Billy Duffy

“I’ve just picked up another of the BOSS “WAZA craft” pedals to use in pre-production. It’s basically its a remake of my classic DM-2 analogue delay that was part of my original set up in the early 1980s. Again those clever fellas at BOSS have kept all the features of the original but now has the familiar to waza “better” switch which in this case keeps the warmer sound of analogue but has a longer delay time more like a DM-3 and that family of digital delays… ergo… better!! I will definitely be using one of these in my live rig very soon.” Billy – March 2015

On the Gear page of Billy Duffy's website, he says, "Quite often if there have been Matchless amps that are available to hire they just don’t sound as good, and often they’re usually beaten up. So the Vox was always a better choice in that situation and it’s partly behind my choice to use them going forward as these AC-30s are widely available anywhere around the world we play."

"So we did a gig in Oslo, and they gave me a thing called a JC-160, which I believe was a 4x10 [version]. I’ve never seen one since. That was the first amp I ever used [live with The Cult]," says Billy, in this interview.

On the Gear page of Billy Duffy's website, he says, "People used to bribe the producer to tell them what pedals and effects I used to get the guitar sound in the beginning of the song, that whole kind of mystical Easterny sound. The story that goes along with that is, it was a whole BOSS pedal board. I definitely had two delays in it, ‘cause there are two delays working against each other —long and short delays. It’s 400 and 800 milliseconds, approximately, at the beginning of the song."

On the Gear page of Billy Duffy's website, the Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor Pedal is listed and depicted (complete with settings labeled on tape, laid just under the controls).

You can see the blue CE-2w with the silver Waza Craft sign shining from the spotlight on 15:34 min on this video of their concert: https://www.facebook.com/Billboard/videos/10156373810574581/UzpfSTExNTc2MjEzMDg6MTAyMTQ3MzM3ODU0NzU3NDI/

Print screens here:

https://imgur.com/a/AHjWE https://imgur.com/a/1bRhY https://imgur.com/a/mXf1v

The blue CE-2w or CE-2 can be seen on his pedalboard, first one on the left on 24:10 and 43:55 on this video: https://youtu.be/FhsX0DHM3dM?t=43m55s https://youtu.be/FhsX0DHM3dM?t=24m9s

Print screens here: https://imgur.com/a/vYxke https://imgur.com/a/JKzIt https://imgur.com/a/3uMII https://imgur.com/a/Jvsev

Note that there are two Vox AC30 in the middle of his amps instead of Roland JC-120 that he used to mix together either with Vox AC30 or Marhsalls for the songs from the early Cult era when he played them live (talks about it here https://youtu.be/5_qxW_htSnU?t=1m9s) which he used since the early 80s which confirms my suspicion that he is using CE-2W as a replacement for the JC-120 chorus which he stopped using for some reason. He talks about using JC-120 chorus here: https://youtu.be/5_qxW_htSnU?t=14m20s

In this photo, Billy Duffy's Klon KTR Centaur can be seen on the edge of his pedalboard.

On the Gear page of Billy Duffy's website, he says, "After the ‘Electric’ tour Jamie moved back to bass and I ended up having four Marshall amps, which are the JCM 800s... I still have those four Marshalls today, they’ve pretty much lasted through all the years of abuse, all the tours we’ve done and they’re pretty much all still running."

On the Gear page of Billy Duffy's website, he says, "I first bought them in ’86 and they all had that black front and I thought they looked a bit too ‘heavy metal’ for me, not particularly to my taste... so I had someone refinish the fronts with vintage Marshall speaker cloth to make them look more 1970s. Recently Marshall have re-issued some of these cabinets with the black fronts and whereas the contents of the cabinet are good old style speakers the front grille is the more modern Marshall look that they’ve run since the mid eighties and that’s the look I hate, the look I paid to get rid of, too heavy metal. They do also make that 1960 cabinet with the more traditional vintage basket weave so I’ve bought a couple of them as they look the same as the ones that I had made up back in the day."

On the Gear page of Billy Duffy's website, he says, "I’m a big fan of Matchless. Their amps were introduced to me by Bob Rock when I was recording ‘Sonic Temple’. I used them in the studio but didn’t use them live until after the ‘Ceremony’ tour. At that point I finally went and bought one in Los Angles and started using it in sessions and stuff. They’re a great sounding combo amplifier, better than a Vox AC 30 and better than a Fender Twin."

On the Gear page of Billy Duffy's website, he says, “This is one of the only pedals that I’ve got that is a an expression pedal, that you can effect it and it’s different every time you do it. The wah wah sound was very influential to me. Throughout my career I’ve always tried to improve what I do as a guitar player so originally I just had a regular Cry Baby but when I became famous enough to get them to modify them for me I did. I have a great relationship with Dunlop and they made me a personalized pedal based on the Cry Baby. Interestingly, Dunlop have now made a production pedal incorporating stuff that that they customized for me."

