Adrian Belew

Adrian uses a Johnson JM150, according to Guitar Geek.

Adrian Belew uses a Line 6 Vette II combo amp, as shown in Guitar Geek's rig diagram.

As shown in Guitar Geek's rig diagram, Adrian uses a Line 6 2x12 Extension Cabinet.

Adrian uses a Bose L1 Compact System, according to this Guitar Geek rig diagram.

Adrian Belew shows his Signature DigiTech e-pedal, The Impossible Pedal, in this video. The iStomp can be seen at 0:24.

"Radial makes products no one else has thought to make and builds them better than anyone else can." - he was featured on Radial's website, as well as JDI and JDV products assigned to his name.

Used from King Crimson onwards, as known from the following sources:

Guitar World, March 1982 (pictured)

Guitar Player, June 1986, "Interview with Robert Fripp" by Tom Mullen

I suppose a good example of how Adrian Belew and I used the Roland GR-300 with King Crimson is "The Sheltering Sky." Although it’s available on the Discipline album, it was infinitely better live. When we were in Japan, Roland met with Adrian and told him that we were using their guitar synthesizers in a way that they had never anticipated. I think they expected, if you like, beginner guitarists or less proficient guitarists to play fairly simple things that sounded relatively amazing. Whereas we took them really as new instruments and tried coming up with something that was quite novel.

Roland US, "Adrian Belew: Taking Guitar Tone to the VG-99th Power" by Tiffany Schirz (July 22, 2008)

As one of the first guitarists to embrace guitar synthesis in the early ’80s with Roland’s GR-300, Adrian Belew has taken guitar tone to the moon and back.

Facebook, Adrian Belew, November 21, 2021 & adrianbelew.net, Discography, "the experimental guitar series volume 1: guitar as orchestra"

trivia points for Guitar As Orchestra:

•having released 4 pop-ish records in a row I was due to make a 180 degree turn. by this time I had worked extensively with 3 different guitar synth models (Roland gr-700, gr-50, and gr-1) and written a library of several hundred sounds. they weren’t samples, they were programs created by long late night experimentation. I felt it was time for someone to build an orchestra using only guitar.

•you can’t imagine the first-time thrill of playing my guitar and having it sound like a piano. a whole new universe appeared!

•having listened to this record for the first time in many years I was surprised at how ahead of its time it truly was. some of the better pieces would still make good film score material today. IMHO

•there really isn’t much in the way of trivia points since the whole record, be it tympani, harp, piano, or bassoon is guitar synthesizer. even the “audience applause” at the beginning was made with a guitar synth. so instead I will reprint here some of the liner notes from the record:

Facebook, Adrian Belew, April 3, 2024 & X, @THEadrianbelew, April 3, 2024

and BEAT begins. the photo, taken in my studio this morning, reunites three of the original tools from my sonic palette of the 80's Crimson: the first Twang Bar King guitar, the Roland GR-300 guitar synth, and the Roland Jazz Chorus JC-120 amp. ❤️

Guitar World, "“David Bowie and Brian Eno used to laugh at me, saying: ‘You’re not supposed to be able to play that!’” Adrian Belew on Frank Zappa’s lessons, Robert Fripp’s synth guitar, and what’s coming up with Steve Vai" by Andrew Daly (May 14, 2024)

How did you take the rig you used with Bowie and push it forward with King Crimson?

“The main thing that changed from that first period from David to Talking Heads to King Crimson was that I went to Japan. I met the people at Roland and they said, ‘We have a new thing – a guitar synthesizer.’ I’d been dying to have something akin to what keyboard players could do for 10 years, and they gave me one.”

You were one of the earliest adopters of the guitar synth, right?

“I’m not certain but I’m pretty sure I had the first one in New York, as they weren’t available there yet. When I joined King Crimson, Robert had a Roland JC-120 and also the synthesizer; it was actually the second one they made, but it was the first one that anyone ever used.

“The first one has been a bit too much – it was like a big Farfisa organ. The second one is the blue one, the GR-300. So much of the King Crimson sound of the ‘80s came from that one device.

“It was a simple instrument: you could only do maybe five or six things with it, and you had to manually tune all the different oscillators. You couldn’t save a sound! It was the era before things got much more digitized.”

You’re primarily known as a Strat guy, so the guitar synth must have been a shock to the system.

“Even if you just put it with the guitar, you had a very unusual sound. The guitar didn’t sound like a normal guitar and that really changed things. So the next thing I did in that period was my first solo record, Lone Rhino, using all the things I had coming from David, Talking Heads and King Crimson.”

What was that setup like?

