By 
What gear defines the greatest guitarists! – More Budget Famous Rigs (part 2)
Introduction
A few weeks ago, I put out an article about famous guitarists and their rigs! I tried to recreate the core rig on a budget! Well, I thought it would be worth putting together a part two! So in this article, I will go over three more guitarists, and we will look at how you can recreate their core tone. Let’s recreate even more budget famous rigs!
As with the first article, I will try to keep the budget down, but I do want to create rigs that you can use and gig with. I could make all these rigs super affordable and even more so on a budget, but they wouldn’t be able to be played live or expanded upon! So the aim of this article is to create a rig you can use live and at home!
With all that said, why don’t I dive into the first guitarist, and it is a big one! A super popular and loved guitarist; however, his rig isn’t as complicated as you might think! Mr John Mayer! So let us dive into our first of many budget famous rigs!
John Mayer – Clean, Dynamic, Soulful
John Mayer’s rig is fairly simple at the core! It is just a high headroom amp with a boost pedal and a Strat! We will ignore the fact that the amp in question is a Dumble, but the principle is still the same! So when recreating his rig on a budget, you will be able to do it fairly easily and almost get his rig identical. The bit that will vary the most is playing style! John is very good at phrasing and dynamics!
Anyway, let’s dive into how to recreate his rig on a budget! Where do you start? Well, why don’t I start with his amp!
Amp
Starting with the amp, this is going to be fairly boring. John uses a variety of amps, but I would argue they are all based on a Fender Blackface. So the obvious choice would be a Fender Deluxe Reverb Tone Master. As with the first part of this series, I went with the tone master version as this helps with home playing and portability and lightness! Great to be able to turn it down.
You can pick the Fender Tone Master up second-hand or brand new for not bad money. It is more expensive than other options but has the options and “actual” blackface sound.
Guitar
For the guitar, all you really need is a vintage-spec’d Strat copy. You need something with three single-coil pickups and fairly low output. This will allow you to get that blues sound John Mayer gets with his! He often uses the guitar volume to adjust the level of gain he is getting! Bringing the gain level down for verses and chords, then up for solos and riffs!
I would personally recommend a Harley Benton ST-20. You can get these in black to match John Mayer’s famous black Strat! Or you could look at the East Coast ST-1. Which are also available in black. Either of these guitars will do the job that you need! You will also be able to upgrade them further down the line and enhance them even further!
"John Mayer is famous for using two pedals. A Ibanez Tube Screamer and the Klon"
Pedals!
John Mayer is famous for using two pedals. A Ibanez Tube Screamer and the Klon. Often using them together to build his sound. So I would recommend that you check both! I will admit that these two pedals work so well together! Luckily, you don’t have to spend a fortune on a Klon or original Tube Screamer; you can pick up some similar pedals at a much better price!
For the Tube Screamer, this is an easy one! You can grab an Ibanez Tube Screamer Mini (Review Here). These are really affordable and will get you 90% of the tone and sound. I did do a full review and absolutely loved it! It was on my board for a very long time! If you want something a little fancier and handmade, then you can check out the JSA LNS Screamer! This is a Tube Screamer-based pedal that is inspired by the original Tube Screamers. Simon from JSA Pedals builds it using vintage spec parts! Aiming to get as close to the original as possible! We recently put out a full review on this LNS Screamer (Review Here).
More Pedals!
For the Klon, there are a few options that you can go for. I would suggest you either get the Behringer Klon Pedal (Review Here), that is if you can find somewhere with one in stock. Your other option is the Tone City Bad Horse pedal. This is a super affordable and great-quality Klon copy. Both will get you the sound that you want and need.
I won’t tell you how to set the pedals; you can find his settings online. All I will say is that John is a huge fan of boosting his amp! Setting the Klon’s drive low and the volume high! Pushing your amp into overdrive and giving it some extra sauce!
Links:
Tom Morello – Innovation Through Simplicity
Tom Morello is a very interesting guitarist! Blending guitar playing with DJ’ing! Using his guitar and pedals to create a whole host of effects and sounds! Recreating his sounds is fairly easy as far as amp and guitar are concerned. However, it is the effect pedals that you need to get that spice it up a bit! Most of his rig is optional; however, there are a few things you will need to buy if you want to play around with his sound!
So let us dive into the guitar and the amp (which are fairly simple and straightforward), then we can discuss the pedal option!
Amp
For Tom, he tends to use a Marshall JCM800. However, all you really need is a high-gain amp! Something that can give you that thick and meaty gain sound! So I am going to recommend a Boss Katana 50! The reason for this is that it sounds amazing! It is lightweight and cost-effective but also contains 100’s of built-in effects that you can play around with!
You will be able to build out some presets and swap between them to achieve different Tom Morello tones! Plus, if you get the 50, it will be under £300! Which is a lot of amp for the money!
Guitar
Tom is famous for his “Arm the Homeless” guitar; however, any S-type guitar with either humbuckers or high-output single coils will do the job nicely! For this review, we are going to recommend the Harley Benton Fusion-III! This is an S-type guitar that is loaded with 2 humbuckers! With the help of a push-pull knob, you can split the humbuckers and open up a huge array of tones!
