Electric strings

General info and amplification - electric strings

Brian's wall of sound at Hyde Park

Irrespective of how many AC30s were on stage at whatever gig in whatever year, only three (usually the bottom row of the pile) would be used and then only occasionally - 80% of the time it'd be just the one! It'd be the central amp of the three would provide the dry signal (i.e. the signal without any effects) and, when it came the time for the Brighton Rock double-echo solo set-piece, one signal from a deal would be fed to the left-hand amp, and the longer delay to the right hand, thus giving a stereo spread on-stage as well as through the PA. His chorus (from a Rocktron Intellifex in the past few years) would also be stereo and used in the same way.

Recently (in 2000 or so) Brian had all of his personal AC30s remodelled to feature a single pre- and power amp stage (rather than three on a typical AC30) with single volume control, turned all the way up and boosted further with a Greg Fryer Treble Booster. The Red Special guitar, or rather the switching system designed way back when by Brian and his father, allows for the pickups to be used "in series" (a Fender Stratocaster allows only for parallel use - a different thing entirely). This boosts the signal still further, allowing the amp to tip over into a huge, warm power-stage overdrive. Brian has been quoted many times that, once the band got to stadium-filling status, he'd be so far away from his amps that he'd usually "play off the monitors".

Simon Bradley adds: "I've been fortunate to have played his guitar though his amp rig and I can attest that it's the loudest thing I have ever played through - no wonder he still wears his hair long!" :-)

John's Telecaster and Brian's Gibson Les Paul

Needless to say, different guitars required different amps, also depending on the desired sound. While Roger liked Vox as well, John and Freddie employed other kinds of amplifiers in order to get the cleaner sound required for Staying Power and Crazy Little Thing Called Love respectively.