This is the musical equipment used by the members of the hard rock/blues rock band ZZ Top.
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Billy Gibbons' choice of electric guitars has primarily been Gibson. His first guitar was a sunburst 1962 Gibson Melody Maker.[1] He became a Gibson player in 1968, 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"; this guitar has become the foundation/benchmark of every ZZ Top album since the group formed in 1969.[2]
Gibbons continues to play Gibsons with ZZ Top, owning various models including an early-'50s Les Paul Goldtop, a 1958 Flying V, and an early model of the Gibson SG, made in 1961 with a cherry red finish.
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.[3] A couple of Fender guitars were featured on the Tres Hombres album, including a 1950 Fender Broadcaster on "Jesus Just Left Chicago" and a hard-tail sunburst 1955 Fender Stratocaster on "La Grange". He used a sunburst 1958 Les Paul for the slide guitar in "Just Got Paid," as well as a 1955 Gretsch Roundup on "TV Dinners" from Eliminator. He has also famously 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 (album)") inspired a signature production model, the "Gretsch Billy-Bo Jupiter Thunderbird."
Gibbons has also used a number of custom creations by luthier John Bolin (http://www.bolinguitars.com/) since the late 1970s. Many of these guitars are custom renditions of classic Fender and Gibson designs. Most of Gibbons' guitars are set up with pickups wound to his specification by Seymour W. Duncan or Maricela Juarez in the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop. Gibbons also uses TV Jones Power'tron Plus bridge pickups (a hot rodded Gretsch Filter'tron style pickup).
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."[4]
Along with the Super Leads, he has used a variety of Marshall's products, including the JCM 900 Dual Reverb,[5] Bluesbreaker, JTM45, Major,[6] and Lead 12.[5] Recently, his live touring rack consists of the JMP-1 Preamp, combined with power amps like the Valvestate 120 or the 9200 model.[7]
Gibbons has a large collection of vintage Fender amplifiers, his first amp being a Fender Champ. He is notable for collecting Fender Dual Professionals, later named the Fender Super in 1947. Other Fenders he has used include a Fender Bassman and Fender Tweed Deluxe.[8]
He has also played through Crate V-50 Palomino models with customized tolex. Other amps he's used include the Goodsell Super 17 rack model, THD UniValve, Tom Scholz Rockman, and the Mojave Scorpion. He also used several ZT Lunchbox solid-state combo amps during the VH-1 Storytellers show.
Gibbons has acquired a variety of fuzz pedals over the years, like the Gibson Maestro Fuzz-Tone and Dallas Rangemaster, Pro Analog effects, Foxx Tone Machines, Bixonic Expandoras, Blackstone Appliances, Metasonix Agonizer, Chandler Tube Driver, Z.Vex Effects, Devi Ever Effects , Analog Man effects, Black Cat Overdrive, Marshall Supa Fuzz, SIB Varidrive, Austone Electronics, and Gooby Bag of Dicks. He also uses boost pedals from Robert Keeley and Creation Audio Labs.
At the 2010 Winter NAMM show, Dunlop and Gibbons unveiled a new line of guitar accessories, Rev. Willy's. These include Gibbons inspired picks, strings, and slides.[9]
Preferring the Fender bass-guitar, Dusty Hill also uses many different basses and amplifiers in different combos, and maintains a large collection of vintage as well as custom basses by noted luthier, John Bolin of Bolin Guitars USA. Hill is noted for designing simple and non complicated basses with a single pickup with a single volume knob, with the sometime rare addition including a specially powered knob for tone control.[10][11]
* Tama Starclassic Maple drums [13] :