Kenny Greenberg

"The main thing I'm using is...I have a Custom Shop Les Paul and it's just...like an R8 or R9, how you call it. And I've had this for about 4-5 years and this is kind of mine "go-to" guitar and it's just a great sounding Les Paul. It's kind of medium-heavy weight, it's the stock pickups that came on it, it's one of those kind of guitars where I just plug it in and I start to play with it, I love it. It fits my hand great, it stays in tune great, so I usually start my day, or when I get my sounds up at the beginning of the day, I'll play this guitar because I know what it sounds like." - Greenberg about his Gibson Les Paul Standard.

"This is '62 Strat and I have a lot of guitars that are like working man's vintage guitars. [...] It is a vintage guitar, it has all pickups, the wood is original, but some things have been done to it, that it made more affordable for a guy like me, just a working guy like me. And you can see that someone has put a Floyd Rose or a Kahler or something and they took it off and spray painted, and put the original bridge, but it just plays great, it's super light-weight, I played like a million solos on this guitar. So I'll do a lot of rhythm playing in a middle or neck position, and then I'll do my solos on the bridge position. And a lot of Stratocasters have bridge pickups that could be thin-sounding, but this one is just..fat. It's a fat, gnarly and noisy and great, so I've used this. Whoever had it before me, you can guess it was girlfriends' name, Helen. [someone carved this name into the guitar]. But this is a '62 and at some point I first got it, I put locking tuners on it, but it just plays great, stays in tune and you know, what I'm looking for in an instrument is something that stays in tune. It sounds great, but you know, staying in tune is really important. Especially when you're recording." - Greenberg about 1962 Fender Stratocaster.

"Then, I have a Joe Bonamassa 335. And it's really great sounding Custom Shop 335, and it's got a big, fat neck on it and that's what I really like about it. I've had a couple of old 335's, and they didn't stay in tune good and I got this and I just love playing it. And once again, I'm looking for something that sounds great, easy to use and intonates well and so this has been a real "go-to" guitar for me. I have had this for 3 years and my nephew, Winston Yellin, and he's in band called The Night Beds and they were recording at my studio and this was his guitar. He left it in my studio and he decided he was just gonna sing and not play guitar anymore. And I said "What are you doing with your 335, by the way? The one that I played so good." He said : "I'll sell it to you." So, there it is." - Greenberg about Bonamassa ES-335.

"This is a Custom Shop '62 Telecaster and I forgot the name of the pickup that's in here [on the bridge], but it's really, really great. It's not the pickup that came in it. There's a guy that makes pickups. It's a really good Telecaster. Once again, it just plays great and stays in tune great. This was James Pennebaker's personal guitar and he wanted to sell it and he sold it to me. So this is the Telecaster that I use." - Greenberg about his Fender Telecaster.

"This is my main rhythm guitar that I play a lot of rhythm on and this is a '52 Goldtop. This is a real '52. And the bridge has been changed out. It has a real low neck angle which I love, and the tailpiece is all the way down into the wood, which kind of makes it resonate good and with this tailpiece, it stays in tune really good. This is a motherfucker of a guitar right here. Stays in tune great, plays great, sounds amazing, you know, so for playing 8th notes, you know, and for just all kinds of parts. Freddy King played this. I'm a blues nerd, and so for playing blues solos... B.B. King played one of these, on the early records. [...] Check out the neck on that. It's so incredibly awesome. It's very light-weight resonant guitar, so I'm very fortunate to have that. And I was really lucky to get this guitar." - Greenberg about 1952 Gibson Les Paul.

"This is a Koll. It's called the Super Glide Almighty. I don't know why he calls it that. And it's bit of a Neil Young' "Old Black", and he's like my favourite guitar player. It's a 3 Lollar Imperials, and it's a hollowbody guitar, but it's a pretty hefty. It's really great. It's sort of Gretschy, but kind of like Neil Young's guitar, with the way it works is the normal 3-way switch. In the middle, you have these 2 [pickups], and here you have this [middle pickup]. But this [the knob], activates this pickup. So, in another words this knob activates bridge pickup. And rolling the knob just a little bit warms the pickup on and it's kind of out-of-the-phase sounding, so this is a great guitar for tremolo and echo playing parts. I've used this extensively, and I've only had this one for about a year. It's got a big, fat, neck. [...] I just love this guitar, I've been playing it a lot.

