Bernard Butler

In this interview, Bernard explains how he acquired his 1961 335. "I bought this at Guitar Center in Los Angeles for $4,500, the most I have spent on a guitar. The inspiration of getting a red ES-355 was Johnny Marr, but also Chuck Berry and Roy Orbison. My dad loved Roy Orbison, so big red semis are a childhood memory. From an early age, I thought: that’s an electric guitar.

“But Johnny playing one was one reason. I remember seeing The Smiths on The Tube, 1983, with Johnny playing a red ES-355. It’s odd, as he only played a 355 for about six months, but that was enough for me.

“I’ve just been touring with Ben Watt, and he says he was out shopping with Johnny when he bought his own red 355 that day in the 80s. It was at (Fat Rick’s) Vintage Guitar Emporium. I know Rick, too, and he’s joked, ‘if Johnny ever comes in we can close the doors, that’s business done for the day!’

“This is on a lot of my recordings, from late Suede to McAlmont & Butler, my solo albums, to my producing and playing. On Ben Watt’s album [due spring 2014], it’s all this 355 straight into my Lazy J 20 amp

"This is the guitar I played it ("Animal Nitrate") on. 1980 heritage Les Paul. I really love it," Bernard Butler says, at 1:34 in this video.

"This is my strat. This is a '62 strat with my own custom finish," Bernard Butler says at 0:05 in this video.

He can be seen using his strat in this video

Butler has used a arctic white telecaster with a bigsby on numerous projects post 1995. He can be seen in this promo video for the Mcalmont and Butler single 'Bring It Back' from about 0:27 onwards.

In this photo Bernard can be seen with the Vox guitar

Bernard can be seen with it in this photo.

In this interview, Bernard cites the Lazy J 20 as his favorite amplfier.

“Phil Harris called and said he’d found the best new amp he’d ever heard. The Lazy J had everything, but with its own character. Plus, it has a voltage control which acts as a master. The Normal and Bright channels affect each other’s tone, even when not in use. I asked Jesse (Hoff, Lazy J maker) to fit a spring and tremolo unit to give me my perfect portable amp. It’s my only amp for Trans. The only problem with my Lazy J is how long I’ll have to wait for a backup.”

Bernard Butler on the 2015 McAlmont & Butler tour: https://www.instagram.com/p/-JKAxMOJLn/?taken-by=bernardbutlerofficial

"The Lehle Dual feeds my 1964 Vox AC10 Twin and Lazy J J20. The Vox is cross patched between both the normal and vibrato channels. The Lazy J uses the brilliant channel with the normal dialled in equally but not active. 1964 Grey panel Vox AC10 Twin: brilliant channel (high gain), out of low gain into vib/trem channel high gain. The Lazy J normal channel is active and colours the tone even when it is not plugged in."

In this interview, Bernard describes his amplifiers. “All my AC30s are from the Suede days and they only cost me £200 each."

In this article from Music Radar Bernard says “The AC15 is very good for recording. It’s bassy, really clean – I got that on eBay. I used it on all the Duffy recordings.”

Used by Bernard Butler on the 2015 McAlmont & Butler tour:

"The Lehle Dual feeds my 1964 Vox AC10 Twin and Lazy J J20. The Vox is cross patched between both the normal and vibrato channels. The Lazy J uses the brilliant channel with the normal dialled in equally but not active. 1964 Grey panel Vox AC10 Twin: brilliant channel (high gain), out of low gain into vib/trem channel high gain. The Lazy J normal channel is active and colours the tone even when it is not plugged in."

There was lots of 355, Tele and Les Paul, mainly. I was using AC30s, but also my Boogie MkIII and the Les Paul for the solo on How About You?, a Selmer Zodiac (The Debitor) and an ancient Ampeg combo, which weighed a ton and belonged to RAK (Tonight). Yes uses the 355, with AC30s and a Leslie cabinet for the chorus-y parts, and also some Les Paul on the choruses and outro. I was also using a valve Watkins Copicat for almost everything at the time as a preamp, as well as for echo. The intro to Tonight is my 355 mic’d up with a KM84 taped onto the f-hole.

"So I used to use a Boss Turbo Distortion, which is down here..." says Bernard Butler, at 4:55 in this video, about how to play "Animal Nitrate."

The phaser can be seen in Bernard's pedalboard in this photo.

Used on McAlmont and Butler tour and Ben Watt record, 2014.

"The Strymon Timeline is a delay with is always on a "slap" (110ms) the delay setting except for "Bring IT Back" and "Where R U Now?" which have tempo matched longer settings.

"Also used this identical setup whilst recording the recent Ben Watt record"

"Strymon is endlessly tweak able, sounds amazing, you can also store song names which is crucial detail for playing live that almost no one else thought of"

Used on McAlmont & Butler tour, 2015.

"The Lehle Dual feeds my 1964 Vox AC10 Twin and Lazy J J20. The Vox is cross patched between both the normal and vibrato channels. The Lazy J uses the brilliant channel with the normal dialled in equally but not active."

Used on McAlmont & Butler tour 2015 and Benn Watt album.

Used on McAlmont & Butler tour 2015 and Benn Watt album.

Used on McAlmont & Butler tour 2015 and Benn Watt album.

"The Juicer is used mainly for solos."

Used on McAlmont & Butler tour 2015 and Ben Watt album.

"The Cruiser has 2 distortion levels: the left switch is on most of the time, with the right switch going on for chorus boosts."

Used on McAlmont & Butler tour 2015 and Ben Watt album.

Used on McAlmont & Butler tour 2015 and Ben Watt album.

Used on McAlmont & Butler tour and Ben Watt album 2015.

In this photo Bernard shows one of the latest versions of his pedalboard with the addition of Mooer Trelicopter.

Bernard Butler's pedalboard when he was playing with the Tears.

Bernard Butler's pedalboard when he was playing with the Tears.

Bernard Butler's pedalboard when he was playing with the Tears.