Johnny Effects setup

[captain kirk]

Hi guys,

 

 

Big fan of CP and Johnny!

 

 

I've read the "Instrument Room" threads a bit and everyone is either asking for what Johnny is using as far as guitars, effects and his setup, but I need something more detailed.

 

Does anyone have the effects setups, meaning do you know how much gain, delay, reverb etc. he uses?

 

 

I'm particularly interested in the Viva La Vida era - Chinese Sleep Chant distortion, Violet Hill, the Death and all his Friends solo and the Lovers in Japan intro (the "lush chorus" as I believe Johnny put it himself)

 

 

If anyone could help with this, I would greatly appreciate it!

[Solidusgear]

same here

[Zergio107]

Well I'm not an expert on guitar effects but I found this page with the effects that Jonny uses, maybe somebody that knows about effects can use this to help you:

http://www.guitar-rigs.com/artists/b/buckland-jonny.html

[TyM218]

He uses the Boss RV-5 Reverb pedal's "modulation" setting for songs like lovers in japan and death and all his friends.

[Technicolor Liver]

What about "A Spell A Rebel Yell"???

[HandyAndy136]

Just been reading Roadie: My Life on the Road with Coldplay. In it, Matt McGinn (Jonny's guitar tech) lists Jonny's guitars and setup:

 

'6 x Vintage Fender '72 Thinline Telecasters (tuned in all sort of ways from normal, standard tuning right through to a crazy-ass one for '42' that has each string tuned to a different F). All Jon's electric guitars have names ending in 'y' - Blacky, Sunny, Browny, etc.

2 x Vintage Fender Jazzmasters - Jazzy A and B (tarted up, normally tuned)

2 x Vintage Gibson Les Paul Deluxes (like Thin Lizzy, but decorated and tuned way down low a la Rammstein)

2 x Gibson SJ200 Acoustics (named, helpfully, McGoo and NuMcGoo)

1 x Fender Hot Rod 2x12 DeVille amplifier (and two spares)

1 x Marshall 100w Plexi and spare

1 x Marshall 1960BX cabinet and spare

Note: Amps don't have names. It'd be silly.

A few yards of emergency guitar lead, logic information cable and two signal 'looms'...

 

...there's one 4-foot by 2-foot custom-built pedal board comprising:

1 x flashing mute switch (cuts all sound except echo trails - handy for onstage tuning or guitar changes between songs)

1 x channel switch for less or more amp volume and distortion, which Jonny never uses (a bit like the turbo on a fast, sexy car that's stuck in the garage)

1 x Line 6 DL4 delay (echoey)

1 x Boss DD5 delay (echoey and backwards)

1 x Boss RV3 reverb/delay (echoey like in a small wet cave)

1 x cheap Guyatone Chorus (makes it go all Pink Floyd/Doctor Who-ey)

1 x Vintage Rat (evil, mucky distortion like Black Sabbath)

1 x Tube Screamer (sort of 80s rock overdrive)

1 x Power Screamer (new wave thrasy version of above... see intro of Politik, etc.

1 x Boss TU2 Digital Tuner (for tuning!)

Volume Pedal and two Expression Pedals, for causing swell and messing with outboard effects during songs.

Lots of weapons-grade, high-performance foot-buttons for switching all of the above stuff in and out (these are, according to Mike Hill - who built the rig for us - guaranteed up to a million stomps. Right.)

 

Linked to all this, off to Jonny's side in my under-stage guitar world, is a large, crazy rack like a roadie one-armed bandit full up with tons of sounds processing, routing and switching kit like that, allegedly, I'm in total control of. For the anoraks still reading, it contains:

Signal Distro and Switching Units, for sending everything to the right places' (haaah, Everything in its Right Place :D ) 'and selecting a source (eg radio guitar pack or cable)

2 x Shure Dual Radio Receivers (main and spare - you can't get The Archers on either of these, I've tried it)

1 x global level controller, so you can up the overall volume level if one guitar's a bit shyer than the rest

2 x TC2290 delay units - great for pure, perfect-sounding echoes... kind of a fjord-y vibe that's super clean and Danish

2 x Line 6 Echo Pro units - more handy for fucked-up, screwy delays that hopefully don't exit anywhere in reality and might do your head in.

2 x Eventide H7600 - an insanely overcapable piece of high-end silliness that probably contains the secret answer to the Music of the Spheres. Eno - who else? - showed us how you could get some incredible, other-worldly noises out of this device but it (and its user manual) are way too aloff so I've stuck it near the bottom of the rack, just to teach it some humility.

A full set of illuminated control buttons, just for me, so I can help Jonny out if he's too busy showing off to get to the onstage pedal board himself.

1 x Midi Controller - Basically, it's just this thing with switches on it that's really useful! Google 'MIDI' (Musically Instrument Digital Interface) if you're that arsed, but I'm not. It's basically a time saving way of getting song and effect changes happening fast, really. Mysterious, amazing and very clever but ultimately not much of a page-turner...

 

...there's now a proper spare rig now too - basically a smaller version of the above that's always plugged in, mic'd up and ready to go - along with other vital little bits of kit like pletrums/picks, capos (pitch changing metal devices for guitar necks), e-bows (whizzy plastic hand-held tools that make the instrument go EEEEOOOO like on Rio by Duran Duran), and slides (glass or metal tubes that, if worn on the finger, turn the user into a blues man/strangled tabby.'

 

Hopefully this helps :)