This is going to be a great weekend!

[guitarsnguns04]

Finally some cool music in my area. I am going to see Joe Bonamassa tonight and Joe Satriani with Mountain tomorrow night. Has anyone seen these guys recently? Im kind of curious what to expect. I am curious about Joe B's cool gear also..someone said make sure to take earpluds for Joe Bs show. In any event I am looking forward to some fresh playing and hopefully I will leave fully inspired.

[guitarsnguns04]

well I went to see Joe Bonamassa last night. I wanted to give a brief review as always for those interested. He is on tour with a great band ..they were all very good with their instruments and were very tight. As far as the guitar playing goes...Joe was smoking! He played a ton of amazing licks and solos. Now the bad...his tone sounded like it was in a shoe box! I am serious. I walked all around the venue both sides of the stage as well as dead center..which sounded the best and could not beleive my ears. He had his Jubille, a Marshall plexi I think, 2- carol anns , a hiwatt and another head in the bottom of his rack that I didnt recognize. I have to think the sound man robbed him of the goods. It was very bottom heavy and horn like. There was no clarity to anything he played electricly. The highlight of the night for me was an acoustic improv he did for about 5 minutes. The tone was great it was eq'd properly and he absolutely burned that neck up. All in all great show but very disappointed with his muffled tone.

[shngn7]

another head in the bottom of his rack that I didnt recognize.

Probably his Category 5.

[guitarsnguns04]

I think the category 5 was the amp I thought was a plexi or lead 2..it was on top of his jubilee. This was at the very bottom of his rack equiptment.

[Lance]

Does he still keep them all behind those plexiglass sound sheilds? You know, to keep the front 10 rows from losing bowel control from getting pelted with soundwaves. I would imagine it's tough to get the mix right with 3-5 amps all being switched off/on in & out at different times. I bet it sounded GREAT on stage! Unfortunately, those seats are already taken.

[frank62]

Leslie West will shock you.

[Carol-AnnAmps]

well I went to see Joe Bonamassa last night. I wanted to give a brief review as always for those interested. He is on tour with a great band ..they were all very good with their instruments and were very tight. As far as the guitar playing goes...Joe was smoking! He played a ton of amazing licks and solos. Now the bad...his tone sounded like it was in a shoe box! I am serious. I walked all around the venue both sides of the stage as well as dead center..which sounded the best and could not beleive my ears. He had his Jubille, a Marshall plexi I think, 2- carol anns , a hiwatt and another head in the bottom of his rack that I didnt recognize. I have to think the sound man robbed him of the goods. It was very bottom heavy and horn like. There was no clarity to anything he played electricly. The highlight of the night for me was an acoustic improv he did for about 5 minutes. The tone was great it was eq'd properly and he absolutely burned that neck up. All in all great show but very disappointed with his muffled tone.

You know I saw him last year at Boston and the FOH guitar sound was pretty dull. He was at Berklee and you have to use the house Engineer. Having been on stage with him playing and having played his rig myself at sound check, I can tell you it was huge and not dull at all.
Because he sends 4 mics to the FOH, he relies on the FOH Engineer to mix the signals correctly. I know all this because I have run FOH for him myself. Add to this there is no overspill (because of the plexi-glass screen) from the stage that would mask a bad FOH mix somewhat. Sometimes, like the Berklee show, he uses the house Engineer, thats where the problem can arise. His setup requires a bit more diligence than an SM57 stuck in front of a Marshall would. But when run and mixed correctly sounds incredible.

He is currently using two Carol-Anns, a Cat 5 and a Jubilee. The red CA is an EL34 100W and is used for clean/crunchy rhythm and the blue one is a 120W 6L6 and is used for lead.

[Tonefish]

Yeah, I'd really be looking forward to Leslie West!!!

[Carol-AnnAmps]

Leslie West will shock you.

Leslie West shocked me last year. I run FOH for him in a pretty small club. He had two full stacks and a half stack. THe signal to the half stack went through an octaver and was mixed in with the main amps to fatten the overall mix.....like it really needed it.
His Manager came up to me at sound check and said Leslie has a four hit rule. You get three hits from each drum piece to get them in, the fourth hit is Leslie hitting you. He was only joking of course, but I never got drums mixed so quickly in my life...lol. Leslie was a really nice guy and his feel and vibrato are just incredible. It was a pleasure to work with him. He was and still is one of my own guitar heroes.

[guitarsnguns04]

man were you guys right. Leslie was awesome..his singing really blew me away. He was playing his Buddas and man did they sound right. No problems with the mix tonight! Satch played amazing but his tone is really not for me but in all honestly sat very well in the mix and sounded really full with the band..when he would just rip on his own it was bright and abrasive..in the mix with the band it got pretty smooth. Stu Hamm is a freak period! That dude was amazing and a great showman to boot..total package. Jeff Campitelli..?spelling..amazing as well. Corky and Rev Jones from Mountain were very entertaining and played great as well. They were also very cool as I hung out with them for a bit after the show. Rev Jones is a nut and had me rolling with some of the things we talked about. All in all the show was amazing..the highlights for me were Mountain doing Blowin in the wind and going down at the end with Satch. They had some great moments on little improv they did for a while. Satch came out playing a Leslie West model Dean and played some killer blues. Very enjoyable and inspiring. Satchs highlights were nu8merous and often as usual.

[guitarsnguns04]

As far as Joe Bonamassa...great playing sold short by poor sound engineer. I still want to know what the other amps were? I know there was a Cat 5 on top of his Jubilee on the right hand side and 2 Carol Anns on the left and there definately was a Hiwatt and the mystery amp is in the bottom of his rig. I know he used it because he adjusted something on it during the show. I was creme tolex and had a script logo across the top panel but I couldnt make out what it said..any ideas?

[Carol-AnnAmps]

As far as Joe Bonamassa...great playing sold short by poor sound engineer. I still want to know what the other amps were? I know there was a Cat 5 on top of his Jubilee on the right hand side and 2 Carol Anns on the left and there definately was a Hiwatt and the mystery amp is in the bottom of his rig. I know he used it because he adjusted something on it during the show. I was creme tolex and had a script logo across the top panel but I couldnt make out what it said..any ideas?

The mystery amp you are seeing is not an amp, it's a Diaz Reverb unit. It is being used in the efx loop of the Blue CA.

[pullagnm]

This is what Joe was using when I seen him 3 weeks ago, and he sounded amazing.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q222/pullagnm/DSCI0013.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q222/pullagnm/DSCI0015.jpg

[guitarsnguns04]

That looks to be it..Diaz reverb unit huh? Thats cool he had a Hiwatt also but I beleive the pic is exactly what he had lastnight. I thought it was 2 CAs but It looked the same as that pic ith the 2 rock in it..

[Carol-AnnAmps]

That looks to be it..Diaz reverb unit huh? Thats cool he had a Hiwatt also but I beleive the pic is exactly what he had lastnight. I thought it was 2 CAs but It looked the same as that pic ith the 2 rock in it..

He only got the blue CA last week and has been using it since.