K. K. Downing

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

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)

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

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.

According to Guitar Geek's rig diagram, K. K. used DTR-1 back in 2004.