The Sound Of Mick Ronson With Phil Harris | Guitar Interactive Magazine

bit.ly/MickRons... Read the full feature in Issue 22! Guitar Interactive's vintage gear guru Phil Harris demos the exact gear used by Mick Ronson in his short but spectacular life! bit.ly/MickRons...
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[@toddcathey2620]

He will always be known for the closing of moonage daydream.

[@madeleinehague648]

Where's Mick's tone? That's missing here.

[@TheDogPa]

+Madeleine Hague I saw him 8 times and every time it was through a Fender Twin!

[@amaurythewarrior]

@@TheDogPa when was that though?

[@TheDogPa]

@@amaurythewarrior I saw him and got to hang out with him a tiny bit during the shows he did with Ian Hunter at the Roxy when Welcome To The Club was recorded.

[@amaurythewarrior]

@@TheDogPa i see. i was asking because i don't know ronson's work outside of bowie, and i don't believe he played fender at that time.

[@andrewt248]

That's some special kind of intonation, right there.

[@philfrite5324]

my 68 custom had the fretboard scalloped and the pickups ruined by the guy I got it from... but as with yours, it made it affordable and nothing a local luthier couldn't sort while keeping the original bindings. Amazing sounding guitar though, and reassuringly heavy! Had it for about 35 yrs now.

[@moondog102]

Mick used a 200 watt Marshall Major a lot of the time and the wah pedal switched on and almost fully down nearly resting on the switch. Good video thanks for posting and I'll keep my eye on this channel from now on. I'm from 'Ull me, like...

[@firdausHITMAN]

Thank you Phil.

[@jeffreyrwilliams9345]

Thanx for the insights, Mick was definitely Historic guitarist,loved him!

[@petermcnally4277]

I don't understand all of the negativity, I think it was a great demonstration.

[@iainholmes2735]

That's a lovely setup.

[@babydaddy1930]

Yeah absolutely beautiful...pretty cool guy

[@charmingferret5916]

Beautiful looking guitar.

[@farmtracks1]

Would have liked to hear Phil play some Ronson riffs though...

[@michaeladamcaira9174]

Maybe you mean Mack Ronson, definitely not Micks sound

[@philcilia4482]

What a lash up! Ronno deserves better!

[@vincehall]

where is the most important part of the ronno sound ???? the TONEBENDER MK1 ????

[@claesvanoldenphatt9972]

Vince Hall thought it was Mk II

[@thekitowl]

Claes vanOldenphatt no definitely a Mk1 same as his hero Jeff Beck.

[@nicksternberg579]

That's debatable - listen to some demos of Marshall 'Pigs' and you'll see that they do the Ziggy sound just fine without any fuzz pedals. Mick's Tone Bender was probably only used quite sparingly. Funnily enough, Phil Harris used to own one of very few surviving examples of the 'MKI', but he sold it to another collector loooooong before this video was made.

[@ralex3697]

Vince Hall The deep sustain is no where present which was a big part of Mick’s style This was not researched correctly.

[@johnpandolfino8663]

You nailed it mate.....nice playing...

[@jasonfrodoman1316]

Interview with Ronson he stated equipment was secondary to the players style.

[@Heatfarmer]

Yes, the same goes for a lot of other guitar heroes. But here you got nothing, neither the tone, nor the players style.

[@RedOakCrow]

Are the vintage 60's\70's Les Pauls really superior in sound to more recent builds?

[@bryanwilliams3665]

westwizard: They're superior sound wise if you prefer the sound of T Top pickups ( 70s Tones)..If you prefer the PAF tones , the more recent builds which utilise Burstbuckers and Classic 57s will be more your thing. On my Channel , using "Correct Pickups" I replicate Jimmy Pages 1973 live tone using firstly a relatively expensive instrument and secondly a dirt cheap $600 instrument.. Both these guitars will get much closer to that 1973 tone than any Stock Gibson instrument ( including any Custom shop piece) that DOESN'T have correct humbuckers...The Wood is far far further down the food chain compared to pickups when influencing tone on a Solid Body guitar .

[@AnthonyBurrito1313]

Nailed it

[@sld67869801]

Is it just me or does the guitar tone kind of sound like that on Def Leppard's High & Dry album?

[@salmonline]

DO NOT comment negatively on this man's tone until you have listened to the soundtrack from the Ziggy Stardust Movie. He has nailed Mick's live tone from that era almost perfectly without actually trying to mimic him. Educated commenters make for better reading, guys.