"So this is a PRS I've been playing a lot. For a long time, this was my main guitar, so I played it a good bit. And David Grissom, we went to high school together. He's one of my favourite guitar players. Back in the late 90's, we were playing on a record with a guy called Chris Knight. David had a goldtop, just like this, before the DGT. It's a McCarty with a trem on it. David was playing this guitar and I borrowed it and played it on a song and it sounded so good. He said : "I'll get them to make on for you." I've had this one since 1998, and I've used it a lot. To me, it sounds a really different from what PRS is making now. It's kind of midrangy, and it's got this hawk to it. It's badass and it's great for playing solos. It's just a great sounding instrument. Paul Reed Smith came to the studio one time and he said : "It's all wrong. Let me take this to the shop and I'll make this sound so good." And I said : "No, I don't want you to change anything about it. It sounds amazing!" And so, it doesn't sound to me like any other PRS I've played. And I've tried a bunch of them. And they are really nice instruments. We all have them. They're incredible guitars, but this one for me, the way that I play, has this special things that makes it sound great. It's not as bright as a Les Paul, it's kind of got this upper mid-range, but it cuts through, and it makes you play aggresively, with a lot of distortion and play up high on the neck, and on the high strings. It's not too bright. It's got this kind of ringing mid-range to it. So, I've used this a lot." - Greenberg about PRS McCarty.

"So, here's a Jerry Jones and I've had it for a long time. I went at Jerry's shop and picked one up and I also have one of his 12-strings. This is the baritone guitar that I bring to sessions every day, when required. I have it and I love playing it and baritones are also really great for doubling single lines." - Greenberg about his Jerry Jones baritone guitar.

"So, I play acoustic too when required. I have an 1948 J-45. It's completely stock, there's no pickup in it... It's just a great sounding, the wood is real dry. It's a great recording guitar and this is what I use." - Greenberg about his 1948 Gibson J-45 acoustic.

Greenberg uses Ovation Deacon XII which strongly resembles a Breadwinner model. Pickups aren't original, but he personally enjoys playing with humbuckers on this guitar.

Listed on Kenny's official Yamaha artist page.

Around 25:00 minute mark, Greenberg mentions the usage of his 1954 Fender Twin Tweed.This amp was shown on the video, but Greenberg himself mentioned playing this model. Previous owner recovered the amp in black Tolex.

Although Greenberg plays through his 1954 Twin Tweed a lot, for studio recording and other purposes, Greenberg uses the "Sampson-era" Matchless HC-30 head. This is either a 1992 or 1993 version of the HC-30. He has a couple of those amplifiers, and he mostly uses them for recording, as they are great recording amplifiers. Signal from HC-30 usually goes to Category 5 2x12 Cabinet.

He uses mostly Telecasters or Stratocasters to play through this amplifier, as said in Premier Guitar's rig rundown.

The 1969 Marshall Super Lead was bought after Greenberg's Marshall Plexi was stolen (the only amp that was stolen from him). This amplifier head is 100-watt and he describes it as "loud", but not to loud for most of his applications.

This combo amplifier is one of Magnatone's newer amplifiers, and Greenberg also mentions that this amp features pitch shifter and vibrato. It's laid sideways in Greenberg's rack for the reasons because "the amp just would not fit".

In this photo of Greenberg's studio, the Hiwatt Custom 100 is visible.

In this photo of Greenberg's studio, the Silvertone 1484 head is visible.

"I have a Matchless DC-30 head, a Carr Slant 6V that I use some of the time, and I have a Category 5 Katrina. Those are my three amps that I have with me on this tour right now. They go into a Category 5 2 x 12 cabinet."

Greenberg owns this pedal, and he describes the sound as a "warm, musical distortion".

The Boing pedal is used preferably with his Tweed Deluxe amplifier, because he gets that spring reverb sound he doesn't get with Tweed Deluxe because he doesn't have that included on his amplifier. For cover of Allman Brothers' "Whipping Post", Greenberg used this exact pedal and a Tweed Deluxe.

At around 45:20 minute mark, Greenberg describes this pedal as "nothing sounds like it". He also mentioned this pedal somewhere before in this video.

Boss DD-500 is the pedal that Greenberg uses. But, as he describes himself, he prefers the older version of this pedal (DD-20). He also mentions that those are "very, very good delay pedals".

The Animal pedal, according to the Greenberg, is also being used by Keith Urban himself. He shortly mentions that this pedal "sounds great".

"It's really transparent. It's really more of a boost. There's a little bit distortion to it that retains the character and the tone of the guitar, especially if you're playing the Strat. [...] You turn this on, and it just gets kind of a warm-sounding." - Greenberg about Bluenote pedal.

"It's just an old school, old CS-2. Compression is all the way off, and I use the buffer in it, because the buffer is also a lot important. Because if you have pedals with buffers, it gets your signal back to the place where you've had your cord straight in." - Greenberg about Boss CS-2.

Greenberg bought the Klon Centaur back when they weren't 1800 dollars each. He used Rockett Archer pedal before, but he replaced it with this pedal.