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Category: Who Plays What
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Last Updated on Friday, 08 March 2013 22:25
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Published on Thursday, 23 August 2007 12:37
Billy Corgan has been on the scene with The Smashing Pumpkins for a long time and also some other interesting side projects like Zwan. In this article we take a look at what our guitar hero uses for guitar gear and equipment. Let's take a look at what gear and equipment has been seen in Billy Corgan's Guitar Rig!
Click the gear images to get more info & specs at Musician's Friend
Guitars
Note: Billy has played many guitars. Here is a good sampling of them.
- Fender Billy Corgan signature Strat - this guitar has Dimarzio pickups. Don't be fooled - they look like Lace Sensors.
Note: Corgan likes Lace Sensor pickups on many of his Fender guitars
- Fender Mustang electric guitars
- Fender '57 reissue Stratocaster
- '74 Fender Stratocaster
- '72 Gibson ES-335
- Gibson Les Paul Special
- Gibson SG Special
- Gibson SG Standard
- Gibson Flying V
- Fender Eric Clapton Signature Strat with Lace Sensor pickups (used on Siamese Dream)
- Ovation 12-string Elite acoustic (black) and Ovation Standard Balladeer
- Epiphone G-400 SG (with EMGs)
- Gibson Dove Acoustic
- 1947 C.F. Martin 00-28G Acoustic Guitar (recording of "To Sheila")
- Taylor 610ce and 810ce acoustics
- Gibson Tony Iommi signature SG
- Schecter C-1 EX baritone (Gibson Tony Iommi Guitar Pickups)
Pickups
- DiMarzio Billy Corgan Prewired Pickguard
- DiMarzio DP226 BC2 Billy Corgan Bridge Pickup
- DiMarzio DP225 BC1 Billy Corgan Neck Pickup
Amplifiers and Cabinets
- 1984 Marshall JCM 800 100-watt amplifier head with KT-88 tubes
- Marshall JMP-1 rack preamp
- ADA MP-1 preamp
- Vox AC30
- Orange OR-80 amp head
- Marshall MK II 100-watt head
- Marshall 1960A/B 4 X 12 cabinets
- Fender Twin Reverb
- Bogner Uberschall heads and two Diezel Herbert heads
Effects
Billy has a large collection of pedals, including:
- Electro-Harmonix Big Muff distortion pedal (set to 1'oclock, 1'oclock, max)
- Fender extreme octave/fuzz pedal - The Fender Blender
- Electro-Harmonix Small Stone Phase Shifter pedal
- Electro-Harmonix Micro-Synth
- Alesis 3630 compressor
- EVENTIDE H-3000SE Ultra Harmonizer
- Digitech DHP-55 Harmony processor
- Korg SDD-2000 sampling digital delay
- Mu-tron Bi-Phaser
- Digitech whammy pedals
- Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress flanger
- DLS Effects Ultra ChorusII (thanks to Dave at DLS for the info)
- DLS Effects RotoSIM
- EHX Polyphase (old version)
- MXR Distortion II
- MXR Phase 100 (Siamese Dream lead tone, turn speed down)
- Ring Stinger pedal
Strings
- DR Hi-beam nickel-plated strings -.009's-.042's
Comments
Marshall JCM 800 with KT88 power amp tubes (instead of the usual EL34s), power amp level cranked all the way with preamp volume set very very low... this allowed him to push the power amp stage for saturation, he also used a Big Muff pedal. This setup was also used on Siamese Dream, but wouldn't work live... too scooped and thin sounding with the bass/drums onstage, so he changed to a Mesa preamp, later an ADA, feeding a Marshall JMP-1 power amp (rack setup with amp distortion) for the Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie tours.
The Clapton thing is a mistake by EQ. Corgan used '57 re-issue strats with blue (neck) silver (mid) and red (bridge) pickups. The Clapton strat has 22 frets and Billys strats had 21, and the claptons never came in sunburst (which Billy's "batstrat" originally was). Because Clapton used an original 50s strat and his signature model was based on them, some people confuse them. I think this + lace sensors is what made EQ think billy had Clapton strats. Look up "American Vintage '57 Reissue"... That + blue/silver/red laces + 5-way switch (they include one with the guitar in case you want the modern wiring as '50s and '60s strats had 3-way switches) = batstrat
The Mexican-made Classic 50s strat is an affordable alternative.
Fernandes Decade Elite
Thats a shame, love those things, noticed one in that pedal video though his comment was less than flattering.
There actually are a bunch of news articles on the net that say Billy was in some sort of argument with Devi Ever. Not sure if he is still using the pedals or what the deal is.
I can't quite remember if he had a hand in designing the rocket one or if it was just built as a tribute
It resembles a Fender Jazzmaster.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZemTcTyJKs
Modern Big Muff pedals are transistor... Read here: kitrae.net/.../...
he recorded all of gish with the ADA MP-1 preamp.