KVR Audio

Naillerz78 · Post by **Naillerz78** » Tue Jul 30, 2024 10:45 pm

Recently bought a ZZtop “Best Of” album the other day to play in my car. I’d forgotten how many classic songs & great guitar riffs they had.

C42040BC-0CD2-488D-B126-550DCB3EBB51.jpeg

BG is a legend

he has an amazing gear collection also.
Apparently he uses 7 gauge strings (!!)

on a Gibson scale !!

Anyone got tips on copping his sound on those hits?

Pls don’t say just buy a Pearly Gates pickup

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Wed Jul 31, 2024 6:11 am

What's gauge 7? High E is usually like .009 to .011, so .007 is really really flimsy?

What part of his sound are we talking about? Because if my band plays a ZZ-Top song, all I have to do is dial the distortion up to 10 and pick them squilchy flageolets, and the crowd goes crazy. That is of course a superficial copy, and the rest of the gear details is rather futile, because I'm sure he can pull off his sound with any gear you throw him.

Naillerz78 · Post by **Naillerz78** » Wed Jul 31, 2024 7:04 am

BertKoor wrote: Wed Jul 31, 2024 6:11 am What's gauge 7? High E is usually like .009 to .011, so .007 is really really flimsy?

What part of his sound are we talking about? Because if my band plays a ZZ-Top song, all I have to do is dial the distortion up to 10 and pick them squilchy flageolets, and the crowd goes crazy. That is of course a superficial copy, and the rest of the gear details is rather futile, because I'm sure he can pull off his sound with any gear you throw him.

“squilchy flageolets”

He’s a great player so most probably re his tone tbh
Yeah he has a signature set of strings starting ‘.007 high e string (!)

talk about soggy noodles.
‘Gimme all your loving’ and ‘sharp dressed man’ those recorded versions have a certain OD sound.

Naillerz78 · Post by **Naillerz78** » Wed Jul 31, 2024 7:10 am

https://www.jimdunlop.com/billy-gibbons ... ngs-07-38/

Man I reckon if I played those.. every fretted note up to the 7th fret is doing a semitone sharp ..for sure.

Magic Russ · Post by **Magic Russ** » Thu Aug 01, 2024 9:08 pm

I'm sure my bends would be all over the place if I played 7s.

revvy · Post by **revvy** » Fri Aug 02, 2024 6:49 pm

This is fun and when the time comes to play, Bea is a talented guitarist

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Fri Aug 02, 2024 6:53 pm

revvy wrote: Fri Aug 02, 2024 6:49 pm This is fun and when the time comes to play, Bea is a talented guitarist

he is, but i kinda hate him for it

i remember, back when he was a drummer, broke his leg skating, then decided to pick up a guitar...
about a month later, he was shredding and playing like a demon

obviously, i dont really hate the guy, dont even know him, and he actually seems pretty cool from the videos ive seen over the years.

revvy · Post by **revvy** » Fri Aug 02, 2024 6:56 pm

vurt wrote: Fri Aug 02, 2024 6:53 pm
revvy wrote: Fri Aug 02, 2024 6:49 pm This is fun and when the time comes to play, Bea is a talented guitarist

he is, but i kinda hate him for it

i remember, back when he was a drummer, broke his leg skating, then decided to pick up a guitar...
about a month later, he was shredding and playing like a demon

obviously, i dont really hate the guy, dont even know him, and he actually seems pretty cool from the videos ive seen over the years.

Yep, he dominated the guitar very quickly and does come across as a nice guy. The video where he talks about playing live with Stormzy is excellent.

Naillerz78 · Post by **Naillerz78** » Fri Aug 02, 2024 9:57 pm

revvy wrote: Fri Aug 02, 2024 6:49 pm This is fun and when the time comes to play, Bea is a talented guitarist

Very interesting in this video below at 4:30 mins in.
Never seen that before with the EQ matching that’s clever.

complex rig!

Naillerz78 · Post by **Naillerz78** » Sat Aug 03, 2024 7:09 am

Some of his guitars and gear

Every show he plays a different custom guitar .
He’s gotta be the coolest old fella guitarist ever.

https://www.groundguitar.com/billy-gibbons-gear/

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subterfuge · Post by **subterfuge** » Sun Aug 11, 2024 4:42 pm

As shown in the picture above, Billy Gibbons likes not only light gauge strings, but apparently also light guitars. He had his luthier to remove the top and fretboard from one of his Les Pauls and got it carved out as much as possible, before putting it back together. So not only the body, but also the neck was weight relieved.

I saw ZZ Top in a festival back in ´96. The best guitar tone I've ever heard at open air festival set. First chord and it was a serious goosebump moment right away.

Naillerz78 · Post by **Naillerz78** » Mon Aug 12, 2024 6:03 am

subterfuge wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2024 4:42 pm As shown in the picture above, Billy Gibbons likes not only light gauge strings, but apparently also light guitars. He had his luthier to remove the top and fretboard from one of his Les Pauls and got it carved out as much as possible, before putting it back together. So not only the body, but also the neck was weight relieved.

I saw ZZ Top in a festival back in ´96. The best guitar tone I've ever heard at open air festival set. First chord and it was a serious goosebump moment right away.

Very cool re Weight Relief.
Top and fretboard doesn’t quite sound right tho

LPs r boat anchors for me now (old age) WR makes total sense.

Did u watch the RR linked above ..
& how all his guitars EQd via rack to match his PG LP
Read an article w his Tech re the .007s saying setup of guitars re intonation etc was a real challenge…No doubts!

Cool re the goosebumps

his tone is awesome

ZZTop and Billy Gibbons