Dimebag Darrell was one of heavy metal's great guitarists. Darrell played in bands such as Pantera, Damageplan, Rebel Meets Rebel. Let's look at some of the guitar gear and equipment that Dimebag Darrell was seen using in his guitar rig.

Image by April Ashford-Forsythe. C.C. Attribution 2.0 License

Click the gear images for more info & to specs at Musician's Friend

 Guitars

- Washburn 333 Dimebag Darrell Electric Guitar 
- Washburn Culprit Dimebag Electric Guitar 
- Washburn Stealth Dimebag Electric Guitar 

- Dean ML model guitar (main guitar from 1980 to 1994)
- Dean Dime O' Flame

Note: Dean makes a DimeTime pickup which is said to be a close replica of the pickups dimebag used

Amps and Cabinets

- Randall  Randall RG100ES heads and cabinets (1983 - 1991, 1996 - 1999)
- Randall Century 200 heads and cabinets (1992 - 1995, 2000)
- Randall Warhead heads and cabinets (2000 - 2004)
- Randall X2 Warhead heads and cabinets (2004)
- Krank Revolution heads and cabinets (late 2004)

 Pedals and Effects

- Furman PQ4 parametric equalizer (1990 - 1995)
- Furman PQ3 parametric equalizer (1996 - 2004)
- MXR Six band graphic equalizer

- MXR 126 flanger / doubler (1990 - 2004) - blue rack unit

- Lexicon effect modules

- Korg Ax30g
- Rocktron Guitar silencer

- Digitech WH-1 Whammy Original pedal (newer whammy pictured)

- Jim Dunlop Crybaby 535Q Crybaby From HELL (Designed in conjunction with Dimebag Darrell)

- Whirlwind A/B Selector

- Korg DTR-1 Rack Tuner

- Dunlop MXR Dime Distortion (designed in his name - don't believe he was around to use this one)

Strings

DR strings

Comments

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dude   |2010-04-02 14:42:15 i have the real bill lawrence l500xl Reply 1   0

dude  - randall rg100es   |2010-03-24 22:15:36 my randall rg100es when i plug my guitar straight into the amp and i do not get that much gain but i have the gain all the way up and i found a video youtube and this guy has his randall rg100es pluged in directly to the amp and he has a bunch of gain. i need to have some sum good advise please i need the help Reply 1   0

lee   |2010-03-29 17:16:03 the guy in the vid might have had emgs or some other type of pickups not realy sure Reply 0   1

pantera   |2010-03-20 22:52:47 can someone please tell me how to wire up my rig the way dime did it i got the blue six band furman pq4 rocktron super hush c the dunlop 535q and the randall rg100es and i dont know how to wire it up it would be realy cool if someone would give me a heads up on how to get the dime tone oh and i am going to be getting a flanger doubler to in a few weeks Reply 1   0

Anonymous   |2009-12-20 15:33:47 he used the warhead for clean tone live, the rg100ht is the same as the ,so yeah... ...put rg100 not rg100es because of the ht, he used both. sry for geeking out on someelses gear and commenting when i really didnt know whether it was true or not. now im sure about this, add the boss ns2, he used in tgst album, roland apii phase pedal, a shit load others, and a korg dtr2000! not the dtr1! the dtr1 sucks ass, and the 2000 is way more acurate Reply 1   0

steak   |2009-11-24 17:55:55 replace the warhead w/ the rg100ht, the warheads you saw on stage. NEVER USED!he put them there to trick people so no one would copy his tone. the warhead x2 he used in damageplan, it's the regular warhead he never used. Reply 5   0

steak   |2009-11-24 18:21:26 I'm positive but remember tone is in the fingers, but for the people wondering about the coyboys album, his rig was Guitar-Vox Wah-Mxr blue vintage 6 band EQ-Furman PQ4/PQ4-front of a randall rg100es and in the loop: the mxr flanger/doubler im not sure where he put the whammy, not sure if he used it in this album, and i dont no where he put the tuner if he didnt just unplug and put the guitar directly to the tuner. oh and he also never used the dimebucker, just the bill lawrence, sorry if too specific but hope it helps anyway. Reply 4   0

steak   |2009-11-24 18:26:21 also his coyboys rig is guitar-vox wah-vintage mxr EQ-purman pq4 or pq3-to front of randall rg100es, loop: mxr flanger doubler, i dont no where he put the whammy if he used it in this album and he used an a/b box to switch amps, one for clean, and one for distortion, with the eq's of course! Reply 4   0

nightmare   |2010-01-29 15:11:35 actually he was using the Krank's in Damageplan. the dimebucker wasn't added into the guitars until after vulgar, where exactly im not sure but if u listen to the leads u can hear the difference also take into consideration that he went from standard 1/4 step down to like a full and a 1/4 step down as pantera went along because of phil Reply 0   1

jef  - Its a secret and remains a secret   |2009-10-18 21:05:50 I have all the stuff dime used: The randall 1985 rg100es, green faced furman pq-3, and 70's mxr blue 6-band. You can get some real old school sounding metal tones, but they don't sound anything like dime. Ive set the eq's in every way you could imagine and none of it sounds like dimebag! He created his own tone with his fingers and some secret tweaks that noone knows! All those you tube videos are crap! Still not dime tone! Reply 1   1