“The Strat and maybe four, five or six little pedals. But for Twang Bar King, the second solo record, I started using the guitar synth. I had Fender build me a Mustang with all the accoutrements from the guitar synthesizer.

“You had all kinds of things you could operate from the guitar, and you had to have a special pickup. Once that got designed, I started using what became known as the ‘Twang Bar King guitar’ because I made that record with it. I used that in King Crimson from there on.”

Facebook, Adrian Belew, June 23, 2024, reply to a comment on the April, 3 2024 post

Benjamin Lowengard is there a way to play an mg-510 through a gr-300

"the components inside the rack are: an Axe-Fx Ultra, a Boss GP-10, a Moto UltraLite MK-3, a Shure in-ear transmitter, and a Keeley compressor"

Adrian Belew has been using the Gurus Echosex 2º Limited Edition since 2015, as mentioned on his Facebook page.

Acquired through his manager, as mentioned by Juan Alderete in this March 20, 2019 Instagram post.

The doctor @lasynthco to the rescue on this one of maybe 50 made @ehx rack synths. I used one on Cryptonesia and wished I owned it but @infrasonicsound wouldn’t sell me it. I know @jamiestillman has one because @realkidkoala found one in Seattle and told me to buy it but my funds were tied up in another gear purchase at the time. Distortion Felix Manny introduced me to them back in the early 90’s because he sold one to @davidbowie manager for @theadrianbelew and then he had another that he sold to @u2 for The Edge. #pedalsandeffects #ehxfacts

Visible in Stompbox: 100 Pedals of the World's Greatest Guitarists, as can be seen in the quick browse video at 0:08.

Visible in Stompbox: 100 Pedals of the World's Greatest Guitarists, as can be seen in the quick browse video at 0:08.

Visible as a label on Belew's effects rack in Adrian Belew: Electronic Guitar (1984) at 2:08.

Visible as the label "FREQ. ANL." on Belew's effects rack in Adrian Belew: Electronic Guitar at 2:36, with an explicit mention at 2:23. It was also used on Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral, as mentioned in this April 1993 Guitar Player interview.

Adrian Belew: Electronic Guitar (1984)

I have several guitar synthesizers, a harmonizer and frequency analyzer, which is a sort of ring modulator...

Guitar Player, April 1993, "Adrian Belew & Trent Reznor: Nine Inch Nails Meets The Lone Rhino"

For his self-described "rambling" solos, Belew dusted off several vintage effects. "I used some sounds that I don't normally put on records for anybody else," he notes. "I also ended up climbing around in the back of my rack and connecting things together in ways I'd never done before. The two things they liked the most were the Foxxtone - an old '60s fuzz box - and an Electro-Harmonix Frequency Analyzer, an old version of a ring modulator. One of them suggested, What if you put those sounds together? So I did for the first time, and we got some really nice things."

Visible as a label on Belew's effects rack in Adrian Belew: Electronic Guitar (1984) at 2:36.

According to Guitar Geek's rig diagram, Adrian uses RMC Poly-Drive 1 Preamps in his guitars.

Adrian uses Line 6 Variax power supplies, according to this Guitar Geek rig diagram.

A Pigtronix Disnortion pedal can be seen on Adrian's Guitar Geek rig diagram.

On Adrian's Guitar Geek rig diagram, a Digitech Whammy 4 can be seen.

Adrian Belew utilizes a Roland FC-300 MIDI Foot Controller, as shown in his 2010 rig diagram on Guitargeek.

According to this Guitar Geek rig diagram, Adrian uses four Bose B1 Subwoofers.

Adrian uses Sustainiac neck pickups, according to Guitar Geek's rig diagram.

Adrian uses a Boss FV-500-L Stereo pedal, according to this Guitar Geek rig diagram.

Anther piece of gear that Adrian uses is this Roland US-20. This diagram outlines all of Adrian's gear.

Adrian Belew says, in this article, "FLUX:FX lets me make sounds that i can't get with any other gear. But most importantly, this app inspires creativity... and is incredibly fun to use!"

"A close-up shot of the Soundblox Pro Multiwave Distortion in Adrian's rack," reads the caption to this photo, in this article.

Adrian Belew uses a Pigtronix Keymaster, according to Pigtrnoix's website.

Adrian Below's Eventide PitchFactor can be seen at 0:30 in this video.

According to this Premier Guitar Rig Rundown at (20:11), "Belew uses a 50-watt Atomic Reactor active wedge to monitor the more straightforward tones from his Fractal Audio Axe-Fx Ultra, while he routes aural “snippets” and other loops from his laptop through a Bose L1 portable loudspeaker system."

Belew uses a Liquid Foot+ 12 MIDI foot controller to send all the data and program changes for his very demanding live show.