In this section of Billy's website, he explains that he's been using the 1973X combo in the studio as pf April 2015.

A recreation of the original 1960s British fuzz, the Park Fuzz Sound Pedal uses matched germanium transistors that give an authentic after 1960s sound! It features an increased gain and tone control range so that you can dial in the fuzz you are looking for as well as cleaning up from the volume control. The Park Fuzz Sound is a collaboration between Park and the effects gurus at Earthquaker Devices.

“This Park Fuzz pedal was a gift from Earthquaker Devices that I picked up at NAMM in January and is the only fuzz pedal I’ve ever tried that I actually like!” Billy – March 2015

"January 2013 was very special to me as it saw the launch of my first ever signature guitar. The release of the Gretsch Billy Duffy Falcon (link) was something I could have only dreamed of as a young lad in London in 1981 when I bought my first White Falcon. Over the many years starting with Theatre of Hate and then more importantly with The Cult I suppose I made this ‘big white beast’ my own to the point where the guys at Gretsch asked to create my signature version.

Back in 1984 and just starting out as a musician I was unable to afford a second Falcon so I picked up a Gretsch Country Club with a similar feel. I didn’t like it’s natural wood finish as it looked like a piece of Danish furniture (really!) plus there was a lot of them kicking around in the ’70s and ’80s. So, I decided to create an ‘evil twin’ for my White guitar by getting it painted black!

At the time Gretsch didn’t have a Black Falcon available so I felt like I’d created a brand new model! You can read the full story of this guitar on my Gear pages here…

Gretsch Country Club

Ironically Gretsch did finally launch a Black Falcon in 1992 and I remember seeing pictures of one of my all time guitar heroes, Sylvain Sylvain (of the New York Dolls), playing one. Whilst it is a great looking guitar I didn’t feel the gold finish was me so never picked one up.

Fast forward to earlier this year, and following the success of my signature Falcon, I started talking to Gretcsh about the possibility of creating my Black Falcon vision as a Limited Edition model. They loved the idea so here it is…

Billy Duffy G7593T Black Falcon

As you can see it’s the same spec as my Signature White Falcon with all the same hardware but with a beautiful black gloss finish. Like my White one it plays like a dream ‘straight out the box’ and I’ve been using it extensively during the recent run of shows with The Cult.

Expect to see plenty more of this black beauty when we take our new album ‘Hidden City’ out on the road worldwide in 2016. And if you want to grab one of these for yourself you’d better hook up with your local Gretsch Dealer quick as they’re likely to sell out fast."

Billy Duffy uses the Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus amplifier, as detailed on his official gear page by Team BD.

On the Gear page of Billy Duffy's website, he says, “I use all BOSS delays and I use their flanger and the Super Overdrive, still, on occasion. It [the Boss BF-2] is very much part of the early Death Cult and Cult sound and features heavily in the ‘Sanctuary’ and ‘Fire Woman’ intros."

On the Gear page of Billy Duffy's website, he says, "I’ve ended up using the DD3 ‘cos it gives you that effect in an easily replaceable, robust, very reliable way. When I’m stopping on these with my motorcycle boots, when they’re on airplanes and the back of trucks I don’t want them to break. I use Boss pedals ‘cos they sound great and they’re made well. I could never take something on the road that wasn’t reliable, it would just create incredible headaches.”

A Morley George Lynch Tripler can be seen at 13:30 in this video, on Billy Duffy's board.

According to this Guitar Geek rig diagram, Billy Duffy uses Ernie Ball Power Slinky strings.

The blue CE-2 or CE-2w can be seen on his pedalboard, first one on the left on 24:10 and 43:55 on this video: https://youtu.be/FhsX0DHM3dM?t=43m55s https://youtu.be/FhsX0DHM3dM?t=24m9s as well as on this concert on 13:13 min: https://www.facebook.com/Billboard/videos/10156373810574581/UzpfSTExNTc2MjEzMDg6MTAyMTQ3MzM3ODU0NzU3NDI/

Print screens here: https://imgur.com/a/vYxke https://imgur.com/a/JKzIt https://imgur.com/a/3uMII https://imgur.com/a/Jvsev

He speaks about that the earlier sound of The Cult that was based on the Roland JC-120 chorus here: https://youtu.be/5_qxW_htSnU?t=14m20s . I saw them live in 2017 and was dissapointed to see there was JC-120 lacking from his amps, only Marhsalls and Vox AC30. This could be the reason he has CE-2 on his pedalboard. It's either CE-2 or CE-2w, I can't see it that up close in this video.

