Rick Nielsen's Amps and Pedals

Guitar Toad

Toadily Stratologist
I know he's a Hamer player. But, I don't know what amps he has used. What amps did he use on Live and the Budokan and later studio albums. What F/X pedals does he use.

What are RN's tools of tone?
 
Re: Rick Nielsen's Amps and Pedals

He take 25 guitars with him on the road! He takes 50 guitars with him to the studio! It must be nice. Wow! He could be the forum poster boy.

I wonder how many of those guitars have Seymour Duncans?

BTW, Cheap Trick is the only band that I camped out for to get front row seats. I was about 20 feet away right in front of the speakers. That was loud. It must have been about 1979 or so.
 
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Re: Rick Nielsen's Amps and Pedals

I have a framed Hamer ad from about 1978 on my office wall, featuring Mr. Nielsen playing his original natural-maple Hamer Explorer. We're talkin' the Heaven Tonight/Budokan period, here.

Behind him are ~5 Marshall heads; a mix of JMP MV and metal-front NMV. Who knows which ones are running and which aren't? He also used several Deluxe Reverbs (mentioned in the article above). I think he also used a Boss CE-1 chorus, but it was subtle.

My favorite part of that rig was his old Sound City full stack with the grill cloth torn out and the speakers replaced with aircraft-landing lights.

Picks were white medium "Rick Nielsen" - got one of those here, too.
 
Re: Rick Nielsen's Amps and Pedals

Rick has a bunch of old Fender Deluxes that he has always been very fond of. He used to use some Rivera modeified 100wt Marshalls, not sure if they are in his current rig. I would imagine that they saw an ungodly amount of miles since the late 70's. Rick always played very loud on stage, probably still does. When I saw him last summer I was a bit too far back from the stage to get a gauge on his stage volume. He was running those b&w checkered Goldtone rigs. He had somethin else he was running through as well but I couldn't see what it was, I was on Tom's side of the stage. He used those Deluxes and Marshalls live and in the studio,. For ages and ages he used his old Sound City cabs he got in the late 60's, I know he has some Marshall cabs back then too back he was never big on sharing what speakers he had in them.

Rivera's mods on the Fenders - MV, 6 position mid-range switch, hi/lo gain gain switch, treble boost and a few output mods.

On the Marshalls (still not sure what model) MV added, reworked output, an extra driver added and a "fat" switch, probably simiar in function to the mid switch on the Deluxes.

He also says he used an MXR DDL and a Boss CE.

You can't believe a word of what Rick used to say about his settings, he likes to bluff and goof too much. He had me stumped trying to figure out how anyone could use as much high end as he said he did:smack:

Hope that helps a bit - Most of this info came from an old GP article I kept since it came out in '79, not that I dig Rick or anything.:banana:
 
Re: Rick Nielsen's Amps and Pedals

Now there is a character of a guitar player.

Rick is without a doubt, one of a kind. ;)
 
Re: Rick Nielsen's Amps and Pedals

Wattage said:
Rick has a bunch of old Fender Deluxes that he has always been very fond of. He used to use some Rivera modeified 100wt Marshalls, not sure if they are in his current rig. I would imagine that they saw an ungodly amount of miles since the late 70's. Rick always played very loud on stage, probably still does. When I saw him last summer I was a bit too far back from the stage to get a gauge on his stage volume. He was running those b&w checkered Goldtone rigs. He had somethin else he was running through as well but I couldn't see what it was, I was on Tom's side of the stage. He used those Deluxes and Marshalls live and in the studio,. For ages and ages he used his old Sound City cabs he got in the late 60's, I know he has some Marshall cabs back then too back he was never big on sharing what speakers he had in them.

Rivera's mods on the Fenders - MV, 6 position mid-range switch, hi/lo gain gain switch, treble boost and a few output mods.

On the Marshalls (still not sure what model) MV added, reworked output, an extra driver added and a "fat" switch, probably simiar in function to the mid switch on the Deluxes.

He also says he used an MXR DDL and a Boss CE.

You can't believe a word of what Rick used to say about his settings, he likes to bluff and goof too much. He had me stumped trying to figure out how anyone could use as much high end as he said he did:smack:

Hope that helps a bit - Most of this info came from an old GP article I kept since it came out in '79, not that I dig Rick or anything.:banana:
I waited all day in Cinci in '99 for them to play riverfest. I was right in front of the stage. I had to move back after a few songs. I waited all day for that spot and I moved backed. I am a wimp. He was loud and had great tone.
 
Re: Rick Nielsen's Amps and Pedals

Guitar Toad said:
I think the CE-1 can be heard on Ain't That a Shame on Budokan.

Oh, yeah... I'm listening to it right now. Chorus all over 'Ain't That a Shame'. He's playin' slide, too!


Guitar Toad said:

Every recent picture I've seen of Robin Zander, he's wearing that hat. Did blond-god-boy go bald, or what?
 
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Re: Rick Nielsen's Amps and Pedals

I've heard his live rig was a silverface bassman pushing 1 4x12- the rest of the cabs are just lights.
 
Re: Rick Nielsen's Amps and Pedals

When i last saw Cheap Trick live in 1997 he had a wall of Marshall cabs on stage but the top row all had lights in them not speakers... what he really used for amps i couldn't see from the 10th row.... But that tour they pretty much played all their 70's stuff and almost nothing newer... it was like a trip back in time!!! The bass player must have a hard time hitting all those strings!!!!

