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Has Billy Gibbons ever played a stack?


RockNote

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I've heard many stories of Billy micing a combo backstage going out over the Pa as his "real sound".

 

 

I can only offer this. While being led backstage for a meet and greet with the band during the Afterburner tour I only saw one amp, it was a Peavey Special 130, or a Bandit 65, with a Sennheiser 421 in front of it, under the stage.

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pretty sure Eddie Van Halen still has that title and is not relinquishing that title to anyone else as long as he is still alive.

 

 

Billy is the ultimate gear misleader


whatever it looks like, sounds like or he describes is almost certain not to be the case.

 

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It's a very well established fact that for decades now his house sound has been a rack setup (both preamp and power amps), and his amps on stage for mostly for his monitor. I'm sure Billy used s full stack for many things in the '70's, when venues and budgets didn't allow for a full PA system. But from the '80's and beyond, it's pretty much guaranteed that no one in the audience ever heard any on-stage amps direct.

 

People still seem to have this real old-fashioned view of a stage rig. It's not only more economic to use a one or two mic'ed amps, or a rack setup, into a PA but it allows for much more consistent and reliable sound throughout a tour. To rely on 100-watt stacks for house sound, even for an auditorium, is asking for a sonic nightmare of soundchecks and mixing, and all sorts of phase and delay issues by the time the sound reaches the back of the theater. Billy Gibbons and AC/DC rely heavily on racks; U2 and the Stones rely heavily on mic'ed combos; a few others might use one stack and mic it, but isolate the speaker cab from the audience; etc. Mark Knopfler has three amps on stage with him -- one main amp (SLO or Komet or Reinhardt), one clean amp (Tone King), and one backup for the main amp...and word is not a single one is used for the house, but duplicates mic'ed backstage are feed into the PA instead; this is because the tech makes multiple settings changes, even within a song.

 

Tours for major artists are big business and require consistent setups.

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Billy is the ultimate gear misleader


whatever it looks like, sounds like or he describes is almost certain not to be the case.

 

 

I recall reading him stating that he would daisy chain 6 Bixonic Expandoras. He said that you'd be surprised at the results....

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