[@Heatfarmer]

Come on!! Its nowhere near that tone.....

[@ralex3697]

salmonline Not even close

[@salmonline]

@@Heatfarmer He has nailed Mick's live tone from that era almost perfectly without actually trying to mimic him. Educated commenters make for better reading, guys.

[@salmonline]

@@ralex3697 He has nailed Mick's live tone from that era almost perfectly without actually trying to mimic him. Educated commenters make for better reading, guys.

[@Heatfarmer]

@@salmonline Stop repeating yourself endlessly. Nobody, except you, think that this is close to Micks tone, studio or live!

[@philipsanders9192]

Thank you

[@christianstephan2506]

I get my mick ronson sound with the following, 1976 Yamaha sg500, ee verge of break up,hx germanium od,and a Laney cub12r on the verge of berak-up and vox wah.

[@1388Anthony1]

He forgot the MK1 tonebender. I thought Ronson used marshall majors too? I have a 50 watt 71 JMP metal front just like that one its a fucking great amp. Ronson was great very underrated.

[@Heatfarmer]

LP custom, tone bender, any semiclean tube amp with 4x12, no tube saturation like in this clip. Forget the rumours about wahs being stuck in the mid position. The guitar and the tone bender is all you need. This guy doesn't sound even close.

[@aaronpeters1891]

Dude, get it set up. For all of us.

[@Scrappalino]

How about the famous 200 watt Marshall he used... "The Pig"??? No mention of that famous head??? Cool demo... And with Mr. Glen Campbell's old guitar (i'm guessing that's who you are referencing)? I think you nailed the tone spot on! Cheers!

[@teddyboy9116]

where's the Mick Ronson sound then????

[@smoovegittar]

Sounds like this axe needs a setup.

[@farmtracks1]

Serious intonation problem on this guitar...

[@kth5077]

farmtracks1 ... It's a Gibson. What did you expect.?

[@valrisdon7146]

Hi Phil, nice work. Is that my old Marshall 50 that you are using in this video....looks so much like it !!

[@brians3948]

Informative. Thanks man

[@The.Last.Guitar.Hero.]

oh dear quite a few 'guitar heroes' on here. wish i could play this well

[@stevebell4763]

Ronno played the prettiest star solo on the album version I think though

[@jimszikk775]

I only seen Mick using a hiwatt amp and later on Fender or was it Vox (pretty sure Fender).

[@terencereading5535]

Where is the tonebender mk1?

[@Heatfarmer]

A fuzzbox, Sola sound made them under their own brand. Vox , Marshall and Park licensed them.

[@AnthonyBurrito1313]

tune it mate

[@evo1236]

Love Ronno! Which two albums does he mean?

[@thekitowl]

Evo 123 I presume he meant Slaughter on tenth Avenue & Play don’t Worry. Both made after the Spiders from Mars period.

[@r.christopherfowler2088]

Coolness!

[@MattDonaldson]

what about the amp settings?? I heard Ronson had a unique setting on his amps.

[@TelecasterLPGTop]

Excellent demo of yet another Les Paul. I love the '58 LPs but prefer the '56 with those P-90s yeah I know that they are really noisy but at stage volumes you can't hear it.

[@anzatzi]

Awesome overtones on sustain notes and interesting commentary. Why no bowie riffs?

[@paulfrantizek102]

Likely copyright strike concerns.

[@Iancozz]

Go listen to Troppi Silente he does a great sound not even using the right equipment. Didn't recognise any of that

[@jclev99]

Tune up

[@martinconcannon7140]

You made my otherwise shit day worth getting up for,thanks

[@jamesm3060]

Intonation is so bad he has to retune the guitar when he goes above the 12th fret!

[@masterblasters100]

Have you sanded that top yet or what

[@glennevans5824]

Yah. Gotta love this .....les Paul and a Marshall....power chords your good to go.

[@RandomGuitarist96]

Needs more wah

[@zzubuzz]

I'm always imitating Sammy Davis Jr. doing that song Suffragette City - "Hey man"...ahh leave me along you know "Hey man,

[@BazNard]

I got VD off Mick Ronson

[@lawrencekay1096]

I love the Mick Ronson sound but sorry Phil, this isn't it... you got the wrong album, he never played in the Sex Pistol you know? Put on Ziggy and get the headphones on. With regard to tuning and intonation, in my experience, none of the Gibson's LP's I ever bought could keep in tune that well. And they didn't behave much better after spending a small fortune on getting the nut and frets sorted out. I have Fenders and Duesenbergs and they do not seem to suffer the same issues. i do have a beautiful 2005 LP Custom but it's not a patch on the Duesenberg 49er for playability (and I haven't spent a bean on that one since purchase, except for string changes)

[@ralex3697]

Lawrence Kay Or Aladdin Sane or Pin UPS

[@ignatiusandrew]

0:24 song's title?

