Billy Sheehan

"The Pearce Pre-amp is just a supremely great distortion and clean. The clean is always on. The distortion comes on when necessary," Billy Sheehan says, at 4:40 in this Premier Guitar rig rundown.

Billy Sheehan of The Winery Dogs and Mr. Big fame had this Yamaha Attitude Double Neck made for his 2001 tour with Steve Vai and later brought it back to the stage for his 2009 Budokan tour anb on the Mr. Big "Hey Man" tour.

Quote:

"It's upper neck is tuned B E A D like the Ultra Bass and was the original trial version of that tuning on a standard neck for me. The second or lower neck is tuned standard (EADG). It has a toggle switch to choose either or both necks. Since my basses have 2 outputs, I need 2 wireless units to transmit my signal in a live performance. Adding that onto this already extra heavy bass made it weigh about 20 pounds! It still was well balanced, played easily, and sounded great live." - Billy Sheehan

"These are wonderful...They sound great," Billy Sheehan says, about his MXR M87, at 5:55 in this rig rundown video.

At 4:45 in this rig rundown video, Billy Sheehan says, "I use an Ashley Audio Compression on the clean channel of the Pearce and also on the low end amp."

My Helix preset for the upcoming Sons of Apollo tour

"Basic Rotosound strings, but the G string is a 43 instead of a 45, a little bit lighter, a little bit easier bend. And the E string is a 1.10 instead of a 1.05," Billy Sheehan explains, at 2:15 in this rig rundown, about his his signature Rotosound strings.

One of the very few basses that Winery Dogs and Mr. Big's bass guitarist has been seen playing that wasn't a Yamaha, this Fender Precision was purchased in the early 70's by Billy Sheehan. Nicknamed "The Wife", this bass was heavily modified with washers to hold the input jack in place, a mudbucker installed in the neck position, poorly scalloped frets by Sheehan using a dremel, and to quote Sheehan himself, "...actually salty from soaking in my brine sweat!"

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This photo shows Billy Sheehan, known for his playing in Mr. Big and Winery Dogs, showing off his VOX Custom Bass which was given to Billy by the members of UFO on the 1983 European tour. Billy also used this bass on some promotional shows for the tour.

"I haven't had a bit of a problem with it anywhere. It's been awesome," Billy Sheehan says about his Line 6 wireless system, at 2:50 in this rig rundown video.

"I'm using an LH1000 for the low end. Another LH1000 for the pedals," says Billy Sheehan, at 3:30 in this Premier Guitar rig rundown.

Billy Sheehan of Winery Dogs and Mr. Big has used Yamaha basses for the majority of his career. Before the collaboration of Sheehan and Yamaha to build the "Attitude" series of basses, he played on a number of Yamaha BB Bass Guitars including a pink/purple one used for his tour with David Lee Roth and his signature series BB, the Yamaha BB714BS Bass.

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"I use the HA5500 for my high end," says Billy Sheehan, at 4:35 in this Premier Guitar rig rundown.

Billy Sheehan, known for his playing in Mr. Big and Winery Dogs, is featured in this photo playing his rare Taylor AB-3 Acoustic Electric Bass Guitar. Billy is pictured here with his Taylor AB-3 Acoustic Electric Bass.

The AB-3 has a maple back & sides with a spruce top. Billy used this bass on the track “Bombay Doors” from “Wood & Steel”, a Taylor Guitars compilation CD. This photo was taken as a set of photos to accompany the bass and a note from Billy himself when he auctioned it off.

In his own website Billy Sheehan published the photo with his SVT-4 PRO. I Have personally see him using that during a concert of Mr Big in 2011 @ Alcatraz in Milan. One of presets of Line6 Helix Is named "Sheehan SVT-4 PRO"

"This is my main bass that I've used on practically every recording and live show for Mr. Big, Niacin, the Talas reunion much much more. It has the Simm's blue LED fret markers installed, and is wired (by myself) slightly different, but other than that, it's a production model NOT a custom shop model. I made a deal with Yamaha that my signature series basses would be the same for the regular customers as the one I played. Many companies give their artist's "special versions" of an instrument, and the ones for sale in the shops are of lesser quality. Yamaha did a spectacular job of maintaining the highest quality instruments for the consumer and myself. I'm proud to endorse the Yamaha basses and happy to be associated with such a wonderful company." - Billy Sheehan.