I am also going to recommend the Eastcost ST2 with the HSS configuration! This means you get a nice meaty bridge pickup but allows you to get some nice single-coil tones as well! This comes in a variety of colours, but I love the black-on-black look! It looks very menacing and perfect for some Rage Against the Machine riffs!
Pedals
Now, this is where Tom gets his sound from! There is a whole host of pedals that you could grab for his tone and sound, but the main one you want to get is a Digitech Whammy or Boss XS-100. This will allow you to do those pitch dives and high-pitched noises!
Both of these are used heavily by Tom, and he uses them along with a delay (which you can get from the Boss Katana) to create all kinds of sounds! From his scratching sounds, animal noises, and DJ sounds!
Both these pedals aren’t the cheapest, but I would say they are a must if you want to replicate some of Tom’s sounds! You could look at grabbing a multi-effects pedal with a built-in expression pedal! This will also allow you to get the sounds!
Links:
- Boss Katana 50 (Thomann Affiliate)
- Boss Katana 50 (Andertons Affiliate)
- Harley Benton Fusion III (Thomann Affiliate)
- EastCoast ST2 Black Metallic (Andertons Affiliate)
- Digitech Whammy DT (Thomann Affiliate)
- Digitech Whammy DT (Andertons Affiliate)
- Boss XS-100 (Thomann Affiliate)
- Boss XS-100 (Andertons Affiliate)
Brian May – The Homemade Genius
Brian May is one of the best guitarists and songwriters ever, and to his credit, his rig is fairly simple! He hasn’t changed much over the years and through his entire time at Queen and more I believe it was the same! He also has a very distinct tone! For this reason, there are some things you just can’t ignore when trying to recreate his rig!
For this reason, this could be the most expensive “affordable” rig in the series! You will see as we go through the individual parts as to why this is! However, for now, let us dive into the amp. If you know Brian May you will already know what I am going to recommend!
Amp
There is no other option when trying to get the Brian May sound! It has to be a Vox! Brian used several AC30s when he was performing; however, for this article I am going to recommend the Vox AC15. The AC15 is still a very capable amp and loud enough for almost anything but comes in as a slightly cheaper option!
Only one brand can do the Vox sound and that is Vox! So if you want to get it then you are going to have to get a Vox! The AC15 is loved by many and will get you the Brian May sound. I would imagine this is what a lot of tribute acts use when picking their amps as it is smaller and lighter! So easier to self-manage when gigging!
More Budget Famous Rigs Amps
I was going to recommend the VOX MV50-BM. Which is a 50-watt mini amp! However, it probably wouldn’t be able to be gigged without mic’ing and you would also need to get a cab for it! However, if home playing is all you want to do then this could be a great option as it is tiny, loud enough for home use and would sound killer!
"Now, the good news is that the pedal is fairly simple and affordable!"
Guitar
I mean, there is only one guitar you can get if you want that Brian May sound, the Red Special! This is pretty much the only guitar Brian ever played so if you want to replicate his sound then this is the guitar you are going to have to get! Luckily these are readily available and come in both left and right-handed!
They are the same spec as Brian original with all the switches and tonal options that he uses! So you will be able to achieve any sound that he does!
Pedals
Now, the good news is that the pedal is fairly simple and affordable! Brain May is famous for using a Rangemaster treble booster in his rig! These aren’t cheap! However, you could grab almost any treble booster and get the same sound! This will get you close to the Brain May sound and will replicate his rig the best, but you are stuck with the Treble booster then!
An easier (and more versatile option for budget famous rigs) might be to grab an EQ pedal and pump up the Treble! This will almost act the same way but allow you to alter a few other frequencies if needed and also use it in other ways (I might have to do an article on the many ways you can use an EQ pedal).
For recommendations, I would recommend the Boss GE-7 pedal. Simple, super affordable and always in stock whatever shop you look in! It is on pedalboard for many guitar players for good reason! It does the job it is mean’t to do! You could use one in almost any famous budget rig!
Links:
Conclusion
Thanks for checking out this article on famous budget rigs! Most guitarists only have a simple rig at the core! Then they add and dress it up with some spice! Hopefully, you all enjoyed this article and took something away from it! Is there anyone else or another guitarist that you would like me to try to recreate on a budget? If so, please drop us an email or Instagram message, and I will have to put together another article!
We do have a Part 1 to this article covering a few other guitarists and some budget famous rigs that you can check out below! Don’t worry! We have a Part 3 coming soon as well with a few different guitarists! Lots of different sounds and rigs being broken down to their basics and recreated on an affordable budget!
If you want to support the site then please give us a follow on Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube.
Gigs & Guitars Affiliate Links:
- Famous Guitar Rigs on a Budget (Part 1)
- Famous Guitar Rigs on a Budget (Part 3)
- Andertons Affiliate Link
- Thomann Affiliate Link
Check out our other Articles here
2 thoughts on “What gear defines the greatest guitarists! – More Budget Famous Rigs (part 2)”
Comments are closed.