I read in an interview Rick once did in the mid 90's that he bought his Marshalls back in the 1975 i think he said 75, and he still uses them a lot to this day..... said he got his moneys worth out of them and then some...

I have a dvd of the the Japan only TV broadcast from the Tokyo 1978 show..... The night after Budokan... It cuts to ads mid song and stuff and lots of talking and interviews thru the whole thing that i can't understand a word of.... i hear they have offically released this Tokyo 78 show finally, has anyone seen it.

Rick once said he ran into Pete Townshend and Rick said all Pete could talk about was the amazing guitar sound he got on Budokan.... Rick said he was blown away as he said all he had been trying to sound like the Who's Live At Leeds...
 
Re: Rick Nielsen's Amps and Pedals

WhoFan said:
Rick once said he ran into Pete Townshend and Rick said all Pete could talk about was the amazing guitar sound he got on Budokan.... Rick said he was blown away as he said all he had been trying to sound like the Who's Live At Leeds...

I listened to Budokan last night and was struck by how good it really does sound. The CD remaster of In Color has some bonus live tracks on it, and the sound is no where near as good as Budokan.

Part of it may be the Japanese recording engineers. Do a little web searching and you can probably find some info on Chicago's experience on their Live in Japan CD, following Carnegie Hall. Turns out they were disappointed with how Carnegie Hall sounded, but loved Live in Japan.
 
Re: Rick Nielsen's Amps and Pedals

Guitar Toad said:
I know he's a Hamer player. But, I don't know what amps he has used. What amps did he use on Live and the Budokan and later studio albums. What F/X pedals does he use.

What are RN's tools of tone?

btw Rick's main guitar has always been his '58 burst. It has been on every record they have ever done.

I think most of his early Hamer's have orig PAFs in them.
 
Re: Rick Nielsen's Amps and Pedals

Rich_S said:
I listened to Budokan last night and was struck by how good it really does sound. The CD remaster of In Color has some bonus live tracks on it, and the sound is no where near as good as Budokan.

Part of it may be the Japanese recording engineers. Do a little web searching and you can probably find some info on Chicago's experience on their Live in Japan CD, following Carnegie Hall. Turns out they were disappointed with how Carnegie Hall sounded, but loved Live in Japan.

I have 3 copies of Budokan now.... I have the original cd which is the best stuff of the concert for sure.... But i really enjoy the new 2 cd Budokan set that was put out a few years ago.... Nice to hear the show complete and i believe it is in the right track running order from the show....

Need Your Love has been a fav of mine off Budokan..... simple little tune with some great vocals...

Dream Police is a great tune!!!! I've almost gone deaf with that one cranked a few times too loud!

A guy in Toronto i used to know owned a Record Store... I was in his stores back office oneday and he had a framed gold Record of Budokan on his wall..... I asked were he bought that... he said he got it from the band when he worked for CBS records.. Turns out he was the guy that brought the lp over to America after finding out it was selling like mad on Import because radio stations kept playing tracks off it.. It was meant to be a Japan only release and he was given the gold record from the band as a thank you after it did well in North America...

WhoFan
 
Re: Rick Nielsen's Amps and Pedals

Cheap Trick amps - ya want Cheap Trick amps? Here's some Cheap Trick amps:
cheap_trick1a.jpg


I took this pic at the Spectrum in Philly about 1979 or 80. I assume the red Marshalls (MV JMP's?) are Robin Zanders, though he played Twin Reverbs other times I saw them. Sadly, Rick's got a lot of his stuff covered with the checkerboard cloth. You can see a couple Deluxe Reverbs on top of Petersen's bass rig. Four SVTs!?!

And of course the 6 ripped up Sound City cabs with PAR lights in them. Somewhere, I think I have a slide of that rig lit up, but I don't have a scan of it.

Ah, the good old days.
 
Re: Rick Nielsen's Amps and Pedals

Rich_S said:
Cheap Trick amps - ya want Cheap Trick amps? Here's some Cheap Trick amps:
cheap_trick1a.jpg


I took this pic at the Spectrum in Philly about 1979 or 80. I assume the red Marshalls (MV JMP's?) are Robin Zanders, though he played Twin Reverbs other times I saw them. Sadly, Rick's got a lot of his stuff covered with the checkerboard cloth. You can see a couple Deluxe Reverbs on top of Petersen's bass rig. Four SVTs!?!

And of course the 6 ripped up Sound City cabs with PAR lights in them. Somewhere, I think I have a slide of that rig lit up, but I don't have a scan of it.

Ah, the good old days.

Thanks for posting that picture, Rich.

My sister had the two disc Live at Budokan in an un-opened package. I wanted it really bad and somehow managed to talk here out of it. I got it home and opened it up and there was only on disc, the second one. It has I Need Your Love Love, Southern Girls, California Man, I Want You to Want Me, Good Night, Ain't that a Shame, Clock Strikes 10. It's a great disc. As I've been listening to it, Bun's drum playing was really awesome. He really is a great drummer. He doesn't play a huge set like a lot of guys were using at the time, but he's does a fantastic job.

Props for Bun E Carlos.

I did a little search and Here's a link to the cab's with lights.
 
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Re: Rick Nielsen's Amps and Pedals

Guitar Toad said:

Damn! I've been looking all over the web for a pic like that, ever since I was busting SeraphimTN's chops a few weeks ago about his light-up H&K cabniet project.

I'll have to see if I can find the box of old slides - it's still packed somewhere.
 
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