Born Annoying

Page Hamilton’s Rig Walkthrough

Last updated on January 15, 2010

The following is taken from a couple of emails between me and Page in July ‘05. I’ve tidied it up a bit, but other than that it’s verbatim. Photographs provided by Page Hamilton and Brandon Brooks. More up-to-date information is available here.

Oh, and just in case you’re inspired by this article to head right out to Bob’s Music Emporium, you may wish to know that the VHT products mentioned herein are now manufactured under the name Fryette Amplification. Same company; new name.

Page: I plug into a VHT Valvulator which contains a 12AX7 tube. It powers the pedals I have on the floor (to be distinguished from those in the rack) and provides a tube buffer. This means that the impedance gets fixed so my sound doesn’t get sucked up by putting shit in between the guitar and amp.

The pedal board:

1. my trusty 1974 Vox wah
2. old MXR Dyna Comp
3. older MXR Distortion +
4. Boss tuner
5. Custom Audio switcher (RS-1?)
6. Boss Volume which I use as a CV pedal to control the Digitech Whammy which lives in the rack
7. a generic footswitch that engages my old MXR Micro-Flange that also lives in the rack

The rack has this stuff:

1. Lexicon MPX G2 (the same unit I used with Bowie in ‘99 but we’ve installed the upgrade chip)
2. Korg SDD 2000 (this is the oldest piece of rack gear I own and was used on everything from Geisha-to-Go up to stuff on Betty)
3. Prescription Outbox (Jack at Prescription did a mod on this pedal so it would match the two proto-type pedals he made for me years ago)
4. MXR Micro-Flange
5. Way Huge Blue Hippo (chorus)
6. Boss NS-2 noise Gate
7. Tech 21 XXL (distortion)
8. Digitech Whammy pedal
9. MXR/Dunlop Octave box
10. Custom Audio Electronics switcher
11. Furman rack power

I think this covers the stuff in the rack.

I have 2 remaining loops in the rack switcher to switch my VHT Ultra-Lead channels between rhythm and lead (the clean channel is the default channel. I use it on the verse for Enemies along with the MXR octave box.

VHT head #1 sends to VHT head #2 (through the Custom Audio rack switcher) so I have two 100 watt heads to drive the two VHT 4×12 cabinets containing Eminence P-50 speakers. I’m only using the power amp section of the second VHT head, i.e. the pre-amp of VHT head #1 is being amplified by separate power from each head. This is louder and sounds much better than driving two cabs off of one head.”

My guitars are ESPs. For the last year I’ve been using my two old Horizon Custom ESPs. They both have Floyd Rose whammy bars and they both sound amazing.

Me: I’m curious about the amp arrangement. Do you run the levels high enough on head #2’s power stage that it saturates, adding power tube saturation to the signal coming from head #1, or would that just get messy?

Also, I’d get killed if I didn’t ask about the pickups: are you still using the DiMarzio Air Zone and, if so, are they stock or custom wound?

Page: The 100Watt VHT heads have a shitload of headroom so I doubt that I’m getting much overdrive from the power section. I run them loud (stage volume is between 115 and 118db) and balance the volume between the two. I run the gain on head #1 high enough that I want the power to be pretty clean so I can hear my fantastic fake-jazz chord voicings.

I am still using whatever pickups Steve Blucher at DiMarzio sends out to me. They are a variation of the Tone Zone Light/ Airzone (I’m not sure what they call ‘em now) and have been slightly tweaked from the original pickups he made for me back in 1992 after I dragged him down to listen to my guitar sound full volume in the Helmet Mott Street basement (that was same place I wrote the Meantime album in full winter regalia in front of a space heater). Steve is a bona fide genius, as is Steve Fryette from VHT. I love ‘em both and they are both insane! I’m very lucky to work with guys that can actually hear.

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