Instruments: Early Shows II [06.11.1972 - 12.05.1974]

Information > Instruments on tour > Early shows II

The band
When the band got the contract with Trident Sound Productions, it was quite a turning point for their equipment. After they recorded the first album, the next concert (arranged by Trident in the famous Chelsea club Pheasantry) John had noticeable different instruments and Freddie for the first time in Queen's history played piano on stage. As Freddie didn't have a piano of his own, he just used what local promoters or concert organisers supplied. The Queen PA was a 1000 Watt Millibank amplifiers and an Allen and heat mixer (later this changed to 2000 Watt RSE PA, plus Binson Echorec and Akai cassette machine). For tuning purposes they used 2 Pignose Amplifiers, 1 Gibson G 40 amplifiers and a Petersen strobe tuner. Now I don't know if it's the PA mentioned above but a Sounds article from 05.01.1974 ("Britain's Biggest Unknowns") says Queen used Bowie's PA - or more precisely PA from Ground Control which was the first equipment hire company set up by Bowie in 1973.

Guitars
Brian bought a third Vox Ac30 amplifier for his Red Special, it cost him 60 pounds (they were sort of trendy by then). For the first time he used a back-up, which was a pre-CBS Fender Stratocaster, which he played, for instance, at the famous Rainbow gig on 31st of March 1974.

Bass guitars
John acquired a 1967 Fender Precision bass in sunburst finish, which he plugged to an Orange amplifier. Orange is a British brand which was quite popular at the time (Jimmy Page used some of those too, and remember that Queen were quite heavily influenced by Zeppelin in those days). His amplification was 1 H/H IC 100 Watt amplifier, 1 orange 4 x 12 inch (JBL 4560 BK) Bass Bin (this plus Schaller foot volume pedal).

Percussion
Ludwig drum kit: 13" x 9" rack tom, two floor toms (16"x 16" & 18"x 16") and 26" x 14" bass drum. The bass drum logo was a black crest on a white background. A cowbell (probably New Era) was mixed in the kit (for Liar). Cymbals could be either Zildjian or Paiste. During some numbers Freddie played a New Era tambourine. Roger used four Shure mics: one for the bass-drum, two further ones placed panoramically to expand the drum-kit, and one for his vocals.

Pianos
	Freddie used what he was supplied with. At both Pheasantry and Marquee he used a beautiful white Bechstein D 9 ft 2 in Concert Grand, rented from Jacques Samuels piano store in Edgware Road, London (they'd got a contract with Trident Productions).
As for the rest of the concerts, they depended on whatever local promoters supplied them with (mostly Bechstein's, Steinway's, Yamaha's and Baldwin's). The piano was amplified by placing one or two mics at the end of the strings, that's why it'd got to be opened up. Freddie played it in Doin' All Right.

Vocals
During concerts where Freddie played piano, he'd got two mics depending on whether he was playing or not. Otherwise just one, and both Roger and Brian had one vocal mic each. They were all Shure.

Finally, in 1973, the Queen PA was a 1000 Watt Millibank amplifiers and an Allen and heat mixer (Later this became changed to 2000 Watt RSE PA, plus Binson Echorec and Akai cassette machine) For tuning purposes they used 2 Pignose Amplifiers, 1 Gibson G 40 amplifiers and a Petersen strobe tuner.

General info, amplification Queen Brian May