Shanks/Hugh/Phil's guitar rig
 

https://www.premierguitar.com/articl...ndown-bon-jovi

This is a great watch if you're a gear nut. Only ten minutes thing and some interesting thing to notes is Shanks repeatedly says he produced "His last six records" referring to Jon which rubbed me the wrong way. He talked about certain tones and guitar parts that are pseudo-Coldplay/U2 which is something we've been saying for years.

I loved it! Very educational.

Shanks looks like a kid on a candy store. He's all like "oh yeah I play for BJ, it's great and I....oh look check my amazing guitar, and this one, and this one, and what about my five hundred pedals!". I loved how nerdy he was about it.

Phil is always fun to watch and I want the sparkly green. It looks gorgeous.

I think Shanks mentioned rehearsing *only* 50 songs? Maybe I heard wrong, I was doing lots of other stuff while watching this on the background.

Oh and I loved Hugh part. He's pretty hilarious in a no-nonsense kind of way. And *drum roll* he has the bass he only uses for STBI, which means that they could play it!! (or that he simply loves to stare at it, that's a pretty cool looking bass) :mrgreen:

It jumped at me too, but he also mentioned David Gilmour several times and the man loves his classic rock. It's really cool to have somebody who clearly enjoys music up there, whether you like the man as a producer or not. Edited to add (because somebody could read this wrong) that I'm not comparing him to anybody else on the band now or in the past, just that I enjoyed listening to someone who clearly loves what they are doing

I also liked his comment about balancing Phil's heavier playing, I think it makes sense and adds to the whole sound, at least to a non trained ear

I never like John Shanks the guitar player, but I like his producing. With that said, he has WAAAAY too much gear. I understand why, producers usually have everything because they don't want to be in a situation where they can't do something because they don't have a particular piece. But I feel like his rig is overkill for this music. It would be fine if he were in U2, but this music doesn't call for all that stuff. Just look at X's segment, it's maybe 10 mins and he's like got two heads and 5 or 6 pedals.

I agree. When he was showing off his pedals and sounds it's just so far from what the classic Bon Jovi sound is. A bit of delay on the solos, some chorus here or there, a heavier distortion and that's good. He's ringing and chiming all over the place.

What song are the guitars tuned in D tuning? And I'm not talkinga bout Drop D, but a full D tuning.
Also, what song is it Hugh are using a pick on that he just can't remember :lol:

It may have been Novocaine.;)

This falls right in line with what I was saying around the time of the promo shows. Rollercoaster and Born again tomorrow are a full step down.

But that can't be true. Shanks plays an acoustic for Roller Coaster which he cleraly says is in Standard E tuning. So it may be Born Again Tomorrow.

Which hasn't been done this tour. I don't mean to call Shanks a liar here but you can clearly hear the low E string tuned to D in the first notes of the song live this tour.

nice video, just watched it all...

1. such a shame sth as extensive wasn never done with richie on board..

2. shanks is a tone nerd, i am a pedal collector as well but he went overboard, i dont really like shanks guitar style, he is an improvement in comparison to the previous guys but still...not a fan of his playing and approach.

3.phil x s guitars look ugly...with 1-2 excemptions i dont like them stylistic wise.

4.it looks like hugh doesnt use amp, just di, usually when they record they use both sound sources, di for the punch and bass amp for the colour warmth, they obviously need definition but he could easily have a high end amp for a second option or sth.

5. i d like them to see them play 3-4 instruments with a couple of bj licks but looked like they avoided it.

6, nice video i enjoyed it, i would love sth like that with richie in previous tours.

I loved Phil's setup.

John Shanks has a 100 grand+ rig to sound freaking awful. Even in his demo's his tone was just awful.

Yep, that's what he said. They've been playing probably 30 different songs or less in total till now. Then we have to count rest of the THINFS-album songs that are surely included in that list. Then we add Captain Crash, Runaway, Make a Memory, I love This Town, Bed of Roses, I'll Be There For You and all that basic stuff, and we soon already have our 50 songs.

Great video though!

Shanks is a wannabe Edge turd. And the interviewer clearly thinks that he is a member of the band...

Phil after the first 10 seconds was already better to watch and listen to...

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I didn't get that impression. I feel like he even said he was helping out the band and didn't really insinuate he was a member of the band.

He's good at guitar but his sound and style is all wrong for them. That being said I prefer his tone to Bobbys.

Maybe he said that at some point, i could've missed it...but it rubbed me the wrong way when he introduced him as "John Shanks of Bon Jovi"

Of course I prefer him over Bobby too but think that his position on stage should not be up front. Put him back where Bobby and O'Ree were then if he takes a solo can move up.

I actually like Phil being over with David, but as for Richie's spot just give it to Huge McDonald now that he's official (he's crammed in there anyway) and keep the touring musicians/producers in the background.



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amazing how Jon Shanks has all these pedals and guitars yet they all sound the same!

Wasn't there a video for the LH tour with Richie's guitar tech?

This video shows exactly the problem John Shanks has and for what he gets criticised here for ages: U2-ish, AC/DC-like, Jeff-Beck-kind-of-guy, van-Halen-loan, Strat-like, Tele-ish, a thousand pedals for every possibility...
He very much focuses on getting the sound others have instead of creating his own. And it's the same with his production and the reason why Bon Jovi aren't relevant anymore. Because the sound they get with his production is the sound too many bands/artists already have and for that reason mainstream radio doesn't care about at all.