James  - Jef I hear ya there   |2009-11-07 05:37:58 At one time I had the carpeted randall rg-100 es head. I also had the furman pq-4 , mxr 6 band blue eq pedal and bl 500 xl PU and I must have messed with all that stuff 1000 times tryin to get more gain out of that randall head but no combination of that stuff/order would do anything to seriously increase the gain. Now I know Dime told everyone in all them magazines he just used the gain in that head which was clearly wrong as those heads dont have NEAR the gain he had. So I finally came to the conslusion he is slipping a distortion pedal in there somewhere. I bet this was back in 2000 when I was on this "quest". Since that time I have gotten MUCH closer to dimes tone using the rest of that gear with other things for distortion. I hate to say this but that dime mxr distortion pedal sounds about as good as that randall head lol. Better since it includes a scoop eq. Now I noticed on one of those pantera videos that dime and the tech were sitting around goofing off and dime hit a lick and it sounded like a typical amp but THEN the tech turned a knob on the mxr flanger doubler and WOW all of a sudden a pinch harmonic sqealed and I swear it sounded like more gain. But man the blue mxr 6 band and the furman is great stuff. Always keep them part of your gear! Oh and im pretty sure dime set one knob on a furman to 900 hz and max octave and maximum cut! I would say I am farther along on the tonequest then you and I will leave you with this clue....set the mxr blue to an inverted V pushing the two middle faders all the way up ( dime himself said this )and leaving the far left and right at 0 and the next two half way tween full on and 0....and ask yourself why use 2 eqs?....... Reply 1   1

jeremy   |2010-01-06 18:04:12 its his bill larwance and dimebucker pick ups and his soul.thank you Reply 0   0

bobenewmen   |2009-09-16 14:48:32 if you are looking to get the dime tone he always said using different types of stomp boxes like eq's and flangers can give you different types of gain and he also said wiring it different like for example puting the wah pedals before the eq's will give you a different tone. he used a randall rg100es not a rg100h because rg100h was made in the 90's he won his amp in 80's. i just got my randall rg100es a couple moths ago and i also got a blue mxr six band eq and when you plug the little blue box in and turn the amp up a little it sounds heavy. as i was typing this i just got my furman pq4 to. dime used a blue mxr six band eq,a furman pq4 and a randall rg100es to get his tone. oh i also got a bill Lawrence l500xl in the bridge position Reply 1   0

steak   |2009-11-26 13:31:57 the mxr flanger doubler was also a key to his tone, and if thats not working i think he said he wired his bill lawrence out of phase Reply 1   0

CGB  - Harmonizer/Delay?   |2009-09-15 14:50:52 What harmonizer and Delay did he use? You should also include what picks he used. Reply 1   0

bobenewman   |2009-10-06 15:15:33 i am pretty sure that dime used an mxr flanger/doubler for harmonizer and delay Reply 2   0

bobenewman   |2009-10-06 15:34:07 oh i have no idea what picks he used but what he would probably say use the picks that are comfortable Reply 1   0

nightmare   |2010-01-29 15:16:31 he used Dunlop .88 tortex Reply 0   0

RIGGS   |2009-07-29 00:16:48 Yep damn right!! actually you could see it in one of the youtube videos posted with YOUNG GUITAR..... you could see it on the floor man!!!!!!! R.I.P Dime brother!!! Reply 1   0