His Limited Edition signature Wah Pedal from Dunlop, the Crybaby BD95.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gettyimages.com%2Fphotos%2Fbilly-duffy&psig=AOvVaw0TB8K-Zrh4-goQTbrO5nck&ust=1593010977696000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCPjM08WbmOoCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Ffineartamerica.com%2Ffeatured%2F5-the-cult-billy-duffy-concert-photos.html&psig=AOvVaw0TB8K-Zrh4-goQTbrO5nck&ust=1593010977696000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCPjM08WbmOoCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAK

Also shown on The Cult - Fire Woman Music video at 2:34

Very unique and hard to find guitar.

Epiphone released a newer version of the guitar and dubbed it as the Les Paul Custom Blackback. Ive seen it called both the Gibson Les Paul Custom Blackback and the Gibson Les Paul Custom Tuxedo.

“Going out on tour I needed a back up to my trusty ‘Sanctuary’ White Falcon and a very good friend of mine ‘Fat Rick’ Zsigmond of New Kings Road Vintage Guitar Emporium had one in his shop. As they don’t show up very often we did a deal on it and I used it extensively until I picked up the new touring ones in the 2000s. This guitar came very much like the ‘Sanctuary’ one as it’s from a very similar era so it had all the same stuff. I just changed the pick up to a more modern ‘TV Jones’ one because those pickups from the seventies were just horrible. I’m pleased to say Gretsch sorted that problem out and the ones on the White Falcons now are much better.” Billy Duffy, via his website

On the Gear page of Billy Duffy's website, he says, "This one goes back to an offshoot of the Camp Freddy band and we played a party at on a stage in the parking lot of the Gibson Guitar Custom Shop in Nashville, Tennessee. Gibson flew us out there and we played a bunch of cover songs and we each got to pick a guitar that Gibson would make for us in the Custom Shop. I chose the TV Yellow Les Paul Junior and the guy who actually made it handed it to me and I played it in the gig there and then. It’s a very Plain Jane simple guitar designed in the fifties... Apart from them putting my name on the headstock, the only thing I had them customize was that I had them make it with the slimmer neck which is to my particular taste."

On the Gear page of Billy Duffy's website, he says, "It’s not an effect but a volume pedal. It literally just boosts the signal from the strings through to the amplifier, it sounds ridiculous to say it, a bit ‘Spinal Tap,' but it’s a pedal that’s really, really useful. For example if I’m playing a really heavy section of a song and I want to go straight into a clean section sometimes you’ll lose the volume so this pedal helps by keeping the volume whilst the tone changes.”

On the Gear page of Billy Duffy's website, he says, "Originally I used The Boss Super Overdrive ‘cos as it was given to me... Later on I got the ‘Tube Screamer’ and used to switch between the two. My Tube Screamers now have now been modified very simply but I use them for a slightly different kind of overdrive, for example in ‘Rain’ or ‘Sanctuary’ I use the Tube Screamer as my overdrive."

According to the Boss official website, Billy uses the SD-1W. "Another pedal that Jamie passed onto me when he joined Death Cult (and swapped guitar for Bass) was his BOSS OD-1. I used that as Overdrive in the early years of the band and this ‘Waza Craft’ updated one 'does exactly what it says on the box,' i.e. it gives [the] option to add more bass bottom end tone and sustain without making the effect too boomy. That’s desirable in all overdrives, as the bane of using them was that the sound got thinner (more trebly) when you switched it on. That’s been resolved by the Waza version and allows Boss to offer ’boutique’ pedal finesse on a more readily available model.”

In this photo posted by Vox Amplification to Instagram, Billy Duffy can be seen playing through his Vox Hand-Wired AC30HW2 combo amp.

“This was made for me by the Gibson Guitar Custom shop in 2000 although nobody can find any record of them doing so, but they did make it for me to my specification ie the kind of neck I like and it never had a scratch plate. Unusually the wood on the front of this guitar actually matches as it’s only in two pieces. On a regular black Les Paul there’s three pieces of wood glued together to make the front in strips, one holds the pick-ups, one at the top and one at the bottom. I think because it’s going to be painted it’s just cheaper for them. This guitar is actually technically better than the other two wood tops and this is one that I prefer to use live now.” Billy Duffy – January 2013

On the Gear page of Billy Duffy's website, he says, "This is my favourite recording Les Paul. I occasionally take it on the road but mostly it’s for recording. I generally play songs from ‘Sonic Temple’ on the Les Paul Custom and songs from ‘Electric’ on the Les Paul Gold Tops. They just feel better for those particular types of songs."