He has a nice collection of effects but that has nothing to do with Rock & Roll. Rock & Roll has to be plain and simple: 1-2 overdrive pedals, 1 boost-pedal, 1 reverb/delay and 1 chorus and that's it.
And it says a lot that a video of 01:20, the rhythm guitar player takes 1 hour, the lead guitar player 15 minutes and the bass player 5 minutes. Wrong world...

I think you mean this one from the Have A Nice Day Tour where Richie jams a bit at the beginning and afterwards Lumpy shows some of his guitars?

i agree with most of the comments..

both shanks and x sound and look too much like hire guns, replacements..

the fact they recorded, rehearshed and toured all these songs and have such a hard time remembering them looks bad...

i am glad the guys moved on, richie wanted difeerent things ok but i always hoped bj wouldnt become gnrs...i am happy with the new record but the magic is not there ...

i hope both sides see it and find a solution

Let Richie live his life and the machine that is BJ keep rolling on. The magic can't be forced.

That beginning bit with the jam... so good..

My emotional reaction at first too, but - Even Hugh couldn't remember what one song he uses a pic for - and he has very little gear plus years compared to the others. Shanks imo - wants to appear "smart" and a bit of a control freak, guess that is the producer in him. Phil seems to just be I'll work hard, know the music, awe shucks kind of guy and he trusts his tech to know what to hand him and when on the set list. Why have the information overload if you trust your tech? I still feel like he is very humble and grateful to be playing on that stage. Listening to them - I am not a musician or a gear head but love these interviews, I think I could learn from Phil's pov.

I think they are having fun this go around. Even Tico & David seem "happy". I think they are spacing out, more breaks as they are all older and that takes some of the pressure off to do such hard tours. They "have nothing to prove" like a new band with their first number one. They paid those dues. It will never be the 80's or 90's again - I'm enjoying it again myself for what it is - BonJovi 2017

For me that's just nonsense. Why would it be more rock n roll to use 1-2 overdrive instead of being obviously very serious about your sound and wanting to have a big rig? It's like saying it's more right if a painter uses only 4 colors instead of someone using 20.

I'm not in any way a big Shanks fan but I respect the guy for going out on the road obviously taking the Bon Jovi-job with 120 % seriousness. He's pretty much the perfect hired hand. A guy who has a sound for every possible scenario while Phil can go for his more straigh forward heavy metal sound. It complements each other in a nice way. None is better than the other, it's just two different guitar players with different needs. Phil feels comfortable with a lighter rig while Shanks like going out with a huge variation of sounds to choose from. Neither is better than the other, and neither is more "rock and roll" than the other.

I think the criticism is more to do with shanks having such a big rig and such a variation of sounds and Phil still has the better tone by using just what he has and relying more on his hands and volume and tone controls. That said, I miss Bobby's guitar collection, he brought out such beautiful guitars out on the road (most of the time relying on just one or two per show. Phil's and Shanks guitar collection are not near as impressive....

I don't think that's true at all. Rock & Roll covers quite a broad spectrum of sounds and it's certainly not limited to 1 or 2 overdrive pedals, 1 boost etc...

Additionally I don't think that BJ should be pigeonholed into anyone's concept of "Rock & Roll" - they can do or sound as they please. Shanks, I thought, was very humble and gracious regarding his role in the band - as evidenced by that last thing he said at around the 51:40 mark.

Shanks can easily obtain any of those sounds with few pieces of gear. He has and always will have an attitude of mine is bigger than yours. It works great in the studio, but out on the road it's being a you know what.That attitude is what rubs me the wrong way, not the size of his rig.

https://youtu.be/riPiSyFLVhM

Cool video of Phil playing Richie's flying v

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Not to start drama but there was a video of him filmed from that time period where he...I don't want to say trashed the band, but didn't speak too highly of them. It was taken down once he started playing with the band.

So he hates BJ?

There used to be a part 2 of the video that I think was discussed here before somewhere. It was indeed removed from YouTube. If I remember he kept referring to the guitar as being played by Richie Samboring


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That's the one. He more insinuated the band wasn't his cup of tea and that's fine. He mentioned them having great choruses but boring verses I think it was? It was so long ago. By no means did I get the impression he hates the band.

Must be boring to copy-paste Samoborings guitar parts every night on stage ;)

Yup, the line of "don't bore is get to the chorus"


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And playing through all those boring verses :lol:

I love Phil, his energy and what he's brought to the band, but that's a pretty hypocritical comment from someone who basically writes 2 minute "dude rock" songs when in his band....

Agreed. I do like Phil.

But RS 1986-1996 would run rings around him.


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I have a friend who didn't particularly like a certain Australian band, until he did a gig with them... Apparently they were so nice to him that he bought their entire discography and now they're one of his favourite bands. :lol:

Anyway, people change, and that's okay. ;)

Sure. But it's strange nevertheless. I remember seeing that video, too, and while I don't remember the exact comments, he certainly didn't seem to be a fan of them. And now he states (don't know where exactly it was) that he's always been a fan and that it's a dream come true...

Plus the thing with the tweet about meeting Richie backstage and now stating that he's never met him.

It's almost if he's been instructed by the "boss" to say that ;-)

Well, I suppose it wouldn't surprise me if that has occurred. :p