"There's a definition of tonality I hear in my head with each note that I play and I associate that Sonically with Hartke," Billy Sheehan is quoted saying, on Hartke's website, which says that Sheehan uses AK 410 Cabinets.

According to Sheehan's artist page on the Dunlop website, he's using a Pork Loin.

In the video titled "Steve Vai 'K'm-Pee-Du-Wee' Full Video" by Everybody-Loves-Gav on YouTube, Billy Sheehan can be seen using a Roland Micro Cube mini guitar amplifier.

In this video at 7:44, Sheehan pulls out a white Telecaster Bass and states:

"So moving up a little bit, take note this is a '68 Telecaster Bass, and I bring this out just to show that the necks on these are just massive, like a Baseball Bat, they're kinda famous for being this big giant thing."

"Now if some of you follow me on some social media, a couple weeks ago I put a set of Steve Harris from Iron Maiden's Flatwound strings on here."

[...]

So there's not a lot of bright shrill to them.

"But I though they'd be a good thing on this old school Bass to put some Flatwound strings on it and just to have an original version of this tele bass. Its been painted, I dont think this is the original pickguard either, and the thumbrest certinly doesn't go here, but I'm not changing anything untill I take it somewhere where they tell me either 'Make the change or leave it alone' 'cuz I've seen too many antique shows where somebody decides to paint some old thing, 'Would've been worth a millon dollars, now we'll give you a hundred bucks for it' so."

"But this neck is just glorious, it's a massive, huge thing, a lot of people will get worried about 'Well my hands aren't really big, so I gotta play a small neck' that's not true, you never have to do that, you never have to wrap around. Basicly if I have a strech I bring my arm around, and you can make all kinds of moves like that, but in your carrer if you have to do that even once ever thats alot, most of the time... this is what all of us are doing"

At 3:20 in this Premier Guitar rig rundown,one can see an EBS OctaBass next to Billy Sheehan's Roland SonicCell.

This photo shows Billy Sheehan, known for his playing in Mr. Big and Winery Dogs, showing off his ESP Fretless J/P Bass Guitar. Billy’s ESP Fretless Bass was used on David Lee Roth’s album “Skyscraper” on the song “Damn Good”.

Billy Sheehan ?@BillyonBass May 27 Using the new Keeley compressors for my amp tones---fantasticoI!!

For The Winery Dogs' 2015 tour, Sheehan is using an SX21 to roll off low-end frequencies and give his sound more clarity and punch.

This is an old, all original collectors item that Yamaha got me for my birthday several years ago, when they found out I was looking for one. It's one of my most valued instruments.

I purchased this all original collectors item from the 60's in London several years ago. It's almost the same model used by Stuart Sutcliff in the early Beatles (different pick-ups). You can see it in The Beatles Anthology Book on page 42. According to the book, Paul McCartney used Stuart's bass until he bought the now more famous violin shaped Hofner bass. This bass is all original except for the pickguard -even the strings are original! It sounds very much like the violin shaped Hofner and plays great.

Billy is talking about the BAE 1073 Mic pre in this video. It starts at around 0:28. He also mentions the BAE 10DC compressor.

In this May 2002 issue of Vintage Guitar, Sheehan speaks of his Siganture Snarling Dogs Bass Strings:

VG: How are your basses set up?

BS: I use Snarling Dogs strings. I’d worked with Charlie Stringer to develop a line of strings that would duplicate the feel of the Rotosound strings I used for years, but would be more consistent in quality and tone. I use .043, .055, .085, .115, which is the Hell-Billys set. There are also Really-Billys, which are lighter, and Barely-Billys, which are the lightest.

Billy is seen playing a Yamaha Attitude Limited 3 live.

At 3:15, in this Premier Guitar rig rundown, Billy Sheehan mentions the Roland SonicCell that he uses during live performances.

"The Decimator, great noise reduction. Really excellent stuff. It's colorless and works wonderfully," Billy Sheehan says, at 5:04 in this rig rundown video, pointing out his Decimator ProRack G Noise Reduction System.