Pantera – Cowboys from Hell

In an interview from this article by HP Newquist, originally published in GUITAR Magazine (September 1995):

What about effects?

Diambag Darrell: Honestly, I go straight through my stack with just a couple of rack things. Live I just have my soundman out front. He does my delays – his choice of the delays, I don’t’ care, just put the fucking echo on there when it’s needed. We do have the delays all time out. He also does some Harmonizer stuff to double the runs on some of the songs off of Cowboys From Hell so that it sounds like we have two guitars playing. Through my rack I have an MXR flanger/doubler. It’s not really an effect because it’s on all the time, and my tech and I work tight on that sound."

Visible in this photo of Darrell's rack gear. It is also mentioned in this 1992 interview at 21:27 and this June 1996 Guitar World interview.

Interview with Pete Brown, 1992

[Brown] What kind of Randalls are they?

[Darrell] They're Randall RG100HTs. They're rack mount. I think HT means "rack mount", I don't know.

[Brown] You got a pedal board?

[Darrell] I don't I have them in a rack and the only thing else I use is a Furman PQ-4 parametric equalizer. I just use that, I don't really use it for much more than just cuttin' out some frequencies that I don't want and boostin' a couple that I do want. And the main thing is another vital, detrimental thing to my tone, is a little blue MXR Six Band EQ, nine volt battery and that's it. I use a-

[Brown] A whammy pedal?

[Darrell] I don't even include that, because I come out and I fuckin' just use that thing to get super ridiculous squeals. I just got it, I don't even know how to use it good yet.

Guitar World, June 1996, posted online on January 22, 2013 as "From the Archive: Dimebag Darrell Discusses Pantera's 1996 Album, 'The Great Southern Trendkill'"

You've got a killer, brittle rhythm tone on this album. Have you changed your basic setup at all since the last record?

Kinda. I ended up using the old, carpeted Randall RG-100 head I recorded Cowboys From Hell with.

What happened to the Randall Century 200's you've been playing through for the longest time?

When we were jamming around and doing the demos I didn't bother to hook up my normal rig; I just wanted something that would do the job. So, we dragged in a bunch of my old shit and set it up. In addition to my RG-100 stack, I used an old Furman PQ-3 parametric EQ, which has a different gain structure from the PQ-4's I've got in my main rack, my blue MXR 6-band graphic EQ and a cheap little Boss Noise Gate. Then, when we did the demos, I was liking the way everything was sounding so I thought, "Don't fuck with it, there it is!"

In the official live video for "Primal Concrete Sledge," Dimebag Darrell is seen playing the Dean Dimebag Concrete Sledge ML with a reversed headstock.

In the official music video for "Psycho Holiday" by Pantera, Dimebag Darrell is seen playing the Dean ML with a reverse headstock. This guitar later gained fame as the "Primal Concrete Sledge" guitar.

When Dean designed the Dimebag Darrell DimeTime humbucker pickup, they spent countless hours with Dime's original Dean guitars used to record "Cowboys From Hell." They also huddled with Grady Champion, Dime's long-time guitar tech, to analyze the master's tones. The result is an electric guitar pickup that will change your sound forever.

This bass was played on the first two PANTERA albums and on the first two tours, exclusively.Rex received it as a Jackson endorser early on in his career and it was the main bass during the meteoric, early days of PANTERA. This bass is documented in the videos 'Cowboys From Hell', 'Domination' (live), 'Psycho Holiday' and the 'Art of Shredding', all on YouTube

In this video at 13:34 is is said that Brown used two Randall RBA-500 ES Amp Heads, he wound run each of these Heads through one 4x10 Cabinet and most likely one 1x15 cabinet.

This setup was used until the relese of "Cowboys From Hell" in 1990.

In this video at 13:49 Brown says around 1990 he used two Ampeg SVT-Pro Amp Heads run through 8x10 Cabinets, the number of these 8x10s went up or down depending on the size of the venue they played which was around 2-6 cabinets.

This setup can be seen in the video for "Cowboys From Hell".

RATE: 9 SPEED/DEPTH 2 In this video by Scott's Bass Lessons Rex is Quoted Saying '' I used to use the chorus alot on those first two records because it just added a little depth that made the bass stick out'' He says this at 13:50

Vinnie Paul used Sabian 20 AA Metal X China In the photo I attached you can see that Vinnie Paul used Sabian 20 AA Metal X China and others symbols, This drum cymbal was present for a time Cowboys from hell until the end of his career

I'm brutal. Nobody plays as hard as me. I use the back ends of my sticks, I wear gloves... I'm into power. The harder I hit 'em, the louder they get, the better I feel. A cymbal needs strength and power to handle my playing. And that's what I get with my SABIANS... great sound, durability and power. "Vinnie Paul"