K. K. Downing

At the start of the video, KK opens by talking about his Flying V that he used on various albums such as Sad Wings Of Destiny and Sin After Sin. At 0:30, he directly says that it's a 1964 Flying V that he bought at a second-hand shop at Birmingham. It's very easy to find videos and photos of him using it as it's one of his main guitars.

KxK Guitars, established in 1997, is a guitar company whose specialty lies mainly in custom guitars for heavy metal artists. All their instruments are made in the United States and are handcrafted. The company will start doing a new KK Downing signature series.

K.K signature V by Hamer

Played an SG in his early days

Played this guitar in the early 80's

Played this guitar around 1980

Seen at 1:57s in Judas Priest's "Love Bites" music video.

According to Guitar Geek's 2004 rig diagram, Downing uses the Marshall 9100 power amplifier.

At 1:15 in this video, you can see 2 Rocktron Piranha preamps in K. K.'s amp rack.

According to Guitar Geek's 2004 rig diagram, Downing used four Marshall 1960BV cabinets.

K, K. Downing Official Website, Live gear: Marshall 9600 Power Amps.

Used for live performances, accouring to K.K.'s website.

As seen auctioned off by K.K. himself.

Oct 16, 2008

What gear did you use for the regular guitar sounds? Tipton: I used my Hamer GT Phantom— my favorite guitar—for a lot of the rhythm and lead tracks. It has EMG 81 pickups, wired at 18 volts, and an SG-type neck that’s slightly slimmer and not as round as a Stratocaster’s. I’ve got another GT Phantom with Seymour Duncan Livewire Metal LW-HMET pickups, too. I also used a guitar with a modified Hamer shape that was built by a guy named John Diggins. It has a more bassy sound. I like simple guitars, and I don’t like tone controls. The GT Phantom only has a 2-way switch, and I can get all the tones I want from that or the EQ on my rack. I also used a ’61 Fender Stratocaster on a couple of things for a cleaner sound. We plugged into a DigiTech GNX3 and a DigiTech GSP1101 preamp, but we also used other old preamps such as the Piranha, a ’76 Marshall JMP 50-watt head through a ’76 Marshall 4x12 loaded with Celestion greenbacks, a Marshall MG15DFX combo, and even little practice amps. There’s still nothing like the crisp edge of a miked-up sound. We used Shure SM57s and some ribbon mics and experimented with positioning two orthree mics at a time.

As seen in K.K.'s rack (on the bottom left side) from his website.

According to Guitar Geek's 2004 rig diagram, Downing uses the Dunlop 535Q wah pedal.

According to Guitar Geek's 2004 rig diagram, Downing uses the Rocktron Midi Mate as a controller.

According to Guitar Geek's 2004 rig diagram, Downing used the Korg DTR-1 digital tuner.

According to the Guitar Geek's 2004 rig diagram, Downing uses the Whirlwind A/B Box.

As seen at 16:38s in KK Downing's "Toys In The Attic" YouTube video.

As seen at 13:53s in KK Downing's "Toys In The Attic" YouTube video.

Oct 16, 2008

What gear did you use for the regular guitar sounds? Tipton: I used my Hamer GT Phantom— my favorite guitar—for a lot of the rhythm and lead tracks. It has EMG 81 pickups, wired at 18 volts, and an SG-type neck that’s slightly slimmer and not as round as a Stratocaster’s. I’ve got another GT Phantom with Seymour Duncan Livewire Metal LW-HMET pickups, too. I also used a guitar with a modified Hamer shape that was built by a guy named John Diggins. It has a more bassy sound. I like simple guitars, and I don’t like tone controls. The GT Phantom only has a 2-way switch, and I can get all the tones I want from that or the EQ on my rack. I also used a ’61 Fender Stratocaster on a couple of things for a cleaner sound. We plugged into a DigiTech GNX3 and a DigiTech GSP1101 preamp, but we also used other old preamps such as the Piranha, a ’76 Marshall JMP 50-watt head through a ’76 Marshall 4x12 loaded with Celestion greenbacks, a Marshall MG15DFX combo, and even little practice amps. There’s still nothing like the crisp edge of a miked-up sound. We used Shure SM57s and some ribbon mics and experimented with positioning two orthree mics at a time.

(For those who do not know, Glenn Tipton is the band leader of Judas Priest, this exerpt is from an interview with Tipton and Downing present)

As seen in K.K.'s rack (on the bottom right side) from his website.

According to Guitar Geek's 2004 rig diagram, Downing uses the Rocktron Replifex.

K, K. Downing Official Website, Studio gear: Line 6 POD XT Pro.

According to Guitar Geek's 2004 rig diagram, Downing used EMG 81 pickups on his Flying V's.

(FAN QUESTION) Dear Mr. Downing: I recently purchased a Gibson Flying “V” 1967 RI. I was wondering If you liked the 500T pickup by Gibson or did you stock all your guitars with Dimarzio super distortions? I like the super distortion as well and I have a few laying around. A friend of mine said I was crazy to remove a 500T. Just out of curiosity do you like the 500t and 496R pickups? P.S I have attached a really cool pic of you with your V (pre-refinish) not too many of these pics floating around.

(DOWNING'S ANSWER) Hi Lee. I have kept the original pick ups in my 67 but there again if I were using the guitar today I may not resist putting higher gain pick ups in it. As you say the super distortion is a good pick up and I did install them in early Hamer guitars. Thank you for the pic. Regards K.K.