Dimehead   |2009-07-14 18:31:12 I can assure you that Randalls will sound nowhere close to Dime's sound without the use of a PQ3 or PQ4 driving them. The PQ's extra gain settings are what push these amps and are the key to Dime's gain. Reply 2   0

bob newman  - what wah pedal   |2009-07-09 11:34:24 I am a big dimebag fan. and i have been trying to get the dime tone for years and i cant find out what equipment he used because i read what people say about what kind of equipment he used, and they don't know what they are talking about. they just wright what they think. or people wright about what equipment he used in vulgar display of power,far beyond driven,the great southern trend kill and reinventing the steal. i love those albums but what about cowboys from hell,projects in the jungle,metal magic and i am the night. i just got a randall rg80es yesterday because i did research on what amp he used after i read what riffer madness had to say they said that dime used a randall rg100h and people said that it must had been a miss print and they said that the randall rg80es was an 80s amp and the randall rg100h was a 90s and dime got his amp in the 80s and i was almost sure that he used a randall rg100h so i got one and that amp sounds like crap so. i just want to know what wah pedal,equalizers,guitar silencers and fx he used during the old days during cowboys from hell Reply 4   0

steak   |2009-08-09 20:34:12 get a krank krankenstein Reply 3   0

TJ Desmond   |2009-06-13 14:39:18 I think Dime's rig is awsome, all top shelf stuff. I advise everyone of his style of music like me should use what he used especially the MXR stompboxes, they are awsome! And his amps rule, I've tried out Randall Warheads at local music stores and they are really cool! And most of all the Razorbacks are the best guitars ever built!!!!!!!! Killer rig! Reply 2   0

Bryan   |2009-06-10 20:55:25 Digitech Whammy is missing and the MXR flanger / doubler has a wrong pic, it's a blue faced rack unit Reply 2   0

gr   |2009-06-06 09:44:41 Oh BTW you guys are forgetting the most important of his guitars, the one that started it all. You might want to add the Dean ML to that list Reply 2   1

steak   |2009-08-09 20:32:20 it already is, it's the second to last one on the list Reply 1   1

nightmare   |2010-01-29 15:18:35 i agree it was a 79 Dean Ml painted maroon, to be exact Reply 0   0

scotty   |2009-06-05 22:24:22 what gauge strings did dime use? How is his floyd setup? He use to pull back on the whammy bar? How is this done as far as the setup? Reply 3   0

gomoso   |2009-05-31 21:04:47 where are the legendary bill lawrence??? Reply 2   1

steak   |2009-08-09 20:31:04 it's in the dean from hell guitar Reply 2   0

micth  - mitch   |2009-05-31 21:45:51 i was just wonderig, what kind of deley did dimebag use?? i cant seem to find out any where can u help???? thanks mitch Reply 1   0

rod   |2009-04-06 11:16:36 yes, he did never played a razorback (specialy the v shaped) but you canīt deny that itīs a nice guitar. he played with a bill lawrence pickup(dont remember the p.u. name)i think it was XL-500, and seymour duncan designed the dimebuckers which is a two railed p.u. nice looking and it's in the neck position, but i think he never played with them. itīs like the dimarzio x2n pickup Reply 2   0

steak   |2009-08-09 20:36:35 he did use the razorback. and the dimebucker is a bridge humbucker, sounds too muddy in the neck position from what i've heard, the neck pickup is always either a dimarzio or the dean, dimetime pickup Reply 1   1

gh   |2009-04-02 22:10:31 Yes, you are right about the Dime wah, I actually checked that out after i posted my comment, and saw i was wrong. Sorry if my comment comes off sort of ahole-ish, i just hate when people consider the razorback "Dime's" guitar. Yes he drew up the design, and was looking forward to the prototype, but because of his tragic death, that is as far as he got. I feel taht what Dean is doing with the razorbacks is wrong, trying to market them as Dime's guitar. For all Dean knows, Dimebag may have played the first prototype and absolutely hated it and scratched the idea. Sorry Reply 4   0

Wes   |2009-08-06 15:51:59 Actually Dime did recieve a prototype, and liked it. That's why he had Zakk's made. Zakk's is actually the second RB, if you don't count the PT. But, Dime did get a PT and OK'd the project, his buddy recieving the first one ever as a gift. I read it all in the book "...He Came to Rock". Reply 1   0

nightmare   |2010-01-29 15:19:44 also read the book Black Tooth Grin Reply 0   0

gh   |2009-04-01 23:42:08 This setup for dimebag is completely wrong. Dimebag never once played a razorback. He designed and helped developed them, but they weren't actually finished untill after his death, with the rust being the first. Also, I don't believe he ever used crybaby from hell, although I could be wrong, and he most certainly never used the Dime distortion, which, by the way, sounds nothing like his distoriton Reply 3   0

uberpro   |2009-04-02 08:28:38 Thanks for the info gh. Yes, some of this gear was designed by him or for him - he may not have had a chance to use it. He did use the Dime Wah - see the Dunlop site. Reply 3   0

Wes   |2009-08-06 15:58:45 He did use the Wah From Hell. I saw it at Vinnie's house during a party. They had a setup in one of the bedrooms for recording/jammin out. I played on one of Dime's own guitars and Vin's kit. He didn't have a full rig in the room, mind you. But the wah was there. Reply 1   1

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