John Ashton

“I played acoustic for the first time – a J-200 on the intro and outro of ‘All Of This And Nothing’ – but my main guitar was a Music Man Sabre II. I put a Les Paul pickup in the neck and a Bill Lawrence in the bridge, and cranked it up through a baby Vox and a Pignose. Pedal-wise, I was using an MXR flanger, a Rat, a Roland Space Echo, delays and wah. I was always much more into effected-sounding lines than straight ones, and I used a lot of textures and volume pedal swells and some harmonics.”

“I played acoustic for the first time – a J-200 on the intro and outro of ‘All Of This And Nothing’ – but my main guitar was a Music Man Sabre II. I put a Les Paul pickup in the neck and a Bill Lawrence in the bridge, and cranked it up through a baby Vox and a Pignose. Pedal-wise, I was using an MXR flanger, a Rat, a Roland Space Echo, delays and wah. I was always much more into effected-sounding lines than straight ones, and I used a lot of textures and volume pedal swells and some harmonics.”

“I played acoustic for the first time – a J-200 on the intro and outro of ‘All Of This And Nothing’ – but my main guitar was a Music Man Sabre II. I put a Les Paul pickup in the neck and a Bill Lawrence in the bridge, and cranked it up through a baby Vox and a Pignose. Pedal-wise, I was using an MXR flanger, a Rat, a Roland Space Echo, delays and wah. I was always much more into effected-sounding lines than straight ones, and I used a lot of textures and volume pedal swells and some harmonics.”

“I played acoustic for the first time – a J-200 on the intro and outro of ‘All Of This And Nothing’ – but my main guitar was a Music Man Sabre II. I put a Les Paul pickup in the neck and a Bill Lawrence in the bridge, and cranked it up through a baby Vox and a Pignose. Pedal-wise, I was using an MXR flanger, a Rat, a Roland Space Echo, delays and wah. I was always much more into effected-sounding lines than straight ones, and I used a lot of textures and volume pedal swells and some harmonics.”

An Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress was part of John Ashton's guitar rig in 1985.

An MXR Dyna Comp was part of John Ashton's guitar rig in 1985.

"I use PRS McCarty guitars live, and Line 6 Variax 700. My amps are a Laney VC50 and a Line 6 Vetta II. My FX are: Fulltone Distortion Pro, Nobels 808 Distortion Rat, and a Line 6 Delay Modeler. The signal is then split, one side going into a GFX 8 multi effects pedal and then into the Laney. I use a Laney Babel switch (via midi) to change channels (there are 4 of them--clean, crunch, overdrive, and kill), and the other line goes into the Vetta II. I use the foot pedal from the Vetta (long board) to make all my patch changes. All this is mounted on a custom made two-tier board of my own design and manufacture; i.e., I made it."

"I use PRS McCarty guitars live, and Line 6 Variax 700. My amps are a Laney VC50 and a Line 6 Vetta II. My FX are: Fulltone Distortion Pro, Nobels 808 Distortion Rat, and a Line 6 Delay Modeler. The signal is then split, one side going into a GFX 8 multi effects pedal and then into the Laney. I use a Laney Babel switch (via midi) to change channels (there are 4 of them--clean, crunch, overdrive, and kill), and the other line goes into the Vetta II. I use the foot pedal from the Vetta (long board) to make all my patch changes. All this is mounted on a custom made two-tier board of my own design and manufacture; i.e., I made it."

“I went to the London Synthesiser Centre and picked up an ARP Avatar, which looked like a Moog and had a setting called Hex Fuzz that I liked,” he tells us from his studio in the States. It came with a pickup that would go into my guitar, and I ran it through a little telephone extension speaker or my Fender Twin. I got a lot of the ambient sounds for ‘India’ off that, and the solo for ‘Fall’. I learned how to do the same thing with gain and distortion in the end – it’s a lot less hassle!”

“I played acoustic for the first time – a J-200 on the intro and outro of ‘All Of This And Nothing’ – but my main guitar was a Music Man Sabre II. I put a Les Paul pickup in the neck and a Bill Lawrence in the bridge, and cranked it up through a baby Vox and a Pignose. Pedal-wise, I was using an MXR flanger, a Rat, a Roland Space Echo, delays and wah. I was always much more into effected-sounding lines than straight ones, and I used a lot of textures and volume pedal swells and some harmonics.”

