Jonny Buckland

In this entry from Coldplay's blog from November 2013, a fan asks why Jonny Buckland switched to playing Fender Telecasters on nearly every song, whereas at the start of the Mylo Xyloto Tour he used primarily Stratocasters. Matt McGinn, Jonny's guitar tech, responds, "In the end we reverted to the Tele's - 'Sunny', his fave, in particular - for most tunes, except Violet Hill (on which he's always played a 1974 Les Paul Deluxe) and God Put A Smile Upon Your Face."

You can see the '74 Les Paul used on Violet Hill at 1:28 in this video of Coldplay performing live in Tokyo in 2009.

The original entry can be seen here.

In this photo from Coldplay's 2003 eZine, one can see the Gibson 335 listed in Jonny's equipment list.

In this photo from a news post on Coldplay's site, we can see a close-up view of Jonny Buckland's pedalboard during a 2008 tour, which features three EB6181s, each appearing to control a different parameter in his setup.

In this photo of Jonny's pedalboard, taken in 2000, a Boss TR-2 can be seen.

Jonny's guitar tech has stated that for the Ghost Stories live record, most of Jonny's audible signal was coming from a Kemper Amp Profiler rather than the visible Silvertone 1484. Source here.

The Hiwatt DR201BK Custom 200 can be seen at 13:14 in this 2011 Glastonbury performance.

In this photo, taken in 2005, a Colorsound Tonebender Fuzz Pedal can be seen.

Jonny Buckland’ pedalboard during 2005 X&Y album. A Colorsound by Sola Sound Supa Tonebender is seen.

In this Instagram photo taken by Coldplay bassist Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland can be seen with his Pedaltrain Classic 2 pedalboard (the badge on the rear of the pedalboard is very visible and confirms the model). Guy says:

One of the next recording sessions for Everyday Life took place in Gloucestershire - in another old house we rolled our recording rig into. ⁣This picture was taken during this time - can’t remember which song Jonny was working on...⁣

In this photo pf Jonny's pedalboard, a Roger Mayer RM 58 Limiter can clearly be seen alongside his other effect pedals. Although the photo isn't dated, if you look at the floor behind the board, and the side of the casing of the board, you can tell this photo was taken between 2011-2012 during the Mylo Xyloto tour run.

In this photo, Jonny Buckland can be seen playing a Fender '72 Telecaster Deluxe. This guitar, because of it's likeness to Jonny's favourite (Fender '72 Telecaster Thinline), has been used many times by Jonny.

Jonny Buckland uses a Nash Wayfarer guitar, as confirmed by Nash Guitars when they shared that it was custom-built for him. This is further evidenced by a photo posted by Coldplay on Instagram, showing Buckland with the guitar during rehearsals for #ColdplayJordan.

On the left hand side of the picture you can see a white Kemper Profiler Head.

At 2:08 of this video, Jonny can be seen playing a Martin 000C-15. Both he and Chris Martin used these guitars for the A Rush of Blood to the Head tour in 2003.

Throughout this video (notably after 4:05), Jonny can be seen playing a Fender Precision Bass. This was one of the extremely rare instances when Jonny played bass guitar live.

Jonny Buckland is seen/heard playing the Fender Jerry Donahue Signature Telecaster in the Madrid dressing room during Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto tour, which he's had since Parachutes era. The guitar has a bound body in translucent sapphire blue, a rarely used finish on Fender guitars

Pictured and mentioned in this AudioTechnology magazine article about the Ghost Stories Tour, erroneously typed as a portmanteau of Royer's SF-12 (a stereo coincident ribbon mic) and R-121.

Jonny Buckland’s pedalboard is a two-man lift. Meanwhile, the rack (which is replicated for redundancy’s sake) packs his wireless receivers, TC2290 delays, Line6 processing and an Eventide Harmonizer. The Fender amps are serviced by Shure SM57s, with a coincident Royer SF121 [sic] ribbon on one cab.

Throughout this video, Jonny Buckland can be seen playing a 1972 Fender Telecaster Deluxe with a natural finish. It can be seen particularly well from 2:47 to 3:05.

Throughout this video, Jonny can be seen playing 1972 Telecaster Thinline in Walnut.

