Richie Sambora

[Lagotto]

I recently saw Bon Jovi in concert in Omaha. Richie's guitar sounds prrrrrrretty good live. I was so impressed with the tone. THE TONE. It just sounds so good I can't get it out of my head. So I decided that I want to sound like that/ or similar. I'm especially fond of their 80's songs. That's when Richie's tone was best, when he played thier 80's material. Back in the 80's, Richie played a Kramer Jersy Star model (Actually it was his own custom model but today it's a production model). I want to know if anyone knows what kind of pups were in that Kramer.

THANX.:dance:

 

[aldu74]

Re: Richie Sambora

The Kramer had JB & 59's, if I recall correctly.

His first Fender signature model had a Dimarzio PAF Pro.

I've also seen him live a few times and he has awesome tone. Is he still playing Tom Anderson guitars through Diezel amps?

A lot of people don't like Bon Jovi but I think Richie is a great guitar player and singer as well. Check out his solo records, especially Stranger In This Town.

 

[BluesGuyJ]

Re: Richie Sambora

I know that he used the Kramer and Strat a lot. So you should figure out which guitar he used on which album. Heard nothing but great things about the Richie Sambora Strats.

 

[jmh151]

Re: Richie Sambora

The original Kramer Sambora model in the late 80's had Duncan JB pickups in the neck and middle, and a Jazz in the neck. It also had coil taps on 2 of the pickups. I played one when it was new in about 1989 or so, and it nailed his tone.

There's a web site, vintagekramer, that has alot of info.

 

[ErikH]

Re: Richie Sambora

The new Kramer Jersey Star is a reproduction and doesn't have the same pickups. He hasn't used Kramers since the New Jersey tour. There were production runs of his sig model back in the 80's with some differences between what he got and what customers got.

His first sig Strat had a Floyd and like said, DiMarzio PAF Pro. The Strat sig model without the Floyd came with 3 noiseless singles.

He's now playing Floyd Rose guitars with the speedloader FR Trem and some custom made guitars by his tech. There's a thread in the Guitar forum I started about it when trying to find out that the heck the guitar was. He's using Diezel and I think 65 Amps.

And yes, I agree. His tone is awesome. My wife and I saw them here in Dallas a few weeks ago.

 

[strangegrey]

Re: Richie Sambora

He's using Diezel and I think 65 Amps.

Actually, they are divided by 13's, not 65s...Being a regular over at 18watt.com, I would have heard if he was using Dan's amps.

As far as the 80s guitars go, he was indeed using predominantly JBs in his kramer guitars (according to seymour duncan advertisements in the 80s)...although, he has said in more than one interview recently that they were really dimarzios...So sometimes it's hard to figure out completely....I've caught him in a bunch of gear inacuracies...I remember an interview during the crush era where he stated his live rig was a "JCM2000 with the guitars plugged straight in...no distortion/OD pedals!" Yet if you rent or buy the crush live dvd, you can clearly see a Boss SD-1 next to his Wah pedal. :smack:

I suspect that he's not pulling an EVH and doing the whole 'disinformation' thing...but that he changes gear so often, he probably doesn't know what's in whatever guitar is his new flavor-of-the-month. Sambora tends to suffer from Joe Perry disease, where you never see him with the same guitar more than once...

Having said all of that, I really dig Sambora. Next to Vito, he's my favorite guitarist that had his start in the 80s. He's got some serious mojo. He'd probably sound amazing plugging a squier into a gorilla amp....His tone and his style has matured a good bit...but there isn't a period of his playing where he doesn't sound amazing!!

 

[ErikH]

Re: Richie Sambora

Actually, they are divided by 13's, not 65s...Being a regular over at 18watt.com, I would have heard if he was using Dan's amps.

So that's what those things are that are sitting on top of the Diezels. I couldn't tell from as far back as we were, even with binocs. Thanks for clarifying.