Saturday, March 29, 2025
GuitarGuitar Effects

Rig Rundown – John Fogerty Band


Article and photos: http://bit.ly/JohnFogertyBandRR

John Fogerty’s main road guitar is a late-’60s or early-’70s Gibson Les Paul goldtop with a wraparound bridge and its original P-90 pickups that really punch through the mix.

Used also as much as the goldtop on the 2015 Fogerty tour, this stock late-’60s or early-’70s Gibson Les Paul Custom “Black Beauty” is in remarkably good shape, all things considered.

Made by Phil Kubicki (builder of the famous Ex Factor bass from 1983), all three versions of Fogerty’s iconic “bat guitar” feature an authentic Louisville Slugger brand and Strat-style electronics—a 5-way selector and a volume and two tone knobs—along the body’s upper edge.

When Fogerty wants the first CCR album’s vibe, he plays this custom 1997 Rickenbacker with three “toaster” pickups and a Bigsby vibrato.

To continue learning about Fogerty’s setup, visit: http://bit.ly/JohnFogertyBandRR

#Rig #Rundown #John #Fogerty #Band

Originally posted by UC5J-hZ4wNf7OlkzIn49LHoQ at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mFDpVfD4D8

37 thoughts on “Rig Rundown – John Fogerty Band

  • John´s got one of the best guitar tones ever. It took me alomost 50 yrs to appreciate it ????

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  • Hi John & family, thank you for all the wonderful music over the years…when I came back from Vietnam I bought a home in Great falls, Montana just down from your grandmother's home…..in time she had to go to a care facility and my wife and I bought some things when your mom came up to settle the estate…your art form gave me hope in Vietnam…thank you….Paul Scarpelli

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  • The Goldtop is a 1972 made 54 reissue. You can tell by wrap around tailpiece and lack of bridge, along with the Gibson embossed plastic covers on the pickups.

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  • That Black “Custom” LP is not a “Black Beauty”..which is actually a mid-‘50’s Les Paul.

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  • In ‘69, John had a Gibson ES-175, which he used on the ‘Bayou Country’ album, stolen out of his car, not a Rickenbacker. From that point is when he found the Black Beauty Les Paul Custom and recorded such classics as Bad Moon Rising, Fortunate Son, Run Through The Jungle, etc. The Rickenbacker is a 325 Rose Morris model(imported 3/4 scale) John’s ‘ACME’ Rickenbacker 325 had a humbucker installed in the bridge position in place of the toaster pickup.

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  • I have a couple of old CCR posters with John playing a Les Paul very similar to the "black beauty" shown by Shane, but the one on the posters has red in between and almost around the pickups.
    Wonder what happened to THAT guitar?????

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  • It's interesting to see Shane with a Rickenbacker that looks so similar to his dad's famous guitar that was still missing at the time. My name can be added to those who are delighted that John got his special guitar back.

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  • Fogerty is one of the last people I pictured playing a VH4. I know he’s not using channel 3 or 4 but still.

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  • John's Own Fortunate Son. LOL I'm sorry dude. I couldn't stop myself. I'm sure you've heard this same quote a million x's

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  • Makes you long for the old days when things were simple, like at Woodstock, they sounded awesome.

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  • When he's showing John Fogerty's Les Paul Custom I believe he made an error. The customs were known to be all mahogany. No maple cap. Les Paul himself actually preferred that darker, warmer tone hence why he played one. He also mentions the 50s ones were all mahogany without the maple cap. The 50's Les Paul's definitely had maple caps with the exception of Custom models and the lower Junior models. But hey, as a guitar tech he probably has a lot to keep up with and he's most likely exhausted. I'm sure he didn't mean to say what he did. My comment is mostly to keep others from being misinformed on vintage Les Paul specs.

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  • at 0:41 He says that first LP Custom is "a mid to late 90s" but it has a volute. perhaps it was a 90s reissue of a 70s-era Custom? were they even doing that just 20 years after the initial Norlin changes. I see it has the modern (non-milk bottle) larger grovers. but those could've been added after the fact as well. guess we'll never know

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  • John's original Rickenbacker was not stolen, he gave it away to some kid after CCR crumbled. And it was not a 360, it was 325. He just recently got it back! What a great story and happy ending!

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  • That baseball guitar is really ingenious.
    I'm surprised Gibson did a custom plaid top LP. Most of the time they tell the artist that it can't be done and to pound sand. Until the artist goes somewhere else to get it built, becomes iconic and whose knocking at your back door? Yep Gibson.

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  • "Big and fat"???? Huh? The EXACT reason I had a rick was because it was NOT "big and fat" it was ALL treble. Big and fat would be more like my ESP viper with twin SD humbuckers

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  • I used a deluxe reverb the entire time I was out playing live. such a versatile little amp that isn't hard to carry. You can get those tubes hot and with just bit of an over drive / distortion pedal depending on what speaker you are using you copy almost any amp out there for a live setting. More importantly with out being tooo loud.

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  • "This is his fav goldtop" man he got so many Les Pauls already. I'm happy with my 84 pink tokai strat super edition, but damn he got the good toys.

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