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.”

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."

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."