[@superbeast3000]

HELLO WHERE IS THE TONEBENDER?!?!?! And he used a modded Marshall Major, which although is capable of 200 watts, Mick removed 2 of the power tubes to run it at 100 watts. Micks actual signal chain Les Paul Custom-> Modded Tonebender MK1 (gift from Pete Townsend of The Who)-> Itallian made Crybaby->Marshall Major. Here is a shot from the Ziggy movie of his pedals where you can actually see the Tonebender in front of the wah. kzbin.info/www/bejne/a5iZXmCHpLWmeq8m24s He also used an Echoplex from time to time.

[@sparkyarreff1917]

+Curtis Ulin Bravo! Accurate information with a video reference, outstanding!

[@EwanMack]

+Curtis Ulin I read that the tonebender used to belong to Townshend but he sold it and Ronson bought it later. A guy at ManlaySound builds an amazing clone called the RonnoBender, check out his videos. Nailed it!!

[@superbeast3000]

+gleneski already have one...

[@EwanMack]

+gleneski MELODY MAKER June 9, 1973 What equipment does Mick Ronson use with Spiders From Mars? Can he please give me some tips on lead guitar playing? - Lee Bennett, Teddington On stage I use two Gibson Les Paul Custom guitars, with another as spare, placed on a convenient stand. I use Rotosound strings and the gauges are: 00.09 (1st), 00.11 (2nd), 00.14 (3rd), 00.25 (4th), 00.35 (5th) and 00.44 (6th). My amplifier is a Marshall 200-watt with one 120-watt Marshall cabinet containing four 12 in. Celestion speakers. I use a Cry Baby wah-wah pedal and an American Tonebender which used to belong to Pete Townsend. He sold it to someone else about seven years ago and I bought it for L5. It is the only one of its kind I have ever seen.Other guitars I possess are a Yamaha acoustic, a Brazilian Carlos Robelli acoustic, a Gibson black SG Special and a Fender Mustang. My advice on lead guitar playing is to suggest that you do what I did when I was starting. I listened carefully to my favorite guitarists on stage and records, notably Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richard and George Harrison, and watched exactly how they played, where they put their fingers, and how they got the sounds. I put two and two together, went home and practised until I could do it myself. - MICK RONSON

[@Nazzz65]

RON-NNNNN-OOOOO!!!!!! Love on ya!!!

[@Nazzz65]

Chess

[@mickronson8039]

Live he famously used the 200 watt 'Marshall Pig'... and sometimes coupled with Simms Watts... Your tone isn't authentic... I can get a nearer tone than yours with a LP Studio and a couple of my 'magic' (not a brand!) pedals and a Fender Super Reverb of all things! Oh he left the Cry Baby half cocked all the time... he got the WAH with pick dynamics... not treadling...

[@zzubuzz]

The top carve on that 68 looks just like those from the late 50's, probably used the same carving template, saw machine and slack belt sanding method. Don't see why Gibson couldn't find a late 50's with nice carve and have it scanned and uploaded to a CNC. I say "nice" because they were not all the same exact carve, they varied in how deep the dish went, but they were all very uniform.

[@johnpainter4563]

Ace Ronson?

[@jammyfacefook]

great knowledge of chord positions on show in this video regardless of shameless sales attempts

[@gusdupree9076]

Bradders sales?,,,?yeah u know celebrity owned les paul custom and vintage pkexis,or maybe poor ppl who cant scrape tofether a couple a grand, it's not that hard to save up, so yoy to can have nice things

[@bhoodog]

hmm, not so sure.... try this for more on Mick's gear and sound... facebook.com/MickRonsonGear

[@hmn999]

Never heard Ronno squeal like that. Doesn't sound very authentic to me.

[@chicluvr69]

He did have his squeally moments.

[@ivorharden]

"Just crank the Amp"

[@69glamboy]

Wow. This might be Phil Harris' " sound" , it certainly isn't Mick Ronson's! At least play some Bowie era riffs to try and draw some "likers". All i hear are second rate Saxon riffs and shitty vibrato leads. ( i'm trying to be positive) over a bassy/ muddy set up. Mick had a original " violin" type tone that very few others had in the day. Brian May was another with this " tone". Get some ear candeling done and put up another revised video. Sorry for being harsh. No homework was done.

