Billy Howerdel

The Naked head has a storied history. Friedman produced the original line more than 10 years ago in very small quantities (around a dozen were made, and most went to Japan). The first Naked was designed with the input of A Perfect Circle guitarist Billy Howerdel. Friedman had previously modded Howerdel’s 1978 Marshall JMP 100-watt head. The preamp in this circuit was key to Howerdel’s tone, and it was influenced by a certain boutique amplifier that Howerdel was a fan of. Howerdel loved the amp so much that he commissioned Friedman to build several amps based on his beloved JMP. Thus, Howerdel’s request for a high-gain, clear-sounding amp with supreme touch sensitivity was the inspiration for the Naked 100-watt head.

Howerdel shows the amplifier in Premier Guitar's rig rundown. Mentioned as a part of the rig used to record his debut solo album, "What Normal Was", according to November 2022 Guitar World interview.

There’s the Gibson Custom Classic given to him by Trent Reznor in the mid Nineties, his Dave Friedman-modded 1978 Marshall Super Lead, the Gibson Goldtone he describes as a “pirate sound” — and that prized Experience octave fuzz by Prescription Electronics.

"I use the same Marshall amp I’ve always had, a 1978 Super Lead 100 with a modified preamp by Dave Friedman. I came to him with this other amp that I liked the sound of, and we used that as the preamp." – Billy Howerdel on his 1978 Marshall Super Lead 100

Mentioned as a part of the rig used to record his debut solo album, "What Normal Was", according to November 2022 Guitar World interview.

There’s the Gibson Custom Classic given to him by Trent Reznor in the mid Nineties, his Dave Friedman-modded 1978 Marshall Super Lead, the Gibson Goldtone he describes as a “pirate sound” — and that prized Experience octave fuzz by Prescription Electronics. “The Marshall mod was mainly to do with the power tubes and biasing,” Howerdel says. “It’s a fast amp that reacts instantly, which there are pros and cons to... It has a different sound to your typical softly overdriven Plexi head. I found this 60-watt Naylor combo and loved it, so I showed Dave Friedman and he modded the Marshall to sound like that. I don’t even know if they still make those Experience pedals, but they’re hand-painted in different colors and sound great. I enjoy using the Fractal octaver too, rolling the volume down with the tone completely off to get this ghostly thing that, again, doesn’t sound like guitar, but maybe that’s why I like it!”

You can see the cabinet on the gear list.

It would be my main guitar, which is a 1960 Classic Reissue Les Paul that's pretty modded and customized. It's got Tom Anderson pickups on it and the headstock is on at the wrong angle. I've actually talked with Gibson about a signature model and we might revisit that. I just talked with somebody two months ago about it. So it would be that guitar, the rest would depend on the band but if it's quick and dirty and we need to get there lightly, it would be my little Gibson GA15RV amp and probably just the little Line 6 delay pedal - the little green one. I think that would be a pretty good setup.

In this instagram video we can see the whole rack and amplifier Marshall JMP 2203