Billy Duffy

Travisthedog

Just zero bullshit and really nice guy

rawk100

I was at the Brixton gig last night and thought Duffy, and the rest of the band, played well. He's always been a good solid player and really doesn't get the recognition he deserves considering he's been playing rock music for over 30 years. Having said that he has now got a signature gretsch and a sig wah coming out soon. His guitar is always very forward in the mix so you can hear him easily, he sounded really good last night. I noticed that he had dropped his Friedman BE and was using JCM800 2203s last night....

RocknRollDave

jeztone2 said:

RocknRollDave;986129" said:

I always found them to be a "greater than the sum of their parts" band, in that none of them were outstanding in themselves. Duffy is far from the greatest rock guitarist around, IMO. Of course, music isn't a competition, so it doesn't matter ...but just my two cents.

But he is outstanding, because he's only playing what is necessary..

By that token, Jimi Hendrix wasn't outstanding

stonevibe

My friend James was playing guitar with The Cult the last few years on tour. Not sure if he is doing this tour though. I know Damon is playing keys though.

kjdowd

There was one guy covering keys, 2nd guitar and bvs last night.

hubobulous

That rig rundown is excellent. Such a great sense of humour and so down to earth. I've never seen them live but really should. Sonic Temple is one of those albums that I never tire from listening to. The right mix of great song writing, good sound and tasty playing.

xscaramanga

axisus said:

Saw them live in the 80s, very good. Billy is a superb player, but I didn't care for his style of guitar, some enormous great big white Gretch. I guess he's still playing them?

When I saw them in Bristol he came on with the Black Falcon. When he switched to the Les Paul Custom after a few songs it looked like a Guitar Hero controller by comparison.

I think he only used the White Falcon on She Sells Sanctuary.

Killer tone with all guitars. One of the best I've ever heard live. When he was letting those big power chords hang there was just so much grit. I was pretty close to the back but I couldn't see any mics on the Marshalls. Looked like it was just the AC30 mic'ed up.

kjdowd

He had both marshalls and the ac30 mic'd on Saturday. Huge sound. You're right about the Les Paul, though - looked almost comical after the Gretsch.

rawk100

He has 3 different amps that he switches between individually or switches on together which on Saturday were the JCM800, the AC30 and the Roland chorus 120.

kjdowd

Spotted the Roland Chorus 120. I assumed it was just for the Vox to sit on...

DaevidJ

Brilliant... Just love his straight talking

Travisthedog

It's great to see a player like this when you sit through the utter bollocks that some of the player talk - or some of the mentally expensive booteek stuff they "have" to use to get their tone.

It's refreshing to see a bona fide guitar hero who's also down to earth and using off the shelf stuff that is attainable for all

stuagu

rawk100 said:

I was at the Brixton gig last night and thought Duffy, and the rest of the band, played well. He's always been a good solid player and really doesn't get the recognition he deserves considering he's been playing rock music for over 30 years. Having said that he has now got a signature gretsch and a sig wah coming out soon. His guitar is always very forward in the mix so you can hear him easily, he sounded really good last night. I noticed that he had dropped his Friedman BE and was using JCM800 2203s last night....

Hi, So did he use les pauls at all this tour or purely the gretsch sig guitars ? Thnx

kjdowd

stuagu said:

rawk100 said:

I was at the Brixton gig last night and thought Duffy, and the rest of the band, played well. He's always been a good solid player and really doesn't get the recognition he deserves considering he's been playing rock music for over 30 years. Having said that he has now got a signature gretsch and a sig wah coming out soon. His guitar is always very forward in the mix so you can hear him easily, he sounded really good last night. I noticed that he had dropped his Friedman BE and was using JCM800 2203s last night....

Hi, So did he use les pauls at all this tour or purely the gretsch sig guitars ? Thnx

Mixture of gretsch and les pauls, although only used the white falcon for Sanctuary (main Gretsch was a Black Falcon I think, but I'm not so up on my Gretsch models).

rawk100

kjdowd said:

stuagu said:

rawk100 said:

I was at the Brixton gig last night and thought Duffy, and the rest of the band, played well. He's always been a good solid player and really doesn't get the recognition he deserves considering he's been playing rock music for over 30 years. Having said that he has now got a signature gretsch and a sig wah coming out soon. His guitar is always very forward in the mix so you can hear him easily, he sounded really good last night. I noticed that he had dropped his Friedman BE and was using JCM800 2203s last night....

Hi, So did he use les pauls at all this tour or purely the gretsch sig guitars ? Thnx

Mixture of gretsch and les pauls, although only used the white falcon for Sanctuary (main Gretsch was a Black Falcon I think, but I'm not so up on my Gretsch models).

Yeah, he used his black signature falcon a lot of the time and his white signature falcon on Sanctuary. He used a black les Paul custom on the heavier songs which I think is a prototype signature guitar that never made it off the ground with Gibson. I think the other les Paul he's using on this tour is a plain/strip fronted custom.

TheMarlin

The Black Falcon is a new, only recently launched as a model.

I prefer 50's/60's style Falcons myself, his 70's style Falcon with its shrunken headstock looks off to me, and his model has a smaller body.

I regret selling my Gretsch Black Phoenix, that was a hell of a good
Guitar!

Marlin

armitaan

I remember being a teenager in late 80s when started getting Guitarist magazine and at time Billy Duffy seemed to be butt of a lot of the jokes given he didn't play like Frank Gamble/paul Gilbert /steve vai, and general vibe was he was a rubbish player, the usual muso nonsense: the only one of the four I'd ever pay money to watch play.

pmbomb

Found this thread as I'm learning Rain at the moment so doing a bit if Billy research. He seems a grounded and personable guy, I like his no fuss approach. Thx for the vids etc folks.

stonevibe

I've loved The Cult since I was a kid and grew up coping Billy's riffs when I was 13 or 14, so he is to blame for my pentatonic ramblings! But seriously the man is a great solid player and knows when to shut up.

Very underrated band considering that some of their tracks make your spine tingle.

freakboy1610

Billy Duffy is my favourite rock guitarist. His Pursuit of Tone episode is well worth a watch too.