K. K. Downing

At the start of the video, KK opens by talking about his Flying V that he used on various albums such as Sad Wings Of Destiny and Sin After Sin. At 0:30, he directly says that it's a 1964 Flying V that he bought at a second-hand shop at Birmingham. It's very easy to find videos and photos of him using it as it's one of his main guitars.

In this video, we can see Downing with his signature Mini V Guitar in.

This guitar has a Red Finish with two rows of metal studs on the top and bottom of the body, a Shadow Neck Humbucker and an EMG Bridge Humbucker, two selectors and one Fender control Pot, a Kahler Tremolo, and a Scalloped Rosewood Fretboard with Trapezoid Inlays (as can be seen at 1:02).

This guitar is one of four Mini V's Hamer made specially for Downing. Downing considers this an important guitar in his career and it was played extensively during the "Turbo", "Ram It Down" and "Painkiller" tours and onward.

It was customised by Downing whilst on tour in the U.S., he said that he didn't think it was quite "Metal" enough, so went to a Hardware Store and bought a quantity of Upholsterer's Studs which he then proceded to hammer into the guitar's body to create its now-famous look.

Unfourtunatly, Hamer refused to mass produce these Guitars for the public, as the only ones in existance are in Downing's possesion, however these Guitars have been subject to many replicas over the years and there are many videos on how to make one.

KxK Guitars, established in 1997, is a guitar company whose specialty lies mainly in custom guitars for heavy metal artists. All their instruments are made in the United States and are handcrafted. The company will start doing a new KK Downing signature series.

At 1:15 in this video, you can see 2 Rocktron Piranha preamps in K. K.'s amp rack.

K. K. Downing used a Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitar during the early 1980s, as evidenced by a user-uploaded photo on Guitarplayer.

According to Guitar Geek's 2004 rig diagram, Downing used four Marshall 1960BV cabinets.

In a 1979 photo from Rocksceneauctions, K. K. Downing is seen playing a Fender Stratocaster with a reversed headstock.

According to the Guitar Geek's 2004 rig diagram, Downing uses the Whirlwind A/B Box.

K. K. Downing played a Gibson SG Standard during his early years, as depicted in the provided image.

Both K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton use Marshall JCM800 1959 Mk II Super Lead amp heads. K.K.Downing can be seen playing though them at 1:18, 1:23, and 1:28. The 4-inputs are an easy giveaway that the amp in the video is a Marshall JCM800 1959 Mk II Super Lead and not a JCM800 2203.

According to Guitar Geek's 2004 rig diagram, Downing uses the Rocktron Midi Mate as a controller.

K.K. Downing of Judas Priest auctioned his 1978 Marshall JMP 50 Watt Head, as listed by Bonhams.

Oct 16, 2008

What gear did you use for the regular guitar sounds? Tipton: I used my Hamer GT Phantom— my favorite guitar—for a lot of the rhythm and lead tracks. It has EMG 81 pickups, wired at 18 volts, and an SG-type neck that’s slightly slimmer and not as round as a Stratocaster’s. I’ve got another GT Phantom with Seymour Duncan Livewire Metal LW-HMET pickups, too. I also used a guitar with a modified Hamer shape that was built by a guy named John Diggins. It has a more bassy sound. I like simple guitars, and I don’t like tone controls. The GT Phantom only has a 2-way switch, and I can get all the tones I want from that or the EQ on my rack. I also used a ’61 Fender Stratocaster on a couple of things for a cleaner sound. We plugged into a DigiTech GNX3 and a DigiTech GSP1101 preamp, but we also used other old preamps such as the Piranha, a ’76 Marshall JMP 50-watt head through a ’76 Marshall 4x12 loaded with Celestion greenbacks, a Marshall MG15DFX combo, and even little practice amps. There’s still nothing like the crisp edge of a miked-up sound. We used Shure SM57s and some ribbon mics and experimented with positioning two orthree mics at a time.

(For those who do not know, Glenn Tipton is the band leader of Judas Priest, this exerpt is from an interview with Tipton and Downing present)

According to Guitar Geek's 2004 rig diagram, Downing used EMG 81 pickups on his Flying V's.

According to Guitar Geek's 2004 rig diagram, Downing uses the Dunlop 535Q wah pedal.

Used for live performances, accouring to K.K.'s website.

As seen at 16:38s in KK Downing's "Toys In The Attic" YouTube video.

Seen at 1:57s in Judas Priest's "Love Bites" music video.