In the Coldplay's Game of Thrones: The Musical, at 1:35 there is a camera angle for the Jonny Buckland's pedalboard. Vemuram can be read, also the word "Live" and barely "Shanks" is read on the pedal. Thought This stompbox is from a custom dealer in Japan, perhaps in the Vemuram official web page Jonny Buckland is not listed as an artist who uses their pedals.

Mentioned by FOH engineer Dan Green in this AudioTechnology magazine article about the Ghost Stories Tour.

AT: I’m fascinated by your 500 series lunchboxes at front of house. What’s going on there exactly?

DG: Anyone who’s worked on a Midas XL4 will remember how you really only needed to give it some gain and push up the fader and you were good to go. Now with digital consoles — and as happy as I am with the Digico SD7 — you don’t get that, especially on drums.

In my search to rediscover that instant ‘analogue’ sound I began to play around with effects pedal-style boxes, but they were a bit flakey. On the other hand, I’ve always found Radial gear to be super-reliable. When it came out with the 500 series Workhouse, I tried out a few different pres, and settled on eight modules of Neve 1073 (which work really well on Chris’s SM58), four of the Helios Type 69-500 EQs (I love what the Helios high/mids do to the guitars) and four Shadow Hills Mono GAMA mic pres.

If anything does go awry with those, there’s a macro on my SD7 that’ll instantly flick back to the preamps on the SD stage rack.

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Guitars: EMI Chandler TG1, Lexicon PCM42, API 525, API 5502, Roland Dimension D SDD320, Watkins Copicat

"Normally I send each side of a stereo guitar to my EMI Chandler TG1 panned left and right and coming back on the console, but I didn't in this case, so I must have felt that it sounded bad. It might have taken away from the tightness of the guitars. They had already recorded it very tightly. So instead I didn't add anything to their stereo chorus verse guitar. I also had a mono verse guitar, which I sent to a PCM42 delay set at 224ms and panned to the opposite side, and every time the guitar strums it goes over to the right. On the acoustic guitar I did what I normally do, which is to send it through my acoustic patch, an API 525 going into an API 5502. That's a great combo and I have been using that for years. It makes the acoustic guitar very natural and full and gives it great presence without it sounding processed. In this song it's not very evident, because the acoustic guitar isn't very important, but, for example, on Parachutes the acoustic is very important, and I used the patch back then. There was no insert on the solo guitar. I did have a Dimension D SDD320 chorus on it, which spreads the sound naturally, and which went to a Watkins Copicat Echo unit with a fairly short delay. Otherwise it's totally dry, no reverb, hardly any EQ. Again, it was so well recorded that it didn't need a lot of work."

At 0:54 in this live Coldplay video, Jonny Buckland can be seen playing his black 1972 Fender Telecaster Thinline.

In 2010, the guitar was actioned off for a charity fundraiser and won by Jason DeBord. This detailed article about the guitar and it's auction says, "This was Jonny’s main guitar all through the X&Y and Viva tours. Drenched, scorched and thoroughly vibed. He hesitated to sell it as it means a lot to him (he literally kissed it goodbye after the photo was taken)."

"Lexicon are famous for making some of the finest echo and reverb effects available. No surprise then, that Jonny's guitar rig relies heavily on this rack unit for creating his huge soaring tones," reads Lot 25 in Coldplay's End of Decade Clearout Sale Catalogue.

Jonny can be seen using a Guild F-50 throughout this video of an acoustic rendition of "Lovers In Japan" together with Chris Martin. The guitar can be seen particularly well from 0:36 to 0:43.

