Billy Gibbons Artist Study: Gear & Tone

Gibbons has used many different guitars throughout his career. He's used Gibson style Les Pauls. He's used Fender Teles and Strats. He's also used lots of custom, on-of-a-kind guitars for his stage show! But the important thing to notice is that he always sounds like himself no matter what guitar, amp or gear he using! That's a great lesson for all guitarists.

That said, Gibbons' is most famous for his 70s tone which was largely a '59 Les Paul through a cranked up Marshall plexi tube amp. His tone took on a more processed approach in the 80s with the Eliminator album, which features a more synthesized production, but still rooted in that amped up Texas bluesy rock.

Nowadays you'll find Gibbons using a combination of boutique tube amps and effects, rack processing, and a whole stable of different types of guitars.

Gibbons' picking attack is very dynamic and aggressive, and invokes plenty of pinch harmonics. For a large part of his career, he was known to use a Mexican peso coin as a pick for a more aggressive sound!