John Butler

The guitar John Butler uses in this video, is an old Maton CW80/12. I believe it was given to him by his father, by the looks of the guitar, it has had some rough years :)

“I use this for a few of my songs like Better Than, Ragged Mile and Bound To Ramble. It’s a 1930s Bacon - it’s beautiful. It sounds really good, and has a magnetic and a bridge pickup, too.”

John Butler uses the Maton Cutaway EM425C 12-String guitar, as discussed in the "John's new guitar?" thread on the John Butler Trio community forum.

He praises this guitar in Music Radar interview.

“What’s really special about these kind of guitars - whether they be Harmony, Silvertone or Kay - is they run this DeArmond Gold Foil pickup.

“It’s extremely hot and rude. It’s prone to feedback, but there’s something very special about them; they’re very trashy and fat. They’ll give you anything from country to a Black Sabbath kind of sound.”

Just mentioned as a "two-channel preamp" in his interview for Music Radar.

“I have an acoustic world and electric world running simultaneously. First and foremost, I run through a Radial DI system, and then it goes into this Midas two-channel preamp. On the left side is my bridge sound and on the right side is my magnetic sound. And I’m basically using it as a blender."

Excerpt from his Music Radar interview says :

“Over the years, I’ve chased my tail trying to get the right 100-watt amp, and in the last few months, I’ve pretty much realised I need a Marshall JMP 100-watt [not pictured] running a 200-watt cab. That allows me a serious amount of headroom, but I want to get that crunch coming in at lower volumes over the acoustic. With the 100watts, it gives me the head room to get the frequencies to the right place when I need them. When you go through the right amp, in the right situation, it’s a magical thing."

“Gareth[Russell], my tech, gave me this great little switch and plugged it all in, in very interesting ways I don’t understand. But basically, I can go through my Marshall and Fender so it’s a lot more versatile. So if I want that recorded sound of the Fender and Marshall coming in for a second chorus, I can have more of that studio-esque effect with two amps running different sounds.

“Gareth also brought switching in for the electric guitar. It’s cool how they can be configured to make different channels do different things. For electric, I can do the thing I have with my acoustic where I have my clean sound, but still have those nice blends. I can run straight through the Marshall and the Tube Screamer [Maxon] and I can go through just the Fender.” - excerpt from Music Radar interview.

In this article from Music Rader John comments about this pedal saying, “It’s good, because you can really control your feedback. It takes a lot of palm muting to make some of these sounds work at high volumes, too. But I always see a volume pedal as kind of like the gas pedal on a car.”

In this interview for Music Radar, Butler discusses his Telecaster.

“It’s actually a new one. I use it for Blame It On Me from the new album, and it’s one of the best Teles I’ve ever heard.”

In his interview for Music Radar, Butler said :

“A square-neck lapsteel; this one has a mic pickup, and a magnetic pickup. This goes in everything from G tunings to D tunings to low tunings.”

“At the moment, I’m getting my JMP sent over from Australia because my JCM800s are not doing what I need them to do. They’re great, but for the schizophrenic kind of dual world, it doesn’t quite work. So I’m tandem-ing at the moment; I’ve got a 100-watt bass Marshall head behind it that’s giving me the power to my JCM800. But normally, it would be a JMP 100-watt Super Lead - hopefully from somewhere around the late 60s to early 70s - and then a Fender DeVille.” - excerpt from his Music Radar interview.

“This provides the other sounds for Flesh & Blood songs Bullet Girl, Young And Wild and Living In The City.

"A lot of that was recorded with this puppy. When you’re not wanting to be thermonuclear, a Fender or Silvertone through a Fender gives you great colour, and landscapes that you can traverse. The reverb is beautiful on it.” - excerpt from Music Radar interview.

He has two of those switchers, judging by the photo of his pedalboard, with one being the Dual SGOS.

In his list of "other pedals", in an interview done for Music Radar, Dunlop 95Q Wah pedal is mentioned.

In his list of other pedals in an interview done for Music Radar, this pedal was also included.

When listing pedals of Butler in this Music Radar interview, this pedal was also mentioned.

Among the other pedals listed, EP Booster was also mentioned in this interview with Music Radar.

The photography shows his pedalboard. We see the ODB-3.

In a Rig Tour video by TotalGuitar on YouTube, John Butler is shown using the Akai Professional E2 HeadRush Delay/Looper.

He uses this bridge piezo, according to his Music Radar interview.

“All my acoustics have a magnetic Seymour Duncan mag mic with the mic turned down, then a Maton AP5 bridge piezo."

Those pickups are in his Harmony Meteor, as he explained in the interview.

“What’s really special about these kind of guitars - whether they be Harmony, Silvertone or Kay - is they run this DeArmond Gold Foil pickup."

Visible in his Music Radar rig rundown, he says about the eBow :

“I like making lots of soundbeds with it, like on the start of Revolution. As a trio, you’re always trying to get more sounds out of each player, to make it as big as possible.”

Photos of his rig were taken during his Music Radar rig rundown, above the eBow, Boss TU-2 is seen.

In his interview for Music Radar, he told about his rig, in which Whammy was visible.

He has two of those Lehle switchers, according to Music Radar's rig rundown. One is Little Lehle II.

Among the other pedals listed in this interview with Butler, Boss PH-2 was also mentioned.

Among the other pedals listed on Music Radar's interview with Butler, this pedal is also mentioned.

The photography shows his pedalboard. We see the RV-3.

In this live performance of Take Me at 1:08 John can be seen playing a Silvertone Jupiter

In recent live performances, John Butler is seen using the Shure Beta 58A microphone for his vocals, as evidenced by the accompanying photo.