Ouestions for Gary Moore's guitar tech

LHakim said:

"Gary owned a single cutaway 1955 Les Paul Junior which he had obtained from Paul Jones of the Sex Pistols which he used live in 1983-4."

And here it is in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcH58wgqlFU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcH58wgqlFU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcH58wgqlFU

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Tom Wittrock said:

Oslo, Germany .... ?? :wah :ganz

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Emerald said:

Tom you haven't been to Oslo Germany??
Emerald

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Emerald said:

I have a question for the US Gary Moore fans. Did anyone attend a concert by Gary at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles on Wednesday May 20th 1992. This was the start of the "After Hours" tour. Gary had two US shows scheduled, the LA show and the NYC show at the Beacon Theater which I attended, the first and only time I ever saw Gary live.
I never heard any review of or any audio/video of this show so my question is, did this concert ever go ahead?
The show is listed on the two concert t shirts I bought but never have over the years heard about this show, here is a ticket stub:

Any info would be appreciated, thanks in advance!
Emerald

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spidey said:

+ 1 googolplex

I watch that footage regularly. Particularly Sleepy Time Time.

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Jonathan748 said:

I was at the Universal show, regrettably this was the last time I saw Gary play live, as I got a little jaded with the records that came later. He brought out Albert Collins and Albert King for guest spots at Universal. It was a great show and so very different to the numerous other shows that I have seen. I cannot recall which of his earlier songs he put into the set but I think Parisienne Walkways was played along with the blues tunes. Around this period I was asked to run sound for a few shows at am old Blues club that was being brought back to life in South Central LA. I played some of the Still Got The Blues album over the PA and was told to "Take this Sh*@ off, this ain't Blues".

Prior to the 1992 show I also saw Gary play at the Waters Club in San Pedro CA in August 1987 when he was touring the Wild Frontier album - he was playing Greeny, his 62 Strat and the later EMG Charvels.

Other Gary Moore gigs I was at:

Hammersmith Odeon 1985 Run For Cover Tour, I think this may have been Phil Lynott's last live performance before he passed away, he struggled to sing and play the encore songs Parisienne Walkways, Out In The Fields and Back On The Streets. Gary was playing the white Hamer with 2 HB and Floyd Rose. Emerald - do you know what happened to that guitar? I have been trying to find one for ever.

Hammersmith Odeon - Victims of the Future Tour with Ian Paice now onboard

Leicester Polytechnic College - Greg Lake tour 1981, a few of Gary's songs were played, Back on the Streets, Nuclear Attack, Parisienne Walkways. He was playing the earlier Charvels that he first had around the G Force tour. The leopard print paint job 2 humbucker Charvel had been stripped back to bare wood, which was Purple Heart, very heavy and dense. I talked with Gary after the show and cheekily asked him if he would sell me his other Charvel with candy apple red finish to which he laughed and told me "eff off, I still play it".

Marquee, Wardour Street 1980 - Gary played 3 nights in a row, I caught the first and last night shows. The last night was recorded and this is what can be found on CD. The playing that night when they were being recorded was far away from the level that he and the band were at when not under the pressure of "we're being taped for a record". I was stunned how much better they played the first night. I was still in High School that year and we skipped school to get up to London early. The Marquee in Wardour Street was a very small club, we got talking to Gary's tech who was setting up for soundcheck. We recognized him as the same guy we had seen at Jeff Becks There and Back show at Hammersmith a few months earlier and got talking guitars. He kindly let us hang out and ask questions about the gear. Gary was playing through a pair of Marshalls that had modified power section "putting out close to 200 watts". He had an early rack mount digital delay. The guitars were Greeny, the 62 Strat, LP Junior, and the purple heart Charvel. I got a few minutes backstage to play Greeny, it was a beast , very high action and at that time strung with Ernie Balls 11-52 if I recall. "If Gary comes back - put it down , he'll kill you" .

Hammersmith Odeon - G Force opening for Whitesnake 1980 - great show, would have been even greater if Glenn Hughes had worked out and been in the band. Played the Charvel with leopard print paint job, Dimarzio X2n humbucker in the bridge.

Sadly I missed the opportunity to go to see Thin Lizzy on the Black Rose tour as I had not yet embraced Gary's playing style versus the Brian Robertson Live and Dangerous material. That quickly changed once I got the Back On The Streets LP which I spent many hours learning to play note for note - if only we'd had Youtube in those days!

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Blacksheep said:

great pity that line up didnt do more.
Gary Husband was to be the drummer in what became BBM but was unavailable so Ginger Baker took over. With Husband that line up may have stayed together a bit longer.