[@gosoku2771]

String gauge please. I'm more interested in that than anything. 9's, 10's what?

[@EwanMack]

+gosoku2 Ronson used Rotosound 9's

[@EwanMack]

+gleneski MELODY MAKER June 9, 1973 What equipment does Mick Ronson use with Spiders From Mars? Can he please give me some tips on lead guitar playing? - Lee Bennett, Teddington On stage I use two Gibson Les Paul Custom guitars, with another as spare, placed on a convenient stand. I use Rotosound strings and the gauges are: 00.09 (1st), 00.11 (2nd), 00.14 (3rd), 00.25 (4th), 00.35 (5th) and 00.44 (6th). My amplifier is a Marshall 200-watt with one 120-watt Marshall cabinet containing four 12 in. Celestion speakers. I use a Cry Baby wah-wah pedal and an American Tonebender which used to belong to Pete Townsend. He sold it to someone else about seven years ago and I bought it for L5. It is the only one of its kind I have ever seen.Other guitars I possess are a Yamaha acoustic, a Brazilian Carlos Robelli acoustic, a Gibson black SG Special and a Fender Mustang. My advice on lead guitar playing is to suggest that you do what I did when I was starting. I listened carefully to my favorite guitarists on stage and records, notably Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richard and George Harrison, and watched exactly how they played, where they put their fingers, and how they got the sounds. I put two and two together, went home and practised until I could do it myself. - MICK RONSON

[@IronMonkee]

is it supposed to sound like shit? or is it just me..?

[@badsanta518]

+BLOGAN BURGESS well, it does kinda sound like shit.

[@gusdupree9076]

Melodic 59 you

[@michaelgallemore7577]

Sure man. Mick played a telecaster for a long time and he wasn’t that distorted.

[@pentatonicautopilot]

Eddie Van Ronson?

[@stanlindert6332]

I love the KZbin. You know. Lesson after lesson. I just have to say.

[@ianashworth1101]

This is in no way like Mick Ronson! Listen to the solo in "Is there life on Mars". This is a bloody insult to the man!

[@buscharte7]

Tune your friggin' guitar...Jeeze.

[@68lade]

I know the wha wha is left open for Ronno tone.

[@smittydawson7251]

I cannot distinguish what the hell this guy bloke is saying. What band is mick Ronson with? Thanks

[@garymiller3194]

Mick Ronson guitar 🎸 sound put David Bowie on the map

[@nailmarty]

"ALL THE GEAR- NO IDEA!"

[@davidjoel111]

damn hate that wah!

[@PostPunkWakey71]

Turn the treble off and up the bass

[@Brennansdad]

I have the wrong year of basket weave

[@Meddled]

Go stand in the corner.

[@CharlesRoss2007]

***** LOL!

[@PhilORourke]

Well done Phil,fascinating as usual. Just like to concur with Jono Teague and Terry Walsh here. Why do these anal retents come on and spoil things by being over-aggressive about petty fine details and deliver scathing critique when the lad is relaying his experiences of a fascinating time in our British Rock and Blues history.Has it not occurred to the likes of Snaggles or Therxdex that Harris could have introduced Ronson and his sound to kids who are learning now. No-one escapes the clutches of the "Fine Tooth Comb" or have they forgotten that were all only human. Like the old blues tune says,"Before you accuse me go and take a look at your fucking delf.

[@ralex3697]

Phil Alverasa Not at all, it just doesn’t sound anything like Ronno

[@alanjamesh.zamorano1677]

How does it feel to know that you spent all that money on gear and you still can't sound like legendary Mick Ronson.

[@audiocue]

:) harsh!

[@thracian2072]

classy

[@makwabid69]

I've heard 16 yr olds in a garage band sound better, The constant out of tuning doesn't help, dude.

[@Twirlyhead]

Wot. No cocked wah !!!!

[@rogerploch1251]

Damn chill he did an admirable job, Ronson is a hard player to mimick. I do agree that the guitar has intonation issues, but it’s absolutely horrible

[@arranfox1554]

Alrighty’ Guv’nor

[@sparkyarreff1917]

Squawk, wrong! Marshal Major, 200 watt, aka, "the pig".

