Ron Asheton

According to this Vintage Guitar magazine article "Asheton’s finest Stratocaster – a ’57 Strat with a maple neck – ended up as the proverbial 'one that got away,' into the hands of Dan Erlewine, guitarist in the Prime Movers, a pre-Stooges blues band for whom Ron played bass."

In this interview with Vintage Guitar, Asheton claims “I just found better fuzzboxes, like the Fuzz Face; I had the Jimi Hendrix ambition.”

According to an interview with Vintage Guitar "Asheton then bought a Gibson Melody Maker from Dave Alexander, when he started playing bass – it still wasn’t dirty enough."

Can be seen in this picture playing a Reverend Jetstream.

Asheton satisfied his guitar amp needs with the Vox Super Beatle (“Because the Beatles and the Stones had it”), until the Stooges supported Cream at Detroit’s famed Grande Ballroom.

In this photo from an April 1968 Stooges show (then known as The Psychedelic Stooges) at the Ann Arbor Armory, Ron can be seen playing a Jazzmaster.

“I’ve still got the standard DOD distortion pedals, Boss pedals, flangers, the distortion box, and the graphic equalizer,” he said. “I collect those like candy boxes. They’re more expensive now – in the old days, I used to get Vox wah-wah pedals for $35. Now they seem to go for as much as $200.”

The amp head can be seen in the background of this pic.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CTpQydzLZay/

Ron Asheton's sister uploaded some photos of his Marshall JCM 800 head including settings. See details.

The Stratocaster remains one of Asheton’s primary guitars today (“..because of the whammy bar, and that good, clean sound it gets with wah-wah, that biting, hurts-your-ears sound”), but he also owns three Guild X79s (“It had the good pickups, and it just barked“), a Gibson SG Junior, and a 1969 Gibson Les Paul, which has “great sustain – but if you’ve got it on for a couple hours, it gets heavy on your shoulder,” he said.

“I’ve still got the standard DOD distortion pedals, Boss pedals, flangers, the distortion box, and the graphic equalizer,” he said. “I collect those like candy boxes. They’re more expensive now – in the old days, I used to get Vox wah-wah pedals for $35. Now they seem to go for as much as $200.”

Ron Asheton playing a Flying V at the 1969 Delta Pop Festival (as seen most clearly at the 1:44 mark). He played on this guitar for half of the songs on The Stooges' self-titled debut album before switching over to a Stratocaster.

For effects, Asheton stands by an Ibanez box with a 60-watt chorus, tube screamer, and compressor.

Can be seen using the guitar in this pic of a live with Destroy All Monsters. He also said in an interview from vintageguitars.com that “It had the good pickups, and it just barked“

Ron also had a signature "Volcano" Flying V type guitar from Reverend Guitars

https://www.reverendguitars.com/artists https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/reverend-ron-asheton-signature-guitar-1

For bass amps, Asheton relied on Sunn 2000s.

“It was a bigger improvement of the old Sunn 200s I had, and that was a mighty setup,” he said. “At times, I would get to use doubles [stacks] for awhile, and when you’re standing behind that, it rattles your chest, really shakes your innards up.”

Marshall 100-watt amps were mandatory to cut through the often-sludgy sound of that era’s arenas and coliseums, Asheton points out. In time, he crafted a double or triple stack, “Where they take 200-watt heads, and they’d use a 50-watt head as a preamp – so I had the big sound,” he said. “If I may use the overused word – it’s awesome.”

In this image one can see Ron Ashton's Marshall Supa Fuzz next to a Wah pedal. Pay attention to its shape, a very distinctive kind of shape. Marshall Supa Fuzz has a shape all its own. It resembles Vox Tone Bender shape just a little bit. Marshall knobs are placed on the higher part allocated with the noticeable slope in this cast body.

The Stratocaster remains one of Asheton’s primary guitars today (“..because of the whammy bar, and that good, clean sound it gets with wah-wah, that biting, hurts-your-ears sound”), but he also owns three Guild X79s (“It had the good pickups, and it just barked“), a Gibson SG Junior, and a 1969 Gibson Les Paul, which has “great sustain – but if you’ve got it on for a couple hours, it gets heavy on your shoulder,” he said.

“My first electric was a brand new Telecaster because [Yardbirds guitarist] Jeff Beck was playing a Telecaster,” he said. “I wound up not keeping it, because it was too clean. I was looking for a more dirty sound.” He pauses to deliver the punchline, “Because the distortion hides your lack of prowess and technique.”

One of two 3-pickup Reverend Avenger models custom made for him by company founder Joe Naylor. Reverend’s proprietary bass contour knob was developed at Asheton’s request. Later, Naylor created a V-shaped signature model for Asheton.

In this photo, Ron can be seen playing a Firebird at a 2008 gig in Toronto.

Marshall 100-watt amps were mandatory to cut through the often-sludgy sound of that era’s arenas and coliseums, Asheton points out. In time, he crafted a double or triple stack, “Where they take 200-watt heads, and they’d use a 50-watt head as a preamp – so I had the big sound,” he said. “If I may use the overused word – it’s awesome.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHYB7gSl4On/

"His original Pignose he used as far back as I can remember".

See the post for details.

Primary basses included a Gibson EB-3, on which he recorded Raw Power, and an Epiphone with three pickups, “Which was stolen at the airport,” said Asheton. “I could get that really tinny sound on ‘Raw Power,’ that trebly, abrasive, tinny sound

For practice he prefers a Honeytone and the ubiquitous Pignose.

Here is seen playing a Guild JS II Bass. (circa 1973, Live at Whisky A Go Go)

In an Instagram post, Ron Asheton is pictured playing a Fender Precision Bass.

Ron Asheton was reportedly seen playing a Gibson SB-400 Bass during tours with Iggy and The Stooges around 1972-73. A discussion on TalkBass.com mentions a photo that suggests he used a long-scale SB-400 during this period.

Asheton now uses several amps, including a 100-watt 4 X 12 Marshall with a slant cabinet, and two 50-watt heads. He’s also excited by his 30 and 80-watt 4 X 12 Naylor amps, for different reasons.

Ron Asheton's sister shared a picture of his Reverend Hellhound 40/60 head. See details.