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Emerald said:

Gary then joined Colosseum II in 1975 with Jon Hiseman on drums. Gary used the Greeny Les Paul, a Fender Strat and for amps a Vox AC30 and Marshall 100 watt amp and cabinets.
Gary remained with Colosseum through 1978 but again temporarily rejoined Thin Lizzy in 1977 replacing the injured Brian Robertson for a tour.
Gary worked on Andrew Lloyd Weber’s LP Variations during his stint with Colosseum.
When Gary finally left Colloseum II in 1978 he rejoined Thin Lizzy as a permanent member recording the album Black Rose.
Gary used a late fifties single cutaway Gibson Melody Maker with Lizzy live. He had this guitar modified by placing a DiMarzio Super Distortion crème colored humbucking pickup in the bridge position replacing the stock single coil pick up.
In Lizzy Gary used various Marshall JMP amplifiers including a 50 watt Marshall combo amp on stage.
Also in 1978 he recorded his first major solo record Back On The Streets with various guest artists including Phil Lynott.
Gary was again using the ’59 Les Paul for this project.
Gary formed the first Gary Moore Band and recorded 1982’s Corridors of Power.
On the song Don’t Take Me For A Loser Gary explains his use of different guitar tones:
“Yes I used different instruments. The solo’s got kind of a strange sound because the guitar was split in two and one side went through a Maestro octave divider and then directly to the mixing desk, and the other side went through a little monitor on a 2-track tape recorder. We routed the guitar through that and turned it up until it distorted, and then we put a mike on it. So we had a dirty guitar sound coming through this tiny speaker, and this kind of very clean open sound with an octave divider on it.”
Asked how he gets feedback and sustain in the studio Gary replied, “I just drive the **** out of my amp with the Strat and the distortion. You know, it’s like I’ve got three gain stages, I suppose because it’s going through the Roland digital stuff, which has extra gain on it. So I drive that as hard as I can. Of course, there’s so much gain that I can’t take my hands off the guitar without it screaming (laughs).”
This era was the first where Gary used 3 volume pedals on the stage to control other players signal through his top Marshall cabinets.
Asked if he sent his guitar signal through one of his monitor cabs Gary replied, “No. The only thing that goes through the monitors onstage is vocals and drums. I do have a pretty elaborate monitoring system that comes through my spare Marshall cabinets.
I’ve got four stacks behind me, but the top cabinets have bass, keyboards, and Neil Carter’s guitar. Then I have three Boss FV-100 volume pedals on the floor in front of me so that I can balance them out as I’m playing, without having to yell at the monitor guy. I’ve had too many years of doing that.”
Are your Strat’s stock? “Yeah they’re all stock. They’re stupid guitars. One of them is a real old one- like a ’61. I guess it’s pink. It’s my main one that was stolen before I went on tour and it was later returned. I think one of the British Customs people must have stolen it. It went on the Interpol computer, and then the FBI over here was after it, and suddenly it reappeared in Houston. The guy must have gotten cold feet, and put it on a plane to somewhere he knew I’d get it. In the meantime I bought this white one, which is a brand new version of a ’62, with a rosewood finger-board. It’s also stock. I just got to like it, so I’ve been using it for most of the shows.”
When Gary joined Greg Lake to record and tour , Gary came to acquire the ’61 Fiesta Red Strat. The story goes that Greg was looking for guitars that were in pristine condition and Gary hoped he would pass on the red Strat as it was a really good player and he wanted it! It had some wear on it and Gary ended up with it. It had been owned by famous British rocker Tommy Steele previously.
Victims of the Future followed in 1983.
Gary described how he modified his Strats: “I use three tremolo springs. I’ve had the frets done, too. Fender frets are very sharp so I had fatter ones like on Les Pauls put in – Jim Dunlops.
Can you describe your stage effects?
“I use a Roland SRE-555 Chorus/Echo and a Roland SDE-3000 Digital Delay which has a programmable memory. It’s great for me onstage because I can preprogram all my flanging and chorusing parameters, so I can have them exactly the way I want them. It’s great because I only need two switches onstage for recalling presets and turning it on and off. You can bend the pitch of the echo with this other pedal of you want, and you can lengthen or shorten the echo the same way. It’s very easy to work with onstage. So, all my sounds are stored in those two units. The echo you hear from me all the time is kind of a medium-length repeat from the 555, which I use a lot. It’s on almost all the time – especially on the solos. But when I’m playing through a fast rhythm part of something, I leave it off because it turns into a mess otherwise.
Do you use the chorus section of the SRE-555?
No, just the programmable one. I don’t like the sound of the one on the 555 very much, so I just modified the chorus preset on the other unit, and gave it a bit more depth and a bit more range. It suits me better. It’s a slower chorus – a bit more subtle. In general, I don’t like how some choruses mess with the pitch. That’s why I like the Roland SDD-320 Dimension D, for example. It gives you constant pitch, but it also gives you the chorus at the same time. The other chorus sound I have stored in the SDE-3000 is faster, like a Leslie – type chorus, kind of a flanger effect. I use that on “Empty Rooms” for the arpeggio rhythm part.

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Emerald said:

Some pictures of Stripe (not what Gary called her) from the Live at Bush Hall 2007 CD.

Note Gary's original Bluesbreaker combo!
Emerald

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Dr.Rock said:

What kind of colour is that? It always looks a little different.

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Tom Wittrock said:

Stripe in the 80s.
really cool. ok.. i have this theory (yes another theory) some guitars that have a flamey or curly top but not perfect like a part with no flame etc are killer sounding for some reason. i tried to buy into a taylor box guitar for a while but none of them 'did it' for me. then one day i walked into a pawnshop and there was a taylor box with some tight curl on one part of the body and bam! killer awesome sounding box. i snapped it up for 550. im probably dilusional but not sure.

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DennisO said:

Hi.

I have a question for all of you who have the knowledge of Garys equipment. I have got a guitarcase that I belive to have belonged to Gary. It is a battered 60s case that have some stickers on, a Gibson sticker a Thin Lizzy US tour 1979 and a Outlaw Hacket backstage pass. Hope that anyone has some knowledge of this old case

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