James Dean Bradfield - Manics live rig pics

Vintage-T

Got to see the Manics at a small festival in Cornwall this weekend. What a treat to be able to get up close to one of my fave live bands. His white Les Paul Custom is probably my favourite 'guitar hero' axe ever.

Took a few snaps of James' rig and guitars, only one I missed was a 335 but he only used that for 1 song.











Hope it's of interest....

darthed1981

JDB loves the humbucker teles these days doesn't he?  I suspect as a man in his 50s his back thanks him for that!

Wonderful musician from my all-time favourite band, thanks for snaps

lustycourtier

wow! Thats so cool. Big fan here too. Very underrated. Did you notice the amount of open tunings he uses?  

Vintage-T

lustycourtier said:

wow! Thats so cool. Big fan here too. Very underrated. Did you notice the amount of open tunings he uses?  

I think the Shergold was in open tuning, but not sure what, he used it for Design For Life, and wasn't playing the way you would in standard so that's only a guess.

Everything else looked in standard tbh

Vintage-T

darthed1981 said:

JDB loves the humbucker teles these days doesn't he?  I suspect as a man in his 50s his back thanks him for that!

Wonderful musician from my all-time favourite band, thanks for snaps

He only used it for 2 songs, 80% of the gig was still the LP Custom.

Still dazzling how he never trips up on his lead when moving about. I don't move about much when playing, but could trip on my shadow easily enough.

Vintage-T

I'll see if I can upload the vid I took of Despair to Where.

lustycourtier

Vintage-T said:

lustycourtier said:

wow! Thats so cool. Big fan here too. Very underrated. Did you notice the amount of open tunings he uses?  

I think the Shergold was in open tuning, but not sure what, he used it for Design For Life, and wasn't playing the way you would in standard so that's only a guess.

Everything else looked in standard tbh

Did they do Kevin Carter? From memory thats open F and he used to use an Italia of some sort. 

lustycourtier

Just looked at the setlist....nothing from the Holy Bible?! Scary. 

Vintage-T

Nah, they didn't play it. Gutted

Pretty sure it was:
Motorcycle Emptiness
Your Love alone
Everything Must Go
Found That Soul
A Design For Life
Autumnsong
She Sells Sanctuary
Enola/Alone
Complicated Illusions
You stole the sun....
From Despair to Where
Borderline (madge cover)
Tsunami
You Love Us
If you Tolerate

May have missed one or 2, not entirely sure on the new stuff, or the order it was played in, but it's about right.

Vintage-T

lustycourtier said:

Just looked at the setlist....nothing from the Holy Bible?! Scary. 

Yeah, travesty that they pretty much ignore GATS and Bible. Would have loved Faster and Roses in the Hospital.

lustycourtier

Wow, never heard borderline! Madonnas best song!

Vintage-T

I'd have preferred 2 more manics songs and not 2 covers...it was ok, but waste of a song tbh

lustycourtier

Vintage-T said:

I'd have preferred 2 more manics songs and not 2 covers...it was ok, but waste of a song tbh

Ive just seen a video. Very poor cover. I get the edgy sentiment of doing it, but not at a Headline festival set. 

LPManic

TheVintage-T said:

lustycourtier said:

Just looked at the setlist....nothing from the Holy Bible?! Scary. 

Yeah, travesty that they pretty much ignore GATS and Bible. Would have loved Faster and Roses in the Hospital.

As a rule, they don't play anything from the Holy Bible since the anniversary gigs.

LPManic

You'd do well to find a bigger Manics fan on the forum here than myself! 

Incredibly underrated guitarist. Legend has it that he has over 300 guitars. I'm glad he still brings out his 1990 Les Paul Custom as I know that he is a massive fan of the Troublemaker tele as it is essentially a Les Paul in a (lighter) tele body. But it still looks odd to me.

My favourite recent JDB guitar is the original 60-whatever Jazzmaster that he has been playing since the Holy Bible anniversary gigs. It is especially fantastic on his recent solo album "Even in Exile". Here is a video of the song "The Boy from the Plantation". Very War on Drugs-esque sounds on the riffs.

https://youtu.be/d2nFbv2ynjk

stickyfiddle

Always good to see a bit of JDB love. 

I think the only alt tuning on that setlist is Tsunami which is open G with a high C instead of D (so DGDGBC).  There are loads of others in open G (or thereabouts) including Kevin Carter, Small Black Flowers.. and This Is Yesterday. Then you have My Little Empire which is something like EAEFAE 

As for humbucky Teles, let's not forget Motorcycle Emptiness was a 72 Thinline Tele all those years ago. 

Vintage-T

LPManic said:

TheVintage-T said:

lustycourtier said:

Just looked at the setlist....nothing from the Holy Bible?! Scary. 

Yeah, travesty that they pretty much ignore GATS and Bible. Would have loved Faster and Roses in the Hospital.

As a rule, they don't play anything from the Holy Bible since the anniversary gigs.

Fingers crossed for a 30th anniversary tour then. I totally get why they don't play anything, still a shame from a fans POV as they're some of the band's very best.

CaseOfAce

I had no idea he was such a gear head.
Seriously into his guitars / rigs and openly discusses his passion in the guitar mags unlike a popular floppy fringed indie idol who feels discussing gear in the mags is like an artist stating what brushes he uses for his art...FFS...

RocknRollDave

Was a huge Manics fan back in the day.
Wouldn’t open my curtains if they were playing in my back garden these days, to be honest, but have to say JDB’s guitar sounds at the Holy Bible anniversary tour gig I saw were probably the best guitar sounds I’ve ever heard live.

And I’ve seen a few guitarists noted for their impeccable tone.

mrkb

RocknRollDave said:

Was a huge Manics fan back in the day.
Wouldn’t open my curtains if they were playing in my back garden these days, to be honest, but have to say JDB’s guitar sounds at the Holy Bible anniversary tour gig I saw were probably the best guitar sounds I’ve ever heard live.

And I’ve seen a few guitarists noted for their impeccable tone.

I feel the same way, first few albums were great, edgy and exciting, and saw them live four times in the early 90s. Then they turned out Muzak.

guitartango

Great pictures thanx