A Lexicon PCM-70 was part of John Ashton's guitar rig in 1985.

A Roland SDE-3000 was part of John Ashton's guitar rig in 1985.

A Yamaha SPX90 was part of John Ashton's guitar rig in 1985.

A Mesa Boogie Mark III head with Mesa Boogie 4x12 cabinet was part of John Ashton's guitar rig in 1985.

"I use PRS McCarty guitars live, and Line 6 Variax 700. My amps are a Laney VC50 and a Line 6 Vetta II. My FX are: Fulltone Distortion Pro, Nobels 808 Distortion Rat, and a Line 6 Delay Modeler. The signal is then split, one side going into a GFX 8 multi effects pedal and then into the Laney. I use a Laney Babel switch (via midi) to change channels (there are 4 of them--clean, crunch, overdrive, and kill), and the other line goes into the Vetta II. I use the foot pedal from the Vetta (long board) to make all my patch changes. All this is mounted on a custom made two-tier board of my own design and manufacture; i.e., I made it."

"I use PRS McCarty guitars live, and Line 6 Variax 700. My amps are a Laney VC50 and a Line 6 Vetta II. My FX are: Fulltone Distortion Pro, Nobels 808 Distortion Rat, and a Line 6 Delay Modeler. The signal is then split, one side going into a GFX 8 multi effects pedal and then into the Laney. I use a Laney Babel switch (via midi) to change channels (there are 4 of them--clean, crunch, overdrive, and kill), and the other line goes into the Vetta II. I use the foot pedal from the Vetta (long board) to make all my patch changes. All this is mounted on a custom made two-tier board of my own design and manufacture; i.e., I made it."

"I use PRS McCarty guitars live, and Line 6 Variax 700. My amps are a Laney VC50 and a Line 6 Vetta II. My FX are: Fulltone Distortion Pro, Nobels 808 Distortion Rat, and a Line 6 Delay Modeler. The signal is then split, one side going into a GFX 8 multi effects pedal and then into the Laney. I use a Laney Babel switch (via midi) to change channels (there are 4 of them--clean, crunch, overdrive, and kill), and the other line goes into the Vetta II. I use the foot pedal from the Vetta (long board) to make all my patch changes. All this is mounted on a custom made two-tier board of my own design and manufacture; i.e., I made it."

A Mesa Boogie Mark III head with Mesa Boogie 4x12 cabinet was part of John Ashton's guitar rig in 1985.

"I use PRS McCarty guitars live, and Line 6 Variax 700. My amps are a Laney VC50 and a Line 6 Vetta II. My FX are: Fulltone Distortion Pro, Nobels 808 Distortion Rat, and a Line 6 Delay Modeler. The signal is then split, one side going into a GFX 8 multi effects pedal and then into the Laney. I use a Laney Babel switch (via midi) to change channels (there are 4 of them--clean, crunch, overdrive, and kill), and the other line goes into the Vetta II. I use the foot pedal from the Vetta (long board) to make all my patch changes. All this is mounted on a custom made two-tier board of my own design and manufacture; i.e., I made it."

"I use PRS McCarty guitars live, and Line 6 Variax 700. My amps are a Laney VC50 and a Line 6 Vetta II. My FX are: Fulltone Distortion Pro, Nobels 808 Distortion Rat, and a Line 6 Delay Modeler. The signal is then split, one side going into a GFX 8 multi effects pedal and then into the Laney. I use a Laney Babel switch (via midi) to change channels (there are 4 of them--clean, crunch, overdrive, and kill), and the other line goes into the Vetta II. I use the foot pedal from the Vetta (long board) to make all my patch changes. All this is mounted on a custom made two-tier board of my own design and manufacture; i.e., I made it."

John Ashton's remarks on the EBow, from the EBow website: "You can space out with the EBow... it sings. You can make it do anything."

In this live performance video of "President Gas," from 1982, John Ashton can be seen very clearly playing a Telecaster HH of some sort, likely Fender, with full-sized humbuckers at 3:24 on the video.