Getting that Billy Gibbons sound

Simon_M

Been learning a few ZZ Top songs and I can’t nail down the sound. Obviously a lot of Billy’s sound comes from his proficient blues style which I’m working on but wondering what I can do to get his tone (or at least get close).

Short of buying a Les Paul (don’t give mean excuse!) what would be your approach? I mostly play a Strat so the lack of humbuckers might be an issue. 

Danielsguitars

You definitely need a humbucker for alot of his stuff imo,  there's quite alot of single coil solo stuff in his work, i think he uses his melody maker for that tone

I'm no expert but love his early stuff, brown sugar is one of the best les paul tones to me

I don't use pedals so can't recommend anything 

tone1

I’ve been playing Brown Sugar, Francene, Blue Jean  Blues today.... I used a Navigator Les Paul with p90’s, Tweed deluxe clone and a Palmer distortion for Drive and it was heavenly 

edit... JHS kilt is based on the Expandora that the Reverend Billy used

Funkfingers

Racks and racks of graphic EQ. 

Jump to 8:00.

Wolfetone

Billy Gibbons plays quite a range of guitars and most of his pinched harmonic sound is down to him. Take a look at his rig rundown. It's diverse. 

octatonic

He has a lot of variation in his tones and it isn't really down to the gear, but if you took a Les Paul into a Marshall without overdoing the gain or bottom end then you'd get in the ballpark enough to get by.
He has used the Bixonic Expandora pedal a lot.

He uses very low gauge strings (8's I think).
He also uses a peso for a pick.

Grunfeld

octatonic said:

He uses very low gauge strings (8's I think).
He also uses a peso for a pick.

I read that the peso story was just a throwaway fun remark that didn't have too much truth but the string gauge is something I've seen before.

You can get some strings which have got his endorsement and they're 7's(!)  I have two sets and keep meaning to try them just out of curiosity.

octatonic

Grunfeld said:

octatonic said:

He uses very low gauge strings (8's I think).
He also uses a peso for a pick.

I read that the peso story was just a throwaway fun remark that didn't have too much truth but the string gauge is something I've seen before.

You can get some strings which have got his endorsement and they're 7's(!)  I have two sets and keep meaning to try them just out of curiosity.

Good to know re the peso.
I should have said 'allegedly' I guess.
I had read it in several interviews but never knew for sure.

I believe he get the idea for 'light strings' from BB King.

poopot

His recorded tone is vastly different to his live tone... zz top live, it’s just a balls out spluttery fuzzy mess... in a good way

p90fool

He also has a very restrained style, often using zero vibrato on big notes to make them jump out of the mix, something Dan Auerbach has perfected too. 

tone1

He uses picks with something like ‘friend of Eric Clapton’ embossed on them..... Blimey I’ve got some rubbish floating around my brain... 

edit...I’m full of sh1t...I think it was a business card...

pintspiller

You could always invest in spare pickguard loaded with a Pearly Gates (perhaps other pups too). Might be cheaper than buying a second guitar.

hotpickups

I loved his tone in the 70's. Wasn't into the 80s stuff they did. But the sound he had at Glastonbury a few years back was simply atrocious. If I was him I would have been really upset as fans like me had previously been chasing his tone of the 70s too. Lots of variables though to that tone understandably 

BluesyDave

Didn't the original 'Big Apple' Strat have Pearly Gates in it?

DulcetJones

I saw ZZ Top in the 80's, he used several guitars but I'm pretty sure all of them had humbuckers.  I've read that he often uses a quarter (US 25 cent coin) for a pick but wasn't close enough to see at this show.

musteatbrain

A lot of the 80s stuff is an amp set to death metal levels of gain, just played very, very lightly.
his JMP1 has gain set to 18/20

jimmyguitar

I’ve always thought he had a pretty terrible sound but happy to be educated as he’s obviously admired. All the ZZ Top i’ve heard sounds very poorly recorded with a drum machine and buzzy guitars!

EricTheWeary

The peso thing was never really true. I’m not sure he really used the Bixonics much either, just liked the look of them, but separating fact from myth with Billy is a hard thing.

IIRC his graphic EQs are supposedly set to get different guitars to sound roughly like Pearly Gates ( vintage Les Paul) although that might equally be bollocks. A lot of his instruments are made by John Bolin to be super lightweight but their own sound is very heavily masked these days by all the processing gear. Some of the Billy Bo guitars had Bigsbys but his tech says these were just for the look and were never used and they don’t feature on later versions. The Billy Bos have TV Jones Powertrons. 

 Quite a few tracks were supposedly recorded with strats, like Cheap Sunglasses, so it’s not not a Billy guitar. Some albums were almost exclusively esquires or telecasters - certainly not just a humbucker guy by any means and even then he’s probably used the Powertrons more in recent years than PAF style humbuckers. 

 Some of the recorded stuff is small Fender amps driven hard but he seemed to like big Marshalls for clean. Some obvious delay, ring mod and chorus effects here and there and he uses fuzz in some stuff. He has used a Carbon Copy in recent times for slapback ( I think the one item I share in common with Billy!)and seems to use mostly MXR pedals.

I gather Billy used open E on some stuff, most songs with a slide solo will be in open E. The bass guitar is usually through Marshall guitar amps so that fills out a lot of the sound live. 

That Billy Gibbons sound has an insane number of variables. He uses 7s on lightweight guitars so I think the technique is going to be pretty light and that set up must impact on his bends and vibrato. I certainly don’t think there is a single gear solution. 

musteatbrain said:

A lot of the 80s stuff is an amp set to death metal levels of gain, just played very, very lightly.
his JMP1 has gain set to 18/20

That seems about right. 

richardhomer

DulcetJones said:

I saw ZZ Top in the 80's, he used several guitars but I'm pretty sure all of them had humbuckers.  I've read that he often uses a quarter (US 25 cent coin) for a pick but wasn't close enough to see at this show.

I saw him on the Eliminator tour - he mainly used a custom made Explorer style guitar. The band only had cabs on stage - so no idea what amps he used - but he had one of the biggest, fattest live guitar sounds I’ve ever heard. One of my favourite players.

Winny_Pooh

the jmp1 seems a fixture of his.

@jimmyguitar

thegummy

EricTheWeary said:

IIRC his graphic EQs are supposedly set to get different guitars to sound roughly like Pearly Gates ( vintage Les Paul) although that might equally be bollocks.

I've seen that and wondered how much it really works - I pretty much doubt that totally different guitars can be made to sound that close to each other no matter how much EQing is done. I've also seen people who seem to see it as proof that the difference in guitars is just down to EQ too. Would be interesting to actually hear them compared; I'm sure it reduces any extreme differences in the tone of very different guitars but can't imagine they sound all that similar after the EQ.