Richie Castellano

"The sixth pedal is a Noise Gate. With all that power on stage: House sound, monitors, backline, lights... you're bound to get a buzz. When there's enough time to track the buzz down and kill it, it's great, but there are times when there just isn't enough time to do that. This pedal is great for that. I can set a threshold so that sound is only let through when I play above a certain volume. This minimizes noise. The pedal also acts as a mute which allows me to tune the bass without being heard. It's a very cool pedal."

"The last thing in the board is a TU-2? tuner. It's got the bass mode on it so it actually picks up the low B."

"This is the work in progress picture. I'll take a finished picture on my next gig. I have to use 2 effects processors, which I'm not too happy about. The G-Force is fantastic, but I couldn't get it to absolutely everything I needed. I'm still using the Digitech IPS-33B for the complex harmonies."

"This is the work in progress picture. I'll take a finished picture on my next gig. I have to use 2 effects processors, which I'm not too happy about. The G-Force is fantastic, but I couldn't get it to absolutely everything I needed. I'm still using the Digitech IPS-33B for the complex harmonies."

"The Acoustic Simulator is a new addition as well, but I'm still trying to tweak that out. I've used the stuff on two gigs so far, and the sound has been completely different depending on the venue. I feel that the rig is capable of getting what I want, but I need to just get a better handle on what every dial does."

"At the heart of it is TC Electronic's Nova System. This little box is great. Although it's slightly scaled down from the G-Force rig that I'm used to, it still has tons of features for such a small unit. I got a VHT/Freyette GP3 preamp going into the Nova System. The Nova is going out to a Freyette 2/90/2 90 watt stereo power amp, then into a 4x12 cabinet. I'm still waiting to get the GP3 back from being repaired, so I haven't even heard it yet. I hope to have all of this ready for the BOC gig in Atlantic City at the end of the month."

According to the Blue Oyster Cult's live gear list, Castellano uses Engl Steve Morse E656 signature model head.

According to the Blue Oyster Cult's live gear list, Castellano uses the Engl 4x12 cabinet.

According to the Blue Oyster Cult's live gear list, Castellano uses the Korg O1W FD.

"All keyboards go to a Whirlwind rackmount direct box and split to a Mackie 1202 mixer and the house console. Richie uses the mixer during the show to adjust the levels of his various keyboards. The mixer goes to a pair of Crate keyboard amps."

According to the Blue Oyster Cult's live gear list, Castellano uses the Voodoo Lab Control Switcher.

According to the Blue Oyster Cult's live gear list, Castellano uses the Ernie Ball JR. Volume pedal.

According to the Blue Oyster Cult's live gear list, Castellano uses the Shure P4M perosnal monitor/mixer.

According to the Blue Oyster Cult's live gear list, Castellano uses the Audio Technica AE-4100 cardioid microphone.

According to the Blue Oyster Cult's live gear list, Castellano uses the VHT Fryette 2/50/2 power amplifier.

According to the Blue Oyster Cult's live gear list, Castellano uses the Roland A-80 controller.

"The output of the wireless goes into a TC Electronic Poly Tune. This is the coolest tuner ever. You can check the tuning of all 6 strings at once. This makes it really easy to tune during very short song breaks."

"From there the signal goes into a Matrix Guitar Amplification G-1000 Stereo Power Amp. This is a solid state 1000 watt power amp that only weighs 6 pounds!!! It's stereo, so I run it in mono mode. I could run my rig in stereo if I wanted, but I find that my being mono is more effective in this particular band. Buck has a really nice stereo spread on his sound, and I don't want to get in the way of that. Since I wasn't really loving the sound of the Pod going to direct into my ears, this was a perfect solution. I got the air moving and I got to have a little bit of stage volume. This power amp isn't as loud as you'd think, but it does give you a pretty respectable stage volume and it's totally fine if you're using in-ears. I kind of wish the amp had a depth and presence control like other power amps, but the BBE pedal fills that void nicely."

"The drums were recorded using a Roland TD-6 kit with a Alesis Surge cymbals. I used this kit as a MIDI controller and recorded that MIDI data into Pro Tools. After that, I sent that data to FXpansion's BFD2 plug in. To get that Abbey Road tea towel sound, I used very little ambience on the kit. The room mics were all muted. I also used BFD2's dampening function to get the drums to sound as close to the record as I could."

"I plugged that straight into an SSL preamp and used Native Instruments Guitar Rig 4 plug in. I used their SVT model. I used a pick which is also a crucial part of getting the Beatles bass tone."

"For guitars I used a custom Ernie Ball Music Man Axis, an Ernie Ball Music Man Silhouette Special, a Rickenbacker 325V59 and an Ibanez AE-30 acoustic."

"For guitars I used a custom Ernie Ball Music Man Axis, an Ernie Ball Music Man Silhouette Special, a Rickenbacker 325V59 and an Ibanez AE-30 acoustic."

"I borrowed my friend, Chris Segalini's Vox AC-30 amp and used my little Brian May amp as a preamp and that got me really close. I even miked up that little amp for a couple of tracks."

In this rig photo posted by Castellano, the Line 6 Helix multi-effects unit can be seen.

In this rig photo posted by Castellano, the MOTU 8pre can be seen in his rack.

In this video, Castellano can be seen exploring the sounds of JHS Andy Timmons signature pedal.

In this rack photo from Castellano, the Behringer Powerplay Pro 8 can be seen.

In this photo, the Roland Handsonic can be seen, as part of Castellano's new gear.

"This is one of those pieces of gear I bought for one specific gig and thought I'd never use it again. Wrong! I use this thing constantly. What a great, handy tool!"

"Had to bust out the wah for a session. This is my favorite one."