[@stratman67200128]

+Sparky Arreff The Major was actually '68 onwards. The "Pig" was simply the '67 Marshall 200... The main difference being the circuit... But technicalities aside... A friend of mine, years ago, had found a power tube (unknown as to what it was... nothing major... No pun intended) glued it to a wooden base and wrote on the bottom of the base that it was something like an EL100 or KT100 or something to that effect that was going to be used in the Marshall prototype "The General" 400 watt head... After I was finished laughing I thought "Wait. It's English. It should be 'The Brigadier'... Dammit"

[@sparkyarreff1917]

Thank you so much stratman67200128... ! I confess that I did a rushed bit of research before posting but failed to find the set of photographs of "The Pig" which I had seen before, and simply went with the majority by referring to it as a Major (sometimes one seems to just trip over the unintentional puns). My ears nearly ring at the mere notion of a 400 watt Marshall head, and I agree, Brigadier does have a better ring to the name (Damnit, again!). Cheers!

[@jerryhubbard4461]

out of tune bad and the sound sux

[@adamwatson6916]

All like the all mahagony customs and they have plenty of cut . The t tops pickups in the late 60s and 70s customs were a big part of the sound. Wierd how the 74 les Paul custom reissues including the Randy Rhoads reissue had what gibson called 74 superhumbucker reissues when 74 les paul customs had t tops not super humbuckers . The 68 customs had t tops but the reiisue pickups are called 68 custom humbuckers . 68 and 74 customs had t tppd . The reissue 74 super humbuckers have very diffrent specs from the originals. They use A3 mags instead of ceramic and the 68 custom humbucker reissues have A2 mags when t tops had short A5 mags . I don't know why gibson has such a hard time with matching the pickup specs of their own vintage pickups. All of those reissue pickups sound great but from an accuracy standpoint I just dont get. They use custombuckers to cover all vintage eras . Whether they are reisuing guitars that had pafs early patent number pickups pre t tops t tops or superhumbuckers the all end up getting custombuckers or a slight variation . Kind of like the jimmy pace custombuckers they did 4 page guitars all of which had the page custombuckers but the guitars being copied all had different pickups some had pafs some had t tops some had duncans. Number 1 had a duncan bridge and a Gibson paf neck number 2 had pafs the double neck had 2 Duncan's and 2 t tops and the les paul custom had 3 pads and they could not look at that one because it had been stolen from page . All of the pafs would have had diffrent specs and tone and the t tops and duncans would have had tone difftent from any of the pafs but all of the page guitars got the identical pickups except the number 2 les paul had an A5 mag in the bridge pickups in place of the A3. Pickups are the most important aspect of the guitars sound but gibson seems to treat pickups like a minor detail.

[@verito98]

🫡

[@rustynales4597]

someone needs a trussrod adjustment

[@gibsondrummer]

That does not sound anything like mick ronson Fail

[@rpapplebee]

Rhinestones!?! WTF!!! Thank you for getting rid of them!!!!

[@mrfleursg]

TUNE YOUR GUITAR !!!!!

[@morbidrockgod]

No offense, but listen (read) to the comments below, bro. That doesn't sound like Ronno at all.

[@thevelointhevale1132]

Key points missed ... Tone Bender Mk1 and a half cocked Cry Baby ...end of.

[@ralex3697]

I don’t here anything remotely close to Mick Ronson’s tone Sorry but I am familiar with Mick’s playing style and this is not it. In fact this guy is terribly boring and he has absolutely no feel whatsoever Sorry

[@ericpresley7527]

Doesnt sound anything like Mick Ronson not even close.What you need is a Marshall major and a tone bender.

[@lindseyhartshorn3021]

No... Stop... You're embarrassing yourself.

[@sebastian993]

it's out of phase, that's all

[@ziggystardust1798]

Not even close...

[@savedandblessed79]

That's one of the worst sounding Les Pauls I've ever heard those pickups are woeful

[@jorhay1]

tha fuck is that?

[@Thexderx]

Another overrated, overpriced Gibson junk that won't intonate properly...

[@utooberblooper]

Thexderx you read that somewhere idiot? the 15 of them ive had all intonate perfectly

[@Taurencowpew]

Thexderx Inaccurate and easy to disprove opinions, deriding people who offer experiential evidence, misusing cliches, misspelling and personal attack. Congratulations, sir, I do believe you did expose a dickhead! Future generations will thank you for your contribution to humanity...

[@1388Anthony1]

+Thexderx Amen brother Gibson is overpriced shit!!!! Everybody is more concerned with the name on the headstock than how the guitar plays and sounds. Probably has sharp frets or small frets. I believe this would be one of those fretless wonders.

[@tyson1ize]

would help if the gtr was in tune lol sounds like just another horrible gibonson to me lol