Francis Rossi

Rossi used to use the Vox AC30 as his main amp, he still uses them but through a mic'd signal from the back of the stage. "In the old days these were loud enough to be the main stage amps but now the mic'd signal is sent out front to give the sound that extra fatness" - Official Quo website.

For effects, Francis uses a Roland GP8 which boosts the signal to the amplifier, has five different overdrive patches and one patch which is a very tight straight double effect with some echo.

"I acquired it sometime in the late 60s" - Francis Rossi.

'' Hardcore Quo fans will also have noticed a recent guitar change on stage, as Rossi explains: “I suddenly started to get serious tuning problems with the green Tele. Rick plays a lot of route and fifths and I put a lot of thirds into the chords, which can sound really sour if it’s not bang in tune. It’s back at Fender with Mark Preston, their custom guy. “John (Rhino) Edwards has always been happy with his Status Graphite basses, made by Rob Green, and said why not ask him to make me a guitar? Then the old-school thing kicked in and I was being told by some folk, ‘no, it should be wood instead of graphite’. I had one made in a Tele shape with a grey finish, but I couldn’t take to it. Then he came to rehearsals with another finished in green.

“I started talking through my teeth, saying, ‘I don’t need another guitar, let alone a green one’. I plugged it in and went, ‘oh’, and I’ve been playing that ever since. He makes lovely guitars. I call them donkey’s knob guitars, if you know what I mean, I can’t talk highly enough about them. It feels a bit odd sometimes when I look down and it’s not my original green Tele, which I’ve been playing since I was 19.” '

On the official Quo website it states that Rossi uses a Marshall JCM 800.

Between the output of the amp and the speakers are Palmer speaker simulators.

On the Official Quo website it states that along with the JCM 800 Lead series, Rossi also uses a JCM 900.

I started with a Gibson and Rick had an ES-335. “I swapped my Gibson Stereo 345 for a Les Paul copy with a guy from Badfinger. Within a few months the bridge collapsed into the body, so someone sent me two Telecasters to try,

In the video of Pictures Of Matchstick Men plays Francis Rossi A Grimshaw Gs30 Black and Green Les Paul Copy. '' I was doing things with Pete Ham from Badfinger, and he had this black-and-green Grimshaw, which was kind of a Les Paul copy. I loved it, and swapped my cheap guitar in return for his, but then the bridge collapsed and it was no good. I was in Scotland, and at that time you couldn’t get guitars repaired ''

Francis Rossi's primary guitar is a modified Fender Telecaster, prominently seen in the attached user-uploaded photo.

In 1970, the guitar underwent several changes: it was refinished from its original color to black, then to green, and a hole was drilled into the body. Rossi modified the original ashtray bridge by installing a Tune-o-Matic bridge. In the 1990s, he further customized it by replacing the pickups with Lace Sensors, adding a third pickup, swapping the Tune-o-Matic for a G&L bridge, and adding an extra fret. Around 2000, the neck pickup was changed to a Seymour Duncan Hot Rail. In 2013, Rossi reverted to a Tune-o-Matic bridge and tailpiece configuration.

This Green Telecaster Probably started as a sunburst nashville Telecaster and was later painted green to match the main green tele. this guitar is in open g tuining with a capo on 4 for the live performance of Down Down

francis rossi plays a ovation viper during the live performace of dirty water

In this photo, Francis Rossi is playing a 1979 Kramer DMZ 2000 Electric Guitar in Natural finish, likely during a promotional shoot for Kramer.

In the user-uploaded photo, Francis Rossi is seen playing a 1974 Mocha Brown Fender Stratocaster. Initially used as a backup, this guitar was modified with an additional Telecaster pickup. It was tuned to open G for the studio recording of "Down Down." Around 1977/78, this Stratocaster was replaced by a replica of a green Telecaster.

here you see francis played down down on a thinline, this concert was for the marathon ' rock till you drop ' when they played 4 concert in 1 day

In this user-uploaded photo, Francis Rossi is seen playing a Status Graphite Slipstream equipped with Lace Sensor pickups. This guitar is notably used for "Whatever You Want" in drop D tuning and appears in the movie "Bula Quo!"

"From 2015 Francis has been using a green custom-built 'Status' Graphite guitar, which is a Telecaster shape carved from a slab of ash with a graphite neck, stop tailpiece and loaded with three Hot Rails pickups. "

"For effects, Francis uses an Ibanez TS808 tube screamer and a Mike Hill MHS-808 both of which boost the signal to the amplifier."