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Guitars: EMI Chandler TG1, Lexicon PCM42, API 525, API 5502, Roland Dimension D SDD320, Watkins Copicat

"Normally I send each side of a stereo guitar to my EMI Chandler TG1 panned left and right and coming back on the console, but I didn't in this case, so I must have felt that it sounded bad. It might have taken away from the tightness of the guitars. They had already recorded it very tightly. So instead I didn't add anything to their stereo chorus verse guitar. I also had a mono verse guitar, which I sent to a PCM42 delay set at 224ms and panned to the opposite side, and every time the guitar strums it goes over to the right. On the acoustic guitar I did what I normally do, which is to send it through my acoustic patch, an API 525 going into an API 5502. That's a great combo and I have been using that for years. It makes the acoustic guitar very natural and full and gives it great presence without it sounding processed. In this song it's not very evident, because the acoustic guitar isn't very important, but, for example, on Parachutes the acoustic is very important, and I used the patch back then. There was no insert on the solo guitar. I did have a Dimension D SDD320 chorus on it, which spreads the sound naturally, and which went to a Watkins Copicat Echo unit with a fairly short delay. Otherwise it's totally dry, no reverb, hardly any EQ. Again, it was so well recorded that it didn't need a lot of work."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Guitars: EMI Chandler TG1, Lexicon PCM42, API 525, API 5502, Roland Dimension D SDD320, Watkins Copicat

"Normally I send each side of a stereo guitar to my EMI Chandler TG1 panned left and right and coming back on the console, but I didn't in this case, so I must have felt that it sounded bad. It might have taken away from the tightness of the guitars. They had already recorded it very tightly. So instead I didn't add anything to their stereo chorus verse guitar. I also had a mono verse guitar, which I sent to a PCM42 delay set at 224ms and panned to the opposite side, and every time the guitar strums it goes over to the right. On the acoustic guitar I did what I normally do, which is to send it through my acoustic patch, an API 525 going into an API 5502. That's a great combo and I have been using that for years. It makes the acoustic guitar very natural and full and gives it great presence without it sounding processed. In this song it's not very evident, because the acoustic guitar isn't very important, but, for example, on Parachutes the acoustic is very important, and I used the patch back then. There was no insert on the solo guitar. I did have a Dimension D SDD320 chorus on it, which spreads the sound naturally, and which went to a Watkins Copicat Echo unit with a fairly short delay. Otherwise it's totally dry, no reverb, hardly any EQ. Again, it was so well recorded that it didn't need a lot of work."

The item can be seen in this photo from the same interview.

Five towering racks of outboard gear dominate Michael Brauer's mix room, and contain far too much equipment to list. Notable items used on the mix of Violet Hill include (first rack) Pye compressor, Empirical Labs Distressors, ADR Compex limiter, Chandler EMI TG12413 limiter, EAR 660 compressors and Fairchild 666 compressor; (second rack) Lexicon PCM81, Sony DRE S777, Akai S612, Bricasti M7, Zoom 1202, Rupert Neve Portico 5014; (third rack) Neve 33609, API modules, Moog EQ and Pendulum ES8 compressor; (fifth rack) Chandler EMI TG12345 Curver Bender, Shadow Hills compressor and ADL 670.

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

"In addition to all the above effects, all tracks went through my ABCD multi–bus compression system [see 'Brauerize TheMix' box]. 'A' consists of a Neve 33609 going into a Pultec P1A3S EQ; 'B' is is almost always a Distressor going into my Avalon E55 EQ; 'C' is the Pendulum ES8 tube limiter; 'D' at the time was my Inward Connection stereo tube limiter (but currently it's the [TF Pro] Edward The Compressor P8). So the bass and drums went through B, the guitars went through C — sometimes I'll send guitars through A and C, or I'll send them to C and then send them to a mono compressor return, whichever excites them the best — the keyboards went through A, and the backing vocals through A and D. I did not put the lead vocals through my multi–bus system. I stopped doing that three years ago. Instead they went through these five compressors, the Federal, Gates, Fairchild, 1176 and Distressor.

Used on "Hymn for the Weekend", as mentioned by A Head Full of Dreams co-producer Rik Simpson in this Sound on Sound article.

“The guitars have the Soundtoys PanMan to give them some movement, and also some corrective EQ from the Pro–Q 2, and the UAD SSL E Channel strip, which is one of my go–to plug–ins, because it sounds so similar to the original SSL, a desk I was brought up on. There’s also an eBow guitar hook at the end of the song that has the Wavesfactory TrackSpacer plug–in, which side–chains the guitar to the vocal, so it clears the space when the vocal is present.

In a 2003 ezine, Jonny Buckland is shown using a Line 6 Echo Pro, highlighting its role in his setup during that period.