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Was Billy dialing in through Fender's on quot;ZZ Top's First Albumquot;?

I haven't done it yet myself, but you should check out Billy's new book. He probably covers some of that stuff in there. My guess is he probably did use Fenders in addition to Marshalls. He's an ampaholic. He apparently has what he calls his quot;Amp Cabinquot; which is full of everything under the sun. Most recently he was using the new Crate VFX52X12, which really kicks a**. Of course, he could play through a transistor radio and sound great

I'm looking through the book right now and he used so many amps that I don't think he eve remembers. To quote the bookquot;ZZ Top got satisfied early with Marshall, a couple of stacks of 100 watt Super Leads. We also experimented with a host of other amps remaining in our collection. Some exotic tube amp builders are wiring by hand, everything from 5 to 500 watts of usable power. Balls, Swanson, DST, Trinity, Texiana, 65, Chopper 18, Mojo, Ruby, Tone Tubby. ZZ's recent tours and telivision appearences have featured Ampeg's Crate V-50 combo....right on! Class A, 2x12, and 50 watts. Smokin' all!quot;
After that, the pictures in the book show shelves loaded with tons of old Fender Tweeds.....he's all about the Fender tone.

This thread might help OR not. Did you see it?

I'm guessing for The first ZZ Top album Billy's amps would be Fender Super Reverb, Bassman, or a Tweed Deluxe. Vibrolux, maybe.

But, prepare yourself for the inevitable...Billy's tone is in his fingers...No one can play/sound like Billy.

I've got the amp that he uses now. I sort of want to trade it for a 3 channel tube head more suited for metal.

I have several interviews with Billy and the only amp he specifically mentions using on the first album is a 1969 Marshall Super Lead...dead stock but that does not mean that is the only amp he used...there are few things that sound very much like a Tweed Deluxe to me...

Does Billy have any signature gear? Endorsments contracts are one thing, a signature guitar or amp would be another wouldn't it?

Would you buy a sig Rev G. amp? You would, you know you would, right?

No signature gear that I know of other than he talks up those Crate's V50's. But do you think that his is really stock?
I don't either.

I think Eliminator is pretty much either small Fenders; or Marshalls.

One of their later albums was done with Tube Works gear, and their MosFet amps. Trust me, you can really hear the difference--and the change was not for the better, IMHO.

Bill

I know he has a huge sound, but I'd heard he was real fond of tweed Champs.

I walked into a store in L A a while back, and there was a beautiful old tweed V front Dual Professional. It had a sign on it that read, quot;Reserved for the Rev G.quot;

It made me wonder how many other stores around the country have had that same sign at one one time.

If you look in his new book you will see several shots of him with 5 or 6 of those V front Super/Dual Pro's and Esquires...he recorded Antenna (1994) all with those V Front Supersand mostly Fender and Custom build Esquires.

Seeing that sign would make me wonder the same thing!

I agree that Billy's sound sounds a lot like a tweed Fender to me.