As seen in K.K.'s rack (on the bottom right side) from his website.

Here is K.K. Downing of Judas Priest holding his Gibson Medallion Flying V

K, K. Downing Official Website, Studio gear: Line 6 POD XT Pro.

As seen at 13:53s in KK Downing's "Toys In The Attic" YouTube video.

In this photo, Downing can be seen playing a Black Babicz Spider Acoustic Guitar.

On March 18, 2020, this Guitar was put up for auction, the Guitar's estimated value was $2,000-$4,000 and sold for a winning bid of $2,560.

The items description read:

A Babicz Identity Series Spider acoustic guitar owned and stage played by Judas Priest’s K.K. Downing. The guitar has a black gloss finish body with satin black finish top. Serial number 0582505. Accompanied by a signed certificate of authenticity from Downing and the original Babicz hardshell case. An online link to an image of Downing playing the guitar is available upon request.

A link to this auction can be found here

Downing had put two of these up for auction, one on December 17, 2019 and another on October 13, 2020.

According to Guitar Geek's 2004 rig diagram, Downing uses the Rocktron Replifex.

K, K. Downing Official Website, Live gear: Marshall 9600 Power Amps.

As seen in K.K.'s rack from his website.

As seen in K.K.'s rack (on the bottom left side) from his website.

In this image, Downing can be seen performing live with his custom scallop necked Flying V. In a March 7, 2019 interview with full in bloom, Downing states that he's been using scalloped neck guitars since roughly 1984:

full in bloom: "Were you shocked when the ’67 Gibson Flying V sold for almost $200,000?"

K.K.: "Yeah (laughs). I was expecting, to be honest, about half that."

full in bloom: "I think on the (auction) site they estimated it to be around 10 to 20 thousand dollars."

K.K.: "Yeah, I think that’s probably just to get a massive audience. I don’t know how it works, myself. Obviously that was a 1967 Flying V and Gibson only made 111 of those guitars, and those guitars were put in some pretty famous hands, to be fair. I don’t know everyone that had one…I know Dave Davies from The Kinks had one. I know Jimi Hendrix had one. I know that Andy Powell from Wishbone Ash had one, still plays that guitar, he does. I know that Marc Bolan had one. I know that Keith (Richards) from the Rolling Stones had one. I do know where a lot more went, but there wasn’t that many to go around. Obviously I got my hands on one. Obviously the Schenkers had a couple. So they were bound to have been worth more than 20….I was offered $25,000 more than 20 years ago, cash there and then by a guy that went to a concert. That guitar was used on a lot of stuff, a lot of concerts. It was my flagship guitar, for sure. But I retired that guitar a long time ago because it was getting too valuable. So I’d never take it out on the road, and now I’m using scalloped frets and all of that sort of stuff. So, nice to pick up now and then but really there’s not a great value in that. I’ve still got some very, very nice and some very valuable guitars."

full in bloom: "You use the scalloped neck now, huh?"

K.K.: "I’ve been using the scalloped frets now since about 1984."

full in bloom: "Oh crap, I didn’t know that. (laughs)"

K.K.: "Yeah, yeah. Every guitar I’ve had since then has got scalloped frets."

full in bloom: "What would you say is the benefit of that? I have played on them before but it almost seems like it’s harder or something."

K.K.: "Yeah, but if you’re a little guy like me, not very strong hands and all that, then scalloped frets can really help. I use light gauge strings but it still takes a bit of pushing, here and there, really. Especially if you want to get those tone and half bends in. In particular, the main reason, especially when you still have got soft skin…I used to get calluses on my fingertips but I don’t really get calluses anymore because you’re using light gauge strings and scalloped frets. I find I can make those bends a lot easier, because, the thing is, you get fingertip friction and that’s why a lot of guys went to jumbo frets, you know, to get less finger friction. There’s not that much friction with the finger and the fretboard, so that does help. You can get your finger more sideways on the string when you’re bending, when you push it, as opposed to having to push down and then laterally. So, it’s just one of those things. Once I tried it, I just liked it and never went back. Way back we’d still play hot and sweaty clubs and so doing those bends just became a lot easier with scalloped frets, really….a bit more reassuring."

[...]

-full in bloom

This diagram shows Downing uses a custom set of Ernie Ball strings. His gauges for E flat are .008, .010, .014, .020, .030 and .040. I also remember reading that his gauges for standard were .007, .009, .012, .018, .028, and .036.