is a great guy. And, and, and I met John shortly after this record I put out called the ballad of John Henry came out and he's like, hey. Thanks man. Thanks man. Sweet.

1:02:44 He's this wonderful guy and for those who don't know, John Henry's is the Sir of of London for lack of a better or if you're national based sound check or if you're here in in Los Angeles, third encore or mates and you know or rock Lidditz or you know all the all the. Amazing things. Fantastic rehearsal halls.

1:03:05 Spread out all over the globe. So I just want to make sure our vendors are cool so nobody, nobody overcharges us the next. Time we you go all of the Fen. You're all fantastic. I frequent all of your vending machine. Well, thank you. Thank you so much for having us to your place, man. No problem.

1:03:24 Privilege and. Sorry it rained on our cigar hang, but you know. I think what we need to do though is go have some tacos man. Let's go have some tacos. Taco time. It's it's, it's 5:15. If we can get there by 5:45, we'